FREDERICTON: Entertaining a new generation is the focus of one of Canada’s top stock car racing facilities for the 2008 season. A new name and a commitment to a new era of entertainment had race teams and fans excited at the annual awards banquet at the Fredericton Inn on Saturday night.

Speedway 660, located on Route 660 near Geary, will be the home of “Wic-Kid family fun” when the racing season begins in May. Entertaining long time racing enthusiasts and a new generation of fans will be the focus every week of the upcoming season.

“Our drivers and crews provide an on-track product unequalled in Canada, but now we are going to raise the bar on the entertainment value of that product” said Speedway 660 co-owner Steve Burns. “We are repackaging the entire racing program with a focus on entertainment for the kids and families who come to visit us.”

Speedway 660 has an extremely loyal fan base, but needs to reach new fans to grow to the next level. In the coming weeks, more work will be done as the branding exercise currently underway is completed.

“As much as some people may think we are in the racing business, we’re actually in the entertainment business” said Speedway 660 co-owner Chris Johnston. “We’ve been doing this for 12 years and realized, with the help of our fans, sponsors and race teams we had built one of Canada’s best speedways, but now its time to make it bigger and better.”

Speedway 660 will see many changes during the 2008 season highlighted by a complete fan-focused entertainment package each and every race date. As part of the branding exercise, the speedway has unveiled the new face of the speedway, Speedway the Moose.

The mascot made his debut in front of over 350 fans, sponsors, race teams and speedway staff at the Fredericton Inn on Saturday night.

“I know people now have big expectations for the 2008 season and we intend to live up to them and more, so be prepared to be entertained” said Burns. “In addition to new ways to entertain our race fans, we are developing innovative ways to attract more fans to the speedway.”

Speedway 660 will also see some major improvements to the facilities infrastructure as well. An electronic scoring system and race management software will be implemented for the new season, providing immediate scoring results and information to race teams.

A sneak peak of the 2008 schedule was released Saturday night with the major events that make up a great summer of racing. The entire 2008 schedule is expected to be released in February in conjunction with the launch of a brand new Speedway 660 website.

Awards were also handed out to the top drivers for the 2007 season.