The owner of Penticton Speedway said he couldn’t in good conscience move ahead with the scheduled Bull-a-Rama bull riding event on Saturday night as it could threaten the health and safety of the bulls, riders and even spectators attending the event.

“I was driving to Kelowna Wednesday evening and I got stuck in traffic near Peachland because of the fires and smoke,” said Johnny Aantjes, who, along with his family, is celebrating his 20th anniversary as owner of Penticton Speedway.

“I was stuck there for two hours and had to turn around for home. When I got home, I realized that things aren’t likely to get any better and could very much get worse, so we made the decision that we were going to have to cancel the event.”

Photo Credit: ContributedThe popular Bull-A-Rama professional bull riding event scheduled for Saturday night at Penticton Speedway has been cancelled due to the outbreak of wildfires across the Okanagan Valley.

Many of the riders on the British Columbia Rodeo Association (BCRA) are dealing with issues related to wildfires breaking out across the Southern Interior of B.C over the past 72 hours and many of the bulls they would be riding would have to endure long and unpredictable waits trying to get to Penticton, so the best choice was to cancel the event, said Aantjes.

“With the weather forecast calling for more possible lightning strikes heading into the weekend and all of the issues with the fires… I just thought this really isn’t the best time to move ahead with the event, so we made the decision to shut it down,” he said. “I’m not willing to risk the health of the bulls getting here and I know a lot of the riders have their own issues to deal with being in and around fire zones, so we’re going to cancel things this weekend and see if we can find a more suitable weekend.”

With Penticton Speedway lined up with numerous events over the next three months and the BCRA season also in full swing, Aantjes said “it’s 50-50” on whether he will be able to host the Bull-a-Rama event in 2018.

Photo Credit: ContributedPenticton Speedway has cancelled its Bull-A-Rama professional bull riding event set for Saturday evening due to the outbreak of numerous wildfires across the region.

“I can guarantee you that we’re going to keep hosting the bull riding events because the grandstand, the arena, our beer garden and the fan support has never been in better shape,” he said. “I’m going to try and do everything we can to try and find a date for later in the year in 2018, but if that doesn’t happen, then that’s life and we’ll look at organizing our best ever Bull-a-Rama in 2019.”

Aantjes said he’s using social media and all his contacts to let everyone know Saturday’s event has been cancelled and will now concentrate all his efforts on getting ready for the popular Gordy Mannes Memorial Weekend event on the August holiday long weekend.

Photo Credit: Contributed

“That Gordy Mannes memorial weekend is always our biggest and best show of the summer,” said Aantjes. “Gordy was a legendary celebrity up here at the track for many years and it has been 21 years now since we lost him.

“We’ve been holding a memorial weekend in his honour for the past 17 or 18 years and we’ve got a great weekend of racing set up in his honour on the long weekend.”

The weekend will feature sport stock and hornet racing on Saturday, Aug. 4 evening and the popular Eve of Destruction races following afternoon.

For more information on Penticton Speedway, click here.