PARKER THOMPSON
Badlands Motorsports Resort
Hailing from Red Deer Alberta, Parker Thompson is one of Canada’s top up and coming race drivers. Starting in karts at the age of 8, Parker raced frequently at the Calgary karting track at Race City Motorsports Park, before moving onto a racing career that has seen him race around the globe.
Badlands Motorsports Resort is proud to support Parker Thompson in all his endevours, as both a representative of Alberta in motorsports, and as an active member of our local community.
Minimal racing facilities in Alberta forced Parker from Alberta at age 10. He spent multiple years in his teens living away from home learning the craft of racing.
I think Canadian motorsports would be very different if we had a prominent motorsports facility, like Badlands Motorsports Resort. If you look at Canada right now, we don’t have many main tracks. The only track that sticks out in Canada is Mosport, but other than that there isn’t much that comes to mind – especially on the West Coast. The main reason why European and American drivers are so strong is there are a lot of race tracks in their countries. Unfortunately in Canada we don’t have many race tracks, and the tracks we do have aren’t to par with what other countries have around the world. I would guarantee if we had had a Badlands Motorsports Resort while I was growing up in Alberta, I wouldn’t have had to move to Europe to find the world’s best competition.
Racing History
| 2017 | Canadian F1600 Super Series Champion USF2000 – 3rd overall championship Exclusive Autosport |
| 2016 | USF2000 – 2nd overall championship Cape Motorsports Wayne Taylor Racing |
| 2015 | USF2000 – 5th overall championship JDC Motorsports |
| 2013 | WSK – European Circuit Energy Corse Factory Team |
| 2012 | World Junior Rotax 3rd place World Ranking |
| 2011 | Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals Youngest Driver |
| 2010 | CIK International 2nd place overal championship |
| 2009 | International Karting Region 7 5 Series championship wins |
| 2008 | Calgary Kart Club Champion |
Regarding Badlands Motorsports Resort, there are a number of different things I’m particularity excited about. First – the track is built by Alan Wilson, and two of my favourite tracks as a race car driver right now [Barber Motorsports Park and Calabogie Motorsports Park] – we’re designed by Wilson. Both tracks are the most technically challenging and safest tracks that I have had the pleasure to drive in my career. I expect nothing less when it comes to the layout of the BMR facility. Secondly – the idea of a resort and accommodations built into a racing facility is a luxury that is very rare when it comes to motorsports. If you look at all the tracks I race at and there’s no hotel, no accommodations – it’s literally just a racetrack. What the Badlands Motorsport guys are trying to do right now is build a community around racing. I think with their vision and determination for excellence, it will change motorsports as we know it.
As a young adult now, Parker is actively involved in Alberta during his off time, campaigning against texting and driving in High Schools all throughout the province with his program “Drive to Stay Alive.” Looking beyond texting and driving, Parker is a strong advocate for responsible road habits.
I look at how motorsports has affected my life and I think that many race car drivers can say the same thing. As race car drivers, we really don’t need to get our dose of speed on the streets. We drive high performance race cars around a track as fast as we can; we push the car to the absolute limit on the track, and when we’re on the street with our street car we don’t feel the need to push the car. We know that we’re not in that type of environment when we are travelling on the streets. I think thats a real key to how motorsports can change Alberta and the community of Canada. I think if people can take their high performance vehicles to a beautiful motorsports, it’s really going to change people’s mindsets on how they drive on the street. Not to mention I think they’ll have a lot of fun pushing their car to the absolute max, and see what it was made to do on a beautiful track in a very safe enviroment.
