 In 1967 track builder John Chisholm called up NASCAR co-founder Bill France, Sr. and told him about his intentions of building a half mile racetrack in Nova Scotia.Big Bill told Chisholm that a half mile track would be too hard on the engines, cars, tires and engines and invited him and his surveyors down to Bristol to get the dimensions of the track and then shrink them down.Chisholm and his crew did just that and started construction of Riverside in 1968.