Spud Speedway owner Greg Veinote, who resurrected the track in 2007 after buying it from Ralph Nason, is optimistic as their season gets under way Sunday with non-points races beginning at 1 p.m.
The track had been idle since 2000 until Veinote bought it.
“Everything is looking a lot better than most people expect, actually,” said Veinote. “Even with the economy, we have lost very few of our sponsors. And the preregistered car counts are up 10 percent.”
He also said the car show they held at the Aroostook Center Mall in Presque Isle last month had a “huge turnout.”
They had 14 cars on display.
“One thing is for sure, people up here love their racing,” said Veinote.
He believes race fans and drivers won’t be daunted by the economy because they still need a source of entertainment.
“And for $6, there’s no other form of entertainment that comes close to it,” said Veinote.
“I’m looking for a better year than last year,” said Veinote, who is also hoping Mother Nature is more cooperative.
“It seems like we had only four good Sundays [weather-wise] last year. Other than that, it was raining at the track or around it,” said Veinote.
Veinote has added a class, the Super Streets, which is similar to the same classes at Hermon’s Speedway 95 and Unity Raceway.
“They are V8 [engine] cars with modified chassis and bodies,” said Veinote. “Our Street Stocks division had V6s and V8s and it was hard for the V6s to keep up with the V8s.”
He added a five-race Late Model Sportsmen class last year and has added a sixth race to that series this summer.
“We would get up to 18 cars in that class,” said Veinote. “It went over really well. We got cars from Oxford [Plains Speedway] and Unity [Raceway] for our last race.”
He will again offer two, four-cylinder divisions.
The Northern Lights class is for entry-level four-cylinder cars and there is another division called Fast-4s for modified cars that run on racing tires.
There will also be the Young Gun class for 12-to-16-year-olds.
“We have had between 16 and 20 of them every week. That has been a real strong division,” said Veinote.
He will be closely scrutinizing the Ladies Powder Puff division due to a drop-off in participation last year.
“The first year, we’d have between 14-18 cars. Last year, there were only about 10 per show. So I’m going to keep an eye on that,” said Veinote.
Veinote likes the idea of having non-points races on Sundays so drivers “can get the bugs out of their cars” before points races begin the following Sunday (May 31).
Tatro seeking points title
It took a little while for Levant’s Shane Tatro to get used to his new car, one he built with his brother Eric and friend Anthony Wilcox.
But after a flat tire resulted in a 16th-place finish in the Pro All Stars Series Sportsman division opener at Hermon’s Speedway 95, he followed that up with a fourth at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough and his first win in three years on the tour last Saturday at Unity Raceway.
That puts him fourth in points and he said his goal is to win the points championship. He finished eighth in 2007 and sixth a year ago.
Tatro said he is getting more familiar with his Chevy Monte Carlo and the victory gives him extra motivation and confidence.
“At first, I hated the car. But now I really like it,” said Tatro. “I’m getting the car figured out. It’s definitely a different feel than my Camaro. It has a different suspension. It doesn’t lay down real fast track times but it has been real consistent and it is there at the end of the run which has helped us save our tires.”
The 27-year-old Iraq war veteran is 37 points behind leader Dan McKeage of Gorham and, with five races remaining, he admits he will need some good fortune and will have to continue to run well to win the title.
“I’ve got to consistently run in the top three,” said Tatro who will never forget his first win.
“There’s nothing like it. Everyone congratulates you. It makes you want to do it again,” said Tatro, who added he thoroughly enjoys racing in the series.
“I love it. It’s a touring series and it’s my favorite type of car. And it’s something I can afford,” he said.