Josh St. Clair of Liberty recalls winning four races in a row once.
But the Late Model driver has won his last six races, two at Wiscasset Raceway and four at Hermon’s Speedway 95, including a pair of 23-lap features in the Allen Fletcher Memorial Duel 23’s on Saturday.
“It’s been crazy. I didn’t expect this at all,” said St. Clair.
What makes Saturday’s trips to Victory Lane even more impressive is the fact he started sixth in one race and 10th in the other.
“The car has been awesome on short runs,” said St. Clair.
Up until this season, it was very difficult to pass on the slower inside groove at Speedway 95. But track co-owner Del Merritt has applied a traction compound to the inside groove this season and it has worked, creating more side-by-side racing.
“We practice running on the bottom a lot,” explained St. Clair, who is driving a Chevy Impala. “[The other racers] will open up the bottom for you and it is a lot better this year. I think it’s actually quicker on the bottom if you can get your car to turn.”
The season didn’t start well for the 21-year-old St. Clair.
A fire in the engine not only burned up his ignition wires but “it damaged the distributor and we didn’t realize it.”
Once St. Clair and crew chief Chris Doolen discovered the problem, they remedied the situation.
At his grandfather Dave St. Clair’s encouragement, he also changed to a Crate engine supplied by his grandfather and that has also paid dividends, he said.
St. Clair’s success should come as no surprise to anyone considering the gene pool.
He is following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father [Puncin] whom have won lots of races between them. He said they have been influential in his career as he used to watch them race when he was a youngster. Now he’s racing against them.
Josh St. Clair began racing at age 14 and his grandfather admits he “never had a clue” his grandson would be as successful as he has been.
“He’s a quiet kid,” said Dave.
He is proud of his grandson especially considering “he does his own work on his race car.”
“That make it easier,” said his grandson. “I know what to do and how to change the race car. I don’t have to tell someone else and force them to comprehend what I’m trying to say.”
The 2008 Mount View High School graduate, who played baseball and basketball at the Thorndike-based school, isn’t running for points this season and said he is “having fun.”
The graduate of Bangor’s Eastern Maine Community College, where he earned a degree in automotive technology, will return to the track on Saturday night at Speedway 95.
Unity Raceway on the rebound
George Fernald, who is leasing Unity Raceway for the third season, said the change from Friday night racing to Saturday night this season has worked out nicely.
“We were $30,000 in the hole after the first two years but we’re doing a lot better this year. We’ve reduced the deficit to $10,000,” said Fernald who has been getting an average of 100 more fans to each race than they averaged a year ago.
He took a gamble by spurning an alliance deal with Speedway 95 and Wiscasset Raceway to stick with a Late Model motor deal suggested by tech man Ed Bellows.
Late Model drivers at Unity have had their motors assessed by a Dyno system at one of two race shops. The Dyno system measures all the components of an engine like the RPMs and horsepower to ensure they don’t violate the regulations established by Bellows and Fernald.
Then they seal the engine, placing bar-coded seals on it to show it has passed inspection.
“It enables our drivers to keep the cost down. It allows drivers who don’t have money for a new motor to use a lot of old parts to fix their motor,” explained Fernald.
He said it also creates more parity in the class.
There have been other factors, too.
The weather has been extremely cooperative, he noted.
They lost “eight or nine” race dates to weather last year but, so far this summer, he has lost just one.
They continue to run nine classes but he said they have been able to fit the race cards into a four-hour block from 5:30-9:30 p.m. so fans can get home at a reasonable hour.
Fernald said they have changed the flag line for the races, moving it 40-50 feet further ahead so it is much closer to the start-finish line.
“That has reduced the number of caution flags,” said Fernald who figures that has cut half an hour out of the program.
He explained that the drivers don’t start racing until they’re in the front stretch now instead of in turns three and four.
“So they’re going slower into turn one,” he said.
He has also eliminated having the pace car come out to re-start the race after a caution, letting the drivers handle the restart themselves which has also reduced the time it takes to run the program by another half an hour, he said.
As for the car counts, Fernald said the counts have been higher in four classes than they were last year, lower in four others and about the same in another class.