Wyatt Alexander should always plan to race on August 8.
The 15-year-old Ellsworth native captured the Boss Hawg 100 Pro Stock race at Wiscasset Speedway on Saturday. It was his first win in the Pro Stock class in his first full season of racing in the division.
It came exactly one year after winning his first race on the Amsoil Nelcar Legends Tour.
“I had totally forgotten about it until I was riding home with my uncle after the race Saturday night. I couldn’t believe it,” Alexander said.
His victory was a testament to their strategy along with a bit of good fortune.
Alexander rode around in fifth place for most of the race and let the top four battle it out.
“They were racing each other pretty hard so I figured they would use up their tires [and cars]. I tried to save mine as much I could without losing sight of them,” explained Alexander.
A flat tire late in the race threatened to end Alexander’s dream of a victory but a caution came out two laps later so after his crew changed his tire, he remained on the lead lap.
A wreck in front of him left Alexander and Scarborough’s Kelly Moore, the all-time winningest driver in the K and N Pro East Series, vying for the win.
When Moore’s car developed issues, Alexander raced around him and took the checkered flag.
“Kelly definitely would have been a contender if he didn’t develop mechanical problems. Regardless, it was pretty cool,” said Alexander. “We had come pretty close earlier this season. We had finished third. We have had some bad luck but this time luck went our way. This was pretty awesome. It has given me a little more confidence.”
It may have been Alexander’s first win in the Pro Stock class but it certainly isn’t the first one garnered by the Alexander family.
His grandfather won several Pro Stock races and is in the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame and is also his grandson’s crew chief.
“He’s better than I ever was,” Bob Alexander said. “He’s very smooth behind the wheel. He’s very methodical. He is always thinking during a race and he doesn’t lose his temper, which is rare. He keeps his head about him. He’s very good in traffic and he’s very easy on the car.”
Over the years, Wyatt Alexander has discovered how successful his grandfather was as a driver and that has served as a source of pride and motivation.
Wyatt’s father and Bob’s son, Brett, was also a racer for a brief time.
“But that wasn’t his thing. He is more into the mechanical side of racing,” Bob Alexander said.
Wyatt Alexander said the three collaborate on every decision.
“My grandfather and my dad do pretty much everything in the shop. Like any family business, we butt heads at times but it works out pretty good,” he said.
“We come up with ideas but Wyatt’s feedback is critical,” Bob Alexander said.
Several other family members attend the races.
Wyatt Alexander, who doesn’t have his driver’s license yet but isn’t required to have one to race, is a regular at Wiscasset Speedway and is currently running fourth in points. He leads the rookie points.
He has always had a passion for motorsports, noting that he had a “dirt bike with training wheels” when he was 3.
His father looked for something that was motorsports related.
“We have always been race fans. So we got a go-kart for him,” Brett Alexander said. “Wyatt started racing when he was 4. He was a natural at it.”
“We just wanted to find him something he could do that he loved doing,” he added.
Wyatt Alexander wound up racing go-karts at Thundering Valley in St. Albans and he eventually raced across the country.
After racing go-karts from 2004-2012, he switched over to the Amsoil Nelcar Legends car series.
The Legends cars are race cars powered by motorcycle engines that mimic vehicles of the 1930s and 40s.
Family friend Evan Beaulieu, one of the top racers in the Legends cars, was instrumental in getting Wyatt Alexander involved in the series.
Two winters ago, the Alexanders bought a Pro Stock Chevy SS which meant Wyatt would go directly from Legends cars into Pro Stocks.
“We felt the Legends experience prepared him better for a Pro Stock than a Street Stock or four-cylinder car,” Brett Alexander said. “The suspensions in the cars are similar and a lot of things he learned driving a Legends car directly transfer to a Pro Stock.”
The Chevy SS’s serial number had a 96 in it which “is our family’s race number since my father raced,” he added.
Wyatt Alexander has run two Pro All-Stars Series North races this season, getting involved in a wreck and finishing 27th at Star Speedway in Epping, New Hampshire, before coming home 16th at Hermon’s Speedway 95.
“Wiscasset races Pro Stocks every other weekend which we really like because we can race other places,” he said.
The Alexanders have a lot of minor sponsors and will contemplate their next move after this season.
Doing more touring on the PASS circuit is a possibility and Wyatt Alexander said he would eventually like to move south to try to make a career out of racing.
But Alexander, who will be a junior at Ellsworth in the fall and plays soccer and tennis, is also looking to the immediate future and the Oxford 250 on Aug. 30.
“We’re going to attempt to qualify. We’ll see what happens,” he said.