The auto race season in Maine will begin this weekend when the Speedway Homes 150 Pro All-Stars Series Super Late Model North race will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Oxford Plains Speedway.
But Hermon’s Mike Hopkins has already gotten off to a good start.
He has run two PASS SLM South races, which also happened to be part of a six-race PASS National Championship series involving three PASS South and three PASS North races.
Hopkins finished second to Berwick’s Joey Dorion on Feb. 6 at the PASS Winter Meltdown at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina and sixth on March 26 at the Easter Bunny 150 at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina.
Turner’s Ben Rowe won the Easter Bunny 150.
Hopkins also posted a sixth last weekend for the Icebreaker PASS SLM North opener at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in Connecticut. That was a PASS National Championship series event.
He is second in points in the PASS National Championship series points, five behind Ben Rowe.
He is happy with his start.
“I have no complaints,” Hopkins said. “Things are working well. We’re headed in the right direction. The car has been pretty good. We’re having fun.”
The 30-year-old Hopkins, who won the Late Model points championship at Hermon’s Speedway 95 in 2011, sold his Late Model car and equipment in 2014 to make the jump to Super Late Models and ran five PASS North races that year.
He ran nine of the 16 PASS SLM North races last season and finished 13th in points with one top five and three top-10 finishes. He also did one PASS South SLM event.
“We struggled at the beginning of last year but started clicking near the end,” said Hopkins. “A lot of it had to do with getting used to the race tracks. We didn’t even have notes on some of the tracks because I had never raced there.”
Hopkins said with familiarity comes confidence.
“My confidence level is second to none right now,” he said. “I’m not nervous going into races. I know the tracks, and I also know most of the competitors.”
One of those competitors is veteran Mike Rowe from Turner, the defending PASS SLM North points champion.
“Mike is my idol. I always looked up to Mike along with Dana Graves,” said Hopkins.
Maine Motorsports Hall of Famer Graves won four track championships at Unity Raceway and three at Speedway 95 between 1958-89.
Hopkins drives the No. 15 car in honor of Graves.
He isn’t sure how many races he will do this season because he is busy with his Hopkins Landscaping and Paving Company and he would like to spend as much time as he can with wife, Nicole and children, Max, Sam and Gracie.
“I will probably do at least three-quarters of the PASS North races,” he said.
There will be 16 PASS North points races including two of the final three PASS National Championship races: the 43rd annual Oxford 250 on Aug. 28 and the New England 500 Weekend at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough on Sept. 18.
The final PASS National Championship race will be the 14th annual North-South Shootout at Concord Speedway (North Carolina) on Nov. 5.
His goal this year is to win at least one race.
“I want to get the monkey off my back,” said Hopkins. “They say once you get the first one, the others come easy. I don’t think any of them will come easy. The guys who run in PASS North are some of the best talent in the country.”