Encouraged by the turnout at last Saturday’s Test and Tune session where drivers work on their race cars and run practice laps at Speedway 95 in Hermon, track owner Del Merritt and office manager Kim (Baker) Allen are hopeful the 2019 season will be a good one.
“We had more cars at 10 in the morning than we did throughout the entire session last year,” Merritt said of the testing day. “We had a big turnout of Street Stocks and Late Models. The car counts really look good.”
The racing action at the one-third-mile oval begins with Saturday’s season-opening card scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Six divisions will compete.
Allen is optimistic based on Saturday’s turnout.
“I got a lot of calls for numbers and transponders,” said Allen, referring to official race numbers for the cars and the electronic devices drivers put in their real wheel mounts which emits a signal every time a car passes the start-finish line to monitor placement.
Allen said her late father, Red Baker, who bought the track with Merritt in 1977, told her auto racing is cyclical and she is hoping the interest is returning with a new generation of racers.
“When it was at its peak, people thought auto racing was cool,” said Allen.
Lower fuel prices now also can be an important factor in a possible resurgence.
Racing has been switched from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. through June 1; the earlier time didn’t resonate with drivers and fans. After that, Speedway 95 will switch over to 7 p.m for the summer on June 8 before reverting to a 4 p.m. green flag in September and 2 p.m. starts in October, when the weather is much cooler.
“This is a compromise. We’re trying something different,” Allen said.
There will be four classes that will race every Saturday night: Late Models, Street Stocks, Sport Fours and the CageRunners.
The CageRunners, 4-cylinder street cars with cages, ran every other Saturday last season, but Merritt said the drivers wanted to run every Saturday this year so he is obliging them.
“That class is growing,” Merritt said.. “It’s really strong,”
The Road Runner and Modified Enduro classes will race this Saturday but won’t run again until the weekly “Wacky Wednesday” season opens on Wednesday, June 12.
Wacky Wednesday will additionally include its Stars of Tomorrow class for youngsters and a Just for Fun class which will involve different types of racing, such as maneuvering around tires or going backward.
The Saturday night classes will each have a four-race series with the first races of the Late Model and Street Stock divisions offering much larger payouts than their normal races.
The 50-lap Street Stock series opener on May 18 will pay the winner $750. A regular Street Stock race winner would earn anywhere from $155 to $250, depending on the car count. The more cars in a race, the more money is paid to the winner.
The Late Model series opener on June 1 will produce a $1,500 check for the winner compared to the $400 to $750 on a regular night.
“We wanted to load up the first series race to build up the interest. If they come to the first one, they’ll probably come for the rest of them,” Merritt said.
Those two races will have a rain date, the next day, at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The first CageRunner series race on June 8 will pay $300 to win. The normal payout is $50-$250 and the Sport Fours may also have a bigger payday race.
Allen said the track has teamed up with myracepass.com to allow drivers and fans to download an app on their tablet or cell phone to obtain up-to-the-minute information on the drivers and the progression of races.
Other highlights on the schedule include a 150-lap Pro All Stars Series Super Late Model North race on Sunday, June 16; the Wicked Good Vintage Racers on Saturday, July 27; the New England Mini Stock Tour on Saturday, Aug,. 10; the NELCAR Legends Tour on Saturday, Sept. 14; the Camp Capella Touch-A-Truck and the final points races on Saturday, Sept. 21. The All-Star Monster Trucks event is on Sept. 28 and 29, and the Darlings Late Model 150 will take place on Sunday, Oct. 13, along with the ninth annual Ikey Dorr Memorial Street/Wildcat/Outlaw 100-lapper.
The 2018 season points champions were: Kris Matchell of Skowhegan (Late Model), William McCullough of Kenduskeag (Street Stock), Isaac Rollins of Hudson (Sport Fours), David Carlow of Winterport (CageRunners), Dustan Durrell of Newburgh (Modified Enduros), Robert Caruso of Kenduskeag (Road Runner) and Damon Kimball Holden (Stars of Tomorrow).
Justin Larson of Peru won the limited run of the Sportsman/Outlaw Class that won’t be racing at Speedway 95 this year.