The Rusty Wallace Racing Experience, which gives fans a chance to experience a Super Late Model race car, will make its first appearance at Spud Speedway in Caribou on Friday, June 14.
It will be one day after the program returns to Wiscasset Speedway.
Interested individuals will have two options.
They can actually drive laps in a race car or participate in a ride-along experience where they sit in the seat next to a driver.
There are specific fees for both options and are based on that and how many laps they run.
“We’re excited about it,” Spud Speedway owner Troy Haney said. “This shows our facility is able to supply a unique experience for our local residents to enjoy.
The program begins at 8 a.m.
Haney said he knows of some local companies who plan to take their employees to the track to use it as a team-building experience.
Haney said he was contacted by Rusty Wallace Race Experience personnel about the possibility of coming to Spud Speedway.
“They had a huge turnout at Wiscasset last year so they decided to look at other tracks in Maine, and they reached out to me,” Haney said.
“We’ve had great success at Wiscasset Speedway and when the opportunity to work with Troy at Spud Speedway presented itself, we were even more excited to go even further north in Maine,” said Mark Ebert, president of RWRE.
The release also said the experience puts more than 20,000 people behind the wheel of a race car each year.
The program is named after NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Rusty Wallace, who won 55 Monster Energy Cup Series races during his 26-year, 706-race career. He was the 1989 points champion.
Haney said the fees are reasonable. It will cost $59 to drive the race car for five laps, $80 for 10 laps, $134 for 20 laps and $269 for 50 laps. Ride-along fees are lower.
Haney said he will receive a small fee and he is hoping this will spur some interest in auto racing in Aroostook County.
Spud Speedway had been closed since 2015 because it was losing money, but Haney held a Pro All Stars Series Super Late Model North race, the Aroostook Federal Credit and Loan Firecracker 200, in July. It was the first PASS race at Spud Speedway since 2010.
“As people get experiences like these, some may want to do more and get involved in racing in the future,” Haney said.
The 55-year-old facility, including the 1/3-mile oval track located on a 48-acre lot, has been up for sale for three months with an asking price of $275,000. Haney said he is talking to a couple of potential buyers.
He said he has invested more than $300,000 in the track in his 10 years as the owner and that he will only sell to someone who will keep it as a racetrack.
“I didn’t rebuild it to sell it to someone who is going to let it go [into something else],” he said.
Even though Haney lost $25,000 in his best season running the track, he said it can be a profitable venue.
“The right approach would be to not have racing every weekend … to space it out. Sometimes less is more. Racing every weekend taxes the checkbook,” Haney said. “And you need to use it year-round with sno-cross or snowmobile racing in the winter.”
He said one of the positives is that Spud Speedway does not have a lot of entertainment competition other than the Northern Maine Fair and a few festivals.
“[Spud Speedway] is a good venue to do things year-round. You just have to think outside the box,” said Haney, who because of his various business ventures has been unable to devote the necessary time and energy into the track.
Spud Speedway will host another PASS Super Late Model Series North race Sunday, Aug. 4. The PASS Modifieds will also race.