Hermon’s Speedway 95 will open for the season on Saturday night, and this year’s schedule includes two first-ever events.
The New Hampshire-based Granite State Pro Stock Series will hold a pair of 150-lap races on June 24 and Aug. 19 at Speedway 95. It’s the first time the series will have come to the track.
A Midget car race series will begin on June 21 during the second week of Wacky Wednesday racing and will be featured every other Wednesday.
“We’re really looking forward to going to Speedway 95,” said Mike Parks, the founder and president of the Granite State Pro Stock Series, which had its first full season in 2012. “The teams are excited about it. We want to have a presence in Maine.”
The series, which will have eight events this season and is renting the track, has previously raced at Wiscasset Raceway, Oxford Plains Speedway and the now-defunct Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough. Speedway 95 is the only track in Maine to hold the Granite State Pro Stock Series races this season.
There will be five races at two tracks in New Hampshire — three at Star Speedway in Epping and two more at the Riverside Speedway and Adventure Park in Northumberland — and a season-ending race at the Lancaster Motorplex in Lancaster, New York.
Berwick’s Joey Doiron is the defending points champion.
“We haven’t had pro stocks for quite a while,” said Speedway 95 owner Del Merritt. “This will give the fans something [different] to watch. People are interested in the pro stocks.”
The last time Speedway 95 hosted a pro stock/super late model race was in 2019 when the Pro All-Stars Series held a race there.
The top class at Speedway 95 is the Late Models, which are a notch below the Super Late Models/Pro Stocks in terms of speed and cost.
The Midget cars will alternate with the trucks from week to week on Wacky Wednesday.
“It’s something new,” said Merritt.
Midget cars are four-cylinder cars that have between 300 and 400 horsepower and weigh just 900 pounds.
Merritt, who has been involved in ownership of the track since 1977 and became the sole owner in 2011, is optimistic about the season.
“I think it’s going to be a good year,” said Merritt who held a practice at the track on Saturday. “We had quite a few cars at practice.”
He said they have made some minor improvements to the track that include tweaks designed to help the track drain better and adding sand between turns three and four to reduce the chance of cars sliding off the track into the tire wall.
The Saturday night and Wacky Wednesday racing classes will remain the same and racing will begin at 7.
The Saturday night schedule will include Late Models, Street Stocks, Sport Fours and Cagerunners.
Merritt, who was inducted into the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame in October, is hoping to get more Late Model cars after getting just 6 to 10 each night last season.
Wacky Wednesday, which will debut on June 14, will feature Roadrunners, Modified Enduros, Stars of Tomorrow and either the Midget cars or trucks.
The defending points champions are Brenton Parritt of Steuben (Late Models), Steve Kimball from Holden (Street Stocks), Carmel’s Dennis Burns (Sport 4) and China’s Chip Farrington (Cagerunner) along with Bangor’s Derek Smith (Roadrunners), Norridgewock’s Zach Audet (Modified Enduro), Mount Vernon’s Kaden Neptune (Stars of Tomorrow) and Dixmont’s David Gray (Trucks).
The season will conclude with the Paul Bunyan Speed Weekend on Oct. 13-15, which will include the 13th annual Ikey Dorr Street Stock 100-lap race and a Late Model 100. Addison native Dorr died of an apparent heart attack while racing at Speedway 95 in 2009.