CARIBOU, Maine — “Door to Door Since ‘64” has been the theme for racing at Spud Speedway for the 50th anniversary celebration. The season’s midpoint seems to be a good place to reflect on what has happened and look forward to the rest of this unique season.
Racing at the Caribou track was on a two-weekend hiatus due to the Northern Maine Fair. Track ownership did not want to take people away from their opportunity to attend the fair in Presque Isle. The County’s only stock car racing venue will be up and running Saturday, Aug. 9, with racing continuing until the season ends Sunday, Sept. 14 with the Day of Destruction.
Track owner Troy Haney listened to fans’ requests for more affordable prices and put in place $5 admission for regular race nights when no special events were occurring. This policy seemed to be a hit with fans since $5 nights have certainly brought in more fans.
Are the grandstands packed? No, but more decisions are being made by families to go to the races when they decide what they want to do for entertainment on a Saturday night. Haney’s and Spud Speedway’s goal is to make the track more family friendly.
Weather has not been a factor, which is a welcome change from previous seasons. There have been no rainouts as of yet. The first ever Motorsports Fair had no days rained out with the largest crowd on Monster Truck Night July 11 as more than 1,000 fans poured into the Thompson Road track to see six monster trucks strut their stuff.
Fans were treated to some great stock car races during the Motorsports Fair with the Outlaw Invitational on July 12 capping racing activity. The fair ended with a car show and “Battle of the Bands” on July 13.
Spud Speedway fans, and racers are known for their support of local non-profits that work tirelessly to assist those in need in northern Maine. One outstanding way will be the Aug. 9 Pink and Blue race for the County. The Bomber cars take to the track for 100 laps of action with $1,000 for the winner if that team has raised at least $50 for the cause.
Aroostook Autism and the Pink Aroostook Breast Cancer Support Group are the beneficiaries of the effort. The fund-raising event is done in conjunction with Cary Medical Center and Pines Health Center.
The Alexander family, along with several other New England Legends Cars (NELCAR) race teams will invade the Caribou track. Wyatt Alexander Racing (WAR) has to be the crowd favorite because of his ties to The County, with grandfather and crew chief Bobby Alexander pointing him toward victory lane. Will this be the 14-year-old’s first NELCAR win? He came very close at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, recently placing a season-high second place.
Speedway 95’s Outlaw Racers will compete with and against Spud Speedway’s Outlaw Sportsman on Aug. 23 for a top prize of $1,000. All classes will race that evening as well.
Saturday night stock car racing continues the final three weeks, with close racing and points battles ensuing. The season comes to an end on Sunday, Sept. 14 with the “Day of Destruction” featuring demo derby, Tuff Trucks, Bomber race #3 and more.
A mid-season review of all the racing divisions follows:
Aroostook Trusses
Northern Lights
Northern Lights, Spud Speedway’s entry level division, has the largest field of race cars with up to 14 cars registered. They are very competitive with three different winners in the five feature races thus far.
Caribou’s Wayne Fox is three for three in feature wins. His job and family obligations have limited his participation but he is still in 10th place despite missing two races.
Matt Lloyd of New Denmark, New Brunswick holds a stable 38-point lead over Caribou’s Dell Brissette. Lloyd has one feature win and has never finished below third place.
Brissette is Mr. Consistency. Other than a hiccup with a seventh on opening day, he has finished third in every race except two. The screaming Honda has been competitive and he wins the loudest car award.
Rookie Ian Rasmussen of New Denmark, the son of Outlaw Sportsman Glen Rasmussen, has impressed many fans with his efforts. Rasmussen was starting from the rear of the field until he gained experience. Lately he starts where he belongs and races well, showing he has a racer’s touch. Rasmussen is sitting in a third-place tie with veteran racer and last year’s track champion, Shawn Dewley of Presque Isle, only 78 points behind Lloyd.
Kyle Wells of Presque Isle rounds out the top five in the points battle. 82 points out of first.
Haney Building Specialties Fast Fours
Fast Fours can be summed up in two words — Nate Haney. The Caribou man feels like the last several years have been learning years where wins may have been few but experience has been building. A new engine and tuning work have made him the class of the field. Haney has won four of the five races in the first half of the season, including the July 12 race when competitors from southern Maine invaded the Caribou track. His Nissan 240 SX has been dominant this season, winning some races by half a lap.
Stephen Levesque of Blaine sits second in points with a couple second-place finishes, but holds a slight lead over New Denmark’s Lloyd, who had no result in the division on July 3.
Lloyd is doing double duty by racing in two divisions, thus getting many competition laps and spending time to prepare two race cars. He sits third in Fast Fours, only 12 points behind Levesque.
Caribou’s Wayne Fox holds down fourth place despite only a couple races in the division. Rookie Kadie Craig is in fifth with a couple of crashes that have hampered her efforts. Craig is the only female racer this year at Spud Speedway, with the exception being at the Outlaw Invitational when Glenburn’s Emma Libby made an appearance.
Aroostook Federal Savings and Loans Street Stock “Throw a blanket over the field” could describe racing in this division this year. Street Stock has had some of the closest finishes of any division at the track. Led by perennial favorite Bobby Anderson of Limestone with three wins in five races, this Street Stock has seven solid racers.
Anderson’s lead over second-place Jon Dixon is a mere 16 points. Dixon has been very consistent this season, with one fourth-place finish, three second-place finishes and his first feature race win of the year in action on July 19.
JR Howlett of Mapleton has been very competitive, sitting in third place only 30 points out of first. He owns a win and three third-place finishes. After the race on July 3 against his friend Jon Dixon, in which Howlett beat Dixon to the line by mere feet, with his face beaming as sweat poured down his face he congratulated Dixon. “I knew he would race me good,” said Howlett. “He and I race hard and have fun doing it.”
Eric Argraves from Castle Hill and “The Orange Outlaw,” Presque Isle’s Derek Finnemore, round out the top five. With the return of Presque Isle’s Carl Tucker, any one of the Street Stocks could pull off a win on a given night.
Coca Cola Outlaw Sportsman
Fort Fairfield native Connor Thibeau leads the Outlaw Sportsman class with victories in three of the four races counting toward the championship. The Thibeau Farms Ford, driven by Thibeau, has made key moves which have put him in front and out of harm’s way as he has avoided many of the accidents that seem to plague his fellow racers. Thibeau’s fourth-place finish in the Outlaw Invitational was his lowest placement of the season. Others in the class may wish for such good fortune.
In second place is Arthurette, New Brunswick’s Robert Tomlinson with 278 points — only 30 points out of first yet a mere two points ahead of fellow New Brunswicker Glenn Rasmussen of New Denmark. Tomlinson has finished in second twice and third twice. Tomlinson’s consistent finishing record has put him in second.
With only two points separating him from Tomlinson, Rasmussen has finished second twice and fourth twice putting him in contention for second overall and within striking distance should Thibeau falter over the second half of the season.
John Albert of Limestone has fought new car blues this season. He has found the wall a couple times and had inconsistent finishes to put him 120 points down. A better finishing record in the second half of the season could move him closer to the duo of Rasmussen and Tomlinson.
The appearance of Matt Farnham in the #43 Outlaw Sportsman and William Thibodeau in the second John Albert #97 race car has the class on better footing for August and September. Farnham is fresh off a seventh-place finish at the Outlaw Sportsman race at Oxford Plains Speedway. There were 16 cars in the invitational that was won by Kris Watson of Kenduskeag.
Watson was the winner of the Spud Speedway 50th Anniversary Outlaw Sportsman 100 Invitational on July 12. A dozen Outlaw Sportsmen showed for the $1,000 to win purse. The race also saw the return of former track champion Ken Dumond from Van Buren, who now resides in Gardiner. Dumond raced Albert’s spare car and finished eighth despite a 15-year hiatus.
Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame’s newest inductees, Bobby Alexander and Chink Maynard, were honored in pre-race ceremonies on July 12. In addition, several former drivers returned to the track for the evening’s festivities and were recognized during the pre-race.
Blacked Out Window Tinting Service Racing Karts
Every class of karts that compete at Spud Speedway have experienced growth, adding new racers to the ranks almost weekly. The Senior Champ karts had six karts for their two races during the Motorsports Fair. Last Chance Motorsports’ Jere Humphrey has added two karts to the field with Houlton’s Nancy Haggerty in one kart and guest drivers in the other.
Two racers from Thundering Valley made their appearance at the new kart track for the Motorsports Fair. Jason Morse of Ripley and Todd Rollins of Clinton finished one-two in the July 12 race after a rough debut the night before. Their Thundering Valley setup was dramatically different than the setup needed for the Spud Speedway kart track. After making adjustments, they ran up front.
Caribou’s Tyler Raymond placed third, only inches off Rollins’ front bumper after winning the race the previous evening. Raymond is probably leading the Senior Sportsman class once the points situation is straightened out. In second is Westmanland’s Tom Hale.
Junior Sportsman has two new racers as Landen Leavitt of Fort Fairfield and Bryan Searles of Presque Isle join veteran Damian Theriault of Caribou. Theriault has won every race in the series as the others who are rookies get experience. Theriault showed his driving skills last weekend when he raced at Thundering Valley and placed second in each of his two feature races. This was his first venture to the St. Albans 1/5-mile kart track.
Kids Karts class continues to grow with veteran driver Gage Theriault of Limestone joined by Fort Fairfield’s Ryder Leavitt and Isaac Rossignol of New Denmark.
