BANGOR – Forty-five minutes after the scheduled 7 p.m. starting time, without one snowmobile dragging its way down a 400-foot long strip of ice, a young boy leaned over the fence and shouted to nobody in particular, “Let’s get this show on the road!”

Twenty feet behind him a fan at least twice the boy’s age, sitting in the front row of the bleachers, offered an expletive deleted when asked his opinion about the delay.

Snowmobile racing’s return to Bangor after a 15-year hiatus took an extra hour and 15 minutes to arrive at Bass Park Friday night, but finally the high-pitched whine of snowmobile drag racing proved to be music to the ears of the fans who braved the delay.

A crush of late-arriving race-day registrants got the 1995 Paul Bunyan Snowmobile Open off to the slow start.

“The biggest thing that is so positive about making lemonade out of lemons, is that we have had so many people sign up to drag,” said Judy Vardamis of the Bangor Convention and Vistors Bureau, the race’s sponsor. “That really took such an enormous amount of time away from getting started. We did not expect that many people to sign up for the drags.”

An estimated 125 drivers, some running more than one sled, signed up for the drag racing portion of the weekend, which includes oval racing on Saturday afternoon and Sunday.

Many oval racers also registered on Friday which slowed that process even more, but should speed things up on Saturday.

While some fans left, asking for their money back on the way out, others waited around either stewing or understanding.

“It’s too bad we have to stand outside in the cold, but I understand,” said Ron Tower of Belfast, who brought his son and two nephews to the races. “I can understand it happening from time to time. The first day is never organized.”

An hour into the racing, more than half the crowd had called it a night.

As the self-imposed 10 p.m. curview neared, the Northeastern Snowmobile Racing Association had completed just more than half of the 59 heat races scheduled.

Heat racing will continue on Saturday, beginning at 8 a.m. Semifinals and finals, as needed, will follow.

Oval racing is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

For those who stuck it out, some of the highlights included a Bangor racer advancing into the second round and another driver breaking the 100-mile per hour barrier twice.

Greg Davis of Bangor, racing a Ski-Doo, advanced into the semifinals of the D Stock division, winning the fourth heat in easy fashion.

Earlier, Scott Copeland of Northwood, N.H., driving a Ski-Doo, clocked an 103-mile per hour run in the Pro Stock 6 division. Later, in the Pro Stock 5 class, Copeland won again, this time in 100.8 mph.

The fan who uttered the expletive deleted earlier in the night, nodded affirmatively once racing had gotten under way.

“That’s much better,” he said before another set of three sleds tore down the track.

Normally, NSRA drag races are held on a 660-foot strip. Officials shortened the track to 400 feet for the Paul Bunyan Open.