Weekend auto racers crave thrills> High points for many drivers are few, but make investment worthwhile

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It is a typical weekend around the auto tracks across the state of Maine.

People representing all walks of life, from accountants to auto mechanics, head to the track of choice with members of their crew for a weekend of racing. The crew members are usually volunteers and they’re either family members or close personal friends.

They race in all different classes depending upon their particular type of vehicle.

Many own the cars, others drive cars owned by friends or business partners.

They’ll square off against the same rivals every week, most of whom are their friends.

The financial rewards are minimal, at best. Often, the money that is won is put right back into the race car.

But the drivers will tell you that they don’t race for the money.

“If you’re racing for money around here, you aren’t going to do it,” said Winterport’s Bill Harnish, who races in the super street division at Hermon’s Speedway 95 and has driven race cars for more than 25 years. “You’ve got to love it.”

“I think it’s the competition and the entertainment factor [that attract people to racing],” said 56-year-old Ralph Nason, who began racing 31 years ago and ranks as one of the state’s most successful drivers. “It’s rewarding by accomplishment. It isn’t like spending two years building a house and then standing back and looking at it [after its done]. It’s instant [gratification]. It happens now.”

“And I guess each and every stock car driver’s ego is probably a little bit more active than most,” added Nason, who owns Unity Raceway.

“It’s what I like to do,” said Unity’s Stan Meserve, another of the state’s most heralded drivers. “It’s real difficult to describe. There’s just a roller coaster of emotions. When you have a great race and win, beating the next guy by an inch, it’s the best race you’ve ever had.

“But when you wreck your car and it costs you money, that’s a low point. There have been more low points [than high points]. Thank God for the few highs.”

John Phippen Jr. of Town Hill owns the Hill Side Garage, but has to find spare time to work on his own race car, which he did on July 4th. After work on Wednesday, he drove to Unity to get some car parts from Meserve so he could work on the holiday.

The lure of competition drives Phippen to get his car ready.

“I enjoy the speed. The chance to make the car go [fast]. I enjoy the competition. I really do. I really like somebody to race me and race me hard.”

Harnish said it’s hard to explain the motivation to race each week.

“It’s in your blood,” he said.

Phippen added, “And it’s like having a second family. I have another whole family to go to every weekend.”

Phippen, who has been racing since 1979, is contending for the points championship in the pro stock division at Wiscasset Raceway.

“It’s a fraternity deal,” agreed Nason. “If somebody from the outside tries to do something to one of our guys, he’ll catch it from the rest.”

“The camaraderie is a great big part of it,” concurred Meserve, who is in his 31st year of racing.

Harnish said the friendships end on the track.

`You don’t have buddies on the track [when you’re racing]. You don’t push anybody around, but you try to win,” he said.

By their own admissions, the drivers said they are all highly competitive.

Nason said the level of the competition opposing him in a race has a direct effect on his level of enjoyment.

“When the competition is really, really good, I get excited. When the competition isn’t as good, I don’t get as much out of it,” he said.

Nason said the competitive aspect of racing doesn’t just involve the drivers.

“The pit crews compete with other pit crews and the crew chief is in competition with the other crew chiefs,” said Nason.

The bottom line, according to Meserve, is “it’s fun.”

“I wouldn’t do it for a second if it wasn’t fun,” said Meserve. “There’s too much work and too much of an investment. It’s a heck of a commitment.”

Stock car racing has changed dramatically over the years, according to the drivers.

“When I first started racing, two-thirds of the guys were drunk,” said Nason. “There was just one class and the guys were all tough nuts. They wanted to fight and drink. You don’t see any of that now. It has become a total family sport.”

Phippen said there are a lot more spectators now.

“The press has made it into more of a sport. They did a TV race, the Daytona 500 in 1979. It was the first one ever. The sport has taken right off since,” he said.

The technology for cars has changed immensely, according to Meserve.

“There’s more time [invested], more technology, and better cars. We’ve got the same tires we had 20 years ago, but cars are going three seconds faster [over the one-third-mile tack]. That’s three seconds at 80 miles an hour,” he said.

Meserve added that instead of having just one class with 40 cars in it, now you have “four or five classes with 15-20 cars in each.”

Meserve estimates that he has built 75-80 percent of the cars that will compete in the Northeast Pro-Stock Association series race on Sunday afternoon at Unity Raceway.

“Everybody has to put a lot more money into their cars now and people aren’t as forgiving as they used to be,” said Harnish. “When I first started, you could get a great car for $500. Now $500 won’t buy four tires.”

All four men got into racing in similar ways, primarily through friends or work.

“I traveled with friends who raced and that’s all they talked about,” said Meserve. “It just about drove me nuts. They got me to go and a friend and I decided to buy an old bomber car [and race it]. It was a blast. There were no words to describe it.”

Nason got a job selling automotive products and began visiting race tracks to sell them. He and a friend, Wayne Philbrick, bought a clunker and hired a driver. Eventually, Nason took his turn at the wheel “and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Phippen was a mechanic in his early teens and noticed a race car in a friend’s driveway.

“Somebody said, `Do you think you can build one better than that?’ ” said Phippen.

Phippen got involved in the sport and has competed for the past 17 years.

Harnish used to work at Silver’s Auto in Veazie with a pair of drivers, Harold Cliff and Danny Fletcher.

“Harold let me try his car out one day and that was the end of that. I got the bug,” said Harnish.

And once they catch the bug, they’ll be racing every weekend and working on their cars on weekdays.