HERMON – As far as nights at the track go for the Robichaud family of Orrington, Saturday’s outing at Speedway 95 was a bit of a ho-hummer.
On the surface, it looked like a pretty good night.
Jim Robichaud drove his No. 93 Sport Four into victory lane, 17-year-old son Jay chased his dad and finished seventh in the 20-lap feature, and then the duo headed to the pits to greet wife and mom Denise.
That happens every Saturday.
What made it different is the fact that the pit-row reunion didn’t repeat itself a couple more times over the course of the night.
That’s because in a sport filled with drivers who double as mechanics, the Robichauds take things a little further than most. Follow this.
Jim is a Sport Four driver. So is Jay. Jay is Jim’s tire man. Jim is Jay’s mechanic. And most nights, when the Sport Fours are done, Jim will hop into his Super Street car and race again. And when the Late Model Sportsmen get down and dirty, there’s Jim again.
That’s right. We’ve got four cars, two drivers, and virtually no pit crew.
On Saturday, the Late Model Sportsman car had a cracked oil pan. The Super Street entry was totaled two weeks ago. And that gave the Robichauds a relative night off.
“We prepare before we come,” Jim Robichaud said of the family’s prep work. “One night a week we change our oil, we do our tire changes, grab a few wrenches and make sure everything’s tight.”
On Saturday, everything was tight. At least it was for Jim’s No. 93, which started from the pole and held off Barry Elston of Carmel to win.
Jay had a little more trouble. First, the engine didn’t run great. Then things got interesting.
“I got into lapped traffic and got into a little tangle over in the corner,” Jay Robichaud said with a grin.
Jim said it’s tough to race his son.
“It was hard at first to run with him because I’m trying to protect him,” he said. “If someone ran into him, I tried to help him out.”
Well, that’s the way it happened most of the time. Sometimes, Jim admits he was Jay’s own worst enemy.
“The first week that he ran last year I dumped him,” Jim said sheepishly. “I ran right into him and spun him off in the corner.”
Jay said he was confused by the incident.
“At first I didn’t know who it was,” Jay said. “Then I looked in the mirror and realized it was Dad. I thought, `What are you doing? Of all people.’ ”
In other Speedway 95 action Saturday night, Duane Seekins of Stockton Springs won one of the card’s most exciting races in the Late Model Sportsman class.
Seekins’ second win of the year at Speedway 95 (he has two more at Unity Raceway) came in a 35-lap feature marked by seven caution flags. Luckily for Seekins, he could watch most in his rear-view mirror.
“That’s the best place for them to happen,” Seekins said. “Every time I’d come around a corner, a yellow’d be flying. It was kind of discouraging.”
Seekins said he tried a new set of springs in his heat race, but found that they weren’t working very well.
“They didn’t do nothing,” he said. “The car was just junk.”
In the feature, he put the old springs back on the No. 19 car and drove it flawlessly.
“We were just good down low and noone could run with us at the start,” Seekins said.
Don Alexander made the only run at Seekins on a lap-33 restart. Still, Seekins had enough to hold him off.
Limited Sportsman: Scott Modery (Stetson), Kris Huff (Orrington), Ken Eaton (Stonington)
Super Streets: Bernie Thayer (Hermon), Lloyd Nickerson (East Corinth), Duane Seekins (Stockton Springs)
Strictly Street: Jeff Bean (Carmel), Wayne Parritt (Steuben), Dale Swoboda (Hermon)
Tiger: Scott Alexander (Levant), John Curtis Jr. (Hermon), Jeff Overlock Jr. (Hermon)
Little Enduro: Eric Carlisle (Bucksport), Mike Heath (Brownville), Sean Fowle (Bangor)
Big Enduro: Joe Lavoie (Millinocket), Rick Grant (Hermon), Chad Ashey (Frankfort)
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