It was a natural progression for Dwayne Overlock.

The Swan’s Island native had watched his dad, Butch, and his uncle, Jeffrey, race for years so he decided to follow in their footsteps.

Overlock, who won the limited class at Hermon’s Speedway 95 a year ago, will make his pro stock debut when the track opens for the season on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Overlock and several other pro stock racers will set their sights on Stockton Springs’ Duane Seekins, who will be gunning for his third straight pro stock points championship.

“I had some butterflies at practice last week but they went away after two laps,” said the 33-year-old Overlock. “I’m excited. I’m ready to go. It’s in my blood.”

Overlock began his career in the street stock class 13 years ago. He ran super street for nine years, missing a points championship “by six or seven points” one year and then moved to limited two years ago.

“I was fourth my first year in limited and then I finally won a points championship last year,” said Overlock whose primary sponsor was Scott Hogg and WMDI 107.7 FM. Hogg has since moved away but he left Overlock the 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo.

With Scott Webber, Overlock and his crew upgrading the car to pro stock, it is ready to go.

“Scott is one smart man. He’s one of the best around when it comes to the setting up the car,” said Overlock whose crew includes Jason Morse and Howie Eaton along with Ralph and Gerard Pinkham.

He has several sponsors, including Snow’s Cove Painting, Rafferty’s Painting, Sinclair Builders and Andy Gray Foundations, the company for whom he works.

“I would like to win the rookie of the year award and I’d like to get at least one checkered flag,” said Overlock, a 1985 graduate of Mount Desert Island High School. “It’s going to be tough. There are some real competitive cars. It’s a big move.”

Seekins is the one with the bulls-eye on his back.

Not only will he be defending the pro stock class he has won the last two years, he will also be trying to defend his title in the five-race Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine pro stock series.

The Partnership series involves 50-lap races – regular pro stock events are 35 laps – and the purse has nearly doubled.

The winner of each race will receive $1500, which is $650 more than a year ago.

Second place will pay $750 and third place will earn the driver $600. Those are increases of $200 and $150, respectively, over a year ago.

The series champ will receive $1500. That is $1000 more than Seekins pocketed a year ago.

Second through fifth will pay $1000, $500, $300 and $200, respectively. Last year, second place in the series was worth $300 and third place was good for $200.

“Fifteen hundred dollars for a 50-lap race is pretty impressive,” said the 44-year-old Seekins. “I think there will definitely be more competition this year.

“But we’re up for the challenge. We’ve got the home-court advantage,” added Seekins, who will be driving the same 1999 Monte Carlo.

“We’ve gone through the whole car and made it as good as possible,” said Seekins. “Our goals are to finish every race and finish in the top three every week.”

He expects his primary competition in the regular series to come from the likes of Overlock, Aaron St. Peter and Patrick Thibodeau.

Speedway 95 co-owner Del Merritt said another contender could be Andy Saunders.

Saunders was kicked out of a race at Speedway 95 last season when he raced to the front of the pack after being sent to the back because he and Thibodeau failed to properly initiate three restarts.

In that case, the lead cars are sent to the back.

After racing to the front to protest what he considered an unfair decision, he also did a donut spin before being given the black flag.

Saunders had been a 12-year regular but elected to stay away from the track after the incident.

Merritt said he welcomes Saunders’ return to the track and Saunders’ father, Addison, verified that his son plans to return beginning Sunday.

“Andy would like to start fresh at 95,” said Addison Saunders.