Is sleep deprivation worth a shot at $7,000?

Bangor’s Gary Smith thinks so. So do several other pro stock racers who, like Smith, will run in the first of the five-race Northeast Pro Stock series events Saturday night at Unity Raceway. After the 5:30 p.m. race, they’ll travel to the White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, N.H., for Sunday’s Pro All-Stars Series race at 1:30 p.m.

The PASS race is a makeup of an earlier rainout. Both are 150-lap races.

First place in the NEPSA race is worth $3,000 and victory in the PASS race brings $4,000.

There also is a 50-lap pro stock race Friday night at Unity Raceway that pays $1,200 to win.

Smith, the president of NEPSA, said the fact the NEPSA and PASS tours have the same car specifications, including tires, makes life much easier for the drivers who will enter both races.

“It only makes sense. It’s good for everybody,” said Smith. “My goal some day would be to see all the tracks in Maine have the same rules for the pro stocks. You always want a consistent set of rules.”

Smith said he and PASS creator and director Tom Mayberry have worked together to ensure the drivers won’t have to scurry around changing their cars to meet two different sets of specifications.

“We have a good relationship,” said Smith.

The drivers will have to change their strategy because the two tracks offer quite a contrast.

“Unity is a flat, third-of-a-mile track. White Mountain is a quarter of a mile with high banking,” said Smith. “You run a high-14s, low-15 [seconds] lap at Unity while a lap at White Mountain is around 12 seconds. That’s quite a difference.”

He said the drivers who enter both races will have a four-hour drive between Unity and North Woodstock, N.H.

But the grueling weekend is worth it, especially if there is a nice payday.

“It’ll be tiring. No question about it. We’ll be pretty much exhausted. But, like any other sport, there’s an adrenaline rush [that helps the drivers overcome their fatigue],” said Smith.

Smith is hoping there is a good, clean race at Unity Saturday night so he doesn’t have to spend a lot of time repairing his car for Sunday’s race. He has seen drivers pull off some remarkable feats repairing cars so they can race the next day.

“You can’t count anybody out,” said Smith. “I’ve seen guys work all night putting their cars back together.”

The two races will be an expensive venture for the drivers.

“We’ll spend $1,000 for tires and fuel will cost us another $500. That doesn’t count travel costs,” said Smith.

He expects big fields at both places this weekend.

“We expect to have 30 at Unity and the two previous PASS races had 45 cars at Lee (N.H.) and 27 at Halifax,” said Smith.

Dale Shaw of Center Conway, N.H., won the inaugural PASS race at Lee and Scott Alexander of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, triumphed at Scotia Speedworld last weekend.

Sam Sessions of South Paris is the points leader in the 13-race PASS series with 426. Detroit’s Adam Friend is second with 412. Rounding out the top five are Richie Dearborn of Hollis (410), Louis Mechalides of Tyngsboro, Mass. (402) and Turner’s Ben Rowe (394). Smith is sixth (384).

Rowe won the NEPSA and the now-defunct International Pro Stock Challenge series points titles last season.

Stetson’s Gary Bellefleur intends to make his 2001 racing debut this weekend.

He will run the NEPSA race but isn’t sure if he will do the PASS race or journey to Hermon’s Speedway 95 for a Sunday afternoon (2:00) 50-lap Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine race.

He may also run Friday at Unity.

“I’ve been busy getting my new life insurance business off the ground,” said Bellefleur, who was the NEPSA Rookie of the Year two years ago, when he finished fourth overall in points, but he ran a limited schedule last summer.

“I’m going to take it one race at a time. I’d like to at least do all the NEPSA races this year. That’s my goal,” said Bellefleur, who lives in Litchfield but has his business in Bangor.

Bellefleur said he would like to see the NEPSA and PASS tours merge into one series in the future.