If you want to get some idea of the kind of speed you can expect for The Pine Tree Pacing Series, Bangor Raceway will give area race fans a sneak preview Sunday. The feature pace on Bangor’s 11-dash program is a $2,400 pace with two of the declared Pine Tree Pacing Series entrants testing the drivers, turns and straightaways and Bangor’s racing surface.

The Pine Tree Pacing Series is a free-for-all pacing series that has garnered 27 entries from farms and racetracks on the Eastern Seaboard and Canada. Initiated by Rick Simonds, executive director of the Maine Harness Racing Promotion Board, the series is sponsored by the Promotion Board with O’Connor GMC of Augusta as corporate sponsor.

The series carries six preliminary legs, each for $12,000, and a $50,000 final, one of the richest purses ever offered in Maine. The final is scheduled at Scarborough Downs on Sunday, Sept. 8. The promotional series is intended to attract more racing fans to local Maine tracks and the first of the six legs is scheduled to kick off the special events on Sunday, July 1, at Bangor Raceway.

The entrants have six weeks of competition to accumulate enough points to be eligible for the Scarborough final. When the first elimination round takes to the track, the Bangor track pacing record of 1:53.3, set in 1995 by Lorryland Butler and Gary Mosher, could well be in jeopardy.

In tomorrow’s 10th-race feature pace, five pacers will compete on the Bass Park half-mile oval for the top portion of the $2,400 purse. Three regulars who have previously raced the Bangor track this season, Showmethemoneysam, Woodmere Topcat and Back Road Pride, will be joined by Casino Winner and New Spencer in their seasonal Bangor debuts.

Casino Winner is owned by another Maine GMC dealer, Bill Varney, of Bangor. The 6-year-old stud horse, by Cambest (the horse Walter Case Jr. said was the best horse he had ever driven) out of a Big Towner mare, carries a lifetime mark of 1:51.1 as a 3-year-old and has lifetime earnings of $157,511, through June 16. He finished second to Landmark Honor at Scarborough Downs last week in 1:56. Valerie Grondin is scheduled to drive on Sunday.

In the five hole of the post-positioned race is a new addition to the Tom Dillon and Walter Hight Stable. He is New Spencer, a recent purchase by the Dillion-Hight racing partnership as their entry into the lucrative Pine Tree Pacing Series. Spencer, a 5-year-old gelded son of Kingsbridge, out of a Troublemaker mare, carries a lifetime pacing mark of 1:51.4, set last season at Woodbine, Ontario, and has lifetime earnings of $160,702. Veteran driver Don Richards will bring New Spencer from the fifth position on Sunday at Bangor. He should have no trouble winning his first Bangor outing.

Benefit set for Campbell

Today, at Plainridge Racecourse, track management and the Harness Horse Association of New England are sponsoring a benefit day for Winston “Soupy” Campbell, father of driving brothers Heath and Drew Campbell. The elder Campbell is being treated for colon cancer. The benefit includes: buffet dinner, 50/50 raffle, silent auction on a series of horse equipment and gift certificates.

Any donations for Winston Campbell Fund may be mailed to: Plainridge Racecourse, 301 Washington St., Plainville, Mass. 02762, or call (508-643-2500; fax: 508-643-9082.

Stakes races begin Sunday

The Maine Standardbred Breeders Stakes opens the 2001 season at Scarborough Downs beginning Sunday. The seaside track’s opening session will feature the 3-year-old pacing colts; 2- and 3-year-old trotters on Wednesday and 2- and 3-year-old pacing fillies, Friday. The stakes move to Bangor Raceway on Wednesday, July 4.

Pacing Bits – And finally, for a couple of daily doubles for Sunday’s race program: First half, can’t ignore Grammar Girl going for her fourth straight Bangor win for owner Warren Hallett with Steve Mahar in the bike. Grondin and Pleased To Meet You and Butch MacKenzie and Street Singing should complete the trifecta. Second half: there’s a bunch of youngsters here, but Cranmeadow Kiana should leave the ranks of maiden for Russ Pratt, with G I Julie and Kevin Merrill and Steve N Mike and Butch MacKenzie in a tight second and third place.