Pine Tree series is weekend highlight Bangor hosts competitive opening leg

Bangor Raceway heads into the final three weeks of its 30-day extended race meet with a pretty full schedule of racing and special events. On Sunday’s nine-dash program, the historic Bangor racing facility will host the initial leg of one of Maine’s richest pacing series – The Pine Tree Pacing Series – which carries a total of $122,000 in purse money.

Also on Sunday, the track will honor two area children’s programs, Maine Safe Kids and Pathfinders, with a bike race and a 50/50 raffle with all proceeds benefiting the two charities. Three well-known area personalities, Congressman John Baldacci, Bangor mayor John Rohman and Miss Maine Meranda Hafford of Wade, will don riding gear, hop on bicycles in front of the grandstand and race to the finish line for charity.

Following the competition, the bicycles, which are from Pat’s Bike Shop in Brewer, will be given away in a random drawing to three children in the Sunday audience at the track. To be eligible for the drawing, a child’s name must be submitted on the track’s entry form, which is available at the information window, and must be submitted prior to the third race.

Bangor’s Sunday racing program continues with Commissioner of Agriculture Robert W. Spear welcoming participants in the initial Pine Tree Pacing Series opener. The free-for-all pacing series was designed and initiated by the Maine Harness Racing Promotion Board with O’Connor GMC of Augusta as its corporate sponsor. The lucrative Maine pacing series has attracted 27 entries for a series of six preliminary races and includes some of the top pacers on the Eastern Seaboard. Each week of the Pine Tree Pacing Series carries a $12,000 purse with a guaranteed $50,000 final Sunday, Sept. 8 at Scarborough Downs.

On its initial outing at Bangor Sunday, 13 free-for-allers are entered into the Pine Tree and will compete in two divisions, each for a $6,000 purse. In the first Pine Tree division, (third race) there is horse power that is collectively seldom seen at Bangor Raceway. Casino Winner has the rail position. He won in 1:57.2 last week with Val Grondin seated in the bike, which was the fastest pacing win time of the current Bangor meet.

Winner also won The Paul Bunyan Invitational in 2000 in 1:57. Heath Campbell, the meet’s leading driver, teams Winner in Sunday’s speed outing for owner Bill Varney of Bangor.

The one constant in Sunday’s Pine Tree series is competition. Everyone is in this race. Entries, from the rail position out, following Winner, with lifetime marks are: Fluster, 1:56.3; Auditor A, 1:55.3; New Spencer, 1:51.4; Southwind Mountain, 1:52.3; and McGetty, 1:53.4.

In the second division, (eighth race) there is pure, awesome speed. Can’t misstep in this one. From the rail, out, with lifetimes: Tommy The Bull, 1:56.2; What About Laura, 1:55.1; Mr Prez, 1:50.3; French Stepp, 1:57.4; Landmark Honor, 1:52.1; Fearless Raider, 1:49; and On The Bay, 1:53.4. (see Sunday’s Bangor on Page C2).

The driving styles for some of the new drivers to Bangor’s half-mile track may be unorthodox in Maine style, but they all know what the winning share of each of the pacing series.

Pacing bits

“Headlines and Highlights,” harness racing trading cards honor driver Grondin (with her card) Sunday at Bangor Raceway. … The University of Maine drill team will perform with their retired Standardbred horses at approximately 5:45 p.m., Wednesday, July 4. Special post time of 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, July 4, so patrons may watch the races and stay for the fireworks. … Maine Standardbred Breeders Stakes begin at Bangor with 2- and 3-year-old trotters on Wednesday and 2- and 3-year-old filly pacers on Friday. … The winner’s circle last Wednesday looked like a family reunion picture as One Vine Lady, a 4-year-old mare and the newest addition to the UMaine’s pre-veterinary sciences program, won her first Bangor race in 2:02.3. … Among the missing is driver Cain MacKenzie who has moved south because of his job until December. Returning to the Maine driving wars after a long absence – Wade Canney of Brownville and Scott MacKenzie of Plymouth, driving for the Underhill Stable and catch-driving.