Rain forces Coastal 200 to July 29 Nason, Chubbuck battling

WISCASSET – Unity’s Ralph Nason and Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck had a nice duel going at the front of the pack during the Coastal 200 at Wiscasset Raceway Sunday.

But they will have to wait until Sunday, July 29 to resume the battle and settle it. And there’s certainly no guarantee one of them will be the recipient of the $10,000 first-prize money, especially if the final 143 laps is anything like the first 57.

The 29-car field was able to finish just 57 of the 200 laps when a steady mist forced the postponement of the race. In just those 57 laps, there were seven cautions and two red flags.

The drivers would have had to finish 100 of the 200 laps for it to be considered a completed race.

Wiscasset Raceway owner Dave St. Clair said the race would be resumed as part of a racing card beginning at 2 p.m. on July 29. Drivers will retain their positions.

“We will have a special 50-lap pro stock race. These drivers will be able to run that one, too. It will pay the winner $1,500,” said St. Clair.

The resumption of the Coastal 200 will begin at approximately 3:30 p.m.

“It’s too bad it rained. We had been having a pretty good race. But it had gotten pretty slippery,” said Nason, who had taken the lead from pole-sitter Paul Pierce of Lincolnville on lap 21 and led until the rain stopped the race on lap 57.

“I couldn’t see out the windshield,” said Stetson native Gary Bellefleur, who is currently living in Litchfield.

“There was no sense keeping everybody here,” said Morrill’s Travis Benjamin.

The drivers are required to leave their tires at the track until the resumption of the race although St. Clair said they will be allowed to buy four new tires and race with them when the green flag drops in three weeks.

New tires cost approximately $105 apiece.

Bar Harbor’s John Phippen said the reason the tires have to be kept at the track is to prevent people from tinkering with them.

“There’s a chemical spray that makes the tires softer,” explained Phippen.

That improves the traction and performance of the tire, according to Phippen.

The drivers said they preferred resuming the race to starting from scratch.

“Everybody who was here today deserves a chance [to win the race],” said Benjamin. “If you start all over, you’d have some other people showing up [who weren’t there today].”

The race’s 57 laps were action-packed. The caution laps don’t count toward the 200 so the drivers put several extra laps on their tires.

There was an eight-car wreck before they could put the first lap in the books.

Jim McCallum of Fall River, Mass., who was running the outside groove, was forced up over the safety tires into the high fencing on the first turn.

That prompted the first red flag.

McCallum indicated that he wasn’t injured.

When the race resumes in three weeks, 23 drivers will still be on the lead lap.

Rounding out the top 10 behind Nason and Chubbuck will be Pierce, Phippen, Cushing’s Chuck Lachance, Appleton’s Daren Ripley, Woolwich’s Kenny Wright, Litchfield’s Doug Averill, Damon Tavoularis of Pelham, N.H. and John Flemming of Halifax.

Pierce, Richmond’s Casey Nash and Chubbuck won their respective heats to earn the first top three starting spots. Nason, the defending champ, started fourth.