PASS organizer, partner to lease Wiscasset track

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Dave St. Clair, who bought Wiscasset Raceway in 1991 and has been trying to sell it for more than a year, has decided to lease it to Pro All-Stars Series president Tom Mayberry and his partner, Harry Franssen of Loudon, N.H.

It is a three-year lease beginning with the 2003 season and the Mayberry-Franssen partnership will have first option to buy the track. Financial terms were not disclosed.

St. Clair has had an asking price of $1.3 million for the track.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” said Mayberry. “I’ve talked to Dave off and on for a lot of years and we finally got it worked out. It was the right time for him and the right time for me. My plan is to buy it.”

“We haven’t discussed price yet but I’m sure we’ll get to it,” said St. Clair.

St. Clair said he will miss certain parts of running a track “but I’m ready to do something else. There’s plenty of other things going on.”

St. Clair said he would like to spend more time with his family.

“We were together every weekend but we were all working at the track and I want to do something different,” said St. Clair referring to the fact several family members have worked at Wiscasset Raceway and are still doing so.

“My 13-year-old grandson [Josh St. Clair] is ready to go racing. So is the eight-year-old [Ryan]. But he isn’t quite big enough yet,” said St. Clair.

St. Clair, a long-time racer, indicated he may jump back into a stock car. He bought a limited sportsman car in June and promptly won his first race in it at Hermon’s Speedway 95.

“A limited car is enough for me. I’m not going to race pro stocks any more. There’s too much upkeep [cost] and I wouldn’t be able to have a crew work on it,” said St. Clair.

He also intends to spend more time on his gravel and excavation business: Dave’s World.

Mayberry said he intends to move the Wiscasset race card from Saturday nights to Friday nights and he likes the idea of adding Sunday night racing at the entry level similar to Beech Ridge Motor Speedway’s Thursday Night Thunder or Speedway 95’s Wacky Wednesday.

“Entry level divisions are really important. [Beech Ridge owner Andy Cusack] started that at Beech Ridge and it really opened peoples’ eyes. It’s a nice way to bring people into the sport. Let them get their feet wet at the low-dollar level and hopefully they’ll continue in the sport and move on to run in the regular weekly [weekend] series,” said Mayberry.

He said Sunday will also be used for special shows like the monster trucks along with the midget cars, mini Winston Cup cars and the legends racers.

Mayberry said the PASS tour, which is in its second season, will “still be my first priority.”

Having Friday night races will enable him to manage the Saturday night PASS races next season.

“And by having the Wiscasset races on Friday night, we won’t be going up against some of the tracks that support the PASS tour. That’s the main reason we’ve moved it to Friday. And they used to draw real good crowds for Friday night races [several years ago],” said the 41-year-old Mayberry, who used to race at Wiscasset.

There will be a 150-lap PASS race at Wiscasset on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 8, replacing an event that had been scheduled for Hudson, N.H.

Mayberry explained that the owners of the Hudson track told him “there was no way their pits could handle our haulers and cars.”

St. Clair was happy to oblige.

“We’d like to run one more big race,” said St. Clair.

How will Mayberry and Franssen divide the responsibilities?

“I’ll handle the racing operations and he’s going to handle the concessions, maintenance and do as much marketing as he can,” explained Mayberry, who added that he will make some personnel changes but will retain several employees.

“We aren’t going to bring in PASS people. I don’t want to burn them out,” said Mayberry, who will have two or three PASS races at Wiscasset including the Coastal 200.

Busch North back at Beech Ridge

The Busch North series returns to Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Saturday night for the Irving Oil 150. Time trials start at 5:15 p.m.

Mike Johnson of Salisbury, Mass., won the Partnership for a Tobacco-free Maine 150 on June 8 at Beech Ridge.

Matt Kobyluck of Oakdale, Conn., leads the points standings by just six points over Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, N.H. Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre is third, 48 points behind the leader.

Santerre won last week’s race at Adirondack International Speedway (N.Y.). It was his third win of the season.

Rounding out the top five in points are Dale Shaw of Center Conway, N.H. and Scarborough’s Kelly Moore.

Other Mainers in the top 30 in points are Strong’s Tracy Gordon (8th), Yarmouth’s Billy Penfold (10th), Morrill’s Travis Benjamin (17th), Eliot’s Carey Heath (18th), Scarborough’s Robbie Harrison (23rd) and Turner’s Mike Rowe (27th).

Rowe continues to lead PASS tour

The PASS tour has the weekend off before heading to Speedway 95 for a race on Saturday night, Aug. 31.

Turner’s Ben Rowe posted his fourth series win last weekend before a standing-room only crowd at the Scotia Speedworld in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Rowe claimed the Atlantic Cat 250 with Dave Gorveatt of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and Cushing’s Chuck Lachance finishing second and third.

Rowe has a healthy 100-point lead in the points over Hallowell’s Johnny Clark. South Paris’ Sam Sessions is third, six points behind Clark. Lachance and Gorveatt round out the top five.