Lack of cars, expenses force Wiscasset to drop pro stocks

For the second straight year, the plug has been pulled on the pro stock division at Wiscasset Raceway. There was no pro stock racing for the first time this season last Saturday.

“I have always said it only takes two cars to make a race. But you have to look at the financial part of it,” said Wiscasset Raceway owner Dave St. Clair. “We had low car counts. We were down to four, five, six cars. I think it’s just an off-year.”

St. Clair has owned the track since 1991 and this is the first time he shut down the pro stock division.

St. Clair leased the track to Pro All-Stars Series President Tom Mayberry last year and Mayberry closed down the class at roughly the same time a year ago.

Mayberry decided against leasing it this year.

Mayberry switched the race program from Saturday nights to Friday nights but St. Clair re-instituted Saturday night racing this year.

“Some of the [pro stock] drivers couldn’t race on Friday nights last year so they went to tracks that had Saturday racing and some stayed there,” said St. Clair who noted that the ones who remained at Wiscasset had to find other tracks after Mayberry shut down the division.

St. Clair also said there are some pro stock drivers in the Wiscasset area who have cars but simply aren’t racing anywhere.

“It’s so expensive. I don’t think people have a lot of money to spend on their race cars. I don’t think it’s much different at Unity or Bangor,” said St. Clair, who has six other classes.

“Being a business guy, you could see the handwriting on the wall,” said Town Hill’s John Phippen, who has driven 118 miles one way to run at Wiscasset since St. Clair bought it 13 years ago. “It didn’t look like there was any money to be made. There were no cars to race against and there weren’t many people in grandstands.”

Winterport’s Patrick Thibodeau agreed.

“I feel bad about it. I know Dave and [wife] Sandra didn’t want to pull the plug on it. But you don’t want to run in the red,” said Thibodeau. “They were putting out too much money for a class with six-car fields. And they weren’t drawing big crowds. It wasn’t worth it.”

He added that racing just four or five other drivers “isn’t that exciting.”

St. Clair said they offered $4,000 in purse money for the class.

Thibodeau, who figures he ran 10-15 races there over the past few years, said he will miss running at Wiscasset and Phippen concurred.

“I love the place. It’s very smooth. The pavement isn’t full of cracks like Unity [Raceway] and you don’t have a bump going into the corner like you have at Bangor [Hermon’s Speedway 95],” said Thibodeau.

“I liked the track better [than Unity and Speedway 95] and I enjoyed the company and the competition,” said Phippen.

St. Clair said they won’t re-instate the class this year and will make a decision for the 2005 season during the off-season.

Phippen indicated he will probably do most of his racing at Speedway 95 while Thibodeau said he will race at Speedway 95 and Unity Raceway.

St. Clair’s first night without pro stock racing Saturday turned out to be eventful. They had a fireworks show but the racing ended at approximately 8:30, before it was dark enough for the show.

St. Clair had to come up with a way to keep the fans’ attention until it got dark.

“My grandson [Josh St. Clair] and two of his friends were here and I asked them to run around the track for $20 [to the winner]. They didn’t want to do it but I got 50-75 kids to come out of the stands and do it,” said St. Clair.

The winner received the trophy which would have been given to the pro stock winner in addition to the $20.

“We also gave out trophies to the top finishers in two other [age-group] classes. We also gave them each $10,” said St. Clair.