Nason cancels races, cites fuel prices

Unity Raceway owner Ralph Nason, citing rising fuel prices and the impact it has had on drivers and fans in central Maine, has canceled the remainder of his weekly series races for this season.

Nason will reopen the track Oct. 15 for the Long John 150 pro stock race and features in the mini-truck and mini-stock divisions.

The cancellation represents seven racing dates including the Oct. 1 New England Super Street Championship race that was to pay the winner $6,000.

In a press release, Nason said he regretted making his decision.

“This is a tough time of year. You’ve already spent money getting the kids ready for school. Now, everyone is worried about how they’re going to pay for their gas to get back and forth to work and their fuel oil this winter. I doubt if racing is going to be a high priority for our fans and drivers,” said Nason.

He said the decision to cancel the New England Super Street championship race was a “tough call but the interest didn’t seem to be there this year.”

Nason also said he heard that BP and Sunoco won’t be refining their fuel, which is used in the pro stock division, “for the rest of the winter so once tracks run out, that’s it.”

Unity pro stock driver Matt Lee of Albion and super sportsman racer Brad Bellows of China were disappointed by the news, which they learned from race director Scott Pooler at Saturday night’s drivers meeting.

They indicated car counts and attendance have been down this season.

“It was probably [a] financial [decision]. There were only 55 cars [in six divisions] Saturday night and there were only 200-300 people in the grandstands,” said Lee. “If you’re losing money and if I was running the place, I’d shut it down, too. But he never said that.

“There’s nothing I can do about it, I guess. He owns the place,” said Lee.

Lee didn’t feel the rise in fuel costs was that big a deal.

“We had been paying $5 a gallon and now it’s up to $6. What’s another dollar?” asked Lee.

Bellows said he “wasn’t really surprised” by the news.

“I knew once Ralph took the track over, it was going downhill,” said Bellows referring to the fact John Crawford, who leased the track the last three seasons, didn’t return to run it.

“Scott [Pooler] told us there were two reasons for the decision. First, he said it was the price of fuel. All the drivers said, ‘We’re the ones paying for the fuel, how does that affect you and Ralph?’ He said the other reason was the low fan turnout. I can understand that. It’s been down all year,” said Bellows.

Bellows also said Nason should take some of the responsibility for the low car counts.

“Even at the beginning of the year, we had only 50-60 cars in the pits. Last year, we had over 100 every week,” said Bellows. “Ralph didn’t cater to the drivers like Crawford did last year.”

Nason explained by cell phone Sunday night that “50 percent of our drivers work in a wood-related business” and several others work in construction so the rainy spring hurt them financially and they couldn’t prepare their race cars until July.

Bellows said there were only three regulars in his class and there would be only six or seven cars in each race. As a result, he had already intended to race at Wiscasset Raceway next season even though his commute will be at least 35 minutes longer.

Nason said, “The only way we could have kept going was to cut their purses and the drivers didn’t want their purses cut. I can understand that [because of the increased cost of running a race car]. But there’s only so many dollars coming in and so many going out. We were better off to stop. With gas at $3.50 a gallon, race cars weren’t showing up.

“What do they expect? Do they expect us to lose $3,000-$4,000 every night. There’s no sense in that. Bellows should know that,” said Nason.

Oxford Plains Speedway owner Bill Ryan and Speedway 95 co-owner Del Merritt don’t foresee shutting down their tracks early.

“We’re surviving fine. We have plenty of race fuel to last us the rest of the year,” said Ryan. “But we have only three more events so our position is different [than Nason’s].”

Ryan added he was optimistic the “fuel situation will sort itself out.”

Merritt said the rising fuel costs “haven’t had a major impact on us at this particular time. I’m pretty sure we have enough for the rest of the season.

“I understand the fuel situation is hurting everybody. But I believe the American people are going to do what they want to. They’ve got to do something for entertainment,” said Merritt, who has three race dates remaining and may expand to a fourth date.