Wiscasset, ’95’ would welcome displaced Unity racers

With Unity Raceway owner Ralph Nason’s decision to suspend operations at the track this season, the two most logical beneficiaries would be the owners of Wiscasset Raceway and Hermon’s Speedway 95.

They are the closest tracks to Unity, both are within 90 minutes of Unity, so it would make sense the displaced drivers would explore the opportunity to race at either track.

Wiscasset Raceway owner Doug White and Speedway 95 co-owner Del Merritt have already heard from former Unity drivers and they said they will welcome them with open arms.

White and Merritt admitted they were surprised at the Unity Raceway development and sympathized with Nason’s plight.

“I was pretty surprised by it,” said Merritt. “There was no inclination they were going to shut down.

“You don’t like to see anybody shut down or go out of business. And I feel bad for the people who made plans to race there and went to the expense to get a vehicle ready,” added Merritt.

“I thought he might keep it going on a small scale,” said White. “But if you don’t have the ability to run it right now … there isn’t a real strong market … maybe it’s best to re-evaluate what you’re doing and see what changes you can make. This will give him a chance to re-organize and look at different ideas.”

White also said, “you never want to see other places closing. It’s good for motorsports to keep as many facilities open as we can.”

White and Merritt said drivers coming over from Unity will have to adhere to their rules and regulations but they are willing to help the drivers make the transition.

“We’ll work as diligently as we can to help the guys out so they can change their cars to meet our rules and race with us,” said White.

“Our gates are open to everybody. We’d love to have them. But they’ve got to fit our rules. We can’t put our people at a disadvantage [by altering the rules],” said Merritt.

Merritt said he hasn’t studied the Unity rules yet but feels there may be lot of lower-division cars at Unity that could easily make the transition to race in Speedway 95’s popular midweek “Wacky Wednesday” series that gets under way in June.

The weekend divisions at Speedway 95 begin running a week from Sunday and he speculated some of the Unity drivers in the top classes may have to make alterations to meet Speedway 95 requirements in those divisions.

White said, “Ralph’s rules were a little different than ours, but not that much different.”

He hopes the drivers won’t have to spend much money altering their cars to meet Wiscasset Raceway specifications.

White also said he gladly would welcome advertisers who used to advertise at Unity.

“We’re always looking for advertisers,” said White, who hopes adding point funds in all of his classes will help lure Unity drivers to Wiscasset.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

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