George Fernald Jr. has a simple ideology for Unity Raceway this summer.

“We’re trying to put the fun back in racing. We want to give people a good time for their money and we want them to leave happy,” said Fernald, who saved the raceway from an idle summer by leasing it from owner Ralph Nason.

It will open on Sunday, June 1.

He will drop admission prices and will have a race that will involve chaining cars together with one pulling the other. Drivers’ names will be drawn out of a hat and fans will also get the opportunity to be involved in the race.

“We won’t have it every week but we’ll have it most of them,” said Fernald. “I have a number of different ideas we’re kicking around. We want to try to do something different almost every night. We want the crowd to want to come back to see what we’re going to do [next].”

Another of those ideas is to have a “large demolition derby with old-fashioned rules.”

That means all of the cars will be out there at once. There won’t be heats involving 10-12 cars apiece.

“I remember when they’d have 40 cars out there at once. It was great to see,” said Fernald.

He has added a Thursday night race card for entry level divisions to go with the established Friday night race card.

Price of admission for adults on Thursday nights will be $5 and a pit pass will go for $10. The Friday night price for adults has dropped to $7 in the grandstand and $15 for the pits. Grandstand tickets were $8-10 a year ago.

The Pro Stock class was dropped two years ago and Fernald won’t bring them back this season.

“I feel the classes we have are what we need the way the economy is right now,” said Fernald. “I’m an old Pro Stock racer at heart. I have a lot of friends like me who have Pro Stock cars just sitting [and not being raced].

“If everything goes well, we may put on a Pro Stock race or two. I’d love to get a sponsor and bring them back once a month,” added Fernald.

He said the responses he has received since leasing the track have “all been positive.

“They’re just happy to have a place to race this summer,” he added.

His Friday night race card will include Enduro, Wildcat, Sport 4, Monster-Minis and Sportsman classes. His Thursday features will be in the Enduro, Ladies, Teens and Men’s Peanut divisions.

“The Thursday night Teen class is my baby. I started that for kids at Unity and now it’s everywhere,” pointed out Fernald.

There will be practice sessions every weekend leading up to the season-opener.

Santerre puts setback behind him

Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre isn’t dwelling on a weekend which could have been record-setting for him.

His two Andy Santerre Motorsports Team drivers, Peyton Sellers and Austin Dillon, finished first and second in the season-opener in the NASCAR Camping World (former Busch) East series which would have been a first for Santerre.

But Sellers had to forfeit the win due to a shock absorber infraction, the first time an East series win was ever stripped.

“I’ve put it behind me now,”

said Santerre. “It’s too late to worry about it. We’ve got to move on.”

He acknowledged it was a mistake but said the fact just one of the eight shocks on the two cars was illegal “proved we weren’t trying to do anything illegal.”

He explained that they tested their shocks before the race and assumed they were all legal so they didn’t take them apart and one shock had an extra piece in it.

“The extra piece didn’t make a difference [in the performance of the car],” said Santerre who noted that the mistake would not be repeated in the future.

He thought they would be penalized through a loss of points and a fine but he never anticipated that the win would be stripped.

It never happens in NASACAR.

“Everyone in the NASCAR community is scratching their heads about how things happened the way that they did. But we’re bigger than that,” said Santerre.

He said they have three tests scheduled before the next race which will be on May 18 at Iowa Speedway.

On the positive side, the 17-year-old Dillon wound up with the win.

“It’s pretty impressive to get a win in this series at 17,” said Santerre.

He said the victory was best summed up by Dillon’s crew chief, Lance Deiters.

“Lance said it was like going fishing and finding a dead bass and mounting it on your wall,” said Santerre.

OPS opens Saturday

Oxford Plains Speedway gets underway on Saturday with the New England Dodge Dealers American-Canadian Tour 150, the Oxford Championship series, the Oxford Acceleration Series Outlaws and Ladies divisions.

The pits will open at 10 a.m. and racing gets going at 2:00.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

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