The Pro All-Stars Series will visit Hermon’s Speedway 95 Saturday for the only time this season and all four northern classes will be involved.

Heat races will begin at 3 p.m. as the PASS North Super Late Models, Modifieds, Sportsmen and Outlaw divisions will race along with Speedway 95’s Saturday night Sport-Four class.

This will be the 14th time the Super Late Models have raced at Speedway 95 since the series’ inception in 2001.

“We certainly enjoy going there,” said PASS President Tom Mayberry, who praised the assistance always provided by co-owners Del Merritt and Alice Baker along with Alice’s daughter Kim. “Del, Alice and Kim are great to work with. They help us out every time we go there.”

Earlier this spring, Merritt said he was “disappointed” the PASS tour locked in just one weekend of racing instead of the two weekends that have been the norm of late.

“Del and I talked about that,” said Mayberry. “We’d like to go there twice. But one of our problems is since we have the PASS South and North, our weekends were crammed. We have something scheduled every weekend until Nov. 1. That makes it tough.

“Like I told Del, we’ve always gone there. When we first started out and needed a track, Del was one of the people who stepped up [and offered us his track]. So we’re going to work on scheduling them twice next season,” Mayberry said.

Eight different drivers have won at least one PASS North Super Late Model race at Speedway 95 with Turner’s Ben Rowe leading the list with three victories. Rowe has eight top-three finishes.

Rowe was edged out by one one-hundredth of a second by his dad, Mike, in the season opener at Scarborough’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway two weekends ago.

Ben Rowe is the defending series point champion.

Among those challenging the Rowes will be Dresden’s Scott Chubbuck, who has six top-three finishes at 95 including two wins; Farmingdale’s Johnny Clark, who has five top-threes including a win and three seconds, and Farmington’s Cassius Clark, who has a pair of wins and a third.

A disqualification cost Cassius Clark a third win in Hermon.

Another prominent contender will be Scarborough’s Kelly Moore, the winningest driver on the Busch North tour and a former Busch North points champion.

The Outlaws will begin their third season of racing while the Mods and Sportsmen, who opened their seasons at Beech Ridge, are in their fifth and second seasons, respectively.

Former Speedway 95 regulars Mike Thomas, formerly of Brewer, and Mike Harnish, a Winterport native, will race in the Outlaw division.

OPS owner excited about season

Oxford Plains Speedway owner Bill Ryan saw the handwriting on the wall two years ago and decided to drop the expensive Pro Stock class.

His decision to focus on more “affordable” racing has paid big-time dividends.

He had 97 Late Model entrants for the 34th annual TD Banknorth Oxford 250 last year, the most he had in several years, and Ryan said he already has 107 entrants for this year’s 250 on July 20.

“That’s really a testament to the Late Model [class] and how strong and prominent they are in northern New England,” said Ryan, who will have NASCAR Sprint Cup star Kevin Harvick in the field for the 250.

Ryan pointed out that the first of three American-Canadian Tour races this season attracted 50 Late Models last weekend.

“What we’re trying to do is to make all of our classes as affordable as possible because the more affordable they are, the more cars you’ll get,” said Ryan. “That’s where you need to be today. That’s the key.”

He said the Late Model cars have the same chassis as the Pro Stocks, but they use Spec engines and shock absorber packages that are much cheaper.

A Spec motor is $7,000 and a shock package is $500 while a Pro Stock motor can run in the $25,000-$30,000 range and the unregulated shock packages can run $8,000 for a set, according to Ryan.

He said the track itself is in excellent shape after having “our best year [in a long time] in terms of drying out.”

His weekly Saturday night race card includes Late Models, Strictly Stocks and Mini-Stocks plus he is rotating in two of his entry-level Wednesday night classes every Saturday “to give them a chance to race a little more.”

“They have 11 races on Wednesday nights and now we’ve given them eight more on Saturdays,” said Ryan.

The Wednesday night card won’t start until June 4, but they are already racing on Saturday nights on a rotating basis.

Racing begins at 6:30 p.m.

Wiscasset opening Saturday

Wiscasset Raceway gets under way Saturday at 2 p.m.

Doug White, who bought the track from Dave and Sandra St. Clair last year, will begin his first full season as the owner with six classes: Pro Stocks, Late Model Sportsman, Super Streets, Strictly Streets, Mini-Stocks and Mini-Trucks.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

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