HERMON – With car counts and fan turnouts both down at Speedway 95, co-owners Del Merritt and Alice Baker have decided to hire their safety director, Carmel native Wayne Elston, to act as the track’s promoter/sales director.

The 56-year-old Elston, who raced for 26 years and held a similar position at three other tracks, including Wiscasset Raceway, owns Wayne Elston’s Speed Shop and Collectibles in Carmel.

“We want to get it back to what it used to be but we need more sponsors and more money for the race car drivers. And it’s my job to go out and get [the money],” said Elston during a press conference at Speedway 95 Tuesday.

“Hopefully, with more sponsorships, we can help overcome the economy by raising the purses,” said Merritt. “We need a better field of cars.

“Our priority right now is to raise the car counts. We have a real inexpensive program but no matter how inexpensive it is, if you don’t put on a good show, the cars aren’t going to come,” added Merritt who charges $5 for Wacky Wednesday admission and $6 for the Saturday night race show.

Merritt said he pays “$700 or $750” to the winner in the Pro-Limited Class and “down to $200 for fifth place.” He said winners in the Street classes earn $200.

Merritt said he is busy with his various business ventures and doesn’t have the time to attract new sponsors.

“Wayne has the time and the energy and he’s a pretty good salesman,” said Merritt.

Elston, who said he has already obtained $1,500 in sponsorship money, plans to add new events to the program at Speedway 95 as well as improve the facility.

“I want to bring in midget cars and the True Value Modifieds,” said Elston. “We want an official pace car and we want to give it away at the end of the year [as part of a promotion]. It won’t cost people anything [to enter]. If they buy a ticket to the races, they’ll qualify.”

Speedway 95 has some special events already set up for this season including a Wacky Wednesday Double O race – cars do one lap around the one-third mile oval and one lap around the one-fifth mile inner oval – that will pay $500. They are also looking at a soccer race in which two-car teams try to push a metal ball into a goal.

“We want to make it fun again,” said Elston, who would also like to add a sign outside the facility to list the events and a scoreboard inside the facility that will show the fans the running order of the top five or so cars and what lap the race is on.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

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