Wiscasset Raceway will be the first of Maine’s five stock car tracks to open its season this weekend and owner Dave St. Clair will unveil two new classes when racing gets underway on Saturday afternoon at 2.

A teenage class will be for drivers 13-17 years of age and there will also be a women’s division.

The teenagers and women will drive four-cylinder, front-wheel drive cars. They will be regular passenger cars outfitted with roll cages and safety harnesses.

The two new classes will join the already existing classes: late models, super streets, strictly stocks and stock minis (four cylinders).

Saturday’s opening race card will also have the Allison Legacy cars and the NELCAR Legends cars.

“I think the new classes are going to be good. It’s good to get the whole family involved. It’s good to get some new blood in there,” explained St. Clair who hopes their relatives and friends will come out to watch them race.

St. Clair has taken precautions for the teenagers.

“I tested them myself. They went out by themselves the first time before they went out with anybody else,” said St. Clair. “They had to pass my test. I’m not going to let anybody out there who has no idea what they’re doing.

“They did very well. I was surprised how fast they went,” added St. Clair.

On Saturday, they will have a five-lap heat race followed by the 10-lap feature.

“The feature will go either 10 laps or 20 minutes, whichever comes first,” said St. Clair. “We aren’t going to let them go all night.”

He said if a driver continually spins out, he’ll send them to the pits and tell them to try again next week.

St. Clair is optimistic about the season.

“If the weather cooperates, things are looking real good. There has been a lot of interest. We’ve rented out most of our 100 cement pads [for storing race cars]. We had practice last weekend and we had around 120 cars,” said St. Clair.

St. Clair eliminated his pro stock class for good during the summer of 2004 and Unity Raceway owner Ralph Nason has followed suit this year.

“It’s too expensive for the track and too expensive for the car owner. Nobody can afford it except, maybe, the winner,” said St. Clair about the pro stock division’s plight.

St. Clair said his race track is still up for sale with an asking price of $1.3 million.

“There have been inquiries, but nobody wants to pay that for it,” said St. Clair, who has owned the track since 1991.

He said the track is in “good shape” and they have made some minor improvements to it.

As for the other four tracks, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough and Speedway 95 in Bangor will open on Sunday, April 23, at 1:30 and 2 p.m., respectively.

Oxford Plains Speedway will open on Saturday, April 29, at 5 p.m. and Unity Raceway will begin its racing schedule on Sunday, April 30, at 2 p.m.

The Oxford Plains Speedway opener will feature the first Pro All-Stars Series race with the running of the New England Dodge Dealers’ 150.

The sixth-year tour has 15 races scheduled this season.

PASS has expanded into a South Division and that tour will get underway Sunday in the Easter Bunny 150 at Hickory Speedway in Hickory, N.C.

They will have at least seven races and all of them will be held in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

The races will be 125 or 150-lappers and they will play $5,000 to win.

One of the PASS drivers who will participate in the Easter Sunday PASS South race is Morrill’s Travis Benjamin.

Benjamin finished ninth in the PASS points standings last season thanks to two top four finishes in his last three races.