Is club racing in Spud Speedway future

Episode 345

January 10, 2021

Is club racing in Spud Speedway future?

Local racing at Spud Speedway has been hold since the end of the 2015 season. Special events have been held, however, no organized stock car racing. An enduro class has raced in conjunction with the Pro All Star Series (PASS) shows. Haney has maintained the track and associated facilities in a race ready condition since the weekly series ran in 2015.

The since 2015 track has also held monster truck shows, demolition derby, and motorcycle aerial show. The Northern Maine Karting Association (NMKA) held weekly races since their inception in 2015. A special track was built to accommodate kart racing. Due to low numbers of entrant, NMKA officials decided to forgo racing in 2020.

NMKA ran as a club not organized by the local track but as an independent organization with officers, rules, and competition dues. The NMKA Victory Circle at Spud Speedway in 2019 with left to right, Gage Theriault, Limestone, Tom Hale, Westmanland, and Kyle Wells, Caribou. Theriault and Wells were track champions in 2019. (NMKA photo)

Track owner Troy Haney floated an inquiry via social media on Sunday to prime the pump about alternative ideas for races at the idle track. With absolutely no promises of ownership taking the initiative to start a racing club, the following was posted:

“As we get 2020 behind us and the track has been quiet now for a whole year, we are looking forward into 2021. The COVID laws don’t look to be loosening so we are considering a different approach to the racing this year.”

“What I would like to hear from our local racers is if there is any interest in a Racing Club? This means racing without fans or very few due to the laws.”

“There is no real value for sponsors without fans, so this would need to be a one or two class group where racers build a simple and basic street stock or 4-cylinder car and race for the fun of the competition. There would be a fee to race, enough to cover the insurance and cost of a few trophies.”

Street Stock at Spud Speedway have been a fixture at the Caribou track. This 2009 photo has nine cars competing for the feature race win. (HTF Motorsports photo)

“It would truly be a grass roots friendly competition for fun! What we would like to hear is if there is any interest and what class of cars you might have ideas for, keeping in mind classes that would be as affordable to race as possible while having safety in mind as well.”

Four-cylinder class in action in 2011. Will a version of this type of racing be part of the racing club class? (HTF Motorsports photo)

“This would potentially be a every other weekend daytime race to help keep costs in check. Thank you for your positive ideas as we try to keep Spud Speedway alive and well. Thank you”

The challenge has been placed. The next step is in the hands of racers or want to be racers. More than likely those folks would need to organize, determine classes, rules, officiating, and the many things that club racing entails. It sounds like Spud Speedway will provide the venue with the club negotiating the fee to use the track.

All Maine CDC Covid rules would need to be foremost on the mind of this club. Area snowmobile clubs have organized groups to race in the County with good results. Can the stock car racers pull together to make something happen? We will see.

What is Holler Customs up to??

Over the last several years since I discovered Garrett Holler at Restoration Performance Motorcars (RPM), Vergennes, Vermont where he worked as the lead restoration bodywork specialist on some of the most expensive cars in the world. He left RPM and started Holler Customs in 2018.

He and his wife Heather moved to Mooresville, North Carolina in March, 2020. He likes the difficult metal working problems which challenge him to expand his skill set.

An example of this type of project recently came into his shop, a Superformance GT40 built under license from SAFIR Spares LLC in their California manufacturing facility. The owner had backed it into a wall on a track and needed the car stretched back into shape for a race next weekend.

The tweaked area on the GT 40 that spun and backed into a wall. Though not an original the line of cars are built to same specs as the original with continuing VIN numbers. (Holler Customs photo)

The Superformance built GT 40 as received at Holler Customs. Holler pulled the wrinkle on the GT 40 and got the gaps set correct and allowed the doors to open and close.  After the race next weekend, it will get final bodywork touches and proper repaint. (Holler Customs photo)

Coming up next episode, “Rocket Man” Luke Saindon returns to the pages of UpNorth Motorsports with a low space adventure and a series on local hot rod collectors, Greg Roderick and son Riley, begins. Do not miss it. I urge you to not miss a single episode by simply going to the end of this post, look for subscribe, enter your email and that is it. You will be notified of posts in the future. Best part… it is free.

Let’s go racing,

Tom Hale

Soli Deo Gloria (Matthew 5:16)

Tom Hale

About Tom Hale

Tom wrote 14 years as freelancer for the Bangor Daily Sports covering motorsports in Maine. Now blogging and concentrating on human interest stories about people and places in racing. He races Champ Karts and owns HTF Motorsports in remote Westmanland, Maine