The racing season will come to an end at Hermon’s Speedway 95 this weekend, and some drivers are going to pocket some serious cash for the holiday season or to put towards the 2023 racing campaign.
The Paul Bunyan Speed Weekend of racing will be held on Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 1 p.m.
Wiscasset Speedway will also conclude its season with nine classes on the card beginning at noon on Saturday.
Speedway 95 will have three classes of racing on Saturday, including the lucrative Late Model 100 and the annual Ikey Dorr Memorial 100-lap Street Stock feature.
The Ikey Dorr race is in honor of the Addison racer who died of an apparent heart attack during a 2009 Super Street feature at Speedway 95.
There will also be a 25-lap CageRunners feature on Saturday. On Sunday, there will be a 100-lap Enduro and 25-lap Modified and Sport-4 features along with a demolition derby.
The winner of the Late Model event will pocket $5,000, with the second-place driver taking home $2,500 and the third-place finisher earning $1,200.
During a weekly 40-lap Late Model series race, the winner pockets a maximum of $750. The payouts are divided up on a sliding scale based on the number of cars.
The Ikey Dorr winner will earn $3,000 compared to the weekly payout of $250 for the 35-lap race. The second-place driver will earn $1,000 and third will pay $600.
The Enduro winner will pocket $2,000, $1,750 more than a weekly race.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of cars,” said Speedway 95 owner Del Merritt.
Merritt said they have had a “great year” at Speedway 95, with his one major concern being the low car counts for the Late Models, which is their top class and their most expensive cars.
He said the Late Model car counts got better at the end of the season but several races earlier only had four or five cars involved.
“We have to figure out what to do (next season),” said Merritt.
He said he knows he is in the entertainment business, and there are plenty of other activities on Saturday night when they normally race, such as the Waterfront Concerts series on the Bangor Waterfront.
Steuben’s Brenton Parritt won the Late Model points championship this season by 100 points over Robert Seger of Frankfort, and they’ll be among the favorites. Three-time Coastal 200 winner Ben Ashline from Pittston and Hermon’s Mike Hopkins, the winner of the Boss Hogg 150 last month, will also be legitimate contenders.
The Coastal 200 and Boss Hogg 150 were both held at Wiscasset Speedway.
Steve Kimball of Holden won the Street Stocks points championship and he will be among the favorites in the Ikey Dorr race, along with runner-up Mike Overlock of Franklin and Donny Blanchard of Farmington, who finished third in the points.
Kenduskeag’s Kris Watson, who won the 150-lap New Hampshire Street Stocks Open at White Mountain Motorsports Park two weeks ago, will also be in the mix.