UNITY — Three days removed from Unity Raceway’s first race of the season, one big question still remains — what does the future hold for the track?

It is a question that is difficult to answer after Sunday’s Superstock Enduro Twin 100s, mainly because of the weather.

Early in the afternoon the stands opposite pit row were around one-third full, but once the rains came, went and later came again, the numbers dwindled to around 150 or so by the conclusion.

“It was a mediocre crowd. I think the rain warded them off, too,” General Manager Nick Huff said. “I really expected more.”

While the stands were not entirely full, the showing in pit row proved to be pretty good. The field was a little light in some of the undercard races, yet 25 cars started in the first of the two featured races.

“I was amazed when I got here. How many cars were there in the Enduro, 25 or so? For $1,000 pay out, I don’t know what Nick could have done any better,” Brad Bellows, driver of the No. 9 Nissan Sentra, said. “That was a great payout.”

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Part of the reason for the good driver turnout is there are still drivers out there who care about the track.

“This is my home track,” said Skowhegan’s Zach Audet, who took second in the 50-lap Modified Enduro race. “I love it.”

“We’ve been racing here since 1985,” Tim Robinson, winner of the second, 50-lap-shortened Twin Enduro, said. “My father raced here in the 60s and 50s so we actually love this place.

“We’re 20 minutes down the road and I think it went great. I hope Nick comes back next year and has more races and even has more races this year.”

If anything, there was a little surprise there were not more cars in the field.

“He should have had 40 or 50 cars here because it is really affordable,” Bellows said. “That Nissan Sentra is right off the road. There’s very minimal work you have to do to it. I don’t know why there’s not more people doing it.”

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Making the featured race affordable was part of the plan from Huff and owner Ralph Nason from when they first began planning the race, and the drivers certainly were creative with where they found their cars.

Bellows ultimately ended driving the No. 9 Nissan Sentra, but he started the day driving the No. 25 Ford Taurus — before it burst into flames on lap 18, anyways.

Bellows picked up that car at Kennebec Scrap Metal, while his father, Ed, made a deal for the Sentra.

“The Nissan Sentra, my father traded for it,” Brad Bellows said. “He works in the mobile home business and he’s got a skirt for a mobile home and the guy traded for it because (the car) was no longer road worthy. That’s how we acquired that.”

Robinson, meanwhile, got the Eclipse on loan from the owner of Clinton House of Pizza.

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“He actually owned the car and I put it together for him about three years ago and it’s been sitting ever since,” Robinson said. “He bought it off the street to go play on the dirt track.”

• • •

As expected, not everyone was completely happy with how Sunday’s races played out.

After the final race, a few people vocalized their displeasure to Huff and race management with the decision to shorten the final race to 50 laps.

Even Brad Bellows was not entirely thrilled when the top three cars were inspected after the race, as he believed Robinson’s Eclipse should have been classified as a sports car.

“We had a little argument about it but nothing got changed,” Bellows said. “It is what it is.”

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Bellows still had to admit that he was not nearly as upset as he was happy to be back racing at Unity.

“Unity is just a blast. I love the track,” Bellows said. “I just love it.

“…Despite all the arguments, I like Nick. We just didn’t see eye to eye on some things and it is, what it is. No hard feelings.”

• • •

Heading up a little further north, Speedway 95 is set to host the Hight Chevrolet 150 of the Pro All Star Series North on Sunday.

Two-time defending Oxford 250 champ Travis Benjamin missed his first PASS North race of the season on Aug. 5 in Chaudiere, Quebec, but said he plans on running in Sunday’s race.

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“We will be in (Hermon). We’re ready to go there,” Benjamin said. “We tested there last week.”

Evan Crawley—621-5640

ecrawley@mainetoday.com

Twitter: Evan_Crawley


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