WISCASSET — Among the first few race car drivers to turn laps on a track anywhere in the state of Maine this spring were a pair of recent Wiscasset Speedway champions.
Reigning track champion Kevin Douglass had his Super Late Model on track Saturday during the first of two of the speedway’s open practice sessions this month. Despite winning six of his 12 starts last year en route to his first Pro Stock/SLM title, Douglass couldn’t wait to get his championship defense started.
“I don’t know how we top that,” said Douglass, of Sidney. “Last year was just a dream season. You don’t always have that, so you just try to take advantage of it when you have it. Hopefully, we go out and we’re just as competitive as we were.”
Temperatures were in the low 40s throughout Saturday’s practice with a stiff coastal wind. That didn’t deter a number of Super Late Model, Super Street, Modified, Strictly Street, Mini Stock and Legend division teams from leaping at an opportunity to test ahead of the track’s scheduled April 22 opening day.
A second open practice is slated for next Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Joining Douglass in the smattering of cars and drivers Saturday across the Wiscasset pit area was his closest title contender and 2021 track champion Josh St. Clair.
St. Clair, of Liberty, plans to defend his 2022 Late Model title as well as launch another assault on the Pro Stock championship. To help do that, St. Clair had a brand new Distance Racing chassis built by Jeff Taylor over the winter.
“I didn’t like losing,” St. Clair said. “New is always better. The one I was racing with was a (2014), and it had been handed down the line a few different times. It was just time to upgrade if I wanted to contend.”
St. Clair, whose family owned the speedway for more than two decades, literally grew up at Wiscasset Speedway and still competes weekly in four divisions. In addition to his Super Late Model and Late Model rides, he also has a Super Street and a Strictly Street.
Even with that kind of experience and championship pedigree, drivers like Douglass and St. Clair believe there is always a reason to take advantage of track time — particularly on days like Saturday where the added stress of a weekly points race is absent.
“It’s not so much remembering how to go around in circles, it’s what I’m riding around in circles with,” St. Clair said. “It’s just making sure things are mechanically ready.”
Both Douglass and St. Clair have adopted a “practice smarter, not harder” mentality with experience. St. Clair had his Super Late Model and Super Street at the speedway Saturday, and he plans to bring his Late Model and Strictly Street next week for shakedowns.
“It’s a good opportunity to get the little stuff out of the way,” St. Clair said. “Having only a few practices on race day, you don’t want to be battling small stupid issues you could have fixed if you just took a couple of laps before you got there.”
“Everything sits all winter long,” Douglass said. “A lot of it is about preparation. I don’t normally practice a lot, even on a weekly basis. If you practice a lot, you’re just putting wear and tear on stuff that doesn’t need it. If you go out and it’s good the first five laps, park it and see what you’ve got in the race. I try to do that.
“The car is always consistent and good, and I’m just trying to keep it that way.”
Douglass still drives the same chassis, engine and body that he won a half-dozen races in last summer, as well as the 2021 Boss Hogg 150. The only differences on the 2023 version of his No. 18 are minor. He displayed a new blue color scheme Saturday and installed a new braking system over the winter.
Unofficially, he ran a fastest lap in the 14.5-second range, only a couple hundredths of seconds off the current track record held by St. Clair at 14.56 seconds, before shutting it down for the day after only a couple of brief practice runs.
“I’m not really surprised, but I always doubt things,” Douglass said. “I just have to prove it to myself. I could assume it would go out and be just like it was last year, but you never know until you get out and do it. I just like to get out on the track, and it was good.”
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