Mike Hopkins climbs out of his car after winning the Boss Hogg 150 last year at Wiscasset Speedway. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal
WISCASSET — When Wyatt Alexander won one of Wiscasset Speedway’s signature events in 2015, there were only 21 cars on the premises that day.
On Sunday, the Boss Hogg 150 at Wiscasset will see the largest field of Super Late Models in the event’s history, with more than 40 confirmed entries. As of Friday afternoon, there were 47 cars pre-registered for the event, and track promoter Ken Minott said he has spoken with all of them and received confirmation, from all but one, that they still plan to attend.
“My dad and I were literally just talking about this,” Alexander said earlier this week. “The biggest thing is just how different the place looks even from when I won it eight years ago. They’ve really done a lot of work there.”
For the second consecutive year, the Boss Hogg 150 will pay $10,000 to the winner. The Coastal 200, a Late Model race at the speedway in May, offers the same purse. Only the Oxford 250 and its guaranteed $25,000 winner’s purse pays more to win a stock car race in Maine.
Now, the second-highest paying Super Late Model race in the state will have the second-largest field of cars attempting to qualify. The Oxford 250 had 60 cars attempt to qualify last Sunday for a 41-car field.
In 2018, the previous high of 31 cars showed up to the Boss Hogg 150 with none of them failing to qualify. For the first time on Sunday, there will be more cars than available starting positions for the Boss Hogg 150.
“It’s what you want as a promoter,” Minott said. “You don’t like to send people home, but you hope people come when you put on an event like this.”
The Boss Hogg 150 was created in 1991 by former track owner, Dave St. Clair, whose nickname provides the name for the race. After a long hiatus due to change in the track’s ownership, the race was re-imagined for the 2015 season under the Jordan family’s ownership.
When Alexander won that 2015 race, only 20 drivers took the green flag — with all but four of them weekly regulars in Wiscasset’s Pro Stock division.
Until 2020, the modern version of the Boss Hogg 150 had been run on Saturday nights as part of the weekly program. In 2021, the race was moved to the Sunday afternoon of Labor Day weekend.
“It’s no secret that we’ve been searching around for the right date to run our Boss Hogg, because we know what people are doing with the (Oxford) 250,” Minott said. “We’ve always been at the mercy of what’s left after the Oxford 250.”
That the 50th Oxford 250 produced relatively little carnage, along with Wiscasset’s well-earned reputation for an above-average on-track product, has created the perfect storm this week. There are teams all over New England — entries are expected from not only Maine, but also from New Hampshire and Massachusetts teams — planning to race the Boss Hogg 150 this weekend. Among that group are reigning Pro All Stars Series champion Ryan Kuhn of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts and current PASS point leader and defending Oxford Plains Speedway champion Max Cookson, of Palmyra.
“I think the fact that it pays $10,000 to win drives a lot of race cars to go,” Cookson said. “It’s a great race track. A lot of guys really like it.”
Although the race has been won by locals, most recently 2022 track champion Kevin Douglass of Sidney in 2021, it’s no longer the playground of the weekly warriors.
“I think the mindset is the outsiders are always better prepared, have more resources and all that, and it puts us at a disadvantage,” Douglass said. “But when I won, Nick (Hinkley) finished second, so I think our guys are still really good here.”
With the additional attention comes added challenges.
Much like the Oxford 250, a premium will be placed on qualifying for the Boss Hogg 150. Heat race starting positions will be determined by random draw. Additionally, the race is 100 laps shorter than the Oxford 250 with no pit stops for tire changes, meaning that there’s less time — and less opportunity — to drive forward from deep starting positions.
Minott confirmed Friday that there will still be four first-round heat races, but the distance of those races has been extended from 10 laps to 15 laps. Additionally, he said there will be two consolation-round qualifiers, though there has not been a final decision made on the length of those races.
“It might kind of seemed like this happened overnight, but it’s been coming for a while,” Alexander said. “The reputation there in the past was that we had a pretty rough weekly group and that cars were getting torn up. I think that’s obviously changed, and people know that.”
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