Unity Raceway opened about a month earlier compared to past years and even offered spectators a few promotions that would offset the cost of admission. Furthermore, track manager George Fernald, Jr. boosted the weekly payout in the Late Model class.

The results?

“We’re not getting the crowds or the car counts,” said Fernald, who leases the track from owner Ralph Nason. “It’s the economy, I’d say. I thought it would be better, but right now it seems to be worse.”

At its season opener April 21, the 52-lap Late Model feature drew 11 cars.

Last Saturday, only eight showed.

The track drew between 12 and 16 Late Models fairly regularly last season.

“Financial times are hard for everybody,” said two-time Late Model feature winner Brian Whitney, 35, of Burnham. “I’m actually thinking of heading up to Bangor. I’d hate to leave Unity because it’s where I’ve been. But there are no cars here and you have to go where the racing is. I have too much tied into the car to just wax it in a garage. But Bangor is still far. It’s 40 minutes away and $50 in gas away. It only costs me $5 in gas to get to Unity.”

Fernald, who said he has no plans of shutting down this season, said he won’t be concerned with low fan and driver turnout until at least the beginning of summer.

“I won’t be real concerned until school gets out,” he said. “We haven’t had any kids racing yet. Usually, it’s very slow the first two weeks of the season anyway. We’re trying everything we can. We raised the Late Model payoff, but that hasn’t helped. We’re trying everything.”

The next change coming is the start time for racing.

Fernald is switching to a 6 p.m. start on Saturdays. Unity opened the season with a 2 p.m. start.

“We’ll see how it goes,” he said.

• • •

It didn’t take Johnny Clark long to move past his 16th place finish in the Pro All Stars Series North season opener two weeks ago at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.

The Farmingdale driver started from the shotgun position yet still took the checkered flag Sunday at the PASS 150 at Star Speedway in Epping, N.H.

“We made a big statement,” Clark said. “Coming from the back to get a win? I don’t know if I’ve started dead last and came back like that.”

It almost didn’t happen.

Clark experienced engine problems prior to the race, and he sat out of the qualifying heats as his crew tried to fix the problem.

“We got it to where we thought it would work and then came home victorious,” Clark said. “The first couple of laps, we were thinking that maybe we need to take it easy to make sure the engine will make it. But then we let it go and picked them off one by one. It feels great, obviously.”

• • •

Jeff White, the reigning Late Model points champ at Oxford, is ready to race again.

The Winthrop driver will compete in the ACT 150 on Sunday.

“The car is pretty good,” he said. “We’re close.”

White won a 150-lap ACT race last June at Oxford. The victory served as a springboard for success the rest of the summer.

White is hoping history indeed repeats itself.

“We went down and practiced Saturday,” he said. “We think we have a good hot rod. We’re happy. We’ll do some ACT races this year, and we’ll try to win another championship at Oxford, too.

“We want to see if we can back it up.”

• • •

Left turns: Reid Lanpher, 14, of Manchester, became the youngest driver to win a NELCAR Legends Tour race when he took the checkered flag last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway feature. Lanpher is seventh in points in the series. . . . Wayne Helliwell, Jr., is the ACT points leader. Pittston native Ben Ashline is 14th. . . . Nate Weston, of Madison, won a 50-lap Sportsman feature at Speedway 95 last weekend. It is one of three 50-lap races in the division the track has planned for this season. The points leader in those three races alone will win $500.

Bill Stewart — 621-5640
bstewart@centralmaine.com

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