Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Episode 441

May 6, 2024

Crush Zones and tech ed meet again

One of my favorite STEM Motorsports projects is the Crush Zone in Motorsports exercise. Readers have seen the results of the Auto Mechanics and Agriculture classes in previous blog posts. It was now time for the Welding classes to give the exercise a try.

On day one the morning and afternoon classes of welding instructor Keith Dumond at Caribou Tech learned about crush zones in NASCAR’s Nex Gen welded front clips, how cars have crush zones built in for head-on collisions and viewed a crash at Texas Motor Speedway where the driver walked away under his own power.

Episode 440

March 19, 2024

Pinewood Derby Humble Beginning

With help from writer Brian Wendell’s January 21, 2019 article “Fascinating look at the history of the Pinewood Derby” published in Scouting Magazine, I discovered the story of the Derby. The program is one of the longest running Boy Scouts of America (now Scouts BSA) programs for Cub Scouts.

The idea came from Cubmaster Don Murphy, Manhattan Beach, California, when his son desired to race in the soapbox derby run by the Management Club at North American Aviation where Don worked. Unfortunately, Donn, the son, was too young to compete in the soapbox derby since he was only 10 years of age and rules required you be at 12 or older.

Episode 440

February 18, 2024

Keep your eyes on the “prize:

For many readers when you were thirteen, thoughts of spending 8 1/2 months in pain with countless trips to doctor’s offices, hospitals, operating rooms and missing school were not on your radar screen. New England Snocross racer Claire Durepo daughter of Libby and Chris Durepo from Limestone, Maine, has had to endure that maze of pain with no definitive answers from the medical community.

In June 2023. she complained of extreme pain in her lower right quadrant of her abdomen. That began the multiple trips to doctor offices, hospitals, and spending time with the medical community.

Episode 439

February 4, 2024

Egg crunching time

In episode 437, I described the STEM exercise where Caribou Tech Auto Tech students built a protective device last month.  This device would be bolted to a “Crash Kart” with the intention of protecting an egg from cracking. As with any scientific experiment, the proof is in the testing. And test day did arrive. Last Friday the combined classes of Auto Tech and Agriculture put their ideas to the ultimate test.

Episode 438

January 10, 2024

Spud Speedway Schedule for 2024

It was not that many years ago when working at Spud Speedway that conversations centered around selling, bulldozing it into a big fish pond, opening a mega-sized solar farm, and ideas which never touched on utilizing the only track in Maine north of Bangor for what it was designed for and more.

During the summer of 2023, when I looked at the mud and water which inundated the property and with deadlines looming, I must admit I had little hope that the track would open in time for events in 2023. We got a reprieve when a large storm shut down events in northern Maine forcing postponement of the DustBowl until later. Several bright sunny days followed which allowed tremendous strides in construction to occur.

Episode 437

December 17, 2023

Caribou Snowmobile Club beats the rain

If the Caribou Snowmobile Club had chosen December 9th as the date for their annual radar run at Caribou Lake, they would have been unable to hold the event due to high temps and rain. Sometimes the race promotor gets a break like the club did this year.

The Larry Doody Memorial Radar Runs featured a record 60 snowmobiles registered. These sleds made 235 passes on the ice. Racers seemed to be satisfied with the ice which was bound to get chopped up under the beating given by thousands of ice studs.

Episode 436

November 14, 2023

Gearhead Tour Day I

Shane Theriault and I landed at Indianapolis International Airport on time Monday afternoon October 30, 2023. It was absolutely necessary that the two of us and the Caribou FFA group which departed from Bangor earlier than us have on-time arrivals since we had a race date with 7-time USAC Silver Crown Champion and former FFA member Kody Swanson at Fastimes Indoor Karting on the north side of the city at 4:30 pm. Despite getting off course due to my lack of memory of the road to Fastimes, van driver, Dan Blackstone, got us on course and we arrived ahead of schedule.

Fastimes manager, Mike West, treated us like royalty as we prepped for racing on the special surface at Fastimes. All were fitted with helmet socks, neck collars, and helmets and viewed a safety video explaining track safety procedures.

Episode 435

October 17, 2023

Critical Path

Multiple times during the buildup to the Feed the County 150 on September 23, 2023, I thought about a college course I took sometime around 1973 called “Critical Path Management (CPM)”. CPM is defined this way, ” The critical path method (CPM) is a project management technique that’s used by project managers to create an accurate project schedule. The CPM method, also known as critical path analysis (CPA)”.

The date for the race and the Dustbowl were set in stone and all the myriad tasks that go into the construction of the track and supporting event venues were laid out. The implementation of this plan was completed by the competent crew at Williams Construction & Trucking as well as the Haney’s Home Farm & Garden carpentry team, and 180 Sealcoating and Striping crew.

Episode 434

September 11, 2023

Motorsports activity in the County in September

The first annual Dustbowl from September 14-17, 2023 is only days away. Included in the multitude of activities will be racing at the newly renovated and expanded Spud Speedway. Earlier today my wife and I drove to Spud Speedway so she could see for herself the changes at the track. She was amazed at the changes. I pointed out the snowmobile drag track, pulling track, hundreds of feet of new fencing, guardrail, new steps for track access from grandstands, and many little details that are part of the 1.5-million-dollar project.

Episode 433

September 4, 2023

Big Woods Grass Drags battle weather in Ashland

The 5th Annual Big Woods Grass Drags, a combined effort of the Ashland and Portage snowmobile clubs, proved to be a huge challenge due to rain that cascaded through the area continuing into Saturday.

For those unfamiliar with snowmobile grass drag racing the 500-foot race distance typically features about 100-feet of clay/silt starting area followed by grass for another 400-feet with about 1000-feet more grass surface for shutdown. Wet clay and wet grass make a tricky surface even more so with volumes of rain dropped upon them.

Episode 432

August 21, 2023

Race with a purpose

It can be tough to win a race where one of the contestants has a higher reason for victory than the average competitor. Motivation cannot make up for an ill-handling, slow race car, however, a well handling, fast race car in the hands of a driver with extra motivation to win can be hard to beat.

Thursday at Thunder Road International Speed Bowl in Barre, Vermont, that scenario played out. Upon arrival at the track atop Quarry Hill, I asked PR Director, Cale King, about what good stories were out in the pits at Thunder Road. King suggested several names including Cameron “Cam” Gadue of Highgate Center, Vermont a few minutes from the Canadian border in northern Vermont just off Interstate 89.

Episode 431

July 23, 2023

Dreams can come true

Many have attended Indianapolis Motor Speedway over the years; however, a very small percentage have had opportunity to race at the iconic track. Frank Walka like many of us dreamed of actually racing at the track.

I can remember listening, yes listening to the Indy 500 on my transistor radio. My dad, a potato farmer, had a flathead Ford in a crate from Sears Roebuck Allstate to put into one of our farm trucks. Yes, an original “crate” engine. Once that engine was installed the core went back into the crate for return.

Episode 430

July 16, 2023

Maine Boyz II

The story of Great Race 2023 as told by Philip Reinhardt, owner of Mechanical Arts restoration shop in Tenants Harbor, Maine. He went along as the riding navigator/mechanic on the 1931 Reo Royale owned by John Harris, South Bristol, Maine and driven by John’s son Charles of Damariscotta.

Episode 429

June 25, 2023

Spud Speedway ownership announcement.

This is the official announcement from Spud Speedway owners:

Episode 428

June 24, 2023

Maine Outlaw Midget Series

A new racing series is making its debut in 2024 under the leadership of Thorndike’s Barry Tweedie. The veteran racer feels that folks want to race a car that does not require a large investment in time and equipment yet yields excitement galore.