Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Episode 397

May 1, 2022

Story of long-distance racing

Living and working in Aroostook County and commuting a minimum of 4 1/2 hours to race requires dedication, desire, money, and yes, a little bit of craziness. Jesse Michaud and his girlfriend Stacy Robey of Caribou have been doing this a few years and plan to continue for the 2022 racing season.

Recently Jesse sat down and produced a record of what long distance racing looked like for this two-person team. They began racing “down south” in the vintage race series run by Wicked Good Vintage Racing Association.

Episode 396

April 24, 2022

Washburn’s Doody Family with Bubba Wallace at Talladega

Since early March, Washburn’s Steve Doody and wife, Becky, have been on tour as the McDonald’s Talladega Victory Tour Mobile Marketing managers. They have been utilizing Bubba Wallace’s #23 Toyota from last season to help promote Wallace’s first NASCAR Cup victory. This past weekend the duo was at the Talladega Superspeedway where Wallace raced the Team 23XI in the Geico 500.

Episode 395

April 10, 2022

Pre-season prep Part II

The 2022 race season is rapidly approaching with tracks opening for practice and racing, some before the end of April. In a previous episode the need for a stout, well prepared dyno-tested engine was highlighted.

This week we will look at chassis preparation including set up. The location once again is JRT Customs in Caribou, Maine. Owner Jason Theriault is one of the premier kart racing specialists in the northeast.

Episode 394

April 5, 2022

The Loring Timing Association connection to Guinness Record

After gathering data on his record-setting Corvette at the A2 wind tunnel, Jason White heard from Dan Parker who was researching Corvette aerodynamics. After sharing conversation, the two became friends. Ideas for Parker’s record attempting 2008 Corvette were bandied about. White became part of the team that Parker put together in pursuit of the Guinness World Record held by Englishman Mike Newman who drove blindfolded at 200.5 miles per hour in his Nissan GT-R on August 13, 2014.

Episode 393

March 22, 2022 (Happy Spring!)

The Tame the Track Tour Snowmobile Races season finale in Caribou 

This race report was written with Tour racer MacKenzie Gould who provided valuable insight, names, and hometowns for this section of Episode 393. Thank You!

Episode 392

March 14, 2022

Getting Ready For 2022 Race Season

A multitude of tasks can be undertaken to prepare for the upcoming race season. To detail all of them would take volumes. Not wanting to take that road, I decided to concentrate on a few suggestions for pre-season prep most which apply to race karts and others to several types of racing in general in the next couple episodes of UpNorth Motorsports.

Kicking off the pre-race prep was a trip to JRT Customs in Caribou. Owner Jason Theriault was in his newly remodeled race shop working on several projects when I dropped by for a visit recently.

Episode 391

March 6, 2022

Maine racer announces run for state representative

Theriault has been featured in UpNorth Motorsports 35 times beginning in 2014 with the debut of the blog. He has also been interviewed by me for features in Bangor Daily News Sports dating back to when he was a wrestler for Fort Kent High School and racing at Caribou’s Spud Speedway.

Episode 390

February 20, 2022

McDonald’s Talladega Victory Tour Mobile Marketing Manager from the County 

Did you ever get THE TEXT MESSAGE? November 2021 Steve Doody got such a text  from former boss Jordan Bressler President and CEO of TSMGI . The text went something like this, “Hey Steve, we getting a deal in line for the 2022 show-car schedule. Would you like to be part of the launch of the McDonald’s Talladega Victory Tour featuring the Bubba Wallace race winning #23?”

Episode 388

February 6, 2022

Race organizers pleased with results

Despite a cold chill in the air, the Littleton Community Playground Revitalization Project snowmobile race run in conjunction with the Tame the Track Snowmobile Races was considered a success. A spokesperson for the committee shared, ” The event exceeded our expectations and went very well for a chilly, windy day.”

Episode 388

January 30, 2022

Racers from all around New England to race in the County

With $45,000 of the needed $100,000 raised, Tame The Track Tour Snowmobile Races (TTTTSR) is teaming up with the Littleton Community Playground Revitalization Project to present the “Chase the Checkers” vintage, trail, and kids endurance races Saturday February 5, 2022.

Episode 387

January 16, 2022

Ladies and gentleman start the 2022 race season!

It seemed that attending the 33rd Annual Northeast Expo at the Augusta Civic Center only lacked someone with a giant green flag to wave signifying the unofficial start to the 2022 racing season. It would have been cool to maybe have someone in the balcony beckoning everyone to get out in the shop to put those finishing touches on that race car or motorcycle or get on that race sled and get ready for some exciting races, finally!

After cancellation in 2021, the atmosphere seemed charged with anticipation as hundreds made their way into the Civic Center to look at the myriad types of racers.

Episode 386

January 9, 2022

Motorsports STEM resumes

Finally! After over a year of not being able to incorporate any of the units I have developed called Motorsports STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), I had the chance to share once again while substituting at Caribou Tech Center last Monday thru Wednesday.

Twenty-one students from Ken Westin’s Autobody and Collision Repair and Careers in Technical Education (CTE) Exploratory taught by Chris DeMerchant were involved. Students working in pairs were introduced to some materials used in motorsports including carbon fiber, Kevlar, aluminum, alloy steels, and yes, wood.

Episode 385

January 2, 2022

Motorsports Expo kicks off 2022 race season

Racing is back in 2022 is the message of the 33rd Northeast Motorsports Expo this weekend at the Augusta Civic Center, Organizer Steve Perry has put together a motorsports extravaganza with more than 40 exhibitors and vendors. He has teamed up with sponsors LST Landscaping, Mainely Awards, New England Racing Fuels, Quirk Auto Group, Sunoco Race Fuel, Team EJP and Team EJP Racing for what promises to be a meeting place for the who’s who in motorsports in Maine,

Episode 384

December 19, 2021

Episode 383

December 12, 2021

Team OCD gets new member

John Holmquist wanted to pass the torch within Team OCD and did so by selling his tried-true 2004 Arctic Cat Firecat 600 to 16-year-old Jesse Taggett of Woodland. Taggett in turn welcomed 11-year-old newcomer Tristen Merchant, Caribou to Team OCD. Tristen purchased Jesse’s 2005 Firecat 500.