Jordan Pearson of Thorndike was the big winner over the weekend as Hermon’s Speedway 95 concluded its season with the Coldbrook Trailers/All That’s Metal Paul Bunyan Speed Weekend.
Pearson started 15th in the Ikey Dorr Memorial 100 Street Stock feature but made his way to second by lap 48 and then took the lead from Kenduskeag’s Kris Watson on lap 79 after the two swapped the lead back and forth for 31 laps.
Forty-five cars tried to qualify and 30 started Saturday’s feature.
Pearson pocketed $10,000 for winning the 13th annual feature. Watson earned $4,000 for finishing second with Brady Creamer of Fredericton, New Brunswick, making his journey to Hermon worthwhile by earning a $2,000 check for finishing third. James Goodman of Carmel took home $1,500 for winding up fourth and fifth-place Scott Modery of Hermon pocketed $1,000.
The race is named after Addison native Warren “Ikey” Dorr III, who died of a heart attack while racing at Speedway 95 in 2009.
Hermon’s Mike Hopkins also had a nice payday by winning the Late Model 100 on Saturday. He led from start to finish and took home $4,000.
Steuben’s Brenton Parritt was second and earned $1,500. Rounding out the top five were Milford’s Deane Smart ($800), Skowhegan’s Kris Matchett ($700) and Levant’s Todd Lawrence ($600).
Norridgewock’s Zach Audet won a pair of features, the Modified Enduro and the Enduro 100. Andrew Crosby of Hermon and Newburgh’s Mark Sawyer were second and third in the Modified Enduro race, respectively, followed by Lamoine’s Ryan Stillwelll and Orono’s Darius Miranda.
Plymouth’s Doug Woodard and Mikael Laurin from Boston, Massachusetts, rounded out the top three in the Enduro 100 followed by Hampden’s Tyler McCann and Etna’s Nicholas Bickford.
Fairfield’s Casey Bellows won the Cage Runners feature followed by Tom Harnish of Hermon, China’s Chris Farrington, Newburgh’s Jason Trundy and China’s Brad Bellows.
Winslow’s Kyle Willette was the Sport-Fours winner with Audet finishing second, Dixmont’s Lewis Batchelder third, Pittston’s Jason Kimball coming home fourth and Miranda taking fifth.
Trundy won the Demolition Derby with Pownell’s Josh Brown second and Seal Cove’s Ken Ogden in third.
Speedway 95 owner Del Merritt said it was a “mediocre season” that was marred by five rainouts, when a typical season only has two.
“We survived it and we’ll be around next year,” Merritt said. “Our Late Models started off light (in car counts). I’m hoping we get more next year. We also need to find ways to get our attendance up.”
He added that he is looking to get off to a better start next season and noted that they will again hold some Granite State Pro Stock Series races. They held two this season and it was the first time the tour came to Speedway 95.
“But the second one was too close to the Oxford 250,” Merritt said, which hurt the car count.
“Drivers tend to save their cars for the 250,” he added.
The Speedway 95 points champions were Farmington’s Donny Blanchard and Milford’s Smart, who shared the Late Model championship with 1308 points apiece; Cole Robinson of Palmyra finished 44 points better than runnerup Doug Day of Glenburn in the Street Stocks; Levant’s Kris Foss captured the Sport Fours by 84 points over Hermon’s Jason Morse; and Horace Crawford of Troy was 60 points better than runnerup Dalaney Dunn of Otis in the Cagerunners.
Brad Bellows was the titlist by 50 points over Craig Holm in the Roadrunners; Audet was the Modified Enduro points winner by 73 over Mount Vernon’s Kaden Neptune; Destiny Overlock of Hermon had 1,166 points to finish 82 points ahead of Greenbush’s Therron Langley to claim the Stars of Tomorrow; Hermon’s Bo Overlock and Ellsworth’s Damon Hardison were one-two in the Moody’s Trucks class and William McCullough of Kenduskeag racked up 212 points in the Maine Outlaw Midget Series with Southwest Harbor’s Eric Clark second with 110 points.
