WISCASET – Freddie Query and Stan Meserve win the honors of logging the most miles to give the Big Dawg a shot. Both traveled from Mooresville, N.C., and both earned spots in the starting grid.

Meserve, originally from Unity and with numerous Wiscasset Raceway Pro Stock titles, hasn’t raced in Maine in five years when he won the 1998 Pro Stock championship at Oxford Plains.

“I’m back because of a big race,” said Meserve. “It’s great for drivers at this level to have a chance at a purse like this. They can work as hard as they like but they need partners. They need promoters to set up a day like this.”

Meserve is currently working in Mooresville for DEI Inc. doing setups for the No. 15 Winston Cup car of Michael Waltrip.

Meserve brings a long racing heritage with him. The driver of the No. 2 Monte Carlo raced in Winston Cup before it was Winston Cup, competing along side names like Petty, Pearson, and Yarborough.

He has also served as the crew chief for the Busch North teams of Andy Santerre and Ricky Craven.

Pacesetters

Theories varied as to the

reason but time trials for the first annual Big Dawg Challenge were considerably faster that at the other PASS events at Wiscasset Raceway this season.

Drivers took the track Saturday under maybe the best conditions all season at the coastal track. Low humidity and a 70 degree temperature helped set the pace.

In the four previous PASS events at the Wiscasset track, only Ben Rowe and Johnny Clark cracked the 14-second barrier and that was on different days.

In the Big Dawg time trials Saturday, five cars were under 15 seconds, led by Ben Rowe of Turner with a time of 14.854 (90.885 mph). Johnny Clark, Cassius Clark, Sam Sessions, and Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck also were under 15 seconds.

Rolling the dice

According to Bill Penfold of Yarmouth while the temptation is great when eyeing the $75,000 minimum prize for winning the Big Dawg Challenge, the risks outweigh the payoff and very well have kept the car count down.

“My tire bill was $3,500 for this race,” said Penfold. “One set for practice, one for the heat race and one for the other one and I now have only one set of new tires for 400 laps. If you don’t stand a chance of paying off your tire bill at the end of the day, it isn’t worth trying.”

Intermission

400 Laps is a long time to spend strapped in a Pro Stock race car. The longest race for most of the competitors would be the True Value 250.

Taking the length into consideration, a “competition yellow” was built in at lap 200.

Tech Chief Paul Johnson told drivers in the pre-race meeting that it would give them a little time to stretch their legs and make some adjustments on the cars. It would not be enough time, he warned them, to do anything major. They would lose their spot if the car was not ready when called to resume racing.

Tires, tires, tires

Tires are one of the most controversial subjects in auto racing and the Big Dawg Challenge was no exception.

Drivers were informed in the pre-race meeting that once all set up in their pits, track officials would be around to mark their tires. They were also told that tires would be confiscated and torn down at random during the race.

The rainout also added concern that crews had an extra 24 hours if they were going to do anything to their tires to give them a competitive advantage.

Johnson told the assembled that in no uncertain terms that any drive found to have doctored their tires would be sent packing.

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