Mark Berube only drives Mopar.
Regardless if he is driving to work, out for a cruise or driving slot cars.
“They call me Mopar Mark,” said the Lisbon Falls resident. “I just drive Mopar.”
Mopar is another label for Chrysler, and Berube has a 1964 Plymouth Fury in the garage. “It’s a crazy car,” said Berube. “A muscle car with a 440 in it.”
When he heads to work, he either climbs into a 2005 Dodge Magnum Hemi (summer) or a 2005 shortbox Ram 1500 truck (winter).
And at his other “work”? Berube drives an all-black 1969 Charger, a 1970 Barracuda and a 1961 Plymouth. All Mopars, and all 1:32 scale of the other cars he drives.
Berube and his son-in-law Kevin Morrissette recently opened Central Maine Slot Cars in the Auburn Mall.
The business centers around a 10-foot-by-20-foot race track called the “Flying Cow,” a name given to race tracks of one particular design.
Berube started the business after finding a similar slot car track in southern Maine. But the track was too busy for him to race on. “I couldn’t get track time, so I started my own business.”
He opened in February when the cold weather brought in lots of customers. “I had to turn people away,” said Berube.
“I got guys who were dragged down to the mall with the wife,” said Berube. “The wives go shopping and they (husbands) come in here and go racing.”
“At first, people heading to Penny’s would see me by accident. Now I have my regular clientele.”
Berube has scaled back the days he is open for the summer. “This is my slow season,” said Berube, who only opens Friday, Saturday and Sundays during the warmest months.
“Once fall hits, if the mall is open, I will be open.”
Berube works full time at Bath Iron Works on top of running his slot car track. “I was working 17 hour days before the summer hours kicked in.”
Berube keeps track of lap times for his customers. A digital timer measures laps to 1/10,000 of a second. One customer has licked a lap under four seconds with a modified car, while 6.58 seconds is the record for a car straight from the box without “cheating fluid,” a sticky substance that makes tires adhere to the track and keeps the car from flying off the curves.
“Boys and their toys,” said Tracy Paradis of Auburn, as her husband, Lucien, and 15-year-old son, Brandon, raced at CMSC.
“I guess if you have to have a job, this is the job to have,” said Berube.
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- Up to four cars can race around Berube’s “Flying Cow” track.
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- Jake Lacy, 9, of Turner, races track owner Mark Berube at Central Maine Slot Cars inside the Auburn Mall. Berube, of Lisbon Falls, opened the business when he found another Maine slot car track too busy. “I couldn’t get track time, so I started my own business.”
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- This 1960s-era slot car is designed to pull a wheelie at higher speeds.
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- “Boys and their toys,” said Tracy Paradis, as her husband, Lucien, and son Brandon, 15, raced at Central Maine Slot Cars.
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- Cars operate by a single hand control. Berube has plans to design controls where the driver sits at a steering wheel and a gas pedal.
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- The undercarriage of two slots cars, one made in 2009, left, and the other from the 1960s.
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