{"id":1978,"date":"2010-05-20T03:03:38","date_gmt":"2010-05-20T03:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maineracer.com\/wp\/?p=1978"},"modified":"2010-05-20T03:03:38","modified_gmt":"2010-05-20T03:03:38","slug":"unity-raceway-moves-weekly-racing-card-to-saturday-nights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/2010\/05\/unity-raceway-moves-weekly-racing-card-to-saturday-nights\/","title":{"rendered":"Unity Raceway moves weekly racing card to Saturday nights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">Unity, Maine &#8212;  Saturday night racing returns to Unity Raceway for the first time in  several years, effective immediately, promoter George Fernald, Jr. has  announced.<span> <\/span>The track had previously published a 2010  schedule consisting primarily of Friday night race cards with a post  time of 6:30 p.m.<span> <\/span>These events have now been rescheduled  for Saturdays, with the first race scheduled for 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\" \/>The events scheduled  for this Saturday (May 22) and Saturday, May 29 will start as 4:00 p.m.  as previously announced.<span> <\/span>The Friday night preliminary  racing card for May 29\u2019s Memorial 300 racing program will take place as  scheduled, beginning at 6:30 p.m.<br \/>\n<br \/><!--more-->\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">Fernald, in his third  year operating the 1\/3-mile Waldo County oval, stayed with the Friday  night schedule introduced by track owners Ralph and Nancy Nason just  prior to taking over management of the facility for 2008 racing season.<span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">Since the beginning,  Fernald has frequently been approached by competitors and fans  requesting a shift to a Saturday night racing schedule.<span> <\/span>He  was hesitant initially, since the two paved racetracks closest to Unity  Raceway were both operating on Saturday nights, and a handful of  competitors from both of those tracks also competed on Friday nights at  Unity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">The Saturday night  lobbying campaign intensified when Wiscasset Raceway announced it would  abandon its\u2019 Saturday night race dates in favor of Sunday afternoon  competition in 2010.<span> <\/span>In an informal poll at this year\u2019s  first Unity Raceway drivers\u2019 meeting, competitors overwhelmingly  expressed a preference for Saturday night racing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">Fernald was still a  bit hesitant in large part due to his friendship with Speedway 95  co-owner Del Merritt, but says after a conversation with him that even  Merritt concedes it\u2019s a move he needs to make. Fernald also says the  Nasons, who have owned the facility for more than a quarter-century,  also endorse the move.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">The earlier start  enables Unity Raceway to end the weekly racing program at an earlier  hour and eliminate curfew issues that arose, forcing the Friday night  program to start at 6:30 p.m., too early for many fans and competitors  on a work day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">A few other changes  may need to be made with various guest divisions and touring series,  which will be announced at a date in the near future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">For more information  please visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unityraceway.info\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">www.unityraceway.info<\/span><\/a> or call 207-453-2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0pt;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unity, Maine &#8212; Saturday night racing returns to Unity Raceway for the first time in several years, effective immediately, promoter George Fernald, Jr. has announced. The track had previously published a 2010 schedule consisting primarily of Friday night race cards with a post time of 6:30 p.m. These events have now been rescheduled for Saturdays, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unity-raceway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}