The Doyon Family has spent countless hours to bring Maine's Toughest Oval back to life. If you have not visited Unity Raceway sense the Doyon's Took Over, Go for the food and stay for the races.
Story From WABI
UNITY, Maine (WABI) - After being dormant for a couple of years the Unity Raceway has new life.
The track was shut down in 2017 and the Doyon family, with the help of others, got to work on bringing it back to life in 2021.
“[My] Dad and Mom worked down here for years, and I just couldn’t take seeing it sit at night. It was just keeping me up at night. And I just [knew] somehow, someway, with hard work, we can make this happen,” said Joey Doyon, the track manager.
In rebuilding the Unity Raceway they made the decision to switch to a dirt track.
“You know, we started out never running on a track before or even being around dirt racing. Together with our drivers, our crew, the fans, we all built this together,” said Doyon.
While races are back the track isn’t a finished product.
“The thing I like the most out of it is on a race night we’ll get through the night and then at the end of the night, we’ll all sit around as a team and discuss how we can do better for the next week. Every one of us is very, very proud of what we’ve done here. But at the same time, we feel like there’s always ways to be better,” said Doyon.
But seeing the track alive again means a great deal to the Doyon family.
“That means everything. My dad’s names over there. He worked for Ralph and Nancy back 1983. His name’s in the concrete over there in the pit bathrooms. My mom ran Junior painting club for a lot of years. It’s nice to have my chance to try to keep the track alive. You know, anybody that knows me it was never a lack of effort. You know, I just got a lot to learn and do as I said earlier, you know, running the racetrack, I’d never done it even though I told plenty of track owners my opinion on how they should do their track better. I’m slowly learning now it wasn’t so easy.
The track that was restored by a family aims to be a place for families.
“We wanted to build a place where people can come hang out. Everyone has a past, they have things they’re not proud of. But we wanted to build a place where people come over here and not be judged. Spend three or four hours or so where they don’t have to worry about the crazy world we live in and just have fun with their family,” Doyon said.
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