SKOWHEGAN – For a few hours this weekend, Shane and Sonya Williamson, who own a rural, quarter-mile dirt racetrack, were on the action end of a movie camera.
Boondocks Raceway, off Dudley Corner Road, a mile from U.S. Route 2, provided the set for “Bumble Bee Cabs,” a short-film comedy by director Mo Twine, who grew up in Skowhegan and now lives in Los Angeles.
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The screenplay is by Jordan Innes, according to the movie’s Facebook page.
Sonya Williamson, 39, was an extra in the filming Sunday, driving one of the track’s “enduro” cars for the movie. Shane Williamson, 38, was the stunt double for actor Phillip Savage of Cornville, who rolls the Bumble Bee Cab during a race.
Sonya Williamson said Boondocks became a movie set after Twine, 29, gave her a call.
“He knew that the track was here before, when it was Get ‘er Done Raceway,” she said.
“It’s interesting. I actually enjoy seeing my crew getting involved in the movie — because we’re by no means actors. We’re just backwoods folk, we like to have a good time and this is our enjoyment on the weekend.”
Sonya Williamson said she and her husband have been running the course for only five weeks. She said she began managing the raceway for property owner Butch Kinney a couple of years ago.
She said she has had experience driving in demolition derbies for several years in Harmony, Greenville and Skowhegan, so running a dirt-track operation was not a big leap. “It’s just plain old dirt-track racing,” she said.
“Bumble Bee Cabs” is a comedy about a cab company doing a promotional event at a local racetrack.
In the end, a taxicab rolls over on the course, which is where Shane Williamson comes in.
He said he had never rolled a vehicle before — not on purpose, anyway.
“I’m not worried, not at all,” he said. “You get the wheels up off the ground and you just yank on the steering wheel real hard and it should go. That’s what we’re going to do.
“It’s pretty cool, actually. It’s good PR for the track, and it’s good for us, too.”
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