WISCASSET — Ask Scott Chubbuck what he thinks of his new role as a race director, and you get a direct answer.

“I’m still deciding,” Chubbuck said recently at Wiscasset Speedway, the track that was once his playground as a racer, where he drove for a Hall of Fame owner and remains the only driver ever to win five championships in the speedway’s top division.

Now 55, Chubbuck is steering his way into a new reality.

After a crash in a car that he owns ended his 2022 season prematurely, Chubbuck was invited by Wiscasset Speedway’s general manager, Ken Minott, to head up to the tower and watch race officials operate over the final few weeks of the year.

Over the winter, Minott presented Chubbuck with the opportunity to become the track’s competition director. The role includes serving as race director every other week for Wiscasset’s Group 1 divisions — which includes the Pro Stock/Super Late Model, Super Street, 4-Cylinder Pro and Thunder 4 Mini classes.

“I think the biggest thing is just him being a voice of experience to the drivers,” Minott said of Chubbuck. “He not only knows the racing product, but he knows the product specific to this track. He’s done it all, and he knows how this track is supposed to be raced. I think drivers are more willing to listen to his input, and we’ve already seen it pay dividends.”

Like a baseball umpire or a basketball referee, the race director is responsible for officiating races. In communication with competitors via a one-way radio channel during live racing, the race director issues real-time warnings and penalties when warranted, and generally ensures that a race is contested cleanly, fairly and — perhaps most importantly to the entertainment aspect for fans — smoothly.

It took only two weeks on the job for Chubbuck to make an impact this season.

On opening day, a wreck during a qualifying race drew Chubbuck’s ire. Though he declined to name names publicly, Chubbuck thought that a certain driver in the field could have exhibited far more patience while racing near less experienced competitors, and the driver’s actions led to a multi-car pileup in turn two that ended the day for several.

In the pre-race drivers’ meeting the next race week, Chubbuck let it be known that the rash decision of one impacted all. He was pointed in his comments in that meeting, placing blame squarely on a single driver’s shoulders.

“Then (the same situation) happened again that night, and this time they all did the right thing and everybody finished the race,” said Chubbuck, who lives in Bowdoin. “And that driver finished second.”

Chubbuck’s racing philosophy boils down to respect.

The fuel of weekly short track racing is a handicapping system which starts the fastest cars at the rear of the field each week. It ensures entertainment value for fans and helps slower cars gain an advantage by starting races closer to the front.

That system also creates a rubber-band effect, and how things sort themselves out over the course of a 30- or 40-lap feature race is on the drivers.

“When I see someone wreck on the first lap of a race, that’s crazy,” Chubbuck said. “In this type of racing we’re doing, it’s the front of the field falling back into the back of the field. To me, it’s always been the responsibility of the faster cars coming up through to work with those slower cars. It’s not about the slower cars just getting out of the way for them.”

Chubbuck is invested in Wiscasset Speedway, an investment that pre-dates Richard and Vanessa Jordan purchasing the track over a decade ago. Sure, he has the wins and the championships on his resume — and he’ll certainly join former car owner Harold Hinkley in the track’s Hall of Fame at some point — but it’s the place where he started racing and he values its uniqueness. Unlike Oxford Plains Speedway, Speedway 95 or the defunct Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, all of which are flat, almost circular ovals, Wiscasset Speedway is banked and surrounded by a concrete wall all the way around.

“I always did what I could (for Wiscasset),” Chubbuck said. “When I went PASS racing with (car owner Jay Cushman) or when (Tom) Mayberry owned it, I always tried to support it and run races there. This is harder place to race, but Richard and Vanessa have done so much for this place. For me, it’s all about keeping cars on the track and keeping it fun.”

Those are not easy things to do.

Racing is more expensive than it’s ever been, and racers are notoriously self-interested. Getting competitors to see the bigger picture can be an overwhelming task.

Chubbuck said he had little to no interaction with race directors when he was racing himself. He’s made an effort to be more visible in the pit area at Wiscasset and to engage in conversation with drivers at all levels.

“Everything I try to do is to try and make this place better,” he said.

Minott agreed.

“He’s garnered almost instant respect,” Minott said. “He’s gone and taken the time to talk to younger drivers and work with them. They listen. He knows more about what’s actually going on out there on the track than most, and that’s a big difference between when someone like me talks to a driver or when he talks to a driver.

“He has the cache to back it up.”

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