Presque Isle, Maine is just about as far north as you can go in the continental United States. The region, which is located in Maine’s rural Aroostook County, is sparsely populated and best known as a haven for winter sports. The area has endless miles of snowmobile trails, countless hunting camps and more moose than one person could possibly count.
In motocross terms, Presque Isle is as far as you can get from the Motocross racing world – it is a whopping eight-ish hours (and basically due north) from the epicenter of Motocross in New England, the legendary Southwick MX338.
Enter one enterprising local promoter – James “Buddy” Collins, a local Presque Isle resident, who has spent his entire life in the area. Like many of the people that live in the far north, Buddy is an avid outdoorsman. His life interests include both dirt bikes and snow mobiles – and he would ride them on what the locals said is a giant pile of sawdust. After some discussion with the local landowners (who all carry the local “Mainah” accent), and not knowing a ton about the sport, or really what he was doing, Buddy decided to host an organized race in the spring of 2023. The term “organized” was loose, but he formulated a few classes, laid out a track, hired some flaggers and “The Sawdust Pit” held its first race in April of 2024.
The track surface is a cross between deep loam and sand, yet much, much lighter. It is, perhaps the most unique off-road racing surface in North America. After concluding his first season with a total of three races and a few practice days this year, we rang up Buddy to discuss his unique facility and find out what is happening in the woods of Maine.
Racer X: Hey, Buddy, thanks for taking a few minutes to chat with us. You seem to have a pretty unique spot up there in Aroostook County. Tell us a little about yourself first?
Buddy Collins: Well, yeah, I guess I am the owner or promoter of the Sawdust Pit! Never thought of it that way, but I have lived up here my whole life. I was never really in the motocross scene, but did ride some trails and snowmobiles when I was growing up - we all kind of did that living up here. I was more into the snowmobile races in the winter, and we did some races on a frozen lake. In the summertime, we carried our interest in motors over to a place we called “The Sawdust Pit.” It was like a local off-road playground, at any time you could go there and there would be trucks, quads and bikes just running around. It was a really fun place, and it’s been around forever. I just had the idea to build a formal track there this spring.
Who owns the actual land?
That’s a good question! The land is owned by the Ashland Snowmobile club. Believe it or not, the Sawdust is deemed solid waste by the Maine DEP. So, we can’t move it or really do anything with it. In reality, no one really wanted to own it, so it is the perfect place for us. It is grandfathered in because it is so old, and the sawdust is super clean. I should also note that we have a unique roster of classes in our program - we run snowmobiles, but they only do two laps as they will overheat. We also have four wheelers, and side by side’s, but things are more geared towards the bikes. But the sleds are fun, we had about 8-10 of them that came out, we even paid a purse! The fans loved them, and especially as we get closer to the winter when they will all be coming out to ride when it snows.
So how did your first event come about?
At first, some of the local people were really hesitant, they told me the soil won’t stay together, the track won’t work. But before our first race, Joe Pelletier, a local fast guy from up north, came down to check it out and ride my proposed track. After just a few laps, he said it was really fun. I guess you could say he gave it a little sanity check. So, we knew it was going to be loose, we just didn’t know how loose, nor how the soil would hold up. The only way to find out was to get some bikes out there and let them go! It has been a learning experience but actually has gone really well.
I know a lot of tracks around the country will work wood chips and sawdust into the local dirt, and that it can loosen things up and also hold moisture, but I am not aware of any tracks in the world that are built 100 percent on sawdust!
Well, yeah, I guess that is important! Maine is known for wood and paper mills, with all the forestry we have here. So, there was a was a Pine Wood mill at this site, it was up and running for a good 20 years, through the ‘50’s and into the late 1960’s. My wife’s grandfather, he worked there for a while. The pile was basically where they dumped all the excess saw dust they generated, and it was a lot. It was dumped in what is sort of a natural valley, so they just started filling up the area. Back then and up here, there was no regulation for stuff like that. But then the mill burned down sometime around 1970 or so, and they just left the pile sitting there. So, it’s been sitting for the better part of 50 years or more. You would be surprised; the soil is really clean. It is about 20 feet deep in most spots, but a little shallower as you get closer to the edges.
That sounds really cool, but I would guess the surface gets super rough?
Yeah, we are working on the grooming. We have three dozers and two rollers, and we stop several times through the day and groom and roll the track during as it would otherwise get so rough. Even with a roller, the sawdust doesn’t really pack down, it looks really nice though when its done. We hosted three races this year, and got lucky as we had rain a few days before each of them so the soil stayed wet, which makes it easier to groom and pack. But it’s been really good. The color of the sawdust is really dark when it is wet, but it will lighten up as it dries. It is light and fluffy in a few places, almost like snow, but not as light. We have three different textures of sawdust depending on where it is. The track does have some sink holes, but we know where they are now, which is a good thing!
What about the layout and the racing format?
Well, the track is just over ½ mile long, and it takes up maybe 5-10 acres. So, it is not the longest track out there, but it also isn’t an Arenacross track. The fastest guy here, Larry Fortin, he was running 50-second lap times. We do have land to expand if we wanted to, but we wanted to get through this year. One of our challenges is parking – we are a little tight with that. We had about 750 people come out to our last race and check things out, and we grew with each race this year. As for sign-ups, our first race was about 100 unique entries, and then the next were up from there. We have a full list of classes, from minis to Vet to Pro. We have no other organized racing in Aroostook County, so we are the only show in town. But it has been honestly overwhelming, it has brought a lot of kids out and brought them together and has been popular in the community. Heck, I even got a bike and was riding moto! The sawdust, well, you can blow a corner, make the smallest mistake and it is similar to sand, but sand tracks have a base, ours just keeps going. It gets really whooped out if we don’t stay on top of it, and the jump faces deteriorate since they are so soft. But there are minimal ruts on the track, and the soil holds your tires no matter where you go.
What exactly is the “King of the Pit”?
Ha! That would be Larry Fortin. He is a fast guy from Connecticut and came up and raced all three of our events this year and won all three. He is jumping longer and pushing harder than anyone else. Oddly enough, right when we were getting going, he was actually up here working. I guess his dad has a roofing company and they were doing a roof up here. Larry happened to have his bike with him, and they came to check it out. I didn’t know him at all. He showed up knowing nothing about what we are doing. He looked at the track and said it was really cool. He shows up the next day and rode practice, but he broke his bike. But then he borrowed someone else’s, and he won our first race!
That’s cool – do you have a purse for Pro guys?
Yeah, we have expert payback. It’s not a ton, but it is something. We pay the Pro Open about $500 to win, plus the King of The Pit, and whatever else. We try to base payout on sign ups. But Larry he comes up and wins every class, he will have enough money for gas - and then some - to get back home!
Moving towards 2025, what are you guys looking to do?
Grow it! This was our first year, and we want to make it a little more formal and better. We have to balance both the hard-core moto guys and the local guys. For our last race, we had long time NESC racer Andy Mathieu came up and gave Larry a run for his money, as well as some of the Maine racers. But we also have lot of real locals, and for them we have the “Rooster Run” class, which is for Aroostook County residents only. It is kind of a “run what ya brung” type class. And that is always fun. It is basically just a big group of friends who get out there and try to make it around the track and see who survives. But then we also have guys like Larry and Andy who come out and for whom are serious, invested and passionate about the sport. But the sawdust is a different beast for sure. I actually had no idea how unique this place was when we started. Right now, we are about 60% local people and 40% who come from points further south. So, we gotta keep it fun for everyone. We probably will also do a few more practice days next year as well.
Are you part of a series or sanctioned by the AMA?
No, not as of right now. We try to run our races on off weekends between the NESC and our local Maine Motocross Series, but it can be hard to find a weekend where neither of them is running. It’s hard as a lot of people are committed to those two series, and the last thing I want to do is pull racers from another track. But I know the interest is really growing, and hopefully we can just keep moving forward.
So your promotion on Facebook is pretty casual, but what is with the Beaver? Ha! Well, that’s just me having a good time and trying to keep it fun. That’s the whole goal here, just to keep this fun. We are racing in a sawdust pit in the back woods of Maine, we are not a high-end country club. I don’t want to over sell what we are doing, we are just playing up here and keeping it fun!
What is the best way to keep up with what you are doing?
Follow North Star Motorsports on Facebook. I am most active with posting stuff there and will post updates, etc. as I get them. There are several North Star pages on Facebook, so make sure you follow the right one! We have sleds and dirt bikes in our profile photo.
