After a trip to last year’s Dream Ride in Farmington, Connecticut, Mainely Motorsports’ Steve Perry became inspired to create a campaign in 2019 that would raise money to benefit both the Dream Ride Experience and the Special Olympics.
The Dream Ride is an annual weekend-long event that features a 12-mile ride for both motorcyclists and vintage car enthusiasts, where Special Olympian athletes get the opportunity to ride along the route in some of the most exotic vehicles such as Jaguar’s, Porche’s, Bentley’s, etc, gifting them with the ultimate red carpet treatment.
As stated on Dream Ride’s official website, “The Experience honors these men, women, and children living with intellectual disabilities in our communities and highlights their determination and willingness to persevere, overcome challenges, and shatter stereotypes”.
Steve had the idea to merge racing and the Dream Ride Experience together, hatching the idea to run a completely self-funded race season with Jake Dore, who is both accomplished and experienced behind-the-wheel in both the Super Late Model division and the Modified division, as his driver.
Jake would race 9 select events over the course of the season throughout Maine and New England in both a SLM and a Modified. All race winnings and donations collected would go directly to the Dream Ride Experience, no questions asked.
The campaign kicked off in January at the Augusta Civic Center with a full Modified build of the #05 machine, which came into the Civic Center as a bare chassis and left the building at the end of the weekend as a race-ready machine. Teams of Special Olympian’s assisted with the build throughout the course of the weekend, creating long-lasting memories for these participants.
The original goal was to raise $70,000 over the course of the 2019 season for the Dream Ride Experience, but, with the overwhelming generosity of many individuals and sponsors, Steve has raised this goal to $100,000. With more than $55,000 raised to date without ever hitting the track, we are well on our way to reaching this goal.
The racing action finally kicks off this weekend at Lee USA Speedway. Jake will be behind the wheel of his SLM in the Granite State Pro Stock Series. The two-day event is Lee’s kickoff event to the 2019 season, featuring 8 different divisions and 9 different feature events. Racing kicks off at noon on both days.
The Gold Level sponsor this weekend is Bentley’s Saloon in Arundel, which will be featured on the rear quarter panels of the car. This sponsor is courtesy of the Wrenn Family, who purchased the Gold Level major sponsor for $2,000, but decided to pay it forward to a business that helps local racing in so many different ways.
The Platinum level sponsors for the season are Bosowski Properties, Snyder’s of Hanover, Shady Brook Farms and the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Northern New England, who will be riding with us for the entirety of the Dream Ride Racing campaign.
Kayem Hot Dogs has also jumped on board as a Silver Level sponsor this weekend and has donated $1,000 as an associate sponsor and hot dogs for the course of the race season, helping to feed our hungry crew members. If you are strolling around the pits this weekend, stop by the #05 trailer to chat about the Dream Ride Experience and get yourself a hot dog!
There are still spots left for Bronze Level Sponsors. These sponsors are $500 and can be paid via payment plan over the course of the next 10 months.They will also be featured on the deck lid and other areas of the car(s) over the course of the season. Current bronze level sponsors include Southern Maine Pools, Fast Laps Raceway, Speed51.com, Saco House of Pizza and Do Do’s Hot Rods, among many others.
If a Bronze Level sponsorship is simply not in the cards for you and you’d still like to donate to the Dream Ride Racing team, a donation tire will be set up for donations at the track and/or feel free to reach out to Steve Perry to discuss becoming involved. Any and all donations are more than welcome and help us get closer to reaching the ultimate goal!
Tune into Mainely Motorsports TV every Saturday morning or every Friday morning on YouTube to follow along with team updates as we keep working toward the goal and continue to raise money for the Special Olympics and the Dream Ride Experience.
Special thanks go out to New England Racing Fuel and local IGA stores for their support.
Thank you to Bozzuto’s, Inc. and Advanced Gas Distributors for all of their support and many thanks to the Bobby Webber, Jr. Racing Team, who has volunteered to donate a portion of their race winnings this season to Dream Ride Racing.
We hope to see everyone at Lee USA Speedway this weekend for the kickoff of the 2019 Dream Ride Racing campaign!
If you can’t catch us this weekend, our next Dream Ride Racing event will be Saturday, June 1st at Wiscasset Speedway.
Please help support the Dream Ride Experience and the Special Olympics and help us reach our goal!
