By Lou Modestino
The 2014 NAPA Auto Parts Show, Shine, & Drag at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine is sure to be another exciting event this year that will feature some amazing show cars, as well as some fast and fun drag racing. This event that was dormant for many years is now on the comeback trail to be restored to its former glory days as the elite car show and drag racing event in New England. After a very successful re-launch of the event in 2013, Oxford Plains Speedway is very excited for our 2014 partnership with NAPA Auto Parts this year as we are building the event to be even bigger and better than last year.
The 2014 event will feature a wide variety of show cars, motorcycles, drag cars and we are also adding several new categories of interest that can be displayed at the show. This year we have invited antique engines, antique tractors and vintage and drag racing snowmobiles to take part in the show. This year’s NAPA Show, Shine, & Drag will also feature a beer garden, and a chicken BBQ in the infield which will be serviced by our friends at Polly’s Concessions, who provide our patrons with great food and great service every week here at Oxford Plains Speedway.
Don’t miss out on being part of Maine’s premier car show and drag racing event on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 15, 2014, the NAPA Show, Shine and Drags where you can even make a pass down the drag strip in your personal car for just $10 of which includes your general admission ticket. So plan to come and check out all the show cars, have some great BBQ, and if you’re looking for a thrill, burn some rubber down the drag strip.
The 41st edition of the Oxford 250 in Oxford, Maine is sure to please the spirits of any and all race fans, young or old! The weekend of July 18th through the 20th has got a diet of exciting events, many of which have never been included in the giant three day weekend.
The weekend kicks off with Sun Journal Night on Friday, July 18th at 7:30 p.m. The card will feature the ever popular PASS Mods and PASS Sportsman. Joining these two high powered divisions will be the Street Stocks, Outlaws, Sport Trucks, Ladies, Runnin’ Rebels and the all new six cylinder Cruiser division. This opening night will surely get the race fan pumped with excitement about the rest of the weekend.
Night number two, Dunkin’ Donuts Night, on Saturday, July 19th will be the biggest Oxford 250 preliminary night in the history of the Speedway. The card will be filled with top billing events all night long! Five distinctly different classes will be in town that never has competed on Oxford 250 weekend. They include the ground pounding NEMA Midgets and their sister class, the NEMA Lites. These mighty miniature winged warriors will turn unbelievable speeds on the 3/8 mile Speedway. Joining them will be the Northeast Classic Lite Dwarf Cars from Southern, New Hampshire. These motorcycle engine propelled beasts will keep you on the edge of your seats with their three and four wide racing. For the first time ever, the Wicked Good Vintage Racing Group will compete on Oxford 250 weekend. These vintage race cars put on a whale of a show, and with these competitors, it is full contact racing. You veteran fans will certainly enjoy the nostalgia of the ‘57 Chevys, ‘56 Fords, Studebakers, Chryslers and more. Also on the card will be Outlaw Sportsman and Street Stocks. The night will wrap up with a $4,000 to win, PASS Northeast Late Model Series, 125 lap main event. This event is Round #2 of the newly formed PASS Series. Some of the Northeast’s biggest Late Model names will be in competition. Post time will be 6 p.m.
Day three will feature the 41st edition of the “Greatest one day racing event in America” the Oxford 250. 250 green flag laps for the Super Late Models featuring cars from the Northeast, Canada and the Southern United States. The Oxford 250 will be a PASS National Championship event, and last year’s return to Super Late Model racing turned out to be one of the best races in forty years of the event. Travis Benjamin made a wild, three wide pass, splitting between lapped cars with one of the boldest moves ever seen. Benjamin held off hard charges by Joey Doiron, Scott Mulkern and Cassius Clark to add his name to the Oxford 250 victory lane history books. Joining the Super Late Models will be the PASS Modifieds running for the second time this weekend, but this time they will be racing for $1,000 to win. Also on the card will be the brand new Maine Outlaw Series racing for 50 laps, plus a 50 lap NELCAR Legends National Championship event, and our own Street Stocks. Qualifying begins at 2 p.m.
PASS President, Tom Mayberry and his staff have decided that they will hold off until Wednesday, April 2nd to make the decision about rescheduling the season opening, Ripley & Fletcher Ford 150, scheduled for Saturday, April 12th.
“We were going to make a decision on Friday, March 28th, stated Mayberry, but after looking at the long range forecast we have decided to hold off on that decision until Tuesday night, and we will post our decision on our websites first thing on Wednesday.”
The snow is finally melted and Monadnock Speedway is set to welcome the veterans and rookies to the high banked 1/4 mile track in Southern NH. The speedway will officially open the gates for their annual Test and Tune session on Saturday, April 12th from Noon to 5pm.
This is an opportunity for all competitors to shake down their race machines from a very long winter, fill out registrations, purchase NASCAR licenses and tires prior to the season opener. The pit gates will open at 10am on the Test and Tune session. General Admission is free on the Test and Tune event where the fans can check out the 2014 competition.
The management is very excited for the season to come as the NASCAR feature division, the Sportsman Modifieds, has grown and is expected to be a full field weekly. There are at least five rookies joining the division along with new competitors coming from other tracks making Monadnock Speedway their home track. It will be a very challenging field, as new talent will join the already seasoned field of veterans. The other NASCAR divisons also is expected to see growth as quite a few Young Guns have moved up to the NASCAR divisonal ranks.
The speedway has also announced a few changes for the 2014 season. The Lightning Stocks, Thunder Stocks and Young will now compete in heat races compared to drawing for feature starting positions as they have done in the past. This change will give all the competitors more track time while placing them in the regular race procedures as all the NASCAR divisions follow.
The 2014 season opener is scheduled for Saturday, April 19 with racing at 5 p.m. The traditional Bond Auto Parts 100 will feature the Valenti Modified Racing Series, all the speedway’s NASCAR Whelen All American Racing Series divisions along with the Pro 4 Modifieds. The pit gates will open at 11 a.m. with practice starting at 2 p.m.
As the Icebreaker at Thompson Motorsports Park quickly approaches; some big names have filed last minute entries.
Winner of the last race for the Granite State Pro Stock Series (GSPSS) at TSMP, Larry Gelinas has announced his intent to pick up another win at the 5/8 mile oval. The entry with the GSPSS makes for a busy weekend for the Buxton, ME driver, as he is also running for points in the Late Model division at TSMP for the 2014 season. Gelinas races as much as anybody on the tour, entering around 50 races during the 2013 season, including 11 races with the GSPSS en route to a runner-up finish in the championship standings. Even with the experience at the track and with the series, Gelinas isn’t sold on himself being a runaway favorite. Gelinas stated “If Mechalides is there, he will be tough. (Mike and Tommy) O’Sullivan’s are tough. It could be somebody different. By the sounds of it, there are a lot of good drivers entering the race.”
Two-time defending ACT champion “The Punisher” Wayne Helliwell, JR has filed entry with his Bruce Bernhardt Motorsports ride. The duo has turned heads on just about anything they’ve been a part of on the racing scene, and the GSPSS is no exception. Helliwell, JR picked up the win last year at Riverside Speedway in Groveton, NH in dominating fashion, holding off the aforementioned Gelinas for his first checkers in the series. “We have a brand new car, so we will be shaking the car down at the Icebreaker,” Bernhardt says. “However, we don’t attend a race we don’t think we can win.” Helliwell is more reserved about the first race of the year. He comments, “We want to take it step-by-step. We would like to get a good practice in and work the bugs out.” Helliwell will be running a limited schedule
in the GSPSS, as the Dover, NH driver will be turning “Outlaw” in 2014 by running partial schedules with the Pro All-Star Series, ACT, and GSPSS.
Other big names that will be attending the race are Matt Frahm and Tommy O’Sullivan. Frahm, the career wins leader in the GSPSS with 4, will look to pick up number 5 at the Icebreaker. The former Nationwide Series driver finished 12th in this race one year ago. O’Sullivan, brother to 2013 champ Mike, finished third in the World Series at Thompson in 2013, and looks to start the year off on the same note.
The Lee USA Speedway track crew is making final preparations at “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed” in anticipation of the traditional season-opening New Hampshire Governor’s Cup 150 for the American Canadian Tour (ACT) Late Models, slated to take the green flag on Sunday, April 13.
Defending race winner Jimmy Hebert has no small task facing him in trying to defend his title, considering that the last 11 ACT races at Lee USA have produced 10 different winners, with only eight-time ACT champion Brian Hoar able to repeat the trip to victory lane, claiming the win in the Lee season-opening event back to back in 2011 and 2012.
Several drivers among those favored to contest for the win the 2014 season-opener can trace their racing roots back to Lee USA, most notably 2012 and 2013 ACT Late Model champion Wayne Helliwell, Jr. of nearby Dover, who cut his racing teeth on the fast 3/8th’s mile oval and has been winning ever since.
Although he’s never finished better than runner-up in the Governor’s Cup, the second-generation racer started his career as a teenager in the Lee Street Stocks some 20 years ago, and the eventually went on to capture track championships in the Late Model Sportsman, Late Model, and Small Block Super-Modified ranks before moving to the ACT tour full-time.
Helliwell’s seat time at the Lee oval can do nothing but help his chances of winning, but he’s not the only driver on the entry list with plenty of laps around the seacoast-area speedplant. Eddie “The Outlaw” MacDonald is another driver who calls Lee his home track, and for good reason, since his parents own the facility.
MacDonald is fresh off one of the biggest wins of his career, taking down the win in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East event at the storied Bristol, TN Speedway in March, and he’s also checkered first in some of the biggest Late Model races in the nation, including the ACT Invitational at NHMS, and the famed Oxford 250 in the past few seasons.
The Governor’s Cup has always somehow eluded MacDonald, who finished third last year, fourth back in 2009, and runner-up in 2008 to Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., another driver who began his career at Lee USA back when he was making the transition to full-sized racers as a teenager.
Polewarczyk finished second the Helliwell in the 2013 ACT point standings, and would like nothing better than to start his 2014 with another Governor’s Cup win. Joey “Pole”s Lee record includes an impressive four top tens in the last six races, but nothing less than a win would suffice for the Hudson, NH native.
There are over 40 race teams expected to compete at the season-opening event at Lee USA Speedway on April 13, including entries from all 6 New England states, New York, and the province of Quebec, all looking to make their first start of 2014 in the traditional curtain-raiser a memorable one.
In addition to the 40-plus entries expected for the ACT season-opener, the North East Legend Car Auto Racing Series and North East Classic Lites will be in competition for the first time in 2014 as well, making it three season-opening events all rolled into one.
In the unlikely event that weather causes postponement of the Lee USA Speedway season opener, the ACT Governor’s Cup 150 will be moved to Saturday, April 19. Track owners and promoters Red and Judy MacDonald invite you to join the excitement as we open the 2014 season with one of the most entertaining racing programs on the spring calendar.