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NEWS
June 30, 2007
Adams leads classic Late Model
trifecta; Polvinen, Childs make early fireworks
OXFORD, Maine - The first half of the Oxford Networks Late Model
season at Oxford Plains Speedway unquestionably belonged to Travis
Adams.
Adams blazed another trail on the
outside of the 3/8-mile oval Saturday night, concluding with a drive
around Corey Morgan at the halfway point of the 40-lap main event.
That was the final obstacle on the way to Adams’ third feature win
of the season.
Six different drivers have won a
feature in the first half of the campaign. Adams, who hoisted his
20th career checkered flag, is the only repeat winner to date.
Ricky Rolfe and Tim Brackett followed
Adams across the wire in the Late Model finale, completing an
impressive, championship-laden trifecta. That top three (all driving
Race Basics chassis) has combined for 87 wins and five track
championships at OPS.
With the much anticipated Maine State
Lottery Fireworks Night looming Monday, the weekend’s first
installment was a night of wild wrecks and repeat winners in the
other two Championship Series divisions.
Glen Henderson posted his second
Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy Strictly Stock victory in the last
three weeks, while Adam Polvinen took advantage of rival Jimmy
Childs' troubles on the next-to-last lap to score his second Allen's
Mini Stock triumph of the campaign. Bill Dunphy and Kyle Hewins
captured the 20-lap Macdonald Motors Runnin' Rebel sprints for the
Acceleration Series.
Night time the right time for
unstoppable Adams
Adams has proven himself a prime-time
player this season.
Running 10-lap heat races in the
scorching sunlight doesn’t seem to be his forte. After the sun
sets behind the foothills, however, there’s no doubt about who is
the Late Model driver to beat.
Struggling in the qualifier and
starting 16th in the main event didn't prove much of a handicap to
Adams. He soared all the way to fifth on lap 7 and picked off Carey
Martin, Tommy Ricker and Dale Verrill in short order.
“We’ve just got to get our heat
race program up to par,” Adams said. “I don ’t know if it’s
tires or what it is, but we’ll have to figure it out and get
things better in the heat races.”
Once Adams put away early dominator
Morgan, without a caution to slow his progress, the 29-year-old
standout settled the Dacata Repair/River Valley Grill #03E into an
unbeatable rhythm and prevailed by a margin of more than two
seconds.
Since a ninth-place finish in the
opening points race, Adams has finished on the podium in seven
consecutive starts.
“I like the second groove out here.
We’ve been working on it since July 2005,” said Adams, who won
five races en route to the 2006 championship. “We’re starting to
get some of the benefits out of it. It’s a very consistent
car.”
Rolfe earned a plum starting position
with a last-lap pass of T.J. Watson for the victory in the
high-point heat race, but he didn’t stay there long.
When Gary Chiasson got together with
Scott King to trigger a front stretch melee on lap 2, Rolfe found
himself in the middle of it and fell from the top 10 to the rear of
the field. Fortunately for the 2002 Late Model and 2003 Pro Stock
champion, his J. Jones Construction #51 was unhurt.
“I’m pretty sure we passed the
most cars again tonight like we did last week. I mean, last week
there were only 24 cars in the race and I think we passed 60 of ’em,”
Rolfe said. “We went to the rear so many times.”
There was no chance of catching Adams
after the initial detour, but Rolfe shadowed his bold moves on the
outside and kept pace in the points chase.
“We’ve got an awesome car right
now,” said Rolfe. “We found it about three weeks ago and we
don’t touch it anymore. We just put tires on it when we’re
supposed to.”
Brackett began his tradition to the
Late Model style of car in preparation for the TD Banknorth 250
Presented By New England Dodge Dealers, and he did so with an
impressive finishing kick.
Ten car lengths behind Dale Verrill
with five laps remaining, Brackett took giant gulps out of that
deficit. He caught Verrill on the final lap and put a fender in
front just before the finish line to punctuate only his third OPS
start of the season.
“This is home, so it is great to be
at Oxford. This car had no body or nothing on it Tuesday morning,
and we got her done,” Brackett said. “We were trying really for
Monday night, but we got it done today and said ‘let’s go give
it a whirl.’ There’s something to work with there.”
Two other familiar faces enjoyed a
solid homecoming. Jeff White, who ran second in Brackett’s 2005
Pro Stock championship season, ran fifth in his first-ever OPS Late
Model encounter. And Ricky Morse raced from 23rd to eighth, clocking
the fastest official lap in his inaugural showing of the summer
after making the four-hour-plus, round-trip journey from St. Albans.
Polvinen pulls through Mini Stock
mayhem
Another week, another surprise finish and volatile victory lane
ceremony from the Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy Mini Stock
gang.
This time, Jimmy Childs found the
show on the other foot. He took advantage of Rich Sirois’ missed
shift to steal a 100-lap win one week ago. Saturday night, it was
Childs making the miscue and Adam Polvinen emerging as a winner for
the second time this season.
Contact was a consistent thread
throughout. Polvinen alerted Childs to his presence with a bumper
tag or two shortly after a lap 7 restart. Childs then pulled away by
a few car lengths at the halfway point. Despite a piece of dangling
sheet metal and a few puffs of smoke from the rear of the Brown’s
Construction/Wolf Den #10, the defending division champion appeared
poised to make it five wins in his last seven starts.
Well, not so fast. As Childs eased
through turn four to take the white flag, the car drifted perilously
high in the corner. Childs’ attempt to correct the over-steer led
him directly into Polvinen’s path just shy of the start-finish
line.
Childs spun around. Polvinen lost
most of his momentum but made a brilliant save to keep from looping
his Al‘s Auto and Truck #73, and Justin Karkos found enough brake
to avoid piling into the near-certain wreck, himself.
The net result was Polvinen’s first
victory since Opening Day, another impressive runner-up effort for
Karkos, a third-by-default trophy for Childs, and three outspoken
championship rivals venting their feelings to a still-buzzing
crowd.
“I’m just coming out here and
trying to win a race once in a while,” said Polvinen, a past
MacDonald Motors Runnin‘ Rebel champion and last year‘s Wal-Mart
Rookie of the Year in Mini Stock. “The highlight of the night was
driving by Jimmy and seeing him get all upset, though.”
Childs and Polvinen became fast
rivals last season. The relationship developed more strain after a
couple of close encounters in the first two 100-lap races this
spring.
The next marathon event,
conveniently, comes Monday night.
“Thank you, thank you. I love you,
too, all of you,” Childs responded to a chorus of boos. “I had a
lot of fun. I don’t know what happened to the car on the last lap,
but it raced fine all day long. Some advice to Adam: That’s how
you hold the bottom, there, little man.”
Childs, Polvinen and Karkos ran at a
equal distance in that order throughout the second half of the event
until the dramatic finish.
Although Karkos was somewhat the
outsider, he was colorful in his assessment of the fracas.
“I don’t know what these guys are
doing. I guess they don’t want to race,” Karkos said. “They
want to wreck each other. Staving the crap out of their cars. It’s
stupid. (But) I’m not whining. I’m having fun.”
The finish was a good recovery for
Karkos, who lost the point lead after a tire fell off his car while
he ran third in last week’s 100-lapper. He has posted a top-five
finish in nine of his first 10 starts.
Ashley Marshall matched his best
finish of the season in fourth, followed by Don Frechette, who
rallied from a last-place starting position.
One good roll deserves another for
Henderson
Glen Henderson transitioned from one roll right into an entirely
different kind.
Since nearly destroying his
Oceanside/H&H Home Builders #57 ride in a June 10 rollover,
Henderson has been the fastest driver in the Allen’s Coffee Brandy
Strictly Stock division by a bundle. He backed up his first career
win in the Sun Journal 100 two weeks ago with an authoritative
30-lap victory.
Henderson earned the outside pole
with a strong run in his qualifying race. After winning the drag
race with Jeff Moon to turn one after the initial green, he
encountered only one speed bump to victory lane -- interestingly
enough, a red flag on lap 3 for Rick Thompson’s rollover in
roughly the same spot Henderson went airborne three weekends
ago.
Thompson was OK, and not even
division point leaders Tommy Tompkins and Sumner Sessions could run
down Henderson when green conditions resumed.
“Since we flipped it over, it just
keeps getting better and better,” said Henderson, the 2005 Chimney
Tech Outlaw champion. “If that’s what I’ve got to do, you
know? It was rough on it, but it seems to go pretty good
now.”
Henderson joined Tompkins, Sessions
and Larry Emerson as repeat Strictly winners.
Sessions has been mystified by motor
problems since the day of Henderson’s wreck, but he, too, seems to
have turned the corner. The early-season point leader settled for a
distant second.
“We needed to do this, but Tommy
was right on our tail (in third), so we didn ’t gain much in the
points. It’s all the big picture. You need the good finishes to
make it work at the end of the year,” Sessions said. “We blew up
the engine a few weeks ago and we’ve had it apart and out of the
car almost every night. I think we finally got it straightened
out.”
Moon mustered his best finish of the
season in fourth. Mark Bowie’s post-race disqualification boosted
Skip Tripp to fifth.
Dunphy finds a home; Hewins holds off
Childs
Bill Dunphy abandoned his lengthy
Strictly Stock career this season.
He has reduced his racing budget but
hasn’t sacrificed the fun. In fact, Dunphy is more competitive
than ever. Dunphy led the Rebel opener from wire-to-wire in the
Kim’s Kountry Gardens/Lemay’s Auto Body #4 for his first win in
the Acceleration Series.
“We were terrible in practice, but
it came together for the race and we had fun with it,” Dunphy
said.
Dunphy won his only previous OPS
feature, a Strictly Stock event, in 2005.
Martin Krauter rallied from an
off-course excursion early in the caution-free scramble to finish
second, with rookie Darrell Moore running a career-best third.
Brandon Munroe also recovered from a
spin and fashioned fourth ahead of Mike Winslow.
In the second Rebel scrap, Kyle
Hewins ran down early leader Doug Degroat to land the lead on lap 7
in the KB Landscaping/Granite Hill Daycare #54. Hewins then held off
Josh Childs in a battle of teenagers. Tyson Jordan was third.
“It was pretty loose getting into
the corner. A couple of times Josh might have been able to get under
me, but he let me go,” Hewins said.
Childs extended his point lead in the
Agren Appliance Grand Slam by taking a conservative approach to
protect second.
“Kyle was too fast. I knew I
didn’t have the power, so I just hugged the bottom so Tyson
couldn’t get around me,” said Childs.
Wednesday night point leader Matt
Dufault and Scott Farrington rounded out the top five.
Maine State Lottery Fireworks Night
is Monday at 6:30 p.m. The Vertical Outlaws stunt bike team will
provide the pre-race entertainment at 6:10. OPS also roars to life
on the Fourth with the Acceleration Series at 6:30 p.m.
OXFORD NETWORKS LATE MODEL (40 laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (16) #03 Travis Adams, Canton, 40
2. (10) #51 Ricky Rolfe, Albany Township, 40
3. (19) #60 Tim Brackett, Buckfield, 40
4. (3) #56 Dale Verrill, Paris, 40
5. (17) #50 Jeff White, Winthrop, 40
6. (12) #18 Carey Martin, Denmark, 40
7. (5) #6 Tommy Ricker, Poland, 40
8. (23) #29 Ricky Morse, St. Albans, 40
9. (18) #7 Glen Luce, Turner, 40
10. (15) #94 Shawn Martin, Turner, 40
11. (20) #07 Scott Luce, Strong, 40
12. (11) #04 T.J. Watson, Harpswell, 40
13. (7) #77 Jon Brill, Bridgton, 40
14. (8) #69 Dave
MacDonald, New Gloucester, 40
15. (21) #44 Neil Martin, Freeport, 40
16. (13) #2 Zach
Emerson, Sabattus, 40
17. (1) #15 Ben Ashline, Pittston, 40
18. (24) #47 Tim Jordan,
Plainfield, Conn., 40
19. (6) #11 Scott King, Livermore Falls, 37
20. (2) #26 Corey
Morgan, Lewiston, 29
21. (4) #0 Scott Hodgdon, Minot, 18
22. (9) #70 Gary Chiasson, Peru, 14
23. (14) #85 Travis Stearns, Gray, 2
24. (22) #31 Tim Pendergast, Swanville, 2
DNS #63 Don Wentworth, Otisfield
DNS #01 Bill Childs Sr., Leeds
Lap leaders: Ashline 1, Morgan 2-19, Adams 20-40.
Cautions: 1 (lap 2)
Time of race: 15 minutes, 11.227 seconds
Margin of victory: 2.077 seconds
Fast lap: Ricky Morse, 16.325 seconds.
ALLEN'S COFFEE FLAVORED BRANDY
STRICTLY STOCK (30 laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (2) #57 Glen Henderson, Sabattus, 30
2. (10) #0 Sumner
Sessions, Norway, 30
3. (17) #113 Tommy Tompkins, Dixfield, 30
4. (1) #97 Jeff Moon, Gray, 30
5. (14) #12 Skip Tripp, Sabattus, 30
6. (7) #71 Scott Belskis, Dixfield, 30
7. (16) #81 B.J.
Chapman, Bridgton, 30
8. (13) #24 Zach Emerson, Sabattus;, 20
9. (12) #63 Matt Williams, Brownfield, 29
10. (19) #91 Danny Smart, Buxton, 29
11. (21) #54 Bob Crocker, Freeport, 29
12. (22) #2 Joe Hutter, Oxford, 29
13. (11) #56 Mike Short, Auburn, 29
14. (5) #18 Reggie Houghton, Carthage, 28
15. (6) #82 Ben Krauter, Raymond, 28
16. (13) #24 Larry Emerson, Durham, 27
17. (18) #42 Kim Tripp, Oxford, 25
18. (23) #6 Matt Moore, Harrison, 17
19. (20) #64 David Vaughn, Naples, 8
20. (24) #4 Michael Roe, West Paris, 5
21. (4) #21 Nick Coates, Turner, 3
22. (8) #13 Chris Burgess, Lewiston, 3
23. (15) #07 Rick Thompson, Naples, 3
DQ (3) #P38 Mark Bowie, Poland
DNS #11 Todd Hall, Auburn
DNS #29 Chris Mosher, Litchfield
Lap leaders: Henderson 1-30.
Cautions: None
Red flags: 1 (lap 3)
Time of race: 17 minutes, 4.873 seconds
Margin of victory: 3.707 seconds
Fast lap: Glen Henderson, 18.348 seconds
ALLEN'S COFFEE FLAVORED BRANDY
MINI STOCK (30 laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (11) #73 Adam Polvinen, Oxford, 30
2. (14) #12 Justin
Karkos, Jay, 30
3. (12) #10 Jimmy Childs, Leeds, 30
4. (7) #77 Ashley Marshall, Jay, 30
5. (17) #16 Don
Frechette, Turner, 30
6. (1) #8 Bill Thibeault, Oxford, 30
7. (15) #19 Shane Kaherl, Jay, 30
8. (4) #9 Bob Guptill, Mechanic Falls, 30
9. (16) #14 Jeff Prindall, Lisbon Falls, 30
10. (3) #08 Kevin Bishop, South Paris, 29
11. (5) #29 Greg Watkins, Bridgton, 29
12. (8) #90 Dale
Durgin, Norway, 28
13. (13) #74 Bill Irving, New Gloucester, 23
14. (2) #5 Darick Barker, Jay, 17
15. (9) #65 David Mooney, Wales, 6
16. (6) #35 Dale Brackett, Oxford, 2
17. (10) #1 Rich
Sirois, Leeds, 2
Lap leaders: Thibeault 1-4, Childs 5-28, Polvinen 29-30.
Cautions: 2 (laps 2, 7)
Time of race: 18 minutes, 17.154 seconds
Margin of victory: 0.741 seconds
Fast lap: Jimmy Childs, 18.230 seconds
MACDONALD MOTORS RUNNIN' REBEL #1
(20 laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (2) #4 Bill Dunphy, New Gloucester, 20
2. (13) #82 Martin Krauter, Raymond, 20
3. (1) #34 Darrell Moore, Mechanic Falls, 20
4. (7) #32 Brandon Munroe, New Gloucester, 20
5. (12) #81 Mike Winslow, Poland, 20
6. (8) #32x Brian Hawthorne, New Gloucester, 20
7. (5) #106 Nathan Guptill, North Turner, 19
8. (6) #03 Ryan Varney, Oxford, 19
9. (3) #14 Gene White, Lisbon, 19
10. (14) #80 Travis Pearl, Auburn, 18
11. (9) #19 Zach Audet,
Chesterville, 18
12. (11) #12 Calvin Rose Jr., Turner, 15
13. (4) #44 George Tripp, Oxford, 8
14. (10) #49 Robert Lowe, Lewiston, 6
DNS #1 Paul Cook, Mechanic Falls
Lap leaders: Dunphy 1-20
Cautions: None
Time of race: 6 minutes, 40 seconds
MACDONALD MOTORS RUNNIN' REBEL #2 (20 laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (8) #54 Kyle Hewins, Leeds, 20
2. (12) #3 Josh Childs, Oxford, 20
3. (10) #59 Tyson Jordan, Poland, 20
4. (9) #96 Matt
Dufault, Turner, 20
5. (6) #521 Scott Farrington, Oxford, 20
6. (11) #95 Mark Childs Jr.,
Mechanic Falls, 20
7. (5) #84 Doug Degroat, Oxford, 20
8. (4) #6 Troy Jordan, Turner, 20
9. (13) #85 Jeff Hebert, Auburn, 20
10. (1) #50 Todd Foss, Raymond, 20
11. (14) #86 Nic Stanley,
Buckfield, 19
12. (2) #41 James Wood, New Gloucester, 16
13. (7) #88 Derek Cook, Livermore Falls, 15
14. (3) #66 Justin Hynes, Windham, 5
Lap leaders: Hynes 1, Degroat 2-6, Hewins 7-20
Cautions: None
Time of race: 6 minutes, 40 seconds
HEAT RESULTS
LATE MODEL #1
1. Ben Ashline
2. Corey Morgan
3. Dale Verrill
4. Scott Hodgdon
5. Tommy Ricker
6. Scott King
7. Jon Brill
8. Dave MacDonald
9. Jeff White
10. Neil Martin
11. Gary Chiasson
12. Scott Luce
13. Tim Pendergast
14. Bill Childs Sr.
LATE MODEL #2
1. Ricky Rolfe
2. T.J. Watson
3. Carey Martin
4. Don Wentworth
5. Travis Stearns
6. Zach Emerson
7. Tim Brackett
8. Travis Adams
9. Shawn Martin
10. Glen Luce
11. Tim Jordan
12. Ricky Morse
STRICTLY #1
1. Jeff Moon
2. Glen Henderson
3. David Vaughn
4. Bob Crocker
5. Nick Coates
6. Reggie Houghton
7. Joe Hutter
8. Ben Krauter
9. Matt Moore
10. Michael Roe
11. Chris Mosher
12. Todd Hall
DQ Mark Bowie
STRICTLY #2
1. Scott Belskis
2. Chris Burgess
3. Zach Emerson
4. Sumner Sessions
5. Mike Short
6. Matt Williams
7. Larry Emerson
8. Skip Tripp
9. Rick Thompson
10. B.J. Chapman
11. Tommy Tompkins
12. Kim Tripp
13. Danny Smart
MINI #1
1. Bill Thibeault
2. Darick Barker
3. Kevin Bishop
4. Bob Guptill
5. Greg Watkins
6. Dale Brackett
7. Ashley Marshall
8. Dale Durgin
9. Dave Mooney
MINI #2
1. Rich Sirois
2. Adam Polvinen
3. Jimmy Childs
4. Bill Irving
5. Justin Karkos
6. Shane Kaherl
7. Jeff Prindall
8. Don Frechette
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Oxford Networks
Late Model
Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy
Strictly and Mini Stock
Photos by
(207) 645-4571
Photos by Trudy Marshall from
all OPS divisions!
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