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NEWS
July 28, 2007
Rolfe edges C. Martin by .001 of
a second in Oxford's second-closest finish ever
OXFORD, Maine - With the exception of an unforgettable ending that
was ruled a dead heat between late Sportsman shoes Leland Kangas and
Lee Day back in 1981, fans in Oxford Plains Speedway witnessed the
closest top-division feature finish in the track's 58-year history
Saturday night.
After two multi-time speedway
champions swapped the lead seven times in a side-by-side battle that
raged for more than 25 laps, Ricky Rolfe edged Carey Martin by
one-thousandth of a second and unofficially reclaimed the Oxford
Networks Late Model point lead in the process.
"If the fans don't think they
got their money's worth after that," said Martin, "I don't
know ... I guess they'd better go watch horse racing."
Rolfe and Martin both led in the
early stages of last Saturday's TD Banknorth 250, and they carried
that momentum into a classic 40-lap duel on Time Warner Cable
Night.
Rolfe landed the lead from Dale
Verrill on a lap 11 restart and used the outside lane to ward off an
encroaching Martin, who finally inched in front on lap 23.
The leaders changed lanes on a lap 26
restart after Rolfe reclaimed the lead just prior to a spin by Mark
Childs Sr. and Neil Martin. Martin thrived in the high line from
laps 28 to 33 before Rolfe returned to the front by a fender on lap
34.
Martin led on the next pass, and he
maintained that advantage by a fender until Rolfe made his fateful,
final charge along the rail out of the last corner.
“It's just great to run with all
these guys," Rolfe said. "Carey and I have raced thousands
and thousands of times over the years coming up through the
divisions, and it's always like that. He's just a great guy to race
with.”
Since his debut in the mid-1980s,
Martin has won 41 OPS features, a total that puts him among the top
15 all-time at the track. He achieved all but one of those victories
in the Limited Sportsman class, where he won a fifth championship
last summer before the division was retired.
Martin competed in the Late Model
division at another track in the 1990s and ran his first OPS event
in the elite ranks in 2005.
“We worked awfully hard last
Saturday before the 250, and obviously it’s paying off. These cars
are so equal. I have no idea how long Ricky and I were side-by-side,
but it felt like pretty much the entire race,” Martin said. “And
I don’t think we touched more than once. It’s good to know
you’re racing with somebody who won’t take you out just to
win.”
Rolfe is now a 26-time OPS conqueror
in six different divisions - Figure Eight, Super Street, Charger,
Late Model, Pro Stock and the American-Canadian Tour. He was the
2002 Late Model and 2003 Pro Stock track champion.
His second win of the season in the
J. Jones Construction #51, coupled with Travis Adams' 20th-place run
after a lap 12 crash, gives Rolfe a 13-point lead over the reigning
champ and five-time feature winner with four points races
remaining.
“We definitely saved the best race
for last tonight,” Rolfe said. “There’s hardly a tire mark on
either one of these cars.”
Dale Verrill backed up his runner-up
effort in the TD Banknorth 250 with a strong third-place showing.
Verrill won the pole with a heat triumph and set the pace in the
main event early before yielding to Rolfe on a lap 11 restart.
“Our car has been pretty good all
year,” Verrill said. “We’re finally getting some of the
luck.”
Shawn Martin and Zach Emerson
completed the top five. Martin made a five-hour drive south earlier
in the day after attending his 10-year high school reunion Saturday
night in the Aroostook County village of St. Agatha.
Adams’ three-race winning streak
ended in a big way. He spun wildly off turn three with Scott Hodgdon
on lap 1 before a more serious incident on the 11th circuit. Adams
was running on the fringe of the top 10 when Dave MacDonald’s car
broke loose in front of him. MacDonald’s ride fishtailed into
Adams as the point leader tried to take evasive action, sending the
#03E to the pit in a shower of sparks with heavy damage to the right
front of the car.
It’s worth the Tripp; Skip breaks
through
Adams wasn't alone. All three Oxford
Championship Series point leaders were involved in wrecks, with
Strictly Stock pacesetter Sumner Sessions also unofficially losing
his advantage in the standings.
Those troubles opened the door for
first-time feature winners this season.
Skip Tripp held off a furious
challenge from Tommy Tompkins for his first Allen's Coffee Flavored
Brandy Strictly Stock victory of the summer.
“We finally caught some breaks in
traffic and got out ahead of Tommy. So many people have worked on
this car and helped us get here,” Tripp said of the R.P.M. Racing
Engines/Waste Management #12. “I know I’ll forget some of them,
so that means I’ll have to get here next week.”
Rick Thompson and Kim Tripp each led
briefly before Skip Tripp (no relation) forged to the front on lap
9.
Tompkins quickly closed the gap and
shadowed Tripp throughout the second half of the event. With the
exception of a post-race disqualification on July 2, Tompkins is
riding an 11-race streak of top-three finishes.
His second-place showing in the
Dave’s Janitorial #113 was enough to pocket the point lead.
“It seems like I’m never going to
win one of these things again,” Tompkins said. “Skip slid up a
little bit there and I sort of got under him, but I didn ’t want
to spin him and win that way. I was waiting for him to get really
loose so I could go underneath him without touching him.”
Glen Henderson prevailed in a
terrific tussle with Kim Tripp for third. The two standouts sliced
and diced side-by-side for the final 15 laps, with Henderson, the
2005 Chimney Tech Outlaw champion, emerging on top by a half car
length.
“That was the most intense race
I’ve ever been in,” Henderson said. “I’m having a ball out
here.”
Chris Burgess bagged fifth for the
best run of his rookie campaign.
Sessions was credited with 18th after
a hard crash early in the race.
While running fifth, Rick Thompson
lost the handle in turn four. Thompson’s attempt to save the car
forced him into the outer groove, where Sessions’ car was clipped
in a near carbon copy of Adams’ later misadventure.
Two more cars caught a spinning
Sessions in the resulting cloud of smoke, sending his #0 back to the
pit on a flatbed.
Irving inherits career first;
Hewins leapfrogs Childs in Grand Slam
Cousins Jimmy and Josh Childs also were victims on a rough night for
point leaders.
Jimmy, the Allen’s Mini Stock point
leader, attempted a bold move underneath leader Shane Kaherl on lap
19 of the 30-lap four-cylinder main event. The two cars careened
into a sand pile in the third turn, knocking Kaherl from the race
and leaving Childs with heavy damage.
Acceleration Series graduate Bill
Irving took advantage of the crash, out-powering Ashley Marshall on
the ensuing restart to claim his first-ever Mini Stock win.
Irving won 10 checkered flags on his
way to last year's Call of the Wild RV Sport Truck
championship.
“Right place, right time, I
guess,” Irving said. “We weren’t the fastest car.”
An earlier incident took out two more
cars in front of Irving when brothers Dave and Don Mooney tangled
while battling for third.
Marshall matched his best-ever run in
second, with Bob Guptill making it two rookies on the podium in
third. Dave Mooney recovered to finish fourth, followed by Bill
Childs Sr.
Jimmy Childs limped home to 12th but
actually padded his point lead over Adam Polvinen, who was taken out
in the aftermath of the Mooney collision.
Kyle Hewins joined his father Larry
and brother Kurt as an OPS champion when the 18-year-old finished
second to sew up the Agren Appliance Grand Slam championship for the
Macdonald Motors Runnin' Rebel division.
Josh Childs entered the night with an
eight-point lead over Hewins in the mini-series. Needing to finish
in the top five to clinch the crown, Childs never got close, and a
late-race spin ended the 16-year-old’s title hopes.
Hewins had at least one close call in
the Granite Hill Daycare/KB Landscaping #54, himself, when the
entire field was forced to put on the binders in turn one for a red
flag after Ryan Varney rolled over his car on lap 3.
“I hammered into Marky (Mark Childs
Jr.) pretty hard there, because I didn’ t see the red light at
first,” Hewins admitted. “I thought maybe the car would overheat
after that, but I guess it didn’t get hurt too bad.”
Gregg Norton and David Childs won the
20-lap twin features for the four-cylinder Acceleration
divisions.
Norton’s fifth win of the season
matches Mark Childs Jr. for the division lead, but that bottom line
does little justice to what a topsy-turvy season it has been for the
Rebels’ all-time leading winner.
“I’m about to junk this car and
start over,” Norton said. “That is the hardest I’ve ever
worked to win a race. It really was Scott Farrington’s race. He
had me there before the yellow flag (with two laps to go, for Josh
Childs’ spin).”
Tyson Jordan trailed Norton and
Hewins across the stripe after the green-white-checkered restart.
Wednesday point leader Matt Dufault rallied to fourth, with
Farrington fading to fifth.
David Childs reeled in early leader
Zach Audet and made his winning pass on lap 9. Childs was the Agren
Appliance Grand Slam champ in the Outlaw class.
“This is an old Beech Ridge car
that I bought and I’m still playing with to get it right,”
Childs said. “It went pretty good tonight.”
Jamie Heath, a 10-time feature winner
in the Crazy Horse Racing Engines Renegade division this season,
hopped a ride in teammate Bill Grover’s #91 Rebel and took second,
with Brady Romano a career-best third.
Audet wound up fourth ahead of Logan
Melcher, who was making only his second start in a stock car.
OPS revs up August with three races
in five days. The Acceleration Series gets back into action
Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. New Balance presents the annual Summer
Celebration with fireworks and racing Saturday at 6:30 p.m. And Twin
Enduro 100s highlight Motor Mayhem on Sunday at 1 p.m.
OXFORD NETWORKS LATE MODEL (40
laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (7) #51 Ricky Rolfe, Albany Township, 40
2. (9) #18 Carey Martin, Denmark, 40
3. (1) #56 Dale Verrill, Paris, 40
4. (12) #94 Shawn Martin, Turner, 40
5. (13) #2 Zach Emerson, Sabattus, 40
6. (10) #29 Ricky Morse, St. Albans, 40
7. (15) #60 D.J. Shaw,
Center Conway, N.H., 40
8. (5) #77 Jon Brill, Bridgton, 40
9. (4) #6 Tommy Ricker, Poland, 40
10. (21) #44 Neil Martin, Freeport, 40
11. (11) #7 Glen Luce, Turner, 40
12. (17) #01 Mark
Childs Sr., Leeds, 40
13. (20) #40 Rick Valentine, Greene, 40
14. (6) #85 Travis Stearns, Gray, 40
15. (18) #5 Leon Heckbert, Wilton, 40
16. (19) #26 Corey Morgan, Lewiston, 38
17. (8) #04 T.J.
Watson, Harpswell, 35
18. (2) #70 Gary Chiasson, Peru, 18
19. (3) #69 Dave MacDonald, New Gloucester, 18
20. (14) #03 Travis Adams, Canton, 11
21. (16) #0 Scott Hodgdon, Minot, 1
DNS #15 Ben Ashline, Pittston
Lap leaders: Verrill 1-11, Rolfe 12-22, C. Martin 23-25,
Rolfe 26-28, C. Martin 29-30, C. Martin 31-33, Rolfe 34, C. Martin
35-39, Rolfe 40.
Cautions: 3 (laps 1, 11, 26)
Time of race: 26 minutes, 7.821 seconds
Margin of victory: 0.001 second
Fast lap: Ricky Rolfe, 16.239 seconds
ALLEN'S COFFEE FLAVORED BRANDY STRICTLY STOCK (30 laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (9) #12 Skip Tripp, Sabattus, 30
2. (11) #113 Tommy Tompkins, Dixfield, 30
3. (8) #57 Glen
Henderson, Sabattus, 30
4. (2) #42 Kim Tripp, Oxford, 30
5. (3) #13 Chris Burgess, Lewiston, 30
6. (10) #63 Matt Williams, Brownfield, 30
7. (18) #64 David Vaughn, Naples, 30
8. (13) #56 Mike Short, Auburn, 30
9. (4) #54 Bob Crocker, Freeport, 30
10. (16) #P38 Mark Bowie, Poland, 30
11. (1) #07 Rick Thompson, Naples, 30
12. (15) #23 Zach Emerson, Sabattus, 30
13. (17) #82 Ben Krauter, Raymond, 29
14. (5) #18 Reggie Houghton, Carthage, 29
15. (19) #8 Shawn
Thompson, Wilton, 15
16. (7) #91 Danny Smart, Buxton, 11
17. (14) #24 Larry Emerson, Durham, 7
18. (12) #0 Sumner Sessions, Norway, 6
19. (6) #11 Todd Hall, Auburn, 5
Lap leaders: Thompson 1-2, K. Tripp 3-8, S. Tripp 9-30.
Cautions: 1 (lap 6)
Time of race: 14 minutes, 48.022 seconds
Margin of victory: 0.272 seconds
Fast lap: Tommy Tompkins, 18.418 seconds
ALLEN'S COFFEE FLAVORED BRANDY MINI STOCK (30 laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (10) #74 Bill
Irving, New Gloucester, 30
2. (11) #77 Ashley Marshall, Jay, 30
3. (9) #9 Bob Guptill,
Mechanic Falls, 30
4. (3) #65 David Mooney, Wales, 30
5. (1) #12 Bill Childs Sr., Leeds, 30
6. (4) #08 Kevin Bishop, South Paris, 30
7. (2) #8 Bill Thibeault, Oxford, 30
8. (14) #16 Don
Frechette, Turner, 30
9. (6) #90 Dale Durgin, Norway, 29
10. (13) #29 Greg Watkins, Bridgton, 28
11. (17) #90x Bob Mooney, Lewiston, 28
12. (7) #10 Jimmy Childs, Leeds, 25
13. (8) #19 Shane Kaherl, Jay, 19
14. (5) #35 Dale Brackett, Oxford, 19
15. (15) #80 Don Mooney, New Gloucester, 18
16. (12) #73 Adam Polvinen, Oxford, 15
17. (16) #55 Darick Barker, Jay, 3
DNS #07 Al Roberti, South Paris
Lap leaders: B. Childs Sr. 1-4, Kaherl 5-19, Irving 20-30.
Cautions: 2 (laps 1, 19)
Time of race: 20 minutes, 37.708 seconds
Margin of victory: 1.510 seconds
Fast lap: Shane Kaherl, 18.225 seconds
MACDONALD MOTORS RUNNIN' REBEL 'A' (20 laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (4) #119 Gregg
Norton, Lewiston, 20
2. (21) #54 Kyle Hewins, Leeds, 20
3. (14) #59 Tyson Jordan, Poland, 20
4. (15) #96 Matt Dufault, Turner, 20
5. (13) #521 Scott Farrington, Oxford, 20
6. (7) #50 Todd Foss, Raymond, 20
7. (9) #6 Troy Jordan, Turner, 20
8. (18) #86 Nic Stanley, Buckfield, 20
9. (10) #88 Derek
Cook, Livermore Falls, 20
10. (16) #3 Josh Childs, Oxford, 20
11. (5) #106 Nathan Guptill,
North Turner, 20
12. (17) #95 Mark Childs Jr., Mechanic Falls, 20
13. (19) #4 Bill Dunphy,
New Gloucester, 20
14. (8) #41 James Wood, New Gloucester, 20
15. (1) #34 Darrell Moore,
Mechanic Falls, 20
16. (2) #82 Martin Krauter, Raymond, 18
17. (12) #84 Doug Degroat, Oxford, 18
18. (11) #85 Jeff Hebert, Auburn, 13
19. (20) #14 Gene White, Lisbon, 9
20. (6) #03 Ryan
Varney, Oxford, 3
21. (3) #44 George Tripp, Oxford, 0
Lap leaders: Krauter 1-3, Norton 4-20.
Cautions: 4 (laps 0, 3, 13, 18)
Red flags: 1 (lap 3)
Time of race: 34 minutes, 21 seconds
MACDONALD MOTORS RUNNIN' REBEL 'B' (20 laps)
Fin. (Start) No., Driver, hometown, laps completed
1. (8) #5 David
Childs, Oxford, 20
2. (11) #91 Jamie Heath, Waterford, 20
3. (5) #83 Brady Romano,
Livermore Falls, 20
4. (4) #19 Zach Audet, Chesterville, 20
5. (10) #41M Logan Melcher,
Livermore Falls, 20
6. (6) #31 Jeff Beaule, Lewiston, 20
7. (3) #12 Calvin Rose Jr., Turner, 20
8. (12) #05 Josh Brown, Conway, N.H., 20
9. (2) #1 Paul Cook, Mechanic Falls, 20
10. (18) #01 Brian Nason, Lewiston, 19
11. (13) #70 Nick Seames, Greenwood, 19
12. (9) #555 Gerard
Cote, Oxford, 19
13. (17) #42 Josh Lovell, Oxford, 19
14. (15) #7 Charlie Webster, Auburn, 17
15. (14) #0 Ken Daigle Jr., Lisbon, 16
16. (1) #49 Robert Lowe, Lewiston, 1
17. (7) #175 Patrick
Elsman, Hebron, 1
18. (16) #76 Randy Nutter, Auburn, 0
DNS #10 Chuck Higgins, Monmouth
DNS #06 Ryan Philbrick, Greenwood
Lap leaders: Audet 1-7, D. Childs 8-20.
Cautions: 1 (lap 1)
Time of race: 10 minutes, 53 seconds
HEAT RESULTS
LATE MODEL #1
1. Dale Verrill
2. D.J. Shaw
3. Scott Hodgdon
4. Gary Chiasson
5. Neil Martin
6. Mark Childs Sr.
7. Leon Heckbert
8. Dave MacDonald
9. Rick Valentine
10. Corey Morgan
11. Ben Ashline
LATE MODEL #2
1. Tommy Ricker
2. Jon Brill
3. Travis Stearns
4. Ricky Rolfe
5. T.J. Watson
6. Carey Martin
7. Ricky Morse
8. Glen Luce
9. Shawn Martin
10. Zach Emerson
11. Travis Adams
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Oxford Networks
Late Model
Allen's Coffee Flavored Brandy
Strictly and Mini Stock
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Photos by Trudy Marshall from
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