Friends of Allen Fletcher say the 39-year-old Milford resident died doing what he loved most, competing in auto races.

“When he left us, he left us doing what he loved doing,” Wally Gibbons said. “That’s all he wanted to do was drive a race car. His car was as safe as you could have it. It was just one of those things.”

Fletcher died Tuesday morning at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor after suffering a head injury during a crash in his pro-stock class race car in Saturday night’s 35-lap feature race at Unity Raceway.

The accident occurred when Fletcher lost control of his car in turn one on the 23rd lap of the race. Fletcher’s car spun and hit driver’s side first into banking on the backstretch. The jaws of life were used to help in removing Fletcher from his car.

Fletcher received treatment from the track’s emergency team, the Unity ambulance crew and EMTs, and then was taken by helicopter to EMMC where he was placed in the intensive care unit.

Gibbons, a Bangor resident, was both Fletcher’s friend and a racing competitor.

“He was one of the best friends you could ever have. We would go on the racetrack and wreck each other and he’d be right there the next day to help you fix your car. There wasn’t a person at the track who had a bad word to say about Allen,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons said Fletcher raced in pro stock, which is considered the most expensive class to race, despite a lack of funding, for a special reason.

Fletcher’s father Danny, who died when he was 37 of a heart attack, had raced pro stock.

“His dad used to race at Speedway [95] back when Allen was a little kid and he wanted to be like his dad.

“Allen probably had about $10,000 in his car while some of those guys have $50,000, $60,000 in their cars. And he raced them hard,” Gibbons said.

Frank Oakes first met Fletcher while working as a member of Danny Fletcher’s pit crew.

Oakes, of Veazie, was 12 years older than Fletcher but they became close friends.

“He was just like my brother. I didn’t have brothers or sisters. When my father died, his father became like a surrogate father to me,” Oakes said.

Fletcher worked as a mechanic for Central Maine Transit, but had spent years driving trucks. Oakes often went on trips with Fletcher.

“We went to North Carolina, Pennsylvania, all along the East Coast,” Oakes said. “We had a great time. We had good long talks on the road. He’d always want talk about his dad. He had a lot of questions about him.”

Oakes said Fletcher was “a great dad” to his daughters, Kaelee and Tori.

“He cared an awful lot about those girls,” Oakes said.

Gibbons said he talked to Fletcher recently and that he was excited about racing Saturday night.

“He’d had a rotten year at Speedway 95. Nothing went right for him and he went down to Unity a couple of weeks ago and had done pretty good in the heats. He called me at 1 o’clock in the morning when he got back. He was all excited. He said that Johnny Crawford [Unity track manager] had welcomed him. He said he shook his hand before the heats and after the heats. He said that Johnny Crawford treated him like he was Richard Petty. He couldn’t wait to get back down there.”