When the inclusion of Nextel Cup stars Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch supplied Oxford Plains Speedway owner Bill Ryan with his most successful Banknorth 250 ever last month, he decided to move next year’s race to July 31 to coincide with another off weekend on the Nextel Cup schedule.

And you can expect that trend to continue in the future.

Ryan said the crowd of between 12,500 and 13,000 was the best in his six years as the owner and they also realized their best financial payday although he said those numbers “will go undisclosed.”

He also said “I asked Matt and Kurt about coming up next year. They couldn’t give me a firm commitment but both said they were interested in doing it.”

The fact Kenseth and Busch had an enjoyable time will serve as a valuable word-of-mouth advertisement which could lead to more drivers entering next year, Ryan said.

“We won’t have 10 guys show up. That’s not feasible. But two or three would be great,” said Ryan.

He said there was “quite a buzz” about last month’s race.

“When I went to New Hampshire [International Speedway] the following weekend, [former Nextel Cup great] Bobby Allison said he heard we had a great event. When it reaches the Nextel Cup pits about how good the 250 is, there is definitely interest. It prompted the move to an open date,” said Ryan.

“We’ll always move it as long as [the Nextel Cup open date] is in June, July or August,” said Ryan. “Our fans don’t care when it is. We’ve moved it around before.”

One change he will likely make is to have assigned seats for fans seated in the general admission section.

“People would spread out and then when somebody would ask if a seat was taken, they would be told it was and that the person who was sitting there would be back in a minute,” said Ryan. “So we stopped selling tickets and said it was sold out.

“We could have sold more tickets in terms of actual capacity but people would have had a hard time finding a seat and it would have made them miserable. We didn’t want people leaving here miserable,” said Ryan.

Capacity is 14,000.

Ryan said they may add seats for next year’s race if ticket sales are brisk.

Gallant seeks course in Lee

Lee’s John Gallant builds vintage motorcycles and he is also the North American Vintage Trials champion in the expert class for vintage motorcycles.

Now he is in the discussion stage of creating a course on Mount Jefferson in Lee for competitions and to develop a dirt riders club in the area.

“It would give kids something to do and Mount Jefferson is a perfect terrain for it,” said Gallant, who is originally from York.

Trials racers compete against the clock and try to accrue the fewest number of points.

They negotiate challenging sections of natural terrain between several pairs of ribbons without putting their feet down for balance.

“River beds, ledges and natural inclines are the most common but you also ride on dirt, stone walls and streams,” explained Gallant, who is unbeaten in seven races this season and has raced motorcycles in various different competitions for 30 years.

“Trials riders are the violinists of motorcycle racers. Trials take the most skill and finesse. Anybody can go fast on a motorcycle but can you drive over a car without crashing?,” posed the 43-year-old Gallant.

Their event takes four hours to complete and they are given a half-hour grace period before being disqualified.

Gallant said it would take him approximately a week to set up a course for competition at Mount Jefferson and one could be held as early as this fall.