Building race cars is a Taylor-made business

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Jeff Taylor has been a stock car driver for 22 years.

But he is taking a break from racing.

Taylor, who won his ninth Pro Stock points championship at Oxford Plains Speedway last year, is the owner of Distance Racing Products in Fairfield and business is booming. And OPS has eliminated its expensive Pro Stock division.

“This is a good time to take a break,” said the 40-year-old Taylor. “We’re busier than we’ve ever been. We’re buried with work. There isn’t enough time to do everything.”

Taylor and two employees, his father, Conrad Taylor, and Sean Laplante, build racing chassis and bodies for Pro Stocks/Super Late Model and Late Model race cars.

Pro Stocks and Super Late Models are the same car.

The company has built 28 cars since the end of last season so far, half of them being Pro Stocks/Super Late Models.

Taylor said he hasn’t missed racing that much because he works in the industry.

“If I had a regular job, I think it would bother me more. But I work on these race cars every day, seven days a week,” said Taylor.

Although he will be the last Pro Stock champion at OPS, he admitted that he is sad to see the class end as it has at Unity Raceway and Wiscasset Raceway.

“I remember watching them race as a kid. Things are changing, I guess,” said Taylor, who grew up in Farmington.

He said although there are only two tracks in Maine still running Pro Stocks (Scarborough’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway and Hermon’s Speedway 95), he said there is still plenty of demand for the cars.

“People aren’t bailing on Pro Stocks, you just don’t find many of them in the state of Maine any more,” said Taylor. “We deal with such a [large] area. We’re doing more out-of-state business now. We have customers as far east as Prince Edward Island and as far west as Buffalo. A lot of other places are still running them.”

Taylor said there are significant differences between the Pro Stock and Late Model cars.

“The Pro Stock cars use 10-inch tires while the Late Models use 8-inch tires,” said Taylor. “And the chassis on the Pro Stock cars sits more on the left side of the car. On the oval tracks, the more weight you can have on the left side of your car, the faster you can go. The chassis is more in the middle on the Late Model cars.”

Taylor hasn’t noticed any major changes in the auto racing industry although he did observe that there are “a lot more teenagers moving up [in class] now.

“It’s been happening across the country for years. It’s just getting to us now,” he said.

Cassius Clark disqualified

Farmington’s Cassius Clark had his win in Sunday’s PASS North race at Hermon’s Speedway 95 taken away because his car failed technical inspection.

The disqualification wiped out a dominant performance in which, at one point, he had passed all but the second place car in the 19-car field.

Clark said he was disappointed and that the problem arose when a rocker arm on a cam shaft which had been changed at a race shop pushed his car over the allotted horsepower limit.

“We had 412 horsepower and we were allowed 405,” said Clark.

He said he and his team were innocent of any wrongdoing.

“We don’t need to cheat,” said Clark who was denied his third win in the last four PASS North races at Speedway 95.

“I’ve always liked that track. I’ve always run well there,” said Clark.

The disqualification meant Hallowell’s Johnny Clark was bumped up to first with Turner’s Ben Rowe second and Morrill’s Travis Benjamin third.

“I don’t feel good about the win,” said Johnny Clark. “Cassius is one of my best friends. He had us beaten pretty badly.”

Johnny Clark said Cassius and his team would never cheat.