Late Models give parity for Sunday’s Oxford 250

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The 34th annual TD Banknorth Oxford 250 took on a whole new look last year when Pro Stock cars were replaced by the less-expensive and slower Late Models.

The result was more parity and unpredictability and it was a relative unknown, American-Canadian Tour racer Roger Brown of Lancaster, N.H., who took the checkered flag and a tidy $35,800.

Turner’s Ben Rowe, one of four former winners entered in the race, said it is a “whole different race” since the move to the Late Models.

The race will be held Sunday night over Oxford Plains Speedway’s three-eighths of a mile oval beginning at approximately 6:30 p.m. The heat races start at 2 p.m.

“The [Late Models] are so close. You’ll have 100 cars probably within half a second of each other. You can’t take a good car from the back and get to the front like you could with the Pro Stocks,” said Rowe, who won back-to-back 250s in 2003 and 2004.

He said the importance of track position and pit strategy is magnified with the Late Models.

Despite the change, it will always be a special race for Rowe.

“You’ll have 100 cars there, you have all the people in their campers and it’s my home track. There’s also a lot of [media] hype,” said Rowe, who will be coming to Oxford from North Carolina where he will race in the Pro All-Stars Series South Super Late Model Southern Sizzler 200 on Saturday night.

“It’s going to be tough. We’re not supposed to go green [at the Orange County Speedway] until around 9 p.m. I don’t know when we’re going to get out of there. We’re going to head to the airport and fly out around 4:30. We’re going to land in Portland and we’re hoping to get to the track by 12:30 so we can make the last practice,” said Rowe.

Rowe, like most drivers, said the luck of the draw is critical.

Each driver’s name is added to a list when they go through pre-race inspection and they draw starting spots in the heat races from that list. There will be six heat races with the top four finishers qualifying from each of those races; then there will be three consolation races for those who failed to qualify and the top four from those earn spots. There will also be three last-chance qualifying races and just the winners make the field.

“If you don’t draw a good number, you may not get in,” said Rowe, who is currently leading the PASS North Super Late Model points in his quest for a fifth points championship.

He tested his Chevy Monte Carlo earlier this week and said he was “real happy with it.”

The other former 250 winners in the field will be Bath’s Jeremie Whorff (2006), Dixfield’s Scott Robbins (2002) and Brown, who will have a different car and different team after his father, Roger Brown Sr., shut the race team down after last season and sold off the car and equipment.

Paris’ Dale Verrill finished second last year and he has been gearing up for the race.

“We haven’t raced the past couple of weeks to get ready for the 250,” said the 60-year-old Verrill. “I’ve got the same car [Chevy] and same crew basically as last year.

“Our chances are as good as anybody’s,” added Verrill. “The luck of the draw is part of it. And you’ve got to make sure your car is right.”

Kevin Harvick will make his TD Banknorth Oxford 250 debut and add to a long list of NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers who have run the race in recent years. The others have included Matt Kenseth, Kurt and Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, J.J. Yeley and Terry Labonte.

Harvick will drive a Late Model Chevy built for him by his Nationwide Series team in North Carolina.

Harvick is currently ninth in points in the Sprint Cup series with three top-fives and six top-10 finishes in 19 races. He is 16th in points in the Nationwide series while running just 14 of the 20 races. He has six top fives and seven top-10s.

The 32-year-old from Bakersfield, Calif., has 11 career Cup wins and 32 Nationwide victories.

Rowe feels Ricky Rolfe of Albany Township, who has won five of the last six weekly Late Model series races at OPS, is the favorite.

Camping World East drivers Eddie MacDonald and Brad Leighton and ACT points leaders Scott Payea, Jean-Paul Cyr and Patrick Laperle are also among the favorites.

lmahoney@bangordailynews.net

990-8231

OXFORD 250 CHAMPIONS

Year Driver Earnings

1974 – Joey Kourafas, $4,500

1975 – Dave Dion, $4,500

1976 – Butch Lindley, $6,375

1977 – Don Biederman, $6,000

1978 – Bob Pressley, $7,050

1979 – Tom Rosati, $10,000

1980 – Geoff Bodine, $11,200

1981 – Geoff Bodine, $21,400

1982 – Mike Barry, $16,000

1983 – Tommy Ellis, $21,150

1984 – Mike Rowe, $26,475

1985 – Dave Dion $26,600

1986 – Chuck Bown, $28,950

1987 – Jamie Aube, $31,100

1988 – Dick McCabe, $34,100

1989 – Jamie Aube, $35,075

1990 – Chuck Bown, $51,872

1991 – Ricky Craven, $50,025

1992 – Dave Dion, $37,150

1993 – Junior Hanley, $40,475

1994 – Derek Lynch, $33,975

1995 – Dave Whitlock, $52,150

1996 – Larry Gelinas, $50,000

1997 – Mike Rowe, $39,800

1998 – Ralph Nason, $46,400

1999 – Ralph Nason, $42,700

2000 – Ralph Nason, $31,900

2001 – Gary Drew, $35,400

2002 – Scott Robbins, $36,900

2003 – Ben Rowe, $34,700

2004 – Ben Rowe, $29,700

2005 – Mike Rowe, $26,000

2006 – Jeremie Whorff, $36,600

2007 – Roger Brown, $35,800