Double Late Models, seven divisions
highlight Saturday's Dunkin' Donuts Night
highlight Saturday's Dunkin' Donuts Night
OXFORD, Maine – The busiest race night this side of TD Banknorth 250 Weekend Presented By New England Dodge Dealers is scheduled for Saturday at Oxford Plains Speedway.
Dunkin’ Donuts Night will provide one of the best entertainment values of the season for any race fan. Seven different racing divisions will compete for an astonishing 350 laps on a diverse Oxford Championship Series card. D
ouble features for the Oxford Networks Late Model division are the co-headline attraction. The 40-lap Late Model feature wiped out by a thunderstorm on June 2 will start off the program, with a full round of qualifying and a twin feature set for later in the evening.
With reigning champion Travis Adams leading past champ Ricky Rolfe by only 14 points and Shawn Martin, Glen Luce and Dennis Spencer Jr. closely in tow, Friday’s event will have a significant say in who wins the 2007 title.
Twenty-four cars are qualified for the Sun Journal make-up event, with Wal-Mart Rookie of the Year contender Travis Stearns and Don Wentworth on the front row. Rolfe and Adams are mired in 12th and 13th, respectively, after their qualifying effort earlier in the month.
For the second time this season, the Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy Strictly Stock division will tour the speedway for 100 laps.
Wild finishes have become the norm in the long-distance Strictly encounters, and the May 12 go-round was no exception. With cars spinning perilously all around the oval at the end of an otherwise amazingly caution-free ride, Sumner Sessions held off Skip Tripp to win the first leg of the Agren Appliance Grand Slam.
Larry Emerson, Kim Tripp and Rick Thompson all were strong in the first 100-lapper and have stepped up their game even higher lately. Don’t count out Mike Short, Scott Belskis, Zach Emerson and Matt Williams, either.
It’s a regularly scheduled 30-lap race for the Allen’s Mini Stock class. If it’s as good as the last one, though, that will be plenty. Bill Thibeault survived 20 straight laps of side-by-side scrambling with defending track champion Jim Childs to earn his first win of the season.
Four other cars finished within just over a second of the winning pace, with Justin Karkos, Ashley Marshall, Adam Polvinen and Bill Irving all ready to pounce.
As if the requisite Saturday night action weren’t enough, we’re bringing Call of the Wild RV Center Sport Truck and Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy Ladies competition over from the Wednesday night Acceleration Series. It’s a chance to catch potential future Saturday night stars Jake Burns, Vanna Brackett and more on their way up through the ranks.
Also, if you’re a fan of vintage open-wheel and short track cars from decades past, Saturday is a night you won’t want to miss.
We are proud to host not one but two nostalgia divisions as part of Dunkin’ Donuts Night, with the Senior Tour Auto Racers (STAR) and Atlantic Coast Old Timers making their annual appearances. Cars with a pedigree at Daytona, Indy, OPS and all short tracks in between have been restored for these two traveling shows, and their current owners are itching to prove that the old horses still know their way around the 3/8-mile circuit.
Heats will set the starting grid for the Late Model, Strictly and Mini events to round out the program.
As has become the tradition with Dunkin’ Donuts Night, there will be literally hundreds of giveaways, ranging from travel mugs to gift packs to gift certificates and more.
Be sure to locate a copy of the coupon in Thursday’s editions of the Sun Journal and Portland Press Herald, good for a free junior admission. Those kids are sure to enjoy the guest we have lined up in the concourse in the half hour preceding the green flag at 6:30 p.m.
Don’t miss a moment of the non-stop excitement for the entire family on Dunkin’ Donuts Night at OPS!