American Canadian Tour race scheduled for 150 laps at the famed Oxford
Plains Speedway on May 16th; a track the pair has achieved great success
through the years. This will be the first outing for the #17 Late Model that
won both the Oxford 250 and the ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor
Speedway last season.
“We had a fantastic season in the Late Model but the problem is we don’t get
as many chances to race it because of our schedule in the K&N Pro East
Series,” said MacDonald. “We were rained out in the Governor’s Cup at Lee,
so our only time in the car was at the test and tune at Lee but we really
didn’t have much time on the track because we had the East car there that we
are going to run at Lee on July 30. This will be our only opportunity to run
the car there before the Oxford 250 on July 17th.”
Both MacDonald and LaChance have a history of running well at the Maine
track, not only posting the incredible 250 win but also winning numerous
times in the past. The veteran crew chief began his racing career at Oxford
that is just a few miles from his childhood home and despite all the wins
throughout his career there the 250 win had evaded his grasp until last
year. LaChance’s goals for the team, both Late Model and ACT Tour, were to
win at Loudon and at Oxford. The East team has won three races in the last
two seasons at the Magic Mille, coupled win the first-ever Act race held at
NHMS in September, so both driver and crew chief would like nothing better
that to add another Oxford 250 title to the list.
“We’ve done a lot of work on the car over the winter and it is ready to go,”
said MacDonald at the shop. “We really didn’t get much of a read at the
practice session at Lee so the race on Sunday will give us a lot of
information we need for the Oxford 250. We both love that track and Rollie
definitely has it figured out so we expect to do well. It would be super to
win this week in the ACT car and next week in the East car at Iowa Speedway.
We will run in the make-up Governors Cup at Lee on June 11th but we really
need this race Sunday to see what the car can do on the flat track. We have
had great success at Oxford and would like to continue that success. It
should be a fun race and the competition is really tough but the winner
automatically qualifies for the ACT race at Loudon in September so that
gives added incentive.”
The New England Dodge Dealers 150 is slated to begin qualifying heats at
2:00 PM with a last chance consolation race to follow. All of Oxford’s
divisions are scheduled to compete in the speedway’s opening day racing
card.