OXFORD, Maine – In the long run, Corey Morgan figured track time under race conditions was going to be a lot more valuable than countless practice runs in the lead-up to the season.
The Lewiston, Maine, racer made that theory count in the short-term, too – winning both the Strictly Street feature at Wiscasset Speedway last Saturday and then following it up by winning the Outlaw Sportsman feature at Oxford Plains Speedway on Sunday in the same car.
“It was a great way to start the year, absolutely,” said Morgan, who has competed in everything from Late Models to entry-level divisions across Maine in his careers. “A lot of guys were concerned that I didn’t make any (pre-season) practices at Oxford, but I decided to go to Wiscasset and race for a little bit of money.”
Morgan, who buys a number of performance parts from Crazy Horse Racing for the No. 26 The Sign Store/Altered Image Tattoo Chevrolet, said he could see both sides of the proverbial coin.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” Morgan said. “It doesn’t give you a lot of time to try new things, but I really thought it was the best thing for me to race and get back in my rhythm, back in the seat and get comfortable. Quite a bit of stuff is different (for the two divisions), so I we were a little behind the eight-ball. We got back from Wiscasset on Saturday night and had a lot of stuff to change over.”
Morgan won the 30-lap Strictly Street feature over Guy Childs, the same driver he finished second to two weeks earlier. In the Outlaw Sportsman feature at Oxford, Morgan started on the outside pole and won the race into the first turn to lead every lap en route to the victory.
“I knew that the only way to beat him was on the initial start,” Morgan said of the Oxford race. “I jumped as fast as I could without getting the black flag, and I just got by him down into the corner. And that was really the race.”
TOP HORSE: Chris Coolidge of Norway, Maine, finished sixth in the season-opening 40-lap Pro Late Model race at Oxford Plains Speedway on Sunday, April 28. Coolidge was the highest-finishing Crazy Horse Racing chassis in the Oxford Championship Series event.
“I’ll tell you, there were a couple of thoughts that went through my mind during the race,” said Coolidge, the track’s 2011 Late Model Rookie of the Year. “I’ve been going to that race track since I was three or four years old. And I remember watching Mike Rowe, Leland Kangas, Dale Shaw – guys like that – make a lot of laps around that track. I used to think to myself, ‘Some day, I’d really like to be out there racing with those guys.’
“One of those restarts late in the race, I’m lined up right next to Dale Shaw. It was a pretty cool thing to be racing with him.”
RETURN HOME: Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, will be back in his home state this weekend for the PASS North Series Southern Maine Chrysler Dodge Jeep 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough on Saturday, May 4.
The Brad Keselowski Racing development driver will be making his second start of the season in his family-owned AT Racing No. 57 Pelletier Ford Ford Fusion. He finished ninth at Oxford Plains Speedway back on April 21.
“This week is a good opportunity to rebound from a little bit of a disappointing effort at Oxford,” Theriault said. “It’s a great chance with the AT Racing team to see if we can’t get a win. I know the cars are capable, the equipment’s capable, everybody on the team is capable. We’ll try to continue doing the things we did do well there, and we’ll work on things that didn’t work as well for us.
“I’m really looking forward to it.”