Chris Coolidge Takes Aim At 2nd Oxford 250
Oxford Plains Weekly Competitor Seeks Back-To-Back Starts
NORWAY, Maine – One year ago, Chris Coolidge’s crew chief and father, Bill Coolidge, stood in the infield at Oxford Plains Speedway with tears in his eyes as his son circled the track during the pace laps for the Oxford 250.
While that moment might have served as the culmination in a career for the locally based racing family, Chris Coolidge will try and qualify for the 40 annual TD Bank 250 at Oxford Plains this Sunday, July 21, for the second consecutive year. He knows that it certainly won’t be any easier this time around, but he’s still looking forward to being part of the annual midsummer classic.
Coolidge is a rookie in the Pro Late Model division at the track on a weekly basis this season.
“Ever since I’ve been going to the races – since I was three or four years old – the one thing I always dreamed of was to run the 250, to be in that race. Last year, when I made the race, it was a big deal.
“Don’t get me wrong – the Late Models are a good division, and that’s how the 250 was for the last six or seven years, and that was a dream come true. But this year with the Super Late Models back in the race, if we can get into the 250, it’s going to be the same kind of thing all over again. To me, this is more what the 250 always used to be – a Pro Stock-type race car, the top of the line in short-track racing, and racing with more people like Mike Rowe and Dale Shaw. I really don’t know how else to say it.”
Coolidge and the Coolidge Motorsports No. 72 Bill’s Automotive/Lloyd’s Land Chevrolet sit 10th in the current Oxford Championship Series point standings after what has been an up-and-down season. Last weekend, in the final pre-race tuneup for the Oxford 250, Coolidge qualified for his first career PASS North Series race and finished a respectable 20th in the 34-car field at Oxford.
He believes what the team learned last weekend will pay dividends this weekend.
“We’re really looking forward to it,” said Coolidge, who won the final Late Model race ever contested at Oxford last fall. “We’re not going in with the attitude of having total domination and winning the thing, but with what we learned last Friday night we feel like the car is really close. We have things we want to do better, but at least we know we’re competitive.
“I realize I only finished 20th, but the thing was, I was really trying to take it easy, not push it, not put myself in bad situations trying to make things happen. The last thing I needed was a torn-up race car. In the 250, when things happen around you, you’re going to keep going, try to get through it, try and get spots where you can. I think we learned a lot just by doing it.”
Coolidge knows that qualifying for the race presents a different set of challenges than in years past.
Under the previous set of rules, track position seemed as essential as the performance of the race car in the short heat races with big starting fields. Under the Super Late Model banner, even a good qualifying draw won’t mean much if the car is not up to par.
“I think it’s going to probably be a little more difficult this year,” Coolidge said. “Last year, everybody had the same thing. They had the same shocks, the same motor, the the same everything. Against these cars, where we’re just a regular Friday night Pro Late Model going up against the full-blown Super Late Models, they all have more of the stuff that we can have. That makes for more of a challenge to get in than it was last time, I think.”
And if he can get in to the Oxford 250 for a second time, expect emotions to run just as high along pit road as they did a year ago.