By Caleb Lamb<\/p>\n
OXFORD, Maine \u2013 The first Wednesday night Oxford Acceleration Series event of the year started off in great fashion, with 116 cars registering for competition. While most of the five competing series had raced at least once on Saturday nights, this was the first time they would all compete on the same night.<\/p>\n
\nThe Renegades took to the track first. Bill Grover jumped to the lead early on from his pole position, and held off Mark Turner late in the race, after Turner climbed to second from his last place starting position. Jamie Heath was a late entry in the event, piloting the #9. Heath moved up to third position before engine problems forced him off the track. Charlie Hall finished third and William Dunphy, Jr and Corey Edwards rounded out the top five. Grover also picked up the Best-in-Show award for the Renegades series.<\/p>\n
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Next up came the Allen\u2019s Coffee Flavored Brandy Ladies Division, featuring 16 cars. This race was highlighted by the amount of spins. Over 10 individual spin-outs had some of the drivers looking like they were on a merry-go-round rather than a race track. Shannon Wheeler, Sue Veinott, and Lisa Brooks all spun in the turns at least twice, but when the dust finally settled, Vanna Brackett emerged as the driver to beat, piloting her #23 to the front and opening up a straight-away lead on Cathy Manchester that she would not relinquish. Manchester was second while Debbie Marston finished a respectable third.<\/p>\n
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The Call of the Wild RV Center Sport Trucks followed the ladies feature. Russ Spurling grabbed the early lead, but saw his small lead negated following the first yellow of the night for a single truck spin. On the restart, Opie Allard put on a great display jumping to the front and running away with the race, but the real battle was for second. Corey Williams put his truck in front and did everything in his power to keep Ryan Farrar in his rear view mirror. Farrar twice got a fender under Williams but could not complete the pass. Williams beat him to the line for what would ultimately be the race win following the post-race disqualification of Opie Allard. Farrar officially finished second with Russ Spurling in third.<\/p>\n
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The first of two MacDonald Motors Runnin\u2019 Rebels saw Troy Jordan put on a masterful performance. Coming down for the start, Jordan jumped to the outside to get around slower traffic and passed nearly half the field going into turn 1. A few laps later, a daring three-wide move on the outside took Jordan\u2019s #6 to the front, and the checkered flag may as well have dropped then. Jordan rocketed away from the rest of the pack and after the 20 laps were up, he had a half-track lead on second place and had lapped three-fourths of the field. The fight for second featured three drivers jockeying for position. Scott Farrington kept his car glued to the inside lane, even going as far as to dive under slower traffic rather than move to the outside to pass. Kyle Hewins and Corey Beaulieu pounded away on each other behind Farrington, while looking for a way past. When the checkers flew it was Farrington, Hewins, then Beaulieu with Bill Sprague completing the top 5.<\/p>\n
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In Runnin\u2019 Rebels feature number 2, Troy Jordan\u2019s teammates, Matt Dufault and Jason Berry, put on a dominating display of their own. Berry held the early lead, but after a few laps of Dufault closing up quickly, the #46 moved up high to let his clearly faster teammate by. Matt Dufault went on to win by a few car lengths over Jason Berry while Jeff Hebert worked his way around both Mike Ward and Brady Romano late in the race to finish third. Romano and Ward finished fourth and fifth respectively.<\/p>\n
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The Oxford Outlaws Series finished off the night with 49 cars divided up into three separate features. In round 1, several drivers took the point position before Chris Burgess took over the spot just past the halfway point. Burgess raced to victory ahead of Dan Brown and Addison Bowie. Chris Coolidge finished fourth while Ryan Robbins held on to finish fifth after slipping back several spots. Honorable mention goes to Pat Maloy who patiently picked his way through the field to finish seventh after starting towards the back.<\/p>\n
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Oxford Outlaws feature 2 was a race between two men. Troy Jordan started on the outside of row 4, driving the #64 in place of Nic Stanley, while Josh Childs started on the inside of row 5. At the drop of the green flag, both men began picking their way through the field at a furious pace. Childs rode his luck on the inside, twice flirting with disaster when slower cars made contact and spun out. Childs made it through unscathed and reached the front of the field before the halfway point, pulling away to a substantial lead over Troy Jordan who finished second. Mike Blue held the early race lead and hung on for third with Nick Hoyt and Thom Bell rounding out the top 5 behind him.<\/p>\n
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The final feature of the night also had an earlier winner in it. Matt Dufault, who won the second Runnin\u2019 Rebels feature, stepped in to drive the #71 car in place of Fred Clavet. Dufault ran no practice laps in the car but started on the pole and held the lead the entire way to pick up his second feature win of the night. Steve Moon and Jim Drake finished second and third respectively after a good battle. The scariest moment of the night happened when Jonathan Baldwin got together with David Brown coming out of turn 4, and made hard contact with the front-stretch wall on the driver\u2019s side door. The yellow flag flew immediately, but Baldwin was okay and squirmed his way out of the passenger\u2019s side window much to the crowd\u2019s relief. John Patria and Kyle Curtis completed the top 5 as a memorable Acceleration Series opening night came to a close.<\/p>\n
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