Heading into Oxford 250 Weekend, you always know it’s one of the biggest race weekends in Maine. Dad and I are always excited to go to Oxford. We’ve shown decent speed every time we go there, and we know it will continue to be a track where we can gain laps, build our notebook, and improve ourselves. Oxford is always a tough track because it’s all about tire management and making sure you make them last.
We were trying a few things going into the day. In first practice, we showed decent speed, but I felt the car was on the loose side and knew it wasn’t going to last in a race. We made a few changes for second practice, and the car felt better. We backed up a little on the stopwatch, but so did everyone else. The car felt much more comfortable, and we knew what changes we wanted to make for third practice. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans, and we got some rain. Heavy rain!
The track crew did a great job getting the track dry and ready to go. Then it was on to the heat race.
We started 5th in the heat. The plan, with some heavy hitters in my heat, was to get a good start, see how we were after lap one, then settle in and save the right rear tire.
As a side note, all three cars that started behind me went on to finish in the top five in the feature. I knew I had some great cars to judge myself against in the heat.
We fired off strong, pushing the third-place car through the first lap. Luckily, on lap one, the second-place car slid high in Turns 1 and 2, and then the pole sitter slid up on laps three and four. That gave us the opportunity to jump up into second.
With the help of my spotter keeping me low and smooth, I protected the bottom, protected the tires, and held off the cars behind me to come home in P2, giving us a P3 starting spot in the feature.
Even though we were still saving tires, I was able to feel the car out and understand what I needed more of. I felt like I had good drive off the corner but struggled on corner entry. We focused on making the car better getting into the corner while still maintaining a little tightness for the feature.
Now that we’re finally finishing races, we’re slowly learning and figuring out feature adjustments. We’re not completely set on exactly what we want to do yet, but the notebook is filling up with ideas.
On to the feature! The plan was to run our own race but not drop back too far if I felt like I didn’t have the pace. This is a tire-sensitive track, and I knew that, but I also knew passing isn’t easy. We fired off strong, holding onto third for the first few laps. Eventually, the two cars that would later finish first and second got by me. We dropped back to fifth and settled right in. I knew the other two cars that started in front of me were pushing hard and would eventually come back to us. Pretty quickly, I was right behind the car that started second as he dropped back. While I was making the pass, the No. 76 got by me, dropping me back to sixth. Once I got by that car, I moved back into fifth.
For most of the race, I was right with the 76, the 19, and later the 55. The four of us ran together for much of the middle portion of the race. Unfortunately for me, they were all just a tick better getting off the corner. If I didn’t get through the center as well as I needed to, I would lose ground.
We kept fighting, though.
At one point, we fell as far back as seventh, but on a restart with about 20 laps to go, I got back to sixth, which is where we would stay. I felt like the top-five cars could get their motors spun up faster than I could, and I was lacking launch speed on the restarts. We fought all race long and stayed in it. Overall, I was very happy with the day, how the car responded, and how the driver, me, fought the entire race. I never laid over and always wanted more each lap.
The notebook is getting thick with the small changes we need to make to turn our second sixth-place finish of the year into a top five. To finish my fourth race of the year, I am beyond happy and ready for more. We’re finally able to work on the car and setup rather than spending hours repairing broken parts. If we continue to run like this, I know the top fives will come.
None of this could happen without the people behind me. The support from my sponsors is second to none. Thank you to New Hampshire Oil Undercoating, P1 Web Development, Reed Property Services, and West Street Auto Bodies.
I also want to give a shoutout to SCS Gears for being a contingency sponsor and providing us with a set of gears for the race. The support behind the Modified racing series from these companies is a big reason we continue to support the series
None of this would be possible without the crew guys who continue to fight behind me, even on the days when we struggle. I’m glad I’m finally giving them races where they don’t need to hide from a last-place finish and can be proud of running in the top half of the field.
Thank you to Dad, Mom, Robert, Nick, whose birthday was during the race, David G., and Ben, who filled in on spotting duties while Timmy had to be an adult and work. Ben’s knowledge of Oxford really helped me during the race. He taught me some tricks and helped me maintain our strong finish, especially late in the race on a restart when I was struggling for grip.
Next up for us is Claremont Speedway. We struggled at the end of the race there last time, but we think we know why and are ready to keep building on the momentum we’re creating. R. Smith Oil and the Racing Guys have put up extra money for the race, and we’re excited to be part of the show!
