OXFORD — Amid the rock star-like motor coaches and rumbling, air-conditioned camper trailers parked outside Oxford Plains Speedway on Friday, Terry Gray created his own oasis.

Pacing himself in the sticky, 90-degree morning heat — “Moving slow is the key,” he said — Gray pitched a new, palatial tent. It had two roofs, two rooms and a screened porch.

“It doesn’t have air-conditioning, but it has lots of windows,” he said. For 32 years, Gray has been camping outside the speedway for its July 250, now in its 40th year.

But he’s never seen the like of this week’s weather.

Neither have many of the hundreds of campers who have taken spots this week outside the track, offered freely to race fans. Though they are not charged for their campsites, there are few amenities. There are no hook-ups for electricity, water or waste. Campers get by with their own supplies of water and power.

It goes fast, though.

Along with muggy, 80-degree-plus temperatures, they’ve endured torrential rain, wind, thunder and lightning.

The storm tore up Gray’s last tent, a smaller, 10-year-old shelter he had set up Tuesday. But he dealt with the loss in stride. He, his wife, Helena, and their daughter, Alison, were home in Lewiston when the worst storm passed.

“The wind ripped right through it,” he said.

But it was old. And the loss was the excuse he needed for a tent upgrade, he said.

Other race fans said they weathered the storm with little hassle. Most stayed dry. And when the rain was unaccompanied by the other fireworks, they actually liked it.

“I go to sleep quicker when it rains,” said Nancy Ackerson of Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Friday morning, she and several friends — Canadian racing fans who travel from track to track — found a shady spot beside her trailer and visited.

Ackerson, who slept in a posh trailer, said she was unworried by the heat or rain. Her trailer was outfitted with air-conditioning and a TV with a satellite hook-up.

This week, she and her friends have been visiting until dusk. They’ve been chased inside by mosquitoes rather than the rain, wind or heat.

And when they’re outside, they drink water, lots of it.

A few rows away, three men from the Halifax, Nova Scotia, area managed to get by their own way.

“It’s been too hot to sleep, even with the air-conditioner running,” said Reg Awalt, who found a shady spot and relaxed.

“Rum and Cokes,” he said. “Lots of rum and Cokes.”

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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