OXFORD — The Oxford Dragway has closed for the season following declining revenues and personnel issues, a company official said late Monday night. 

All events but the Show, Shine and Drag race on June 15 have been canceled, President Mike Mayberry said. 

“We couldn’t organize and run it in the way we wanted to,” he said. 

No decision has been made on whether the track will reopen next year.  

Mayberry did not disclose the exact nature of the personnel issues. A post on the company’s website last Friday read, “We found out at 10:45 a.m. on Friday, May 30, that the employee who handles the scoring system was resigning from her position at the drag strip. Since we do not have the proper help to operate the drag strip for the weekly race season, we will not be running the weekly series at the track this season.” 

According to Mayberry, officials first considered closing the dragway last season when they looked into its declining profitably. At the time, they believed changes could reinvigorate dropping attendance. 

“We were committed to making it a viable business, but it wasn’t really making money,” Mayberry said. 

The dragway races were scheduled on the same Friday nights as the speedway as an intentional form of competition between the two venues.  

In 2012, Tom Mayberry, Mike’s father, bought the dragway. He also bought Oxford Plains Speedway from longtime owner Bill Ryan. 

Mayberry’s ownership brought a number of changes to the speedway, which looked to broaden its appeal with the introduction of the Pro Late Model division, which promised more horsepower. 

Built in 1969 and situated behind Oxford Plains Speedway along Route 26, the dragway offered fans a scaled-down alternative to the racing popularized by NASCAR.

Instead of racing laps around an oval track, two cars line up alongside each other and race over a shorter, straight stretch of track toward a finish line. 

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