OXFORD — The sounds of revving engines and squealing tires, and the sight of smoke from burning rubber will signal Oxford Dragway’s reopening this spring.
New track owner Jeff Shock of West Paris and Operations Manager Crystal Lancaster of Mount Vernon announced last week there will be a 2015 season at the dragstrip off Route 26, next to Oxford Plains Speedway.
The duo will host a preliminary drivers meeting at 11 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, at the Anderson-Staples American Legion Hall, 121 King St. Drivers can ask questions, give their input and meet Shock and Lancaster, they said.
“The meeting is really an opportunity for my racers to … get together because over the wintertime a lot of us don’t get together … I consider them my family,” Lancaster said. “I want to show Jeff that I have this amazing group of people so passionate about this sport,” she said by phone last week. “Their voice does matter. It certainly matters to me and I know it matters to Jeff.”
The eighth-mile dragstrip suspended operations for the 2014 season because there was not proper help to conduct weekly races, according to an announcement on the Oxford Plains Speedway website.
Shock, who used to manage the dragway in the 1990s, said by phone Monday that he reached a deal with speedway owner Tom Mayberry about a month ago. Shock didn’t give details of the sale.
“I’d hate to see something like that go by the wayside,” he said of the dragway.
Shock, who drag raced as a kid and has raced on oval tracks over the years, is trying to secure sponsors for the dragway, but emphasized that it’s the racers and the spectators who will make this a successful business venture.
“It’s about the racers and the fans. We need them. We need them both,” he said. “Racers and fans make Oxford Dragway.”
Shock said he’s thankful that Lancaster, who he called “a really motivated young lady,” approached him about helping out at the track.
“She’s a dragger at heart. She knows a lot of racers. I think she’s going to be an asset to me going forward,” he said.
Lancaster, 22, said she’s been hanging around the dragway with her father, Dana Lancaster, since before she could walk and got her first street-racing car when she was 16.
“Oxford has meant so much to me. … Some of my first steps happened on that asphalt,” she said. “Growing up (my dad) never forced the sport on me. He never said, ‘You have to be a racer.’ One day, when I was 15, I told him I wanted to be a racer.”
As much as Lancaster loves the sport and is equally as passionate about its competitors, she said she reached out to Shock to help get the dragway up and running because of her dad, who’s in his 60s. He’d been racing at Oxford Dragway since opening day in 1970 and wasn’t able to compete last year because his home racetrack had closed. Lancaster said she brought her father to Winterport Dragway in 2014, which is more than a two-hour drive each way for them.
“My dad can’t stay out of the driver’s seat for too long. He’s a little too anxious,” Lancaster said. “I brought him up there a handful of times so he could play, not compete. … It’s all for my dad, as sappy as it sounds.”
Another dragway racer who was excited to hear there would be a 2015 season is Art Burhoe of Paris, who began racing there in 2009.
“I am like most people — that’s my home track and that’s where I cut my teeth really as far as racing,” he said.
Burhoe tipped his hat to Shock and Lancaster for reopening the track, and gave kudos to his racing partner.
“My racing buddy, Jim Jordan, I bought a real drag bike from him and he’s helped me along, teaching me about racing and stuff. So I probably would be riding my road bike if it wasn’t for him.”
Burhoe is on his second drag bike and the duo put a new motor in it Sunday. He’s hoping his new ride and engine will allow him to reach speeds of 160 mph in about eight-and-a-half seconds down the strip.
Lancaster thinks he might make it.
“He is by far, in my opinion, one of the best motorcycle racers in all of New England,” she said.
Lancaster said Oxford Dragway is fully equipped. It includes concessions, bleachers for more than 100 spectators, a photographers’ booth, bathrooms and plenty of pit room.
Shock said he plans to offer higher-quality foods, such as hand-cut and hand-salted fries.
“The way I look at it is when I go to the fair, I don’t go to the fair full. I go to the fair hungry because I know I am going to get quality food there,” he said.
In 2013, on average, the dragway had a combined participation of 161 racers in eight different classes, Lancaster said.
She said the 2015 racing schedule should be announced at the Feb. 1 meeting. Those who can’t make the meeting but still want to race and those interested in helping out at the track can contact Lancaster at ChevyLady1720@aol.com, 754-1022 or call Shock at 592-5588, email shockcontracting@gmail.com or send a message on Facebook at facebook.com/OXFORD.DRAGWAY.
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