When you consider what overwhelming odds the Oxford 250 has overcome throughout the vast majority of its amazing run, it’s almost no surprise that the 47th edition will press on through a pandemic in front of an almost-empty main grandstand.
The race has somehow maintained a modicum of national notoriety despite losing national sanction way back when yours truly was still a cub reporter.
Kalle Oakes, Sports Columnist
It has persisted through five different promoters, each bull-headed in his own way but invariably proven the right man for his era when the dust and asphalt chunks settled.
Occasionally a rogue rival would grow a hair across his, ahem, eyeballs and run a big-money race. One with an identical format, inside short driving distance, and sometimes even on the same darned day. The original 250 never lost a lick of luster, and the upstart was invariably a one-and-done.
More recent seasons have stretched the fabric of New England’s marquee short track event in subtler ways.
With a more shallow pool of pricey Super Late Model cars than decades past, an entry list that once numbered in the 90s has settled around 60. The parade of corporate sponsors that perennially helped defray the enormous purse and costs of production has petered out, putting that weight on the shoulders of speedway owner Tom Mayberry and his family operation.
Their pride and their respect for tradition dictate that this summer’s show must go on. As one of the countless people who has invested portions of my heart and soul in that track, I honor that decision with more than merely respect. It gives me goosebumps.
An activity that borders on addiction for so many of us is the exclusive domain of risk takers. Oxford 250 alumni Butch Lindley and Dwayne “Tiny” Lund gave their literal lives to this sport. At the very least, Bob Bahre, Michael Liberty, Tom Curley and Bill Ryan all put their livelihoods on the line for it.
In this season that saw the world and the race lose larger-than-life founder Bahre, it’s probably fitting that Mayberry, guardian of the great tradition, has pushed a mountain of chips to the center of the table in a gamble for the ages.
Can this race, a venture that starts six figures in the red if you only consider the competitors’ pay window, hamstrung by once-in-a-century health concerns, prosper as an almost exclusively pay-per-view event?
Drivers will shell out their entry fees and buy tires by the ton, of course. While a few hundred lucky patrons mill about the front side and enjoy unprecedented elbow room, pit area participation will be profuse and socially distanced as it wants to be. And yes, that juxtaposition alone captures the random, ever-changing governmental response to this issue that drives the critical thinkers among us to yank out clumps of our hair.
But ultimately it will be those of us in rural Maine, suburban Kentucky and parts unknown whose willingness to use the available technology and pay a fair price — $40, at Speed51.com — will determine whether the caretakers of this crown jewel get hit with a little rain or take a bath.
It isn’t a business model without precedent. The Oxford 250 has employed an online viewing option for the better part of a decade.
More pertinent to our ongoing national ordeal, the Slinger Nationals in Wisconsin utilized a similar hybrid format to overcome the COVID-19 challenge this summer. And closer to my home base, the CARS Tour and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series employ monthly subscription services (I give each five stars) that surely have helped keep them afloat while in-person attendance is at a premium.
So it can work, temporarily at least. But I worry about Maine-born-and-raised race fans. We’re a little — OK, maybe a lot — set in our ways. We may just decide it isn’t worth the few hassles required to project the big show from our handheld device to the living room screen. We also could overestimate how much the rest of the country cares about the Oxford 250 and wrongly assume others will pick up the slack.
Any of those decisions might prove fatal to the race Mayberry is so bravely and stubbornly steering into its sixth different decade. Mom-and-pop businesses have borne the brunt of Maine’s collateral damage from coronavirus, and it’s fair to say Oxford Plains Speedway falls into that category. It isn’t your granddad’s track in your granddad’s era of limited entertainment options.
The boss refused to put this race on a one-year hiatus in part because he believed his drivers and fans needed it for such a time as this. Now he needs us to return the favor, click the link, punch in the numbers, kick back with a cool drink or six and watch the magic unfold.
At least one person bet against Mayberry around the turn of the century when he postulated that SLM-style touring cars were still profitable in New England and started the Pro All Stars Series. You can be sure I won’t make that mistake again. But I will tell you I strongly believe he needs our help to make it happen; to ensure the 250 stays healthy and sprints toward its golden anniversary in qualifying trim.
We’ve bragged about this race through its every paradigm shift. Now, in the face of an invisible monster, it’s time put our money where our mouth was.
Speaking of which …
I suppose it wouldn’t be an Oxford 250 if I didn’t deliver the kiss of death and pick some poor, unsuspecting victim to win. Last year I did all my old northern friends a favor and heaped the hyperbole upon 2018 winner Bubba Pollard, whose title defense couldn’t have looked more inept if the “Benny Hill” saxophone music were playing in the background.
Bubba’d be an obvious pick this year, too, but my ever-unreliable gut feeling tells me old friend Jeff Taylor is finally due to shed the best-player-not-to-win-the-major label and be able to retire in peace. I apologize to the nine-time speedway champion and peerless proprietor of Distance Racing Products in advance.
Old traditions die hard, indeed.
Kalle Oakes attended every Oxford 250 from 1979 to 2015, including 21 of them as the Sun Journal’s primary staff writer and five as track announcer. He is now sports editor of the Georgetown (Kentucky) News-Graphic and a converted dirt track aficionado. His email is kaloakes1972@yahoo.com.
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