Nicknames, Sights and Sounds

Here are some of the Nicknames and some of the Sights and Sounds that I recall hearing in my time at the Oxford 250.

NICKNAMES

Bobby Walker “Ol’ BW” – I have to put Bobby first because most of the names I’m going to mention below I heard from him! For all I know he made up all of these nicknames and they were only used at Oxford! Whatever the case, Bobby’s unique style of announcing pulled you into the event. I daresay that his “Gentlemen, start your engines” ripped a few eardrums out in his day! Also, to me, he is the best at driver introductions that I’ve heard. From 1994 for example: “And starting on the pole from Campbellville Ontario. He came rolling through the gate 20 minutes before qualifying and put his Port City Camaro # 61 on the point. He won a recent 250 qualifier JUST to get here. The defending race champion goes off first tonight….Junior Hanley!” I get tingles when I think of this stuff! Get well Ol’ BW…the race isn’t the same without you!

“Irish Angel” Dick McCabe – Was there any car more recognizable in the 1980’s than McCabe’s Kelly green cars with the simple “0” on the side? I seem to remember a bait shop being a long-time sponsor on the side of his car too. Heck, I always thought BW’s comment about the Angel’s Expressway was FOR McCabe!! Maybe it was.

“Tampa Tornado” Robbie Crouch – I don’t know if this was one of those that Ol’ BW made up or not, but I was a big Robbie Crouch fan and, of course, got to see him finish in second place on three different occasions. He might have won it in 1986 if he could have gotten by Dion earlier but he and Dion ended up tangling on the final lap with Crouch claiming second. Crouch’s blue and silver #48 was a fixture at the event during the 80’s.

“Dynamite” Dave Dion – Maybe this car was as recognizable as McCabe’s. Orange Ford. #29. Berlin City Ford on the hood. And Ol’ BW had a way of adding and edge to that first “D” on Dynamite that instantly made you want to watch Dion. I mean, this guy became known to many as “The Dynamite One” that is how strong his nickname was! I’ve recently discovered that he was #27 in 1975 when he won his first 250!! Interesting.

“Terrible” Tommy Ellis – Again, I don’t know if he was known as “Terrible” before 1983 or not. I do know that in his victory lane interview in 1983 he said that he didn’t like coming north to race “all of this junk up here” or something very close to that. I do know that Ellis had a reputation as a true southern redneck and was probably just looking to incite the crowd a little. He did.

“Racin” Ralph Nason – Nason has been at the forefront of Oxford 250 lore for 30 years now. He didn’t race in the event for most of the 1980’s for whatever reason, but he was a factor in 1976 and in most of the races since 1993. His nickname is known country-wide due to his famous Chrysler Kit Car he ran in the 1970’s. He was about the only person running Mopar products back then. More recently, the sight of a black and yellow Ford product with the simple #10 on the side was the car to watch.

“Fat” Albert Hammond – Okay, first off, Al is not that fat. Secondly, this was just a play on words because of the popular cartoon in the 70’s and 80’s called Fat Albert and I can only guess that Ol’ BW had something to do with this one. I never hear this nickname anymore but it was very common to hear it in the late 70’s and into the 80’s. I kind of miss it. Oh yeah…#1 with a star on it. Enough said.

“The Outlaw” Jeff Stevens – It was either in 1981 or 1982 that two cars really stood out because they had radical looking camaro (or firebird) bodies while everyone else was still running the family sedan type of car bodies. Junior Hanley was one of the cars that stood out and the other belonged to Jeff Stevens. Steven’s bright red cars with yellow #44 and yellow hood were just mean looking and his aggressive style made him a fan favorite at the track. Also, when he won the Hooligan Race one year he was asked if he wanted to race in the Oxford 250 from the final starting spot. “Race in it? Hell, I’m going to win it!”

Joey “The Kid” Kourafas – So named because of his youthful appearance, Kourafas embodied what the 250 was all about in the late 70’s: youthful enthusiasm, fast race cars, and the cool demeanor needed to outlast everyone else in a 250 (or 200!) lap event. Kourafas’s winning car in 1974 is not the image I have of him…it’s the orange #33 of the Pumpkin Squad that comes to mind for me.

“The King of Oxford” Mike Rowe – Seven track championships, two Oxford 250 wins, and 149 feature wins earns you that title. Jeff Taylor now has more titles, but there’s only one King. The images of Mike Rowe are a bit scattered for me because Rowe has raced in every touring series that has come to the track and multiple car owners. I guess I see a #5, a #15, and more recently a #24 that has been prominent for him. He’s currently #24 and he was #24 when he won both of his Oxford 250 races (1984 and 1997) so I guess that black car with a white\silver “24” on the side is the strongest image for me.

“Sud’n Sam Sessions – What a cool name! It’s a form of the word “suddenly” of course and it’s a nickname that makes you think of movement or action. Sammy has had quite a bit of success in the last few years but he’s had the nickname for a long time (again, an Ol’ BW name I think). Sessions is currently famous for his own #0, but many Oxford fans will remember all of his years as the 02 (with the 2 being very small lettering).

“The Bandit” Chuck Bown – Now here was a guy who became synonomous with his sponsor as Bown had Skoal and the Skoal Bandit on his famous #7. Of course, Harry Gant was also known as The Bandit so I guess if you had Skoal as your sponsor you were a Bandit!! While always fast in his green and white Pontiac 6000 he won just once in 1986 as The Bandit. I guess he was The Coffee Maker in 1990 when he won the race in the Nescafe # 63.

Harmon “Beaver” Dragon – How about a nickname that is used so often that people start calling you Beaver Dragon like it is your name?? I guess if your name is Harmon that isn’t a bad thing! In the 80’s it was always a thrill to hear the names of Bobby and Beaver Dragon at the 250. Beaver never really had the consistent success as Bobby (whose red #71 deserves mention here for famous cars and car numbers) and Beaver had two car numbers prominent while I watched: #91 and #75.

Bruce Haley “The Red-headed Hurricane” – This is more of an Oxford nickname that Ol’ BW definitely had a hand in creating. But Haley did have his moment in the sun at the 250 (third place in 1989) and was at the center of one of the great controversies in 1996 (Haley was listed as the leader for a lap after Ben Rowe ran out of gas…but the win was given to Larry Gelinas). For many years Haley was in the #52 and then raced a Pro Stock for Bob Greeley in the #22.

“Young Gun” Ricky Craven – I’m pretty sure Ol’ BW used this one for Tracy Gordon as well (along with The Flying Flea!) but Craven has been the most successful Cup driver from Maine so the nickname was appropriate for him. Most people remember Craven’s SpeeDee #25 and his Oxford 250 victory in 1991. I also remember a younger Ricky Craven in a #09 EJP sponsored Buick (I think) that finished 6^th in 1989 after starting way up back.

NUMBERS (not including the people above)

#72 – There was a time when people came to the Oxford 250 and wanted to know if #72 was in the garage. Junior Hanley has won just about every big race there is to win in short track racing in this country and in Canada! In 1979 he won the pole but when the race was rained out he could not make it back the following week. In 1982 he was leading when he and Mike Rowe tangled off turn one and ruined both of their nights. In 1993 he was back to the track and was dominating the ACT tour and dominated the Oxford 250. Hanley is just one of “those” guys that everyone wants to see.

I guess I can’t leave Scott Robbins out in the cold on this on as he’s done pretty well in his own #72 in recent years and has done the number quite proud!

#16 – Butch Lindley’s Nova’s were known up and down the eastern seaboard and he routinely showed up at the Oxford 250 with cars with a familiar #16 on the side. Check out this memory courtesy of Steve Pellerin: “In 76' Butch came North to OPS with a stunning 74' Chevy Nova, all red, silver wheels, and a large Firestone across the hood.” Makes you feel like you can see it, doesn’t it?

#5A – I have to give some props to the Canadian legend Jean-Paul Cabana. He was another one of those guys that you wanted to see race! It seems as though he was always introduced as having “won more than 500 races” or something like that. I think the #5A is probably even more famous to the Canadian folks than Hanley’s #72!!

#99 – His white cars were the talk of northeast racing in 1980 and 1981. Geoff Bodine had similarly painted cars those two years and was the first two-time winner of the Oxford 250. Bodine wasn’t popular or unpopular at the race, but many fans remember his slam-bang battle with Dick McCabe in 1984 almost as well as they remember his two wins!

#47 – Maybe more familiar to recent fans of the Busch North Series, but Kelly Moore’s black #47 Jordan Lumber machines were always near the front in the mid to late 1980’s. There were a couple of Oxford 250’s that Moore really dominated but some pit strategy and wrecks kept him from taking the top prize. His car was certainly one that people looked for when they went to an Oxford 250.

#41 – Jamie Aube probably gets the least amount of respect of any of the two-time Oxford 250 winners. The guy was dominant over a three-year period at the track with wins in 1987 and 1989. The second of those wins was a no-doubter (and somewhat boring) because he got out front and nobody could touch him!! Keep in mind, in 1989 Rusty Wallace, Harry Gant, and Davey Allison were all in the field as well as all of the southern Busch series favorites like Tommy Houston, Tommy Ellis, and Morgan Shephard. He never had the longevity as some of the other names, but during that period of time, the red #41 was THE force to be reckoned with.

#00 – For the anti-Ben Rowe people out there…sorry, but for this particular race, Ben Rowe has put his name on the map with the all-time greats. His original 250 moment was a bad one in a red #12…but when he switched to Tom Estes’ yellow, red, and purple #00 in 1999 there has been no doubt who The Man is at the Oxford 250. Two wins, two seconds, and another top ten finish in the last six Oxford 250’s puts this #00 on the list.

Special mention to Roger Laperle who had one of the coolest cars back in the 1980’s! Laperle never had a lot of success in the Oxford 250 but he always had a nice looking car and was the original “cool” looking #00.

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS (random thoughts)

- Wondering who will be the first car out of the pits for the first heat race. Who will be starting first?!?!

- Figuring out who is still left for a heat race after seeing the first five! “Oooh, ooh, we haven’t seen Mike Rowe, Ralph Nason, or Tracy Gordon…that means they’re all in the last heat!”

- Hearing the words from Ol’ BW, “Ladies and Gentleman, on behalf of track owner Bill Ryan, welcome to the richest, one day short track race in America.”

- Watching four cars battle for the fourth spot in any heat race!

- Hooligans Race. Seeing 35 cars lineup for a 50 lap race in which only the winner gets into the 250 and 34 others go home!!!!

- Squished like a sardine in my seat (yeah, it’s too tight, but it’s part of the experience nonetheless)

- Running out to the cooler in my car for some food and drink during an intermission.

- Watching the crews prepare pit lane for the feature.

- Watching the drivers meeting in the infield before the feature!!

- Driver introductions and interviews and hearing the respectful cheers for every Oxford 250 winner.

- GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES!!!!

- The ultimate in driver and fan appreciation….the greatest symbol of one of the greatest races…the amazing wave-off lap to the drivers and them waving back.