The
Price of a Gallon of Gas is $3,425…and Second Place
A splash of gas gave Bodine the victory in
the 1980 Oxford 250
Pictures Below Recap
Recounted by Mark Truman using Stock
Car Racing Magazine Recap, October 1980 by Herb Dodge
NOTE: Exact quotes from the magazine will be in italics!!
The 1980 Oxford 250 (officially dubbed the
Noyes-Cooper Oxford 250) might look kind of boring on the surface. Scorecards will indicate just five lead
changes and only one car completing all 250 green flag laps. However, those in attendance will remember
one of the most classic short track duels of all time as Geoff Bodine overtook
Butch Lindley on lap 250 when Lindley ran out of gas. A race that was already earning a reputation for unusual finishes
and controversial actions on and off the track, reached another level in its 7th
annual running.
For 1980, the radical Camaro bodies that Junior Hanley and
Mark Malcuitt had run in 1979 would suffer a 300 pound weight penalty. Bob Bahre wanted to keep the interest in the
race for the sportsman drivers so the ASA type cars would have to face the
music. Jeff Stevens of West
Kennebunk, Maine, was one of the competitors who ordered a Howe chassis (with
the Camaro body) after seeing how well this type of car ran last year. When the new weight rule was announced, it
was too late for Stevens to cancel the order.
“Junior Hanley hurt us here last year,”
Jeff commented. “Not
intentionally. He just scared everybody
last year. The weight rule is really
not fair. Even so, I believe that with
a little bit of work, you are not going to be able to beat ‘em.” Another rule that had effects on the
entry list last year, the tire rule, didn’t keep away the southern drivers this
year. Of course, gaining back the NASCAR
sanction for 1980 probably had as much to do with it as most of the southern
contingent was chasing national late model championship points. Bob Bahre’s dispute with Tom Curley was also
set aside as Bahre worked directly with NASCAR to setup the 1980 event. Bob stated, “Don’t get me wrong. I got nothing against Curley, it just works
better when I deal with Daytona.”
The posted purse of $55,625 was an eye-popping number and
the big names came from the south, the northeast, and Canada. The only two names that would matter on this
day were Geoff Bodine and Butch Lindley.
Prior to the event, the two cars that would be so evenly matched had
different outlooks on the tire situation.
Lindley liked the tires to a cheap pair of shoes. “They’ll wear out faster than an expensive
pair will,” he said. Bodine, on the
other hand, was less critical of the track tires. “They work pretty well,” he stated. Bodine and Lindley were clearly the fastest in practice. Both were turning track record times of 16.0
seconds. Some even had them at 15.9 on
a few laps. These times were
three-tenths of a second off last year’s fastest laps by Hanley and Malcuitt.
By 5:00 pm the other major impact to the race, the weather,
began to cloud up and the threat of rain was on the minds of the overflowing
crowd. The crowd this year was the
largest in the twenty-nine year existence of the track – close to 15,000. Before the start of the first heat race,
Bahre went down to the ticket booth telling people in line that there was standing
room only left. “And not very good
standing room, at that, but they still kept coming in!” he said in amazement. The threat of rain also influenced the
decision of the drivers on the track as, per NASCAR rules, once the race made
it to halfway it would be considered official.
Heat race winners were Bill Dennis, Danny Perez and Morgan
Shepherd. Dennis, by virtue of his win
in heat one, started on the pole for the feature event. Bosco Lowe and Pete Silva took home
consolation race wins. A 35 lap
non-qualifiers race was added to this years show and Phil Gerbode of Vermont
won it. There was no transfer spot
to the feature, however, and Gerbode, along with Joey Kourafas (1974 winner)
were forced to miss the Oxford 250.
On the start of the 250, Bill Dennis blasted into the lead
as Perez could not keep up. Lindley
quickly moved in on Dennis to run second.
Bodine went from seventh to fourth on the first lap. Lindley got by Dennis in the first turn on
the fourth lap to take the lead, and Bodine quickly followed him through. The chase was on. Lindley and Bodine battled up front for the first fifty
laps. The two then began to run into
traffic and this led to some pretty hairy moments as each tried to find the
best way through the pack. Lindley would
open up a slight advantage, only to lose it in traffic a few laps later. Around the seventieth lap, a few drops of
rain spattered the windshields of the cars.
A mist filled the air and everybody worried about a rainout. A caution at lap 71 but the leaders
stayed out. Lindley, Bodine, Morgan
Shepherd, Tom Rosati, and Jeff Stevens all stayed on the track – probably
because of the threat of rain. Little
did they know that this would be their last real chance to make a pit stop.
The Lindley-Bodine battle became even more intense when
racing resumed. The pair often ran
whole laps side by side. Finally,
Bodine got Lindley trapped down low in traffic in turn two and took the lead on
the outside on lap 107. Now it was
Lindley’s turn to dog Bodine, and he did so with a vengeance. At lap 125, both crews informed their
drivers via the radio that the halfway point had been reached. The weather was still threatening, and now
it was even more important to lead every lap.
If it rained, the race was official and the leader was the winner. The pair dueled fiercely, often running up
on slower cars side by side. Around lap
140, the rain started again. Now both
drivers gave it their all. Coming
across the line for lap 146, Lindley edged Bodine for the lead. He cut Bodine off in turn one and retook the
top spot. The track got very slick and
Bodine started to fishtail in the corners, losing ground to Lindley. The rain would eventually stop,
and the duel would reach new heights of drama.
The two cars continued their torrid battle and Bodine would
actually sneak around Lindley on lap 210.
Neither driver was giving an inch as those ominous clouds kept them
going. Neither driver had pitted for
tires, let alone gas, and it was obvious as the race wound down that neither
had any plans to! On lap 244, Bobby
Dragon blew the motor in his Nova and dumped oil in turn two. Bodine ran into the oil and slid off the
track! Lindley snuck by to take
command. Bodine got the car
straightened out and back on the track.
The yellow was thrown to clean up the oil. Since Lindley and Bodine had lapped the field, they were still in
first and second place. Third place
Morgan Shepherd decided to pit for gas under yellow. “I was a lap down,” he stated.
“It was possible for the caution to stay out long enough for them to run
out of gas.” Bodine’s team urged
him to come in for a splash of gas. He
wouldn’t do it. Lindley later stated
that he would have gone to the pits if Bodine had. With just six laps remaining it was a risky decision either
way. The driver’s situation was not
helped any when Bodine missed a shift on the ensuing restart the jumbled up the
field and forced a few more caution laps to restore order to the lineup. Dick Glines added more laps to the misery
when he took on the front stretch wall after one lap was run under green. The race was being extended. The fuel was being stretched. The pressure was mounting on the two
leaders.
The pair finally got the last green flag with five to
go. For two laps the duo ran wheel to
wheel as the record crowd went wild.
Finally, Lindley pulled to a slight advantage. With two laps to go, Bodine fell in behind Lindley for the final
run to the checkers. They took the
white flag that way, nose to tail.
And then it happened.
The thing the leader of the race dreads, seemingly the only thing that
could keep Lindley out of Victory Lane.
He RAN OUT OF GAS! Lindley’s
Pontiac Ventura sputtered and died coming out of turn two. Bodine, unaware as to what was happening,
rammed into Lindley’s car before pulling around him to take the win. The dark red Ventura rolled to a halt in the
infield and Butch sat in stunned silence for a moment, realizing what had just
occurred. For nearly 100 miles he had
run the hardest, and the best, race of his life and his car had failed him with
less than a quarter of a mile to go.
The pressure, the intensity, the frustration, the exhaustion got to
him. The emotion of the moment welled
up inside and overwhelmed him. Butch
Lindley cried.
CLOSING: Bodine was
a well-known modified driver at the time and was actually looking for a Grand
National ride when he hooked up with car owner Emanuel Zervakis. Bodine brought the three-point rear
suspension from his modified setup over to the sportsman and revolutionized the
setups on late model race cars.
Lindley, who was the only other car on that lap, was credited with
second place…but that paid $3,425 less than first. And, of course, losing like that is devastating. Shepherd maintained his position as the only
car one lap down and took third. Tom
Rosati put in a solid defense of his 1979 Oxford 250 victory with a fourth
place finish in one of the “outlaw” Camaros.
Rosati had to race with the uncomfortable knowledge that his shoulder
harness had loosened up on him. During
the long green flag stretch he was forced to hold himself in place in the car!
WOW! Dave Dion rounded out the top
five. Lindley felt a little better
when he learned that he had still finished second. “It was the most disappointing race in all the years I’ve been
driving. I raced tons and tons, and I
never felt as bad as I did today. I
ain’t never cried after a race, but I did today. Bodine said, “I know how bad he feels. I ran out of gas while leading at Trenton, and that race paid
$10,000.” Bodine got $11,000 for his
Oxford Plains win. Lindley regained his
composure and came over and shook Bodine’s hand. NOTE: Wish I had seen
it! I was 8 years old and fell asleep!
DOH!
7th Annual Oxford 250 Pictures
Bodine and Lindley battle Nice paycheck Geoff! A
dejected Lindley sits in the infield