Patience
Pays Once Again at the 9th Annual Oxford 250
Mike Barry comes out of retirement for an
upset win
Pictures Below Recap
Recounted by Mark Truman using Stock
Car Racing Magazine Recap, November 1982 by Herb Dodge
NOTE: Exact quotes from the magazine will be in italics!!
July 18, 1982 – In an unexpected outcome, the retired
Oxford Open Series champion from 1980, Mike Barry, outlasted the stars from
north, south, east, and west to claim $16,000 and the victory in the 1982
Oxford 250. Barry joined forces in May
of 1982 with car owner Phil Gerbode and the new team barely had much seat time
together. However, Barry was no
stranger to Oxford Plains Speedway, having won the five race points
championship in 1980 and winning a dozen races in open competition events and
NASCAR North Tour races throughout the region.
In 1981, Barry fell on hard times.
He was able to manage only one win, as mechanical problems seemed to
plague his team. At the end of the
season, Mike “retired”. Barry used
a little patience and a lot of guile to get a lap back in the middle of the
race to take home the lion’s share of the posted $80,000 purse.
The leading story going into the ninth running of this
summer short track spectacular was not Mike Barry. Everyone was watching Junior Hanley and Ed Howe in their sleek
mid-western Camaros. They were burning
up the track while everyone else simmered in the pits. Most of the regular “sportsman” drivers were
not very happy competing against the Camaros.
The aerodynamic noses on these cars were thought to not conform to the
rules. Butch Lindley, one of the few
drivers who could run with the Camaros stated that his Zervakis NASCAR legal
sportsman and the cars of Howe and Hanley run “the same motor, the same tires,
and same weight as us, but that’s it.
They have better driver and motor location, shorter chassis, but the
biggest advantage is the swoopin’ nose.
It’s the biggest thing you can do and it’s free!” Race Director Dick Bahre agreed that there
were many different classes of cars in competition. “Sixteen Camaro-type cars entered, but they are complaining about
only two,” said Bahre.
Lindley was turning times of 16.1 seconds on the third miler
in practice as track temperatures approached 140 degrees. Howe and Hanley were also at 16.1
seconds. Mike Barry? 16.4-16.5 seconds. But remember, Barry was champion here in 1980. Did he know something that Lindley, Howe,
and Hanley didn’t?
Hanley and Howe didn’t disappoint in the first heat as they
finished first and second very easily to give Hanley the pole for the
feature. Howe appeared a little
loose, but he had a more important problem after the race. He forgot to go to the scale and was
disqualified! “I screwed up,” was his
way of characterizing his error. Mike
Rowe, the 1981 Oxford track champion, Ron Bouchard, and Beaver Dragon took the
other heat races. Howe came back to
take the first consolation race and Oxford regular Gale Ellis took the second. The sub-plot to the actual winner of the
race was making his presence known during qualifying. Jeff Stevens was involved in at least three wrecks in his
qualifying heat race but kept coming to the front, just missing a transfer
spot. He crashed one more time in his
consolation race. A new rule was in
effect for the 50-lap non-qualifiers race this year. The winner could take the $500 first prize and go home, or take
the last (37th) starting spot in the 250. As Jeff Stevens and his crew worked feverishly to repair his car
he commented, “It ain’t over yet!” Stevens
charged through the pack and avoided a late race crash that took him off the
track to win the non-qualifiers race. In
the winner’s circle, Stevens was asked if he would take the money or run the
250. “I’m gonna WIN the 250!” he
exclaimed. “You watch me. I’m gonna be comin’ like a high-speed
rocket!”
Expectedly, Hanley took the green flag and the lead with
Rowe falling in line. Bouchard began to
fall back immediately while Lindley took up the chase. Howe and Stevens began their charge from the
back. Hanley and Rowe dueled
fiercely up front. Ron Bouchard dropped
out with a failing engine on lap 15.
Rowe surprised everybody by passing Hanley two laps later. These two battled until lap 46 when disaster
struck. Russ Nutting and Harvey Sprague
tangled at the end of the homestretch, directly in front of the side-by-side
leaders. Both Rowe and Hanley hit the
spinning cars, putting all four out of the event. “There was nothing we could do,” Hanley said. “There was no place to go.” Lindley took over the top spot with
Oxford favorite Dave Dion up to second and Morgan Shepherd in third. Astonishingly, Jeff Stevens had moved into
ninth place and they hadn’t reached the 50-lap mark yet!
Lindley held the top spot for the next 35 laps. Dion took the lead on lap 82, as he wanted
some of the $50 per lap leader money. Stevens
was now in third place and Ed Howe’s bright green Camaro was sitting in
fourth. Lindley dogged Dion’s
bumper, giving him an occasional tap just to let him know he was still
there. A few times Lindley pulled
beside Dion, but he was unable to complete the pass. A spin on lap 131 brought out the third caution of the night. Dion would pit along with Lindley and
Mike Barry, who was in the top five.
Barry should have lost any chance at a victory during the pit stop as he
lost a lap to the field due to his crew changing the tires with hand
tools! The new leader of the race,
incredibly, was Jeff Stevens. His stay
at the top didn’t last long, however, as Howe showed the strength of his outlaw
Camaro by taking the lead. A caution at
lap 138 sent Stevens to the pits as he realized he couldn’t compete with Howe
at that point and needed tires. Morgan Shepherd
inherited second place.
Howe was the class of the field over the next 70 laps. But important events were happening back
in the pack. Charging through came Mike
Barry to camp on Howe’s bumper. Dick
McCabe was also moving up. Steven’s,
whose radical Howe Buick Regal was just plain tired, went behind the pit wall
on lap 183 with a broken axle. When
Dion got sideways in turn four on lap 185 to bring out the final yellow of the
night, Barry saw his opportunity. As
Howe backed off to avoid Dion, Barry accelerated and beat Howe to the flag,
gaining back his lost lap. Racing
resumed with McCabe now glued to Howe’s bumper and he gave Howe no
quarter. Things were getting a little
rough when McCabe looked for room under Howe in turns one and two. Apparently, there wasn’t enough, as McCabe
and Howe made contact, with Howe’s Camaro sliding into the infield. Bobby Dragon snuck by both cars to take the
lead as McCabe continued on and the green stayed out. Howe got going again also, but lost three laps in the process.
Dragon was a great story at this point, essentially coming
out of nowhere to lead with 35 laps remaining.
It was a brief time at the top though as the cars with better tires were
moving in. McCabe caught Dragon on
lap 219 and passed him lap 220. Mike
Barry was right behind. He had
absolutely the fastest car on the track. His strategy had worked
perfectly. It was Barry’s theory that
it’s best to leave a little push in the car during the day, or it will be loose
at night. “Every time we got the push
out of the car during the day,” he said, “the back end was chasin’ us around
the track all night.” He knew that it
was not smart to set up to run fast during the day. The cooler the track got, the better his car handled. McCabe tried everything to keep Barry behind
him, but to no avail. It took only four
laps for Barry to find his way around McCabe, and then set sail for the
checkered flag.
CLOSING: This Herb
Dodge is an excellent writer! I haven’t
seen much need to edit the stories that much.
Lindley would work his way past McCabe for second while Dragon finished
off a good night with fourth. Geoff
Bodine, never a factor up front, did end up with his third top five in as many
attempts in the race. Post race
protests seemed to be a tradition at the 250 and with Butch Lindley in second
place, you can guess who protested.
However, the scorecards validated that Barry did, indeed, beat Howe back
to the yellow to get his lap back.
Barry would tail off into obscurity and really retire over the next two
years. But for one magical night, he
figured out the track and the conditions worked just right for his strategy and
his patient right foot. “It’s really
hard not to go out and practice fast during the day,” Barry commented. “It takes a lot of discipline to keep the
car in the pits during the afternoon.
You have a tendency to start second-guessing your decision. As practice wears on, your feet get real
itchy!” NOTE: This is the first race that I remember VERY
clearly. I was sitting on the turn one
side of the start\finish line and saw the Hanley and Rowe wreck take place
almost in front of me. What a
disappointment! Hanley’s car was
awesome looking and fast, but there was Mike Rowe taking it to him door to
door! The run of Ed Howe and Jeff
Stevens, along with the Hanley and Rowe wreck were my biggest memories. Appropriately, just like the recap alludes
to, Mike Barry’s win was an almost afterthought for me.
9th Annual Oxford 250 Pictures
Hanley’s mean machine Roger Laperle and Claude Aubin. Robbie Crouch?
Mike Barry is all smiles
Jean-Paul Cabana didn’t qualify Ed Howe.
Yes, THAT Howe. “The Outlaw” Jeff Stevens
This spin by Dave Dion (#29) on lap
185 gave Mike Barry his lap back.
Butch
Lindley (#6) gets by without incident