Terrible Tommy Steals the Money at the Budweiser Oxford 250

Outspoken Tommy Ellis outwits Dick McCabe in winning the 10^th Annual short track classic

Pictures Below Recap

Recounted by Mark Truman using Stock Car Racing Magazine Recap, November 1983 by Herb Dodge

NOTE: Exact quotes from the magazine will be in italics!!

July 1983 – The 1983 Budweiser Oxford 250 solidified the Maine short track classic as a legitimately polarizing event on the regional and national racing scene. Track owner and promoter Bob Bahre put up $106,061 for the event and it carried a NASCAR North sanction that would help to bring some southern stars up for the race for the money and some NASCAR points as well as to put a nationally known series into the event. However, NASCAR virtually turned its back in the inspection line, allowing its cars to compete under Oxford Open rules. Stroh’s Tour Director Tom Curley said that the idea of letting the NASCAR North car, which usually run under more restrictive rules, change their racers was, “To let everybody have access to the edges equally. We are strategically not as well versed in 200 lap events as the Southerners are.” It appeared that Curley was trying to be sure one of his cars won the Oxford 250.

The other polarizing, and controversial, aspect of the 250 is its famous qualifying procedure. No time trials means that everyone has to draw for a starting position in a heat race and earn their way into the feature lineup. For the southern drivers and other invaders, this is becoming a serious point of contention that could impact the Oxford 250 in coming years. Said Midwest visitor Mark Martin, “This car is fast enough to get in the top ten in time trials. This system puts the good cars back there tryin’ too hard runnin’ into slower cars.” Well, not every good car starts at the back and Bob Bahre’s system doesn’t insist that fast cars have to run into anyone. Top southern competitor Tommy Ellis was probably the most outspoken critic before the event.

“I hate this place,” he bristled. “I didn’t want to come here. My crew and sponsors talked me into it. A lotta good cars don’t start this race. The guy who runs this racetrack (Bahre) got this system to get cars tore up – double file restarts, draw for position. If I had to race like this every week, I’d do something else! Even if I win this race, I don’t think I’ll come back.”

“The system is not designed to crash cars,” responded Bahre to the criticism. “This is the way the fans like it. I could do it his (Ellis’s) way and pay $20,000 instead of $120,000. If the fans want to see a parade they can go downtown on July 4 and they don’t have to pay me $20 to see it! If we started with time trials ten years ago the 250 wouldn’t be what it is today.”

And what an event it was! With 84 entries in the pits vying for 37 starting spots, Bahre had another big event with what he estimated as 18,000 people on-hand to witness it. With the south represented by Ellis, 1976 Oxford 250 winner Butch Lindley, Eddie Falk, Rick Mast and rising star Terry Labonte there was a “civil war” feeling to the event even 8 years after Butch Lindley first took the northern money back home. Canada (and the Stroh’s Tour) was again represented with the likes of Jean-Paul Cabana, Claude LeClerc, Roger Laperle, and Hector LeClair. The largest contingent, as usual, came from the New England ranks and the NASCAR North Tour (and Stroh’s Tour as well) with 250 veterans Dick McCabe, Robbie Crouch, Mike Barry, Dave Dion, Randy Lajoie and the Dragon brothers, Bobby and Beaver. “Outlaw” standout Jeff Stevens (a 1982 Oxford 250 favorite) and Oxford regulars Mike Rowe, Reggie Gammon and Bill Whorff Jr. made for a strong mix of north, south, local, and regional stars to do battle in heat races, consolation races, and the infamous last chance qualifier that could have up to 40 cars alone!

One driver who did not make the starting field was 1979 front-runner Mark Malcuit who wrecked in his heat race. Malcuit was driving one of the few fiberglass Camaro’s to enter this year’s 250. Rules restrictions had discouraged Howe, Hanley, Biederman, et al, from competing. Fiberglass cars were required to carry 100 extra pounds and had to fit a body template. “The extra 100 lbs. Is tough,” commented Malcuit, “especially since all the weight must be on the right side. I’ll be back, but I’d be better off with a Sportsman car!”

Onto the race! The rumor in the pits before the start was that McCabe would try and run the whole race on a single tank of gas. McCabe denied that was his plan, but he did have to admit that he had a brand new Prototype 355 cid. motor in the car with a 390 cfm. carb on it. He claimed the 390 was “to smooth the motor out.” since Oxford is not a power track. McCabe could have run up to a 800 cfm. carb under Oxford Open rules. McCabe added interior sheet metal to provide a wing effect. NASCAR did make everyone run a full windshield, even though McCabe and others showed up with a half windscreen. What changes were made under the sheet metal were not being discussed, but there was sure to be many, as NASCAR wasn’t checking.

The winner of heat number one and the pole winner for the feature was Milton, Vermont’s Bobby Dragon. Dragon had led the 1982 event in the late stages but succumbed to drivers with fresher tires down the stretch and wound up in fourth place. Dragon jumped to the early lead from the pole, but it didn’t last long as McCabe got to the front easily and would set a steady pace at the front for 125 of the first 184 laps. However, it was a decision NOT to pit on lap 174 that McCabe will not soon forget. On lap 174 the yellow came out for a spin involving Mark Martin and Brent Hatch. McCabe’s crew chief wanted him to pit immediately for gas and tires. McCabe said “no” via the radio. He was collecting $50 a lap for leading and he wanted to stay out. He felt he was running fast enough to win and he could make the distance without additional fuel.

“It’s his decision,” commented crew chief Mark Wentworth. “He’ll have to live with it!”

Tommy Ellis and most of the other top runners elected to pit for fuel and tires. After a restart, a two lap battle ensued between McCabe and last years winner Mike Barry. McCabe lost the lead to Barry. Sixteen laps later, McCabe got the top spot back, but Ellis was charging through the pack. On lap 211, a car stalled in turn one, bringing out the final caution of the night. It was at that time that McCabe decided to pit for gas and tires. Once McCabe had made the commitment to try and go all the way, he probably should have stuck with the plan and forced Ellis to pass him on the track.

“Tommy forced us to pit,” Wentworth commented. “He was gainin’ on us!” Ellis was convinced that he could have won the race anyway.

“He had to pit,” Ellis commented on McCabe’s decision. “His tires were goin’. We would have just caught him and blown him away.”

McCabe admitted that he made two mistakes in the 250. “I could have gone the distance, but we did the wrong thing,” he stated. “We was getting that $50 a lap and it turned me on. I was thinking about the pennies and not the dollars!”

McCabe’s late pitting strategy handed the lead to Ellis who was clearly the class of the remaining cars on the track. Claude LeClerc and Pete Silva kept him in sight but they were not going to catch Ellis, whose brashness and outspoken personality should never overshadow his talent on the short tracks. While McCabe fought his way through traffic, Ellis was long gone. A yellow would have given McCabe a shot at the victory, but he didn’t get one. Ellis won easily. Ellis earned $20,050 for his win, but McCabe topped that with $20,600 for second including a whopping $7,600 in lap money and $1500 for leading at the halfway point. Third place LeClerc received $7,350. It was the biggest payday for all three drivers. Mike Barry was fourth and Pete Silva was fifth.

Ellis toned down his criticism of Bob Bahre after the race. “I’m not puttin’ the man down,” he drawled in the press box. “He’s not greedy like some promoters. But how about all the guys that came so far with real good race cars, and go home with nothing! They got to make some changes, and I mean it!”

Said Bahre, “You should hear the fans when the cars come out for the heats. They’re looking for their guy. He (Ellis) won the race, but he busted his rear to do it. He ran a goddamn race, it wasn’t handed to him!”

Bahre was then challenged that the race was getting too big and that the 250 had outgrown its qualifying system.

“I plan on keeping it basically the same. If I don’t sell tickets, nobody gains. The Grand National race at Nashville last night paid $11,000 to the winner. We paid over $20,000 to the winner and $13,000 for second! For that kind of money, you’re gonna crash cars even if you run time trials.”

CLOSING: Herb Dodge did another great job, although, he didn’t get into as much detail about the actual events on the race track as normal. The drama and displeasure of the qualifying format was the big story in 1983 and he captured that very well. I’m a bit disappointed that he didn’t have a few more post race comments from Ellis. I clearly remember Ellis making a comment in victory lane that he was tired about running with a bunch of the local junk and that he’d probably never return. The crowd definitely laid the “Booos” loud on him and drowned out the rest of his victory lane comments. There were two other southerners with some choice comments that weren’t as famous, but were quote-worthy from the article. Butch Lindley commented “I always said I don’t like it (qualifying system), even when I won the heats and started on the pole. There’s a bunch of scrap iron around here today! I know twenty more top Sportsman cars would come here if they would run time trials. I believe you could have 200 cars at this race!” Terry Labonte was succent in his opinion of the qualifying procedure. “It sucks!” he stated emphatically. The sentiment from the faster, well-funded, drivers that time trials were better is nothing new and you can see that in 1983 there was strong pressure to move the 250 in that direction. In the coming years, the race would cave into that idea and the race would suffer.

10^th Annual Oxford 250 Pictures

Dick McCabe Tommy Ellis goes around Mark Martin (01) Tommy Ellis didn’t look mad in this picture!

Mark Malcuit’s fiberglass body had to meet a template Russ Nutting goes over Mark Malcuit! This pitstop on lap 211 possibly cost McCabe the victory

Look at the packed pit stands!