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Ben Rowe
finally scores big in the Oxford 250 (Lee Truman photo) |
Oxford, Me – It was
the closest finish in the history of the 30 years of the True Value 250 as
three drivers were within a car length of each other at the finish line. Ben Rowe of Turner, Me held off a spirited
Steve Knowlton and Gary Drew to claim $34,700 and the victory in the “richest
one-day short track race in America”, the True Value 250 at Oxford Plains
Speedway.
Seventy-eight entries
were on-hand to attempt their fate at luck-of-the-draw starting positions in
six heat races. By virtue of his
victory in the first heat, Ben Rowe grabbed the pole position and with his win
in the second heat race, Mike Rowe would start the feature alongside! It was the first father-son front row in the
history of the event. Other heat race
winners included local campaigner Jeff White, Dale Shaw, Scott Mulkern, and
Glenn Luce. Three consolation rounds
followed with Tracy Gordon, Donnie Whitten, and Sam Sessions earning their way
into the starting field. Chuck LaChance
won the Last Chance Race, or Hooligan’s Race, and was faced with the decision
of pocketing $2,000 in cash or starting 37th on the starting
grid. Not wanting to buck tradition,
LaChance entered the True Value 250.
“If I went back there
(the pits) with the money, the crew would have killed me. We’re here to race.”
It would be a
storybook beginning and ending for Ben Rowe with a lot of other people grabbing
the spotlight in between.
Mike Rowe jumped to
the early lead, out-racing his son to the stripe to lead lap one and then
setting a quick pace for the first forty laps.
Surprising Oxford regular Billy Whorff Jr. passed the elder Rowe with a
strong move on lap 41 and racked up the $100 per lap led bonus money. It was a very competitive race with seven
different leaders and eleven lead changes.
Only three lead changes were a result of restarts, or cars pitting, as
the drivers at the front of the field continually hounded whoever was in front. Only Tracy Gordon and Ben Rowe were ever
able to pull away from the field.
It was after lap 200
that the field was actually set for the climactic showdown. Top drivers Ben Rowe, Gary Drew, Mike Rowe,
Sam Sessions, Gordon, and upstart Steve Knowlton were the only cars on the lead
lap and a restart on lap 209 would change the complexion of the race. Drew, the race leader, was slow at the drop
of the green flag and the younger Rowe was able to pull out to a substantial
lead.
“They said we’d be
going (green) somewhere between turns three and four,” explained Rowe. “That’s a pretty big area to have to worry
about. I looked up and saw the green
flag waving so I went.”
Drew saw things a
little differently.
“Ben took off a
little early,” commented Drew. “I guess
the starter decided to let it go. What
can you do?”
What Drew did was set
off in pursuit of the younger Rowe and proceed to rattle his cage at lap 223.
Said Rowe, “Gary is
really good to race with. He got into
me a little bit, but he let me get it back.”
“I don’t want to win
like that,” said Drew.
Rowe managed to pull
away at that point, but the drama was far from over. Steve Knowlton from Ipswich, Ma had a fast car all night and
actually led the event during its middle stages. He had the freshest tires of the top cars and was working his way
back into the picture. A large pileup
of cars in turn 3 brought the field under it’s tenth, and final, caution
setting up a finish that will be remembered in northeast racing annals for some
time.
The top five were
clear of any lapped traffic as the green flew.
Rowe and Knowlton were now the top two cars as Knowlton used some short
track savvy to get around Drew as the cars approached the scene of the lap 247
pile up. Gordon lined up third with Drew
alongside and Mike Rowe in his rearview.
Sam Sessions and Larry Gelinas (who got his lap back by passing Rowe on
lap 219) were also within striking distance of the lead. With double-file starts it was a drag race
to turn one and Rowe had the slight edge.
Knowlton fought back on the outside and the two cars took the white flag
side-by-side. With the hard racing in
front of him, Drew closed in on the leaders.
Knowlton nosed ahead on the backstretch as the crowd came to its
feet. Through turns three and four,
Rowe washed up the track due the various drying compounds on the track, and
Knowlton fought to hold his grip in the outside lane with a tire going
down! As those two battled to the
stripe, Drew looked low on BOTH of them.
With the checkers flying, Rowe held on by a half car length over
Knowlton who was less then a car ahead of Drew.
Knowlton was
obviously a bit disappointed settling for second.
“Well, I guess you
have to lose a few before you can win one.
We lost one tonight.” Knowlton described
the closing laps from his viewpoint.
“I was giving him
(Rowe) everything. We had a right front
tire going flat. In the last turn over
here (three and four) we pushed up just enough to give Ben a good shot coming
to the line.”
Rowe was certainly
happy as he added his name to the long list of winners on the True Value 250
list. Junior Hanley, Geoff Bodine, Bob
Pressley, Butch Lindley, Dave Dion, Dick McCabe, Chuck Bown, Dave Whitlock,
Ralph Nason, Mike Rowe…and now his son, Ben Rowe.
“I had to use up a
little more of the track then I wanted to, but I didn’t want to lose this
thing,” he said with a big grin. “I
drove hard down into three and the track…the track was actually in terrible
shape the last three laps. I couldn’t
lose this one. These guys on the crew
have busted their ass day in and day out.
I’m so proud of them…I just can’t believe this.”
“Winning this
race…this is IT. I watched my father
win this race twice and to get my name up on that same plaque is just
awesome. To win the pole and have him
start beside me…you just can’t script it any better.”
Rowe also elaborated
on the final battle with Knowlton.
“I just wanted to get
out and go (on the restart). I thought
if I could get the jump I could keep him out there. I just looked straight ahead until I saw him out the right-side
door and then I had to race him a little bit.”
Rowe has been the
runner-up on two occasions (1999,2000) and lost the event in 1996 as a rookie
when his car ran out of gas with two laps remaining. Rowe’s mother has not been to a True Value 250 since then. She was on the other end of a cell phone in
victory lane. As Ben Rowe began tearing
up, he uttered the words, “I did it, Mom.”
Gary Drew, the 2001
True Value 250 champion, gave Rowe a congratulatory hug in victory lane and was
candid with his comments.
“I just tried to race
my heart out and race back to where I was (first place). Steve got into me a little bit and that set
us back a bit. I really just dug hard
those last couple of laps.”
Race strategy also
played a part in the outcome.
“I wanted to pit at
lap 209,” said Drew. “The crew talked
me out of it. I really wish I would
have but I’ll have to live with the decision.
We raced our way back up to third and that was the best I could do. It’s still special finishing third and I bet
the crowd liked the three of us coming across the line three-wide.”
Notes:
-
Defending champ Scott
Robbins qualified 16th and ran as high as fourth before electrical
problems relegated him to 25th place.
-
Rowe is sponsored by
Mechanical Services and Superior Image & Embroidery. He drives a Monte Carlo.
-
Knowlton’s car was
sponsored by a company called Barfly and was the only Camaro in the field.
-
Gary Drew was in a
Monte Carlo sponsored by Drew Excavation.
-
Chuck LaChance should
have taken the money and walked away.
He blew up on lap 17.
-
Jeff Taylor (8-time
Oxford champ), Mike Maietta, Sr. (9-time Beech Ridge champ) and Ted Christopher
(multi-time modified and BNS winner) all failed to qualify!!
-
Larry Gelinas got
into the race on a past champion provisional.
The Oxford provisional went to track point leader Andy Shaw.
-
Patrick Laperle, an
ACT Dodge Tour regular, won the ACT race on Saturday night and qualified for
the True Value 250 on Sunday. He
finished 13th.
-
Pete Fecteau, also an
ACT Dodge Tour regular, qualified for the race and finished 27th.
Cautions: 10
Lead Changes: 11
Leaders: (M. Rowe grid-40, B. Whorff 41-76, B. Rowe 77-107, Knowlton
108-109, Drew 110-130, Sessions 131, Drew 132-142, Gordon 143-170, Sessions
171-180, B. Rowe 181-206, Drew 207-209, B. Rowe 210-250)
30th Annual
Oxford 250 Pictures
Peter
Taylor Photo