When Ricky Morse of St. Albans decided two seasons ago to make the nearly five-hour round trip to Oxford Plains Speedway for competition every Saturday night, that choice met with little fanfare and loads of confusion.

Understandably, some spectators thought the middle-of-the-pack Late Model Stock newcomer was none other than veteran local driver Richie Morse doing double duty. Richie, who hails from Waterford, is a three-time Limited Sportsman champion and a 22-time feature winner.

There’s no name game this season, however. While Richie takes some well-deserved time away from the asphalt, Ricky is proving himself anything but an also-ran. The much-traveled Morse won his third LMS feature in five starts in convincing fashion last Saturday evening.

Morse’s precision has been triply surprising on the re-paved OPS surface, which hasn’t permitted much passing to the outside in the higher divisions. Morse showed Ron Henry, John Donahue and Matt Sanborn it could be done out there, however, before using the inside to swipe the lead from rookie Jeff Moon on lap 20 of the 30-lap dash.

“There were a bunch of wrecks early in the race,” said Morse, who started 10th in the 18-car field. “That moved us toward the front, so we set it out there and said, ‘Let’s go win this thing.'”

In reviewing the season’s opening month, Morse makes the case that he could have won all five starts.

Mechanical failure sidelined him after two laps on opening day, and he took the blame for “over-driving” the car in finishing fifth behind Travis Adams two weeks ago.

Morse is not the point leader, consequently.

He’s chasing Jerry Harrison for that honor. With the exception of Billy Childs Sr. in Mini Stock, every driver leading the standings in one of Oxford’s five weekly divisions has posted at least one finish of 12th or worse.

OPS ignites the engines at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The next wave

Speaking of the “other” Morse, Richie’s son Spencer demonstrated that local racing’s next generation of stars already is charging out of the fourth turn.

Spencer Morse was one of the feature winners on Oxford’s first-ever Yankee Communications Go-Kart Series card last Friday night.

Most of the go-kart competitors are students between the ages of 5 and 15.

They compete on a 1/5-mile oval that incorporates the pit lane and front stretch of the 3/8-mile track. The green flag is unfurled again at 7 p.m. tonight.

Double-up for Double-zero

Ben Rowe of Turner drove two distinctly different No. 00 cars to victory lane at Maine speedways last weekend.

First, Rowe kicked off Wiscasset Raceway’s summer Friday night schedule by steering one of the new Strong Chevrolet Modifieds to a 20-lap win in only his second career open-wheel start.

The next night, Rowe worked his way to the inside on the final lap to deny Johnny Clark his first career triumph in the Pro All Stars Series 150 at Unity Raceway.

Rowe’s .024-second margin of victory (less than a foot) was the closest in PASS history. Ben’s father Mike finished third.

PASS travels to the Canaan Fair Speedway on Route 188 in Canaan, N.H., this Sunday.

True to form

Martin Truex Jr. showed last weekend that his stout performance while driving a car owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a recent Busch Series race was just as much about the man as the machine.

Truex climbed back into his family-owned Busch North car and led wire-to-wire for his fourth career BNS victory at Stafford Springs, Conn., last Friday night.

Andy Santerre finished second and rookie Ryan Moore ran third. Busch North pays its inaugural visit to Lake Erie Speedway in Pennsylvania on Sunday.

[email protected]