Fans, drivers get back on track after Dennis Dee’s death last weekend.
By Kalle Oakes
Sports Editor

OXFORD — There were tears again Saturday night at Oxford Plains Speedway. This time, though, they were accompanied by what appeared to be a warm smile from above.

As the Limited Sportsman division put the finishing touches on its 25-lap feature, a brilliant rainbow pierced the milky, dusk-tinged sky between the first and second turns of the 3/8-mile oval.

Two significant details: it was several minutes after sunset, and it wasn’t raining yet.

It didn’t take long for spectators, track officials and racing colleagues of Dennis Dee to interpret the eye-catching spectrum as a message on behalf of their fallen friend.

“I guess the Man upstairs made it that way,” said driver Doug Poland.

The colorful array appeared above the approximate spot where Dee’s fatal crash began precisely one week and one hour earlier.

Dee, a driver who raced in three OPS divisions in his eight-year racing career, died of injuries sustained when his late model stock car hit the backstretch retaining wall at high speed during a heat race for the New England Dodge Dealers 100.

“I never had the pleasure of meeting Dennis,” said Glen Reynolds, “but we had important thing in common. We’re both racers. We love to do this. It’s an awful tragedy.”

Sprinkles eventually did brush the speedway, necessitating a 20-minute rain delay before fading away. Longtime OPS announcer Bobby Walker alluded to the odd significance of that, as well.

“The radar says it’s raining two miles south of here, and it appears to be moving the other way,” Walker said.

Buddy Leavitt won the main event, a race that went 72 laps without a caution, then ended under caution due to a persistent second shower.

David Raymond, Ron Charpentier Jr., Jeff Moon and Travis Adams completed the top five. For Leavitt, a former Charger division champion who “un-retired” this season, it was his first OPS feature victory since June 1998 and his 21st overall.

Scott Robbins ended his half-season of discontent with an impressive pass of Scott King on the next-to-last lap to claim the chief support feature, a 35-lap Pro Stock tangle.

Robbins pulled off a maneuver perfected over the years by Mike Rowe, rolling his car to the high side of turn one before zipping low in turn two and making his winning move to the inside as the leaders raced down the backstretch.

“First of all, we’re back,” proclaimed Robbins, who struggled to three finishes of 20th or worse early in the spring. “I thought if we could catch him that I’d be able to try that move.”

“His car was better than mine on the long runs,” said King. He initially swiped the lead from Robbins on a paint-swapping lap 23 restart.

Robbins, who hadn’t won since the True Value 250 last July, took the top spot away from Jim Weymouth earlier on that circuit, just before Weymouth spun to bring out the final yellow flag.

Reigning LMS champion and Pro Stock rookie Ricky Rolfe finished third, followed by weekly series point leader Andy Shaw and Gary Drew.

Before the races began, Walker told the crowd that No. 88, the numeral Dee formerly campaigned in the Pro Stock division, was being retired by the speedway. Another driver associated with that number, eight-time champion Jeff Taylor, added the initial ‘T’ to his No. 88 in honor of that decision.

Early feature action provided plenty of safe drama. In the end, Carey Martin completed a three-peat, Peter Hafford became the first Strictly Stock driver to repeat, Rich Sirois snagged his first win of the year, and Glenn Hall took his first victory lap ever.

Martin won his third consecutive Limited Sportsman feature and assumed the division point lead. The three-time champion admitted that the second accomplishment in that equation lost some of its luster because his close friend and early-season leader Kenny Harrison was absent.

The engine in Harrison’s car failed in last week’s heat race, and Harrison decided early this week that he would take Saturday off.

“I talked to him Tuesday, and I knew that,” said Martin. “I look at it this way: If you win, and he’s here, you go home knowing you’ve beaten one of the best.”

After taking the lead from Skip Stanley with a bold inside move on lap 18, Martin saw his toughest remaining challenger, David Raymond, fall by the wayside due to a mechanical failure on a lap 20 restart.

Martin finished eight car lengths ahead of Poland and Reynolds.

Fourteen different drivers won one Strictly Stock feature this season before Hafford broke through to pick up his second victory in Saturday’s ‘A’ feature. Hafford wrestled the lead away from Phil Mitchell III with nine laps left in the 20-lap sprint, then kept the lead after contact that sent Kurt Hewins spinning on a late restart.

“We’ve had a good season,” Hafford said. “I’m sorry I got into Kurt Hewins. We were pushing real hard for the win there.”

Gerry Burgess and Sumner Sessions rounded out the trophy winners. Sessions moved up to third after point leader Travis Mains was disqualified for low ride height.

Apparent second-place finisher Dale Brackett fell victim to that transgression in the ‘B’ feature, a race otherwise dominated by Hall. The rookie driver from Litchfield dove underneath Rick Valentine for the lead on lap 3. Jerry Freve and Mike Sprague ascended to second and third.

Sirois cruised to an even more lopsided victory in a caution-free MIni Stock dash, driving his Dodge across the finish line one-third of a lap ahead of Wayne Warren. Point leader Billy Childs Sr. ran third.

koakes