Read the text beneath this ugly mug often enough and you probably recognize that I find greater entertainment value in Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Robby Gordon and Kevin Harvick winning races and wrinkling fenders than in Matt Kenseth’s consistent (i.e., dull) march to the NASCAR Winston Cup championship.

If you’re familiar with weekly goings-on at Oxford Plains Speedway, you might assume that I’m less than enthused with Ricky Rolfe’s winless waltz to the Pro Stock championship.

Not true. Local short-track racing is a thoroughly different animal, and Rolfe’s name is right at home on a short list that includes local legends Mike Rowe, Jeff Taylor, Al Hammond and the late Niles Gage.

First of all, given the 35-lap format and a handicap system that rightfully assigns the point leaders to the rear of the field each week, the OPS championship wasn’t going to be won any other way this year.

Pro Stocks are more identically prepared than ever before. New asphalt paradoxically provided such great grip that it made tires look slippery and rendered passing in the outside lane virtually impossible.

For the first time in track history, nobody in the premier division won more than two races, and the drivers who did double up- Taylor, Gary Drew, Frank Snow, rookie Jeremie Whorff and Alan Wilson – were never a factor in the points race. Only one of the top five drivers at season’s end won a feature.

In fact, Rolfe took home only one trophy all spring and summer, for finishing third on June 21. What the racer from Albany Township accomplished under the aforementioned conditions while starting approximately 20th every week, however, was superb.

Sixteen races were run in 2003. Rolfe finished fifth, sixth or seventh in nine of them, including the final six in a row. That gave him the edge in a post-True Value 250 home stretch that saw fellow contenders Andy Shaw and Billy Whorff suffer multiple difficulties.

As has been reported here more than once in recent Sundays, Rolfe’s title was historic on many levels.

He is the first “rookie” to win the Pro Stock crown after a 20-year OPS career in which he’s won 23 checkered flags in Figure Eight, Super Street, Charger, Late Model Stock and ACT Dodge Tour competition.

Only six drivers have now won titles in more than one division at Oxford, and Rolfe is only the second man to make it happen in consecutive seasons. Terry Warren earned that distinction in the four-cylinder sport truck and compact divisions in 1993-94. No offense to Warren, but in the interest of full disclosure, he beat four other trucks in the first five races of 1993 before the division was disbanded.

Rolfe captured top LMS honors last season before following past champions Ben Rowe, Nick Nichols, Scott Robbins and Dennis Spencer Jr. in the natural jump to Pro Stock.

Oxford’s Late Model division has existed for less than a decade, but it has been a fertile proving ground for the region’s most exceptional drivers. Robbins and Rowe are the last two True Value 250 champions, while Ryan Moore backed up his 2001 championship with Rookie of the Year runs in the ACT Dodge Tour and NASCAR Busch North Series.

And Rolfe was no mere freshman when it came to front-running Pro Stock cars.

He helps construct them for a living at Dave and Donna Smith’s Race Basics in Andover. Rolfe and Race Basics actually bagged double bragging rights this season, as they also provided the wheels that Canton’s Travis Adams steered to his LMS championship.

Perhaps it’s no accident in today’s high-technology racing world that each of the last 11 OPS Pro Stock leaders including eight titles by Jeff Taylor and one each for Rolfe, Jerry Babb and Stan Meserve has had a hand in building his championship car.

Mercifully, weekly racers don’t line up according to their speed in a time trial or heat race finish. Otherwise, the spectators who spent their hard-earned $10 might be overcome by a fit of narcolepsy. Most Maine tracks invert the field according to point standing. OPS wisely employed an extra step this season, setting that grid according to average weekly point accumulation and preventing midseason refugees from attaining an undue advantage.

The system has worked for years at Oxford. Gage, Dick Mason and Jim Burns each preceded Rolfe in winning the title in the headline division without capturing a race victory. In the heyday of the Charger class, it happened in three consecutive years from 1981-83, as Gene Smith doubled up without the benefit of a checkered flag and Darren Bernier annexed a title minus an individual triumph.

In Saturday night competition, six other drivers have won the season-long war without conquering a single points-paying battle: Mark Cyr (Street Stock, 1984); Guy Stevens (Strictly Stock, 1995); Mike Short (Strictly Stock, 1997); Mark Lucas (Mini Stock, 1998); Bob Mooney (Mini Stock, 1999); and Kurt Hewins (Limited Sportsman, 2000).

Sure, there might be more exciting paths for a season than the one Ricky Rolfe followed. Just imagine for a moment, though, that every NASCAR race unfolded on a flat, narrow track such as New Hampshire International Speedway, and that Kenseth took a provisional every week.

Now tell me Rolfe didn’t earn his championship.

Kalle Oakes is sports editor and can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].