OXFORD – Engines rumbled, chrome glistened and car owners scrambled to put a finishing polish on their restored classics as the midday sun bore down on hundreds of cars and thousands of people. It was the 24th annual VIP Show, Shine and Drag at Oxford Plains Speedway on Sunday, and one of those car owners was John Kirby.
“I’m just trying to polish it up a bit before it gets too hot and everything gets going,” said Kirby of New Gloucester. “I was going to take it to a car show in Jay (Saturday) too, but it was way too hot for that. It’s a bit cooler today and Oxford’s a lot closer for me than Jay is.”
Sweat dripped from the brim of Kirby’s nose as he put the elbow grease to his two-tone, purple and white 1955 Ford Fairlane. The car sat in a row of a half dozen 1950s street machines, which also included a turquoise and midnight blue 1956 Plymouth Belvedere, owned by Roland and Jeanine Labbe of Lisbon. That machine, with its 303 horsepower, V8 engine was aptly named “Little Thunder.”
The Labbes’ car took third in their class.
While most of the cars in the show were produced after those mid-50s models, there were a few relics that predated even the Fairlane. One category, the Open Street Rod division, featured classics such as a 1931 Chevy Coupe, a 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe and a 1937 Lincoln Zephyr.
Two street rods in the category, however, were almost brand new, although they were fashioned in an antique style. They carried no manufacturer’s moniker, because each was hand-built from scratch.
“Had I used a kit to make the car, it might have taken me 90 days or so,” said Clay Bowden of Richmond. “I built it all from scratch, though.”
Bowden’s car, named “T 4 two,” took a shade less than two years to build.
“I started it July 1, 2003,” said Bowden, “and now it’s almost July 1 again. It’s been on the road three weeks now. There are only nine cars in the class today, though. I thought that there would be more, but I’m not here to win a trophy anyway. We’re not quite ready for that yet.”
Two of the more popular categories were the Chevy Corvettes and the Ford Mustangs. Poised in front of the grandstand, spectators couldn’t miss them.
“You can go out and buy a new Mustang at any Ford dealer,” said car owner Jim Haskell of Lewiston, “but to find an old one and rebuild it, that’s rare.”
Haskell’s entry Sunday was a bright red 1975 Ford Mustang II Mach 1 with black trim and a black leather interior. Last week at a show in New Gloucester, Haskell’s car won a trophy in the Mustang category. Sunday, Haskell took second among Mustangs from 1974 to the present.
Across the track from the classics was a modern class of cars. The younger generation gathered here, and brought with them big rims and even bigger sound systems with bass that echoed off the barren grandstands.
“I just like to stick with what I know,” said Lewiston High School senior Andrew Faucher, who exhibited a blue 1996 Dodge Neon with all-yellow interior trim, a thumping system and suicide doors (those that open upward as well as outward).
“Those just got done about three days ago,” said Faucher. “They’re not quite done yet, though. It’ll be back in the body shop this week.”
Despite any flaws he found with his own car, Faucher took home the first-place trophy in his class.
Motorcycles and trucks, large and small, had their own categories, too, and in the distance, the whine of engines maxing out their RPM’s on the raceway signaled the start of the drag racing competition.
Back on the oval, as the clock ticked closer to the completion of the judging phase, owners started to relax. The camaraderie and quality time spent outside on a searing hot summer day started to sink in, and the results of the judging, for many, became almost an afterthought.
“It’s just fun to go around and check out all of the other cars, too,” said Roland Labbe as he sat in the shade of an umbrella munching on a sandwich. “Now we relax, get something to eat and stay cool.”
Comments are no longer available on this story