JAY — Golfers who achieve Bob DiPompo’s longevity imagine what it would be like to shoot beneath their age for 18 holes.

DiPompo dreamed of building a car that would average a higher number in miles per hour for 30 laps.

“I’m having more fun this year than Mark Martin is having in NASCAR,” DiPompo said with more than a hint of childlike mischief in his voice, demonstrating what a relative concept age really is.

Martin, he of the aw-shucks smile and heavily wrinkled brow, is the elder statesman among full-time Sprint Cup drivers at 51.

You can be sure DiPompo, 74, owns tools older than that. In fact, Martin wasn’t even born when DiPompo began racing at Oxford Plains Speedway.

“I started in 1956 when it was a dirt track over there. That was when I was going out with my wife (Glenda), just out of high school,” DiPompo said. “Then we got married and my boy (Dan) was born. I raced until 1970. Al Hammond took over my ride and won three track championships.”

Hammond, 67, is still making the nearly continuous left turn at Oxford Plains Speedway every summer Saturday night. Even he’s a pup compared to DiPompo, who is believed to be the oldest active racer in Maine.

And DiPompo isn’t merely a field filler, to use another term that has become an unfortunate part of the racing vocabulary.

Competing in Oxford’s intermediate weekly class, Strictly Stock, DiPompo ran in the top three through the first half of a 30-lap feature on Sunday’s TD Bank 250 card before settling for a season’s-best sixth.

“(My engine) was skipping, too. I don’t think they could have passed me if it hadn’t been for that. I was holding onto second for a long time and then Gene Hatch got me,” DiPompo explained. “He and (third-place) Kurt Hewins came over and congratulated me and said, ‘You’ve got that thing hooked up.’ I told them I’m going to give them a run for their money before the end of the year.”

DiPompo was so serious about this year’s racing endeavors that he built a new Strictly Stock out of a mid-1990s Chevy Monte Carlo.

He was moderately competitive in the previous ride but felt like the tortoise competing with hares.

“A lighter car makes a lot of difference. This one’s right to specs. The other one was 300 to 400 pounds too heavy,” DiPompo said. “I couldn’t get any speed coming out of the corner.”

The DiPompo family is an inseparable part of OPS tradition. Bob’s late brother, Tony, owned the cars that Bob DiPompo and Al Hammond drove in the 1960s and ’70s. Tony is a member of the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Tony’s son and Bob’s nephew, Freddie, is chief mechanic for current OPS Late Model point leader Tommy Ricker.

While others get caught up in spending money and chasing championships, Bob DiPompo keeps fun at the forefront. He’s quick with stories, including the explanation of why he once chose No. 00 for his car.

“Sometimes you end up on your roof and sometimes you stay on your wheels,” he said, “and that way it was all the same.”

DiPompo is mostly closely identified, however, with the red, white and baby blue and the No. 43 of Richard Petty.

By the way, you can add NASCAR’s long-retired “King” to the list of racing personalities that are younger than DiPompo: Petty turned 73 on July 2.

“My boy Danny painted it. He did a beautiful job,” DiPompo said. “I’ve had a lot of compliments. People were coming over to take our picture this weekend and I didn’t even know who they were.”

DiPompo won his last checkered flag at Oxford in 1969. His closest brush with victory lane was a 200-car, 200-lap Enduro in the mid-1980s that paid $2,000 to win.

Leading with a dozen laps to go, DiPompo had to pit when his car overheated. It stalled. By the time he returned to the track, he’d dropped to second.

Second, even third, would be fine with DiPompo this summer as he races door-to-door with men young enough to be his grandsons.

“I want one of those trophies. It’s been a while since I won one,“ DiPompo said. “The boys over there treat me pretty good. But I don’t want them to baby me. I want to earn it.”

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