Some local racers and enthusiasts wax nostalgic about the days when the local stock car schedule stretched from Easter until Halloween.

Just do yourself a favor if you’re on that side of the argument and don’t bring Shawn Martin into the discussion.

He might not have any complaints if Oxford Plains Speedway, the American-Canadian Tour and every other racing entity in the region didn’t fire the engines until the Fourth of July.

Martin has celebrated most of his major racing accomplishments in the heat of summer.

“It’s funny, we sat down this winter and talked about that whole thing and what we had to do to change it,” Martin said “It always seems to happen that about a month after the season starts, we finally nail it. We want to nail it earlier.”

The 32-year-old from Turner hit his July stride last Saturday night, keeping Don Wentworth and Jimmy Childs at bay to win the 40-lap Late Model main event at OPS.

It was Martin’s 13th career victory at Oxford — including two ACT triumphs — and only his second since 2006. That other checkered flag flew on Independence Day weekend of 2009.

He didn’t really get a fair chance to shake those spring doldrums this year.

Thanks to rain and regularly scheduled weeks off, Saturday’s event was only Martin’s second points race and his fourth start overall.

Most notable was an absence opening night, but not due to the mechanical gremlins that might have intervened at the start of other seasons.

Martin, who grew up in the Aroostook County community of Frenchville, missed the race in order to attend a surprise 70th birthday party for his father.

“The first points race we rained out, and they had the makeup date that Friday (of Memorial Day weekend),” Martin said, “I was torn about it for a while, but I realized that I’ve got plenty of years of racing left. I’m not going to miss something like that.”

In an effort to jumpstart his season, Martin competed in the ACT season-opener at Lee USA (N.H.) Speedway in April.

He never imagined then that he would get only one other chance to race — Oxford’s June 5 ACT date — in 10 weeks.

Then again, it might have been addition by subtraction.

“We went to Lee to try and dust the cobwebs off and get back in the swing of things,” Martin said. “But with all the rainouts and stuff, who knows? Maybe that played to our advantage.”

Martin, the 2004 OPS Late Model champion, is still working on getting his car’s set-up into midseason form.

The No. 94 was faster in practice on old tires than new tires last week. After a so-so showing in the 10-lap heat race, his team made major adjustments.

“In the feature we were fast. I don’t think we were Jeff Taylor fast, but we were good enough to win,” Martin said.

Martin’s win puts him on the short list of OPS weekly competitors who are early contenders to win the TD Bank 250 on July 24.

Taylor, Jeff White, Corey Morgan, Ricky Rolfe, Wentworth and T.J. and Tim Brackett also are in that conversation.

Mr. July has a fair track record in the summer classic, as you might expect. Martin won the pole in 2007. Twice, he has finished in the top five.

“I think right now the advantage is with the tour guys because they’ve gotten most of their shows in,” Martin said. “The more you race, the better you get. But there are a lot of local guys running really well right now, and we hope we’re in that mix.”

Missing one race and losing at least two others to weather doesn’t bode well for Martin’s championship hopes, although he’s back in the top 10.

“We’re 54 points out. It’s do-able, but it would take a miracle,” Martin said.

Or perhaps just a few extra days in July.

Left turns

— The K&N Pro Series East (formerly known as Busch North) is celebrating its 25th anniversary season, and NASCAR marked the milestone by releasing a list of the top 10 drivers in series history this week.

Heading the list is four-time champion Andy Santerre of Cherryfield. The rest, in order: Kelly Moore, Brad Leighton, Jamie Aube, Ricky Craven, Mike Stefanik, Joey Logano, Ryan Truex, Dale Shaw and Dick McCabe.

New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosts the series for a 125-lap race Friday.

— Two races in 72 hours produced two first-time winners on the Pro All Stars Series.

New Brunswick driver Lonnie Sommerville drove to victory in the Southern Maine Motors 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

Then, in an even bigger upset, Gary Smith of Bangor won the Bastille 200 at Lee USA Tuesday. Smith has competed with PASS throughout its 11-year history and is a Pro Stock touring series mainstay since the early 1990s.

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