OXFORD — Engulfed in the black truck’s enormous hull, chrome stirrups on the side, a massive toolbox in the bed, the Ford F-350’s shining insignia raised from the anodized sheen of the doors, the smell of burnt rubber, fried food and exhaust intermingling with shouts and a cascade of heat off a sea of asphalt… is 13-year old driver and racing veteran Maggie Ferland. She is slightly bored.

Ferland’s waiting her turn to race her father’s pickup truck at the Oxford Plains Dragway Show, Shine and Drag on Sunday, sandwiched in a long line of Mustangs, two-door sport cars, a lime-green Pinto, a snowmobile, motorcycles and a PT Cruiser.

The truck appears absurdly large for her; the setting, surreal. Ferland, too young to legally obtain a driver’s permit and cruise through suburbia, is at home behind the wheel on the dragstrip. She’s been racing since she was 11.

“Some of my friends don’t believe me; some think it’s the coolest thing ever — especially the guys,” Ferland said.

Though she’s too young to race a stock car in Oxford, the rules are different since it’s the dragstrip’s first — and last — race of the season.

Two weeks ago, organizers canceled the dragway’s season, grinding all racing on the 1/8 mile of track to a halt. The plans are indefinite and no one’s sure if the track will reopen next year.

Kathy Roberti refuses to let the news bring her down.

As the line for racers looking to give the strip a last hurrah grows — cars keep recycling back in line to take passes, like kids at recess waiting in line for the slide — she hands finished racers a ticket containing their starting, halfway and final times.

She’s upbeat and says the point of today “is to have fun.”

Hundreds of fans appeared to agree, sitting in the stands or leaning against the chain link fencing lining the dragway’s advertisement-plastered walls. By Roberti’s account, it’s the largest crowd in recent memory, hearkening to the track’s heyday in the 1970s.

In 1969, following the success of the Oxford Plains Speedway six years before, local millionaire Bob Bahre built the dragway as a Friday-night alternative to the popular speedway races on Saturday.

According to Sun Journal records, the track closed in 1978 due to financial difficulties, only to reopen two years later.

Rick Romano could chronicle that history. Refueling his grandson’s electric-green snowmobile, the stocky, barrel-chested Jay native is local racing royalty.

The Romano family has ridden in the driver’s seat of the dragway’s history; three generations have raced and won in Maine and the innumerable tracks they’ve called ‘home’ over the summers of the past 47 years.

Many of those races were family affairs: Wife Elaine, a skilled racer, rode in the opposite lane of her husband. When their son grew up, three Romanos could be found on a course.

Rick laughs just thinking about the changes since the track’s first day (he was there) and the scene today. He’s not sure why drag racing has lost fans, and reminisces back to 1969, when he and several hundred other racers convinced founder Bahre that the sport was viable enough to support a strip.

“All the asphalt you see was covered with race cars,” he said.

Today, he suspects it’s too expensive.

“Back then, you could buy racing fuel for 57 cents per gallon. Now, it’s over $12,” Ramono said.

His son — also named Rick — grew up behind the wheel.

Much like his father, he’s seen the sport evolve, costs increase and friends retire.

“It can consume you financially. I’ve seen racers do well and then lose it all. It’s an addiction,” he said.

As he watches his son, Austin, 16, race for the first time on an electric-green snowmobile modified to cruise on asphalt, he smiles ruefully at the thought of what he’ll do all summer now.

“For a drag racer, the smell of gas and rubber is (pure) testosterone,” he said.

The day also hosted an outdoor showroom of antique, exotic and vintage automobiles on the conspicuously quiet speedways track.

One, a black Ford F-650, rugged and menacing, loomed over the showroom-quality cars parked around it, a masculine, primordial progenitor of cars.

Fittingly, the soap in the men’s bathroom was all-natural and exfoliating.

Then, toward the end of the afternoon, a hope-inspiring message came through the intercom: A voice said the Show, Shine and Drag will go on next year.

Ferland hopes the rest of the races will return to the schedule. “I’ve always wanted to go fast.”

CLICK HERE to watch a video from Sunday’s Show, Shine & Drag

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