At 74 years old, Mike Rowe is still going strong on the racetrack.
Rowe, of Turner, is one of only two drivers who have won the Oxford 250 in three decades, along with Dave Dion. He picked up his first 250 win in 1984, then again in 1997 and 2005. Rowe was in the starting lineup for the very first Oxford 250 (then a 200-lap race) in 1974.
Rowe’s legacy at the track commands respect from his fellow drivers.
“I think he’s like Tom Brady, if Tom Brady never retired,” said Palmyra’s Max Cookson. “Mike will just amaze you sometimes. He’s (74) years old, will hop in the race car and give everyone a run for their money. I still don’t know how he does it. It’s amazing to me.”
Mike Rowe qualified for Sunday’s main even through one of the consolation heats, marking the 41st time he’s qualified for the main event. He was in the top five late in the race and finished eighth.
“I don’t know how he does it,” agreed driver Dennis Spencer Jr. of Oxford. “I’m 50 years old and I get tired (racing). Mike is a legend, and he’s a great guy.”
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Successful driving runs in the Rowe family. Mike’s son, Ben, is a two-time winner of the 250 (in 2003 and 2004). Ben Rowe said he’s been scaling back his racing schedule as of late, but Mike Rowe continues to keep his foot on the pedal.
“I’m at the point now where I’m stepping back on about half-a-dozen races,” said Ben. “He raced on Friday night; he would have won (Saturday) night, and he’s getting in the car and running (Sunday). He just loves it. It’s been around me since I was born. His passion for this, there’s nobody around, ever, that I have seen with his passion.
“To go as long as he has, you might get someone who goes 8 to 10 years … . But him – and Timmy Brackett is a close one, he’s here every week – you’ve got to have a lot of respect for them.”
Mike Rowe, a 2014 Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee, was forced to race a part-time schedule because of a prostate cancer diagnosis. He’s now healthy and back on a full-time schedule, and Ben Rowe said he believes his father has found a rejuvenation in his love of racing.
“I think it did,” Ben Rowe said. “He was only out of the car for a little bit. But once (doctors) cleared him, he was right back in it. He did what they told him, he backed off. As soon as he was cleared, he was right back in it.”
TRAVIS STEARNS did everything he could to get onto the track. Even when it looked his day would be cut short once, twice and even three times, he kept working his way back.
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The Auburn driver’s No. 15(3) car blew its engine during a morning practice run, initiating a panicked rush to replace it with a spare engine. He then wrecked early in his qualifying heat, then tried to reenter the race but failed.
Stearns, though, made his way into the Oxford 250 by winning the last chance qualifier. It was a remarkable turnaround to what had been a difficult 24 hours for Stearns on and off the track.
On the very first lap of Stearns’ practice run, he felt his engine lock up as he came off the fourth turn. He was fortunate enough that it locked up in a spot where he was able to exit the track – and that he had traveled to the raceway with his old engine in his trailer.
“This is a new motor, so we’re putting old faithful back in,” Stearns said. “Changing a motor when it’s 230 degrees coming off the track in two hours is not easy. (It usually takes) four or five hours at best, so they did a good job (doing it in two). … I’m really proud of them.”
The scene was frantic at the north end of pit road, with members of Stearns’ team working at a frantic pace. Finally, just after 1 p.m., the crew completed the switch and rolled out the car toward the track entrance.
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It wasn’t just Stearns and his crew working on the car after the incident. As word of his troubles grew, members of other teams made their way over to Stearns’ tent to assist with the maintenance.
“We had a lot of guys from other crews come through and help out, which was great,” Stearns said. “Everybody helps out each other; it’s like a family. I have a teammate (Mike Hopkins), too, so his team helped out.”
Stearns finally ran into trouble he couldn’t escape on the 139th lap of the Oxford 250 and settled for 33rd place.
DRIVERS IN the Oxford 250 hail mostly from around New England, but a few cross international borders.
Craig Slaunwhite traveled from Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a chance to win the $25,000 grand prize.
“We left on Wednesday and took our time coming down and settled in Wednesday night for practice Thursday, so everything went smooth,” Slaunwhite said.
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For Canadian drivers, prerace preparation includes getting their cars and trailers filled with equipment through customs. Slaunwhite came through the Houlton-Woodstock border crossing for his first 250 in his own car.
“I’ve been down here a decent amount, but to come down with my own car – this is the first time attempting my own car at the 250, so it’s a challenge, as everybody knows,” Slaunwhite said. “The track changes three times a day, and it’s me trying to learn the track as well. So, got a lot of odds against us right now, but we’re working on it.”
Slaunwhite left the race in the 87th lap after his engine started smoking along the front stretch.
Fellow Canadian Kyle Reid made an even further journey from Fort McMurray, Alberta – his fourth trip to Oxford this summer.
“It’s a bit of a hike. We usually fly to Nova Scotia and then pick up the car and hauler and then come down,” Reid said. “We run out of King Racing in Pictou, Nova Scotia; everything’s done in house there.”
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Reid followed a five-hour flight from Alberta to Nova Scotia with an eight-hour drive that included crossing the Calais-St. Stephen border.
“It’s not bad, we got it down pat here, now,” Reid said of the border crossing. “We race all over North America, so we know the drill. The West Coast borders are way easier; we’ve got to do brokerage and stuff like that here, but they’re all pretty good now.”
Reid went the distance Sunday night and placed 19th while finishing one lap behind winner Jeff Taylor.
SPENCER IS currently third in the Pro All Star Series (PASS) points standings with 1,951 points, trailing D.J. Shaw (2,209 points) and Johnny Clark (2,056).
“We’ve been really turning the corner the last few races, starting to figure things out,” Spencer said. “(The car) has been decent (in practice), we’ve made some changes. It’s kind of gone both ways: get it freed up a little bit, it got a little too tight. It’s had speed, it’s been decent. I think we’re going to be all right.”
Spencer had one of the best finishes of his season in his latest race, placing fifth at the Pierson Heating and Cooling 150 at OPS on Aug. 6.
He said before the race that his place in the standings would have no bearing on how he races in the 250.
“We’re not going to put ourselves in any position to wreck anything,” Spencer said. “We’re just going to try to get into the show. The 250 is a lot of laps. You’ve just got to stay out of trouble and be there at the end. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Spencer was one of three cars to exit the Oxford 250 after 123 laps, and he ended up 34th.
