Alex Mowatt wins third Bandits Division feature at Oxford Plains Speedway

(Oxford ME) The three-week rolling average used in the Bandits Division at Oxford Plains Speedway handicaps the successful.

If you win you find yourself at the back at the start of the next race.

The possibility for frustration is obvious.

But it’s been anything but frustrating for highly successful Alex Mowatt.

Alex has shown the driving skills needed to work from the back to the front week after week.

Tonight’s win was his third of the season and his second in a row.

Alex Mowatt came from dead last to win last week’s Bandits Division feature. Tonight, he started in tenth position.

“Alex is a good kid,” said 2^nd place finisher Eric Parlin post-race.  “He’s having a heckuva season.  I feel like he’s a shoo-in for the championship.”

Hard to argue.  Alex has been consistently competitive with three 3rds, one 2^nd, and three 1sts.

“I couldn’t ask for a better season,” admitted Alex.  “I’ve had pretty good luck.  Last week we had some damage but nothing serious.”

The attention getter in tonight’s twenty-lap feature was the smoke from Eric Parlin’s car.

Eric started the feature in the front and when smoke started pouring out of his car you figured his night would be over at any moment.

“I thought Eric’s car was blowing up or something,” recalled Alex. “I wasn’t sure what was going on, but he came out of it.”

The smoke, at one point, caused a caution.  “They were going to black flag me,” explained Eric, “but I wasn’t losing oil.  I had raced at Beech Ridge this morning and the car did the same thing there.  For some reason going from second into third sends a lot through it.  Once I get settled down into 3^rd gear it snaps out of it.”

The caution over Eric’s car in Lap 8 looked to give Alex the lead but after realizing there was no oil issues, Eric began the restart on the pole.

Alex started on the outside in the restart but quickly took the lead from Eric, and never trailed thereafter.

There was a third caution in Lap 13.  This time Alex had the pole and pulled away quickly.

The battle for second was a good one.  It featured Eric with his smoking car, Chad Wills in Caleb Proctor’s car, and former Bandit champion Dustin Salley in the car that David Cook drove last week.  Plenty of tight action there with Eric holding onto second and Chad taking third.

“It was one of my better races,” said Eric of his 2^nd place finish.  “There have been a lot of ups and downs.  I had an incident a couple of weeks ago.  I didn’t know if I was going to make it up here tonight.”

Alex won one of the Bandits heats while Josh Lovell took the other heat in his best showing of the season.  Josh started his heat in the front and refused to give way to Chad Wills and Chris Foster.

One of the keys for Alex in my opinion has been his ability to avoid wrecks in the seven races to date.  “I’ve stayed out of wrecks so far by watching ahead,” explained Alex.  “I don’t just watch the car right in front of me because a problem ahead will come too quick.”

Eric raced twice today.  “It definitely helps me as a driver because I had a race under my belt.  I felt comfortable in the car today.  From week to week you don’t usually sit in it or run in it.  Then you’ll get back in it on Saturday and it’s a whole different animal.”

Alex talked about the end of the race: “The car was getting a little tight down toward the end.  I used up my tired pretty good.”

Asked about plans to move up a division, Alex answered, “I’m not sure yet.  We’ll see how the year goes.”

The number of spectators is still restricted.

I am on Twitter (McClellandPeter) and Instagram (McClellandMiscellanea).

All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.