(Oxford ME) He’s the Bandits points leader at Oxford Plains Speedway.
But it had been five weeks since his last win.
Tonight, Alex Mowatt added to his point total and ended his five-week non-winning streak.
“I’m leading in points,” said Alex afterwards, “My car is in one piece. I can’t complain.”
Luke Mowatt (Alex’s younger brother) took second and continued his run of quality races.
After starting the season fifth, seventh, and tenth, Luke had been either first (six times) or second (four times) for ten straight weeks! That’s consistency.
No question that both the Mowatts have fast cars and can keep up with each other. What they can’t do is pass each other. It’s not that they aren’t trying to do it!
In the lone Bandits heat and the 20-lap feature, Alex successfully used the same strategy. He went to the upper part of the track and was quickly past the front cars. Once in front he basically ran out the laps.
“I jumped right into the early lead,” said Alex. “I took my opportunity and didn’t look back.”
“He got to the front quick,” recalled Luke. “It took me about five laps to get into second.”
Once both Mowatts were in the top positions the outcome wasn’t hard to figure.
“The Mowatts are tough,” said 3rd place finisher Jeff Libby. “They’re fast. I don’t know what to do with them. You’ve got to get to the front first and fight them.”
Luke tried to get by his brother, but it didn’t work. “I knew he wasn’t going to give me the bottom and I definitely couldn’t get by him on the outside.”
On the 12th lap, Luke gave his brother a bump. “I just wanted him to know that I was there,” said Luke laughing. “I think he enjoyed the bump I gave him.”
Alex held onto the lead and won by several car lengths.
The Bandits spent a long time getting checked over after the race.
Two weeks ago, Jeff Libby was disqualified after a lengthy post-race checkout.
“They were trying to figure out some of our transmission codes tonight,” said Jeff. “Some didn’t match but it got figured out.”
I asked Jeff about the disqualification: “I was a little hot-headed when it happened. It was over something we didn’t know about. It had to do with the wheels. We thought they were all the same, but they weren’t. We were wrong. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.”
“Tonight, was a good race,” said Jeff. “We are a little bit off from where we should be, but we still managed to come home third. You can’t complain about that.”
Luke said that the track was “wicked” slippery. Jeff said, “The track lost a lot of grip with all the rain we’ve had.”
There was plenty of action in the Street Stock Division. I caught Shawn Knight (#25) spinning out in one of their heats.
(All of the pictures above and below will enlarge considerably if you click on them.)
McClelland Miscellanea 