The 43rd annual Oxford 250 will again be held in late August and it will be part of a Pro All Stars Series/American-Canadian Tour doubleheader weekend.
The Oxford 250 will be run on Sunday night, Aug. 28, to cap a weekend that will include the Oxford Plains 100 ACT race the night before. The winner of the ACT race will be guaranteed a provisional spot for the Oxford 250 if they attempt to qualify for it.
PASS President and Oxford Plains Speedway owner Tom Mayberry also announced that the PASS North Super Late Models will return to Hermon’s Speedway 95 for the third straight year on May 15.
The Oxford 250 used to be held in July in conjunction with the off weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule. That enabled the race to attract several Sprint Cup drivers, including three of the last four Sprint Cup points champions: Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch.
Mayberry switched it to Aug. 30 last year, which was another ideal weekend for the Sprint Cup series, and he said attendance was up 20 percent.
“It worked out really well,” said Mayberry. “And we had a lot more campers.”
He speculated that the reason it was so successful is that a lot of fans used it as “their last summer outing.”
There will be a Sprint Cup race on the same weekend this year, the Pure Michigan 400, at Michigan International Speedway.
“They announced the Sprint Cup dates late this year. We had already picked our weekend,” explained Mayberry, who added that he considered changing it to coincide with an off weekend but decided to stick with the date.
That weekend will also include the Valenti Modified Racing Series, the PASS Modifieds and the Northeast Classic Lites, which will be held on Saturday.
Turner’s Glen Luce is the defending Oxford 250 champ, as he ended the two-year reign of Morrill’s Travis Benjamin.
Mayberry also said he was pleased to be returning to Speedway 95.
“The fans really turn out for it and the drivers said they like racing there,” said Mayberry. “And they are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the track so that will be good.”
The ACT/PASS doubleheader during the Oxford 250 weekend will be one of four this season.
The others will be held at Oxford Plains Speedway on April 17, at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, New Hampshire, on July 23 and at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough on the weekend of Sept. 17-18.
It is the second year the two tours have teamed up and Mayberry said it is beneficial for both as well as for the race fans.
There will be 16 PASS North Super Late Model races this season beginning at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in Connecticut on the weekend of April 9-10.
There will be 13 points races on the American-Canadian Tour.