Dale Chadbourne first looked to his left, then to his right, and he may want to slightly believe he become status alongside some of the state’s racing royalty for a picture op.
“We had an old junk automobile out inside the again 40, and we (raced) because we were bored,” Chadbourne said Saturday evening on the Augusta Civic Center. “I’m taken aback by the little avenue inventory, and Modified guy can get into something like this. I’d in no way dreamt I’d have ended up here.”
Of Woolwich, Chadbourne was one in every of six inductees into the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame’s 2019 magnificence. A 3-time using champion at Wiscasset Speedway, Chadbourne joined former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver and Newburgh local Ricky Craven, Farmington’s Billy Clark, Dick Fowler Scarborough, engine builder Bob Bailey and drag racer Lomer Pelletier in the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019.
“It’s virtually neat to look these men,” Chadbourne said. “We didn’t have computer systems or snowmobiles. We didn’t have whatever like that. I never had fancy Pro Stock motors. I began as a group member at Beech Ridge (in Scarborough), lower back while it became dust inside the 60s. (Racing) turned into simply something we loved.”
Craven gained a pair of NASCAR Cup Series races in his profession, the first at Martinsville (Virginia) Speedway in 2001 and the next at South Carolina’s ancient Darlington Raceway in 2003. He suffered a severe injury in a violent crash at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama in 1997, returning midway thru the season the subsequent 12 months to qualify on the pole at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It changed into one of six poles Craven earned for the duration of a Cup profession spanning components of 11 seasons.
Craven stays fond of his days racing in Maine when he started as a fifteen-yr-antique at Unity Raceway and won the second race he ever entered.
“I’ve grown to realize all the human beings that have come after I competed here. However, this night, I get to rejoice the human beings that came earlier than me and created this for me,” Craven stated. “This is specific than something else I’ve participated in because it’s domestic. This is the foundation. I can communicate for all time approximately men like Dana Graves, Harvey Sprague, Pete Silva, Stan Meserve, Ralph Nason — that’s why I became a race vehicle driver.”
Today, Craven lives in North Carolina, and he is a tv analyst for NASCAR proclaims on Fox Sports.
“I grew up in a small city in Maine believing I may be a Cup driving force,” Craven said. “I didn’t realize any better. There’s a sure amount of value in knowing what you want out of life and not knowing any better. There turned into plenty of discouragement, but there has never been sufficient that I idea, ‘What am I going to do if I’m not racing cars?’”
Clark received several Oxford Open races during his profession inside the overdue 1980s and early Nineties. However, his maximum terrific achievement on-music turned into winning the primary ever NASCAR Busch North Series race held inside the Northeast in 1987.
Even having completed that, he’s not so certain any of that matches up to leading his son, Cassius Clark, to a Pro All Stars Series championship as team chief.
“I usually used to tease Cassius that I’m not Ricky Craven or (seven-time NASCAR champion) Dale Earnhardt. However, I did a few matters. Here I am,” Billy Clark stated. “I probably have more fun looking his drive, I, in reality, do.”
Cassius Clark said he came through the competitive gene truely.
“It’s superb what he did in the short time that he (raced). He’s pretty deserving,” Cassius stated. “I think you’re born with it, the competitiveness. I usually wanted to race, and it was manifestly useful having him being who he is.”
The same can be said for the Chadbourne own family. In addition to Chadbourne’s three driving titles at Wiscasset, he’s been an owner or a group leader for seven others — such as 5 for his son, Adam.
Dale gave up racing while Adam turned born, but it becomes his son who delivered him lower back into the sport.
“You should hear the speedway from our house,” Chadbourne stated. “We’d be out fishing or something, and he’d say, ‘Dad, can we visit the races?’ Finally, he talked me into going, and we almost sold a race vehicle the first night time we were there. The day he grew to become sixteen, he started racing, and I commenced lower back into it.”
The Maine Driver of the Year Award became supplied to Andrew McLaughlin of Harrington. McLaughlin received 3 races at Wiscasset Speedway final season and changed into the music’s Late Model champion with seven pinnacle-three finishes and 10 pinnacle-fives.
Stephanie Burgess of Fairfield was honored with the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame’s President’s Award.
