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 at the Augusta Civic Center. “The little avenue inventory takes me aback, and the 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 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 anything 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 in 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 through 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 remains fond of his days racing in Maine when he started as a fifteen-year-old 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 with the human beings that came earlier than me and created this for me,” Craven stated. “This is more 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 is a TV analyst for NASCAR 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 in the overdue 1980s and early Nineties. However, his most terrific achievement was winning the first-ever NASCAR Busch North Series race held in the Northeast in 1987.
Even having completed that, he’s not certain any of it translates to leading his son, Cassius Clark, to a Pro All-Stars Series championship as team chief.
“I usually teased 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 at 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 having him be who he is was useful.”
The same can be said for the Chadbourne family. In addition to Chadbourne’s three driving titles at Wiscasset, he’s been an owner or a group leader for seven others, including five for his son, Adam.
Dale gave up racing when Adam was born, but it was his son who brought him 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 we were there. He started racing the day he turned sixteen, and I commenced lower back into it.”
The Maine Driver of the Year Award became supplied to Andrew McLaughlin of Harrington. McLaughlin received three races at Wiscasset Speedway’s final season and became the music’s Late Model champion with seven pinnacle-three finishes and ten pinnacle-fives.
Stephanie Burgess of Fairfield was honored with the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame’s President’s Award.
