BY BILL STEWART

Staff Writer

Jeff Taylor just got done putting a clip on a Pro Stock car for a New Brunswick driver. By today, he hopes to have completed a car for reigning TD Bank 250 champ Joey Polewarczyk.

“We’re pretty fortunate to keep busy,” said Taylor, who runs Distance Racing Products in Fairfield. “We’re just working and working. It’s just the way it goes here.”

Taylor is less than a month removed from his second-place finish in the TD Bank 250. The Farmington native, who has a record nine track championships at Oxford Plains Speedways, builds race cars for a living.

He competes in the annual 250 every year, but that’s about it on his racing calendar.

“We do this for a living,” he said. “Everybody else comes first. By the time you get to your own car, it’s just too much. You want to get away from it, too.”

Taylor has raced the 250 15 times. He’s finished second twice, including in late July when he couldn’t chase Polewarczyk down at the finish.

“I haven’t really dwelled on it,” he said. “It’s different from most people, but it’s just how my life is.”

Taylor added he has no plans to race again this season.

“Everything we do other than the 250 is unplanned,” he said.

* * *

It’s been a frustrating season for Jeff White, the defending Late Model points champ at Oxford Plains Speedway.

The Winthrop native dropped to fourth in points after finishing 11th last weekend in a 40-lap feature.

“We could still possibly get to third,” White said. “We have three points races left. We’ll see how it goes. It really hasn’t been a productive year this year. We’ve been struggling.”

White has yet to post a top-three finish in a points race this season.

He finished third in an American-Canadian Tour feature on May 20 at OPS, but has struggled with his setup since.

“Everybody keeps asking me, ‘what’s going on? What’s up?'” White said. “I don’t know. If I knew, I’d fix it. It’s been frustrating for all of us. We have our moments when we get it fast but we can’t get it consistent. After the ACT race, we haven’t been able to find it since then.”

White added he has no plans to garage the car. He’ll be at the track again this weekend.

“Most people would’ve hauled it up in the trailer by now,” he said. “We’re sticking to it. But we’re figuring it out ourselves. We’ve kept it from getting banged up, so that’s a plus. We’ll keep plugging away at it and we’ll figure it out.”

* * *

Defending Unity Raceway Late Model points champ Jeff Burgess will return behind the wheel this weekend for the first time since an otherwise forgettable TD Bank 250 experience at Oxford Plains Speedway on July 22.

A variety of car problems made for a difficult time at Oxford that weekend. Now, the Fairfield native will head to Hermon to race at Speedway 95 on Saturday.

“We just didn’t have enough time to get the car done,” Burgess said. “But we’re ready to go.”

Burgess raced at Speedway 95 once this season. He says he’ll go up there at least twice before the season ends.

“It’s an odd track,” he said. “It’s real round and there are bumps in the corners. But we’re looking forward to it. After that, we’ll see what happens.”

Burgess will also race in the fourth annual Spud 150 at Spud Speedway in Caribou on Sept. 9.

* * *

Left turns: Wayne Helliwell, Jr., has opened up a 30-point lead over Fort Kent native Austin Theriault in the American-Canadian Tour standings. The Dover, N.H., driver also leads defending series champ Brian Hoar by 44 points. … Manchester native Reid Lanpher will have a full weekend of racing at Star Speedway in Epping, N.H. The 14-year-old driver will race in a pair of NELCAR Legends features as well as a 100-lap Granite State Pro Stock Series race. … The Pro All Stars Series North is idle this weekend. Farmington native Cassius Clark holds a 19-point lead over Travis Benjamin in his bid to win his first series title. Four-time defending champ Johnny Clark is in fourth, 28 points off the lead.

Bill Stewart — 621-5640

bstewart@centralmaine.com