OXFORD — For over a decade, he was known as the King of the Pro Stocks. But when the Late Models became the top division in 2007, many, including Farmington’s Jeff Taylor, were reluctant to make the transition.

But in 2010, the veteran driver and chassis builder (owner of Distance Racing in Fairfield) built a new Ford Fusion for himself to get a handle on them from a seat-of-the-pants perspective.

He qualified for and ran strong in the TD Bank 250, then put in a whale of a performance last Saturday night in the ACT 150 at Beech Ridge. He led briefly, got passed by eventual winner Joey Polewarczyk Jr. and cut a tire while running second. This week, he put it all together and looked just as dominant as he did back in the peak of his Pro Stock days.

Taylor blasted around the outside of polesitter Nick Brown coming off turn 2 on lap three, survived three restarts with ease and pulled away for top honors in the WTOS Trophy Dash Saturday night at Oxford Plains Speedway.

Ryan Farrar, Troy Jordan, Ashley Marshall and Kurt Hewins were also feature winners on a night when fans had to dress for what felt more like mid-September conditions than late July.

“This is just a huge relief for us to get a win in one of these cars,” Taylor said about how hard his team has worked on the Late Model. “Everybody knows we’ve been struggling with them, that is no secret. The crew has put in a ton of hours, and we did some testing trying to get it right. We started up near the front, which is always a benefit. I have to thank Mike from Ford Racing, he met us at the 250 and has helped a lot. The new crate engine has been flawless so far, I am very pleased with the support we’ve had from the manufacturer.”

Shawn Martin finally git his season headed in the right direction, wheeling his No. 94 machine up from 12th on the grid to claim second. The 2004 Late Model champion tried his hand at ACT competition last week, and the results weren’t pretty.

“I had nothing for Jeff tonight, he was pretty darned quick,” Martin said. “Last week at Beech Ridge we totally demolished our new car. So we dug this one out of the corner, and my crew worked hard to get it ready to go. It was really fast on a long run, it was so fun to drive, I had a blast out there.”

Billy Childs Jr. had his best effort of the season, running among the leaders all night and finishing third. Glen Luce and point leader Tommy Ricker completed the top five.

Finishing sixth through 10th was Gary Chiasson, Scott Luce, Don Wentworth, Ricky Rolfe and longtime Oxford veteran Bruce Haley. Three cautions slowed the pace, the worst of which was brought out at lap 19 when Travis Stearns, Brown and Ashline all got together in turn 4. Ashline’s car suffered heavy damage to the front end, a tough break for the 19-year-old from Pittston who ran second the first 75 laps of last week’s ACT race at Beech Ridge.

In earlier feature action, Farrar drove under early leader Jeff Schmidt coming off turn 4 on lap four and pulled away to a convincing victory in a short sprint for the Truck division. The young hot shoe from Oxford has won just about every time he’s been to the track in 2010, having figured out the hot setup long ago on the short wheelbase machines. Schmidt finished a distant second, while Corey Williams filled out the podium. Dwayne Booth and John Reynolds completed the top five.

Jordan drove around the outside of Kyle Hewins on lap 13 and hung on to claim a hotly-contested tilt for the Runnin Rebels. The Turner driver has battled up front most of the season, taking turns with Matt Dufault and two members of the Hewins family. After Ryan Hewins made an early exit with mechanical trouble, Kyle did his best to hold off Jordan but settled for second. Scott Farrington came from deep in the field to claim third, while Jeff
Hebert and Cook completed the top five.

Marshall powered his way underneath Matt Moore going through turns 1 and 2 on lap 23 and drove away to claim a caution-free battle for the Mini Stock warriors. The driver from Jay earned his second victory of 2010, having carried the checkered flag back on June 5. Moore hung on for second, while Steve Barker worked the high groove to his advantage to finish third. Early leader Shane Kaherl and former champion Danny Morris rounded out the top five.

Hewins recorded his sixth victory of the season in a wild tussle for the Strictly Stock division. The veteran from Leeds steadily worked the outside line and passed Rick Spaulding on lap 16 to take over the point. Gene Hatch borrowed a car from Joe Hutter and wheeled it to a solid second-place finish, while Jim Davis Jr. claimed third.

There was a little confusion in Victory Lane, as Spaulding got spun out while running second in the closing laps which shuffled the final rundown.