Ricky Rolfe Beating Cancer and Winning Races

OXFORD, Me. -- As Ricky Rolfe pulls into technical inspection at Oxford Plains Speedway, it appears to be business as usual. The 46 year-old from nearby Albany Township is a multi-time champion at the track and is among the all-time winners, surely winning a 12-lap qualifying heat is no big deal.

But on Sunday, it was a big deal. Rolfe begins his first round of chemotherapy for colon cancer at 7:00 on Monday morning.

“I’m fine, I’m feeling real good,” Rolfe says, although it took him a couple extra moments to climb out of his car.

“About the first of March I had symptoms that something was wrong. I went to the doctor’s and they decided to do a colonoscopy and discovered I had a tumor in my colon,” Rolfe explains.

Within five days of the visit, Rolfe was on the operating table as doctors removed one-third of his colon. His road to recovery is just beginning, though.

“They discovered a little bit of cancer in other places,” Rolfe says, although he quickly adds “but nothing major.”

Three weeks after his surgery, Rolfe was with his doctor again to get a port inserted in his chest to assist in administering chemotherapy treatments. Ever the racer, Rolfe brought his HANS head-and-neck restraint system with him, instructing the doctor to place the port away from where the HANS shoulder supports fit.

Rolfe’s heat victory came against the American-Canadian Tour, a series he contested full-time for the first time last year. He finished a respectable tenth in driver points and expected to improve upon that this summer. Instead, he’ll stay closer to home in 2010, with the goal of winning the Oxford Plains Speedway championship – even as he undergoes his treatments.

“This is home,” he smiled. “Even a bad day here is good. I just like it here. I’m going to miss Tour racing, but with the chemo I’m probably going to be pretty fatigued. So we’re not going to concentrate on the Tour this year, we’re gonna concentrate here. You know, local races are twenty-minute races at the most, but if I feel good and I’m healthy we might go to [ACT races at] Lee and do the Beech Ridge race, stuff like that.

“Just to make it [to the track] every week is going to be big-time, and if I win the championship this year with everything that’s going on… This same thing happened to my father a month before me. Same operation, same everything, he’s going through it, too, except he opted not to take chemo.”

The distraction of Rolfe’s cancer might be enough to sideline most drivers, in addition to the added stress of his father’s health. But Rolfe says he’ll keep pressing on.

“I’m young enough where I want to keep racing for a while. I want to be like Joey Laquerre and race when I’m sixty-something.”

TD BANKNORTH 250: Wallaces to Drive for Roberts, Brackett

OXFORD, Me. -- NASCAR Nationwide Series drivers Kenny and Steven Wallace will head to Maine's Oxford Plains Speedway this weekend for the TD Banknorth 250 -- regarded as one of the most important short track races in America -- and they'll be driving stout equipment once they get there.

Kenny Wallace will be driving a car owned by Mark Brackett of Jay, Me. as a teammate to multi-time OPS champion and ACT Late Model Tour winner Ricky Rolfe, while his nephew Steven will race a National Guard-sponsored car owned by Kendall Roberts of Barre. Roberts' lead driver, Graniteville veteran John Donahue, took a dominant ACT victory at White Mountain Motorsports Park last month, finished second at Oxford in May, and ranks fifth in points.

Roberts is happy to have Steven Wallace, 21, behind the wheel of his car at the TD Banknorth 250. After 18 events on the Nationwide Series this season, Wallace sits ninth in points with five top-ten finishes, including a season-best sixth-place effort at the Milwaukee Mile and a seventh at Bristol Motor Speedway.

"Steven is a talented kid," said Roberts. "He was a very good short tracker a few years ago, and I think he's excited for [the 250]." Before embarking on a Nationwide career, Wallace was a former winner of the prestigious Snowball Derby 300 at Pensacola, Fla., and won the first-ever UARA Late Model event at the Bristol half-mile.

The Wallaces will be racing at Gateway Int'l Raceway in their hometown of St. Louis, Mo. on Saturday night, and are expected to arrive at Oxford Plains Speedway on Sunday morning. Another young racer, D.J. Shaw of Center Conway, N.H., will help to shake down Steven Wallace's car during practice sessions on Saturday afternoon, and will serve as co-crew chief with Roberts for the race. His father, legendary driver and chassis builder Dale Shaw, will also be involved with the effort, though mostly focusing on Donahue's car.

"I think Steven should feel pretty comfortable in the car right off the bat," said Roberts. "He and John are about the same size, so he should fit well in the car, and John gets around Oxford pretty good. If we can get Steven to follow John for a few laps on Sunday morning and learn the lines, I'm sure he'll pick the rest up on his own pretty quick.

"The National Guard is excited to have him race for them, I'm excited, and Steven is excited. He's got a guaranteed [starting spot] with the NASCAR provisional that Oxford gives every year, and I am confident enough in John that I guaranteed him he'll be in the race, too. Plus, we've got Dale and D.J. helping, and Steven's regular spotter is coming up to help him so he'll be comfortable. We should be pretty good."

Kenny Wallace, 14th in Nationwide Series points, will be in good hands with the Brackett team; driving cars prepared by Brackett, Rolfe, also a noted chassis builder, won a regular event at Oxford on May 30 and nearly won the ACT event there two weeks earlier. He ranks 11th in points in his first full season with the series.

An avid short track racer and SPEED Channel analyst, Kenny Wallace has three feature victories on dirt tracks this season, and will have raced dirt events in Iowa, Oklahoma, Saskatchewan (tonight), and Illinois, along with the Nationwide event at St. Louis, in the week leading up to Sunday's TD Banknorth 250. He previously raced an ACT/OPS-type Late Model at Barre's Thunder Road in 2007, finishing 12th in a 50-lap event.



(PHOTOS: 1. Steven (left) and Kenny Wallace will be on hand for Sunday's TD Banknorth 250 at Oxford, Me.; 2. John Donahue dominated the ACT event at White Mountain Motorsports Park last month in Kendall Roberts' #26 car; 3. Rolfe's Mark Brackett-owned #51 ACT ride. Photo 1 courtesy National Speed Sport News/HHP/Eric Perel; Photos 2 and 3 by Justin St. Louis/VMM)