OXFORD — Crew chief Shane Tesch learned at a young age that in racing, all the money goes to the people outside the driver’s seat.

“When you drive, it costs money,” Tesch said. “But if you’re willing to give up driving, you can make a living doing it. You have to put in the effort and stay busy, but it’s like any self-employed person: If you’re not moving, you’re not making money.”

Tesch is in his first year as crew chief for Hallowell native Johnny Clark, who will be racing for his second Oxford 250 victory on Sunday at Oxford Plains Speedway.

Tesch’s duties include pre-race fine-tuning and repairs, constant communication via headsets during the race, pit lane repairs and post-race car evaluations. Clark described Tesch as his right-hand man in racing.

“I’ve really realised this year that after doing this for 30 years, sometimes I’m just completely wrong about what I think I need,” said Clark, who won the Oxford 250 in 2020. “Sometimes I think I’m looking for traction on the straight, but when you exit the corner with a lot of wheel use, you realise that eventually it grabs and the rear comes around.”

Clark also said it was helpful to delegate car maintenance duties to someone else so he could manage the four locations of his family business, Clark Scrap Metals.

“I’ve always worked on my own cars,” Clark said. “This is my 30th year of racing, so I’ve always worked on it or been a part of it. It’s hard for me because I’ve been the man in charge for so long. It’s hard for me to put that much trust in someone else.”

Working with Clark at the Oxford Plains Speedway season opener in April left Tesch completely unnerved after Clark’s car was badly damaged in a head-on collision with the race leader on the first lap.

“At the first race of the year at Oxford, in a heat, the leader spun and drove straight back into the field of cars while trying to save his car. He hit us head-on and pushed us into the outside wall,” said Tesch. “That probably caused $15,000 to $20,000 in damage. Since it was lap 1, you’re full of gas. So if you hit the wall with 22 gallons of gas at full throttle, the car wants to keep going, so the back half of the car, which hadn’t even hit anything, bends, so both ends got wrapped.”

Shane Tesch demonstrates the use of a spring tensioning machine to ensure that each spring is under optimal stress at the Oxford Plains Speedway on Wednesday. Tesch is Johnny Clark’s crew chief. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

With his background as a mechanic, Tesch is able to get Clark’s car back into racing condition, even if it is significantly damaged.

A native of Chaska, Minnesota, Tesch lived in North Carolina for 18 years before moving to Maine in 2020 to open a Port City Racecars location in South Paris.

He began working on race cars in the 1990s and has since worked with NASCAR’s American Speed ​​​​Association (1999–2004), Richard Childress Racing, Roush Racing and local short track teams.

Naples driver Derek Kneeland also has NASCAR experience, as a spotter, including for Kyle Busch this season. His duties include traveling to races, and this week he will be with Busch at the NASCAR Xfinity race at Daytona on Friday and the Cup Series race on Saturday.

Kneeland joked that he would race the Oxford 250 on Sunday after about an hour’s sleep, but said he was looking forward to polishing his reputation as a racer, not as Derek the spotter.

Knieland and his father, Jeff Kneeland, usually do their car repairs at the shop. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, his longtime friend Nick Brown comes by and helps.

At the Pierson Heating and Cooling 150 at Oxford Plains on August 6, Kneeland finished fourth despite a serious transmission failure. Two bolts holding a transmission case in place broke after he changed gears, and it was too late in the race to repair them. Instead, he removed the shift lever and linkage from the transmission and engaged top gear from the bottom, with the clutch still intact.

To make such a mid-race fix, he had to source parts from North Carolina, and he had to do so within a tight deadline before the Oxford 250.

“These (parts) actually arrived yesterday,” Kneeland said Wednesday at the Oxford 250 media day. “We finished the car last night, loaded and ready to go. I actually didn’t expect them to arrive until Wednesday. I thought we were going to grind today because I have to be in Daytona tomorrow morning. I thought we were going to finish it tonight, but we finished it last night.”

Kneeland said it is common knowledge that drivers win races in the garage rather than on the track.

“When you get to the race track, it should be the least amount of work you have to do until you get in the car and actually race,” Kneeland said. “If you have to replace body panels or rear ends or the right front axle, anything about the mechanics of the race car, if you have to do any of that on the race track, it’s probably not going to be a great (race).”

Norwegian driver Kate Re also works with her father Rick Re to repair her vehicle during the season. Their workshop is located opposite Oxford Plains Speedway, which is important as she is racing without a backup car this weekend.

Kate Re said she feels more comfortable in her car since she started repairing her own car and learning about auto mechanics.

“I know how to get feedback from the guys or how to make adjustments and things like that, especially before the 250 weekend,” Re said. “It’s good to know your car inside and out. That gives you the advantage because some of these guys don’t spend as much time in the shop as we do. That gives you that little edge.”

Re said that any repairs to her car during qualifying would need to be completed quickly so that the 20-year-old could continue to fight for a fourth place in the 250cc race.

“We have parts and stuff ready to take to the store if we need it,” Re said. “Our store is right across the street, so everything is close by. Everything is there if we need it.”

Spare parts are an expensive but necessary part of racing. Tesch said that as an experienced crew chief, he knows when and where to get a bargain. He also knows when a repair is essential and how to properly diagnose a problem.

“The average guy would spend a fortune to cover all of that. So when I come in, I can already guide you, I’ve done that before,” Tesch said. “You’re just saving them money with your experience, you don’t need those parts. It’s shiny and fancy, but that’s not going to make you win.”

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