Dillon Moltz (5) races around Oxford Plains Speedway during a Pro All Stars Series race July 10. Oriana Lovell photo

Dillon Moltz enjoys the thrill of hurtling a race car around a track, but his passion for innovation in the sport also keeps him in the driver’s seat.

When he is not behind the wheel, he is working for RB Performance in Jay.

“We design our new parts because of who I race for now,” said the Waterville, Connecticut native, who has been living in Maine for the past four years. “We are a chassis shop. So I race the house car. That’s why I moved up to Maine. I work for the guy (Mark Brackett) I race for. I work in the shop. I work on customers’ cars. I build cars. I work on my own cars. I maintain them.”

You can bet Moltz is putting in the hours working on his car for Sunday’s Oxford 250.

“Obviously, I love driving and the thrill and being competitive and winning, which luckily I have been fortunate to do throughout my career,” he said.

But the New Sharon resident also enjoys discovering innovative methods to make race cars run faster.

“I live, eat, sleep and breath racing,” he said. “I played football a little bit when I was younger, but I could care less about it. All I wanted to do was race.”

TAKING ON THE 250

Moltz started racing midget cars and hasn’t left the driver’s seat in the 22 years since.

He’s looking forward to Sunday, when he’ll try to earn his spot in the Oxford 250 for the first time since the 2012 race, when he came from Connecticut, qualified for the feature and finished 30th.

But he recognizes that there are a lot of talented drivers in the qualifying heats vying for spots in the big race, and that Oxford Plains Speedway is a challenging place to race.

“I will be honest with you, it is a super tough race track,” Moltz, who has participated in Pro All Stars Series races at the track this season, said. “It is just a very challenging race track to get the car to handle properly. I have raced every single race track in New England. I have raced all the way down to South Carolina. I have raced all the way out to Indiana. I have been to 40 race tracks, and this one will be the toughest one to get the car to handle.

“It draws people from all over the country. Obviously, the purse is good. I think just hearing how tough a race track it is, people want to come conquering it — so to speak.”

Making the 250 and Oxford Plains Speedway even more special, Moltz points out, is that they are operating during an era when race tracks are closing, races are getting fewer and crowds are dropping off during weekly events.

“(Tracks) are not being built no more,” he said. “No one is racing out in a farm field and goes, ‘Oh, we don’t need this place,’ and build a racetrack. No one is doing that anymore. They are going the other way. As you know, Beech Ridge in Scarborough closed down. There is three race tracks in the state of Connecticut. There used to be — if I am not mistaken — six or seven.

“Your options are a lot more limited for the bigger races, too. The bigger races used to be a lot more common for laps and money. … They are going the other way.”

Moltz thinks the cost of attending and competing in auto racing is high even the though purses have increased with time, “but as of late, you can’t say that there has been massive increase in purses, so I think that makes it a little bit more tougher for the car count to be as good as it needs to be.”

However, the interest in the sport and the drivers’ and teams’ dedication remains high.

“As a race shop that sells race cars, that builds race cars and we sell parts, our two best years we ever had was during COVID-19,” Moltz said. “You want to explain that to me? People weren’t working.” 

Moltz said it’s difficult to predict which driver will come out on top in Sunday’s 250.

“I think that track changes so much,” Moltz said. “I think there is a handful of guys capable of winning that race.”

Dillon Moltz’s No. 5 car will be ready to roll in Sunday’s Oxford 250. Submitted photo

Moltz likes his chances, and this season has been a learning experience.

“I think we found out a few things that didn’t work for us this year and narrowed down a direction that we need to go,” he said. “I feel good about (this race). I haven’t raced it for a long time. I’ve got great equipment. I have a great car, a great crew. And at Oxford it can go really good or really bad, and it is not for a lack of effort.” 

Dillon Moltz, right, watches the rest of the race with his crew in the infield after his car was knocked out of a Pro All Stars Series race at Oxford Plains Speedway on July 10. Oriana Lovell photo