Dick McCabe

Competitor
CLASS OF 2002

Dick McCabe built his first race car, a ’36 Chevy 6 cylinder “Bomber” coupe at age 14. Dick had someone race the car at Beech Ridge Speedway, because he was too young to drive. Unable to resist getting behind the wheel himself, the 14 year old McCabe took the car to the 1/5 mile track at Dover, NH, where he was able to slip out onto the track and compete.

Dick joined the Northern NASCAR Circuit in 1976, where he competed against Stub Fadden, Beaver & Bobby Dragon, and Robbie Crouch. McCabe, known as “the Irish Angel”, won the NASCAR North championship in 1981, then repeated in 1982, when he set the series record by finishing in the Top 10 in 31 of the 33 races on the schedule. He had 20 career wins in the series.

It was also during this period that he became the Oxford Plains Open Champion for 4 consecutive years (1981-84). He also won a Busch Grand National (now Xfinity Series) race at Oxford in 1988.

McCabe moved to the Busch North Series by 1987, where he again took down back to back championships (1992-93) and 8 more career wins. The 1993 season was extra special, because Dick won track and Busch North Championships in the inaugural season at NHIS.

In addition to Oxford Plains Speedway, McCabe also won at Thunder Road Speedbowl, Twin State Speedway, Thompson Speedway, Catamount Stadium, Star Speedway and Riverside Park Speedway during his career.

McCabe feels that his job was an asset in his racing career. A bait salesman, Dick would drive his 18 wheel dump truck 12 hours, picking up ocean perch to sell as bait to fisherman. At the end of this long drive, he would shovel the bait out by hand, “working hardest when you were tiredest”.

Dick McCabe retired from racing competition in 1995.