(Press Release from American-Canadian Tour)
On a busy Saturday prelude to Sunday’s 50th annual Oxford 250, the American-Canadian Tour invaded the iconic Oxford Plains Speedway with thirty-eight teams from across New England and Quebec, Canada. Each looking for glory as part of one of the Northeast’s premier stock car racing weekends, the pressure was on for everyone to perform with only one able to claim the memorable win.
Four heat race qualifiers set the 38-car field for the Oxford 125 with Quebec’s Alexendre Tardif, New Hampshire’s Ryan Olsen and Jeffrey Labrecque and Vermont’s Jaden Perry taking the qualifying wins. By virtue of his +5 earned in heat one, Tardif would lead the field to green with Connecticut’s Anthony Bellow to his outside in the Modified-standout’s first try behind the wheel of an ACT Late Model.
Tardif took charge early with a rear-view mirror full of top rookie Andrew Molleur at the onset. A hard-charging Derek Gluchacki also made the quick jump to third by lap 10 after starting in 11th. While the North Dartmouth, Massachusetts powerhouse settled in to stalk Tardif he would eventually take over the lead on lap 41 before the first caution was brought out the next lap for a stalled Peyton Lanphear along the frontstretch.
A duel between Gluchacki and Gabe Brown brought the field back to green while a major wreck started off the bumper of Jimmy Renfrew Jr. and sent Brooks Clark around in turn three to restack the field once again. Under green flag conditions, Brown would nab the upper hand on lap 48 to lead over Gluchacki. Dave MacDonald called out the caution flag once once more on lap 75 with Brown again taking the restart lead.
Behind the leaders and desperate to make up lost ground, Renfrew took his 00NH R&R Race Parts Ford Mustang to the highside. Charging along the Angel’s Expressway, Renfrew took his rig four-wide around the Oxford oval in a bid to rejoin the top-10. Now with the pressure on from D.J. Shaw, Brown continued to hold his own out front until slowed on lap 110. A massive battle at the front saw Brown lead the restart while Tardif and Shaw ran nose-to-tail with him at the front, the three jumping inside and outside of each other for the lead. Two more cautions would rerack the three again and again before the final showdown with four to go.
With Tardif to his outside, Brown put the pedal down and charged his #60ME Dale Shaw throwback to his first career American-Canadian Tour checkers at the track that started it all for the Center Conway, New Hampshire young-gun just six-years ago. D.J. Shaw ran a smart race all the way to a second-place finish followed by a hard-charging and consistent Joey Polewarczyk to round out the podium. North Haverhill, New Hampshire’s Ryan Olsen took down his career-best finish of fourth followed by Derek Gluchacki in fifth.
Alexendre ‘Fireball’ Tardif came home sixth followed by Jimmy Renfrew Jr. and top rookie Andrew Molleur in seventh and eighth. Erick Sands brought home another strong top-10 at Oxford followed by Lee USA Speedway winner Brandon Barker in the Chad Sullivan machine.
The American-Canadian Tour concludes a three-in-a-row stretch next Sunday at the Home of the American-Canadian Tour, Barre, Vermont’s Thunder Road International Speedbowl. The 45th Labor Day Classic 200 presented by New England Federal Credit Union on Sunday, September 3rd sets the ACT Tour powerhouses against the tried and true Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model hot-shoes in a fight to the finish and join a cast of legends upon the Granite Monuments at the iconic institution. The full card of racing will also include the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, rk Miles Street Stocks and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors.
For more information, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, [email protected], or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @ACTTour.
Oxford Plains Speedway – Oxford, ME
Saturday, August 26, 2023
The Oxford 125
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
American-Canadian Tour Oxford 125 – (125 Laps)
1. 60ME Gabe Brown Center Conway, NH
2. 04VT D.J. Shaw Center Conway, NH
3. 97NH Joey Polewarczyk Hudson, NH
4. 61NH Ryan Olsen N. Haverhill, NH
5. 03MA Derek Gluchacki North Dartmouth, MA
6. 21QC Alexendre Tardif Notre Dame des Pins, QC
7. 00NH Jimmy Renfrew Jr. Candia, NH
8. 31CT #Andrew Molleur Shelton, CT
9. 36NH Erick Sands Derry, NH
10. 0NH Brandon Barker Windham, ME
11. 68NH #Tanner Woodard Waterbury Ctr., VT
12. 74ME Justin Eldridge Tuftonboro, NH
13. 5ME #Dominic Curit Saco, ME
14. 22VT Peyton Lanphear Waterbury, VT
15. 49CT Anthony Bello Newtown, CT
16. 41QC Jonathan Bouvrette Blainville, QC
17. 21TN Jean-Francois Dery Quebec City, Quebec
18. 27NH Cam Huntress Rochester, NH
19. 8NH Connor McDougal Wakefield, NH
20. 77NH #Bryan Wall Jr. E. Kingston, NH
21. 68VT Brooks Clark Fayston, VT
22. 92VT Jaden Perry Hardwick, VT
23. 12NH Jeffrey Labrecque Jr. Strafford, NH
24. 5CT Jet Decker Chesterville, ME
25. 7NC Davey Riendeau Mooresville, NC
26. 02NH Geoff Rollins Merrimack, NH
27. 38ME Garrett Lamb Windham, ME
28. 48NY Taylor Hoar South Hero, VT
29. 21VT Reilly Lanphear Waterbury, VT
30. 28NH Ricky Bly Sunapee, NH
31. 11QC Claude Leclerc Lanoraie, QC
32. 72QC Louis-Philippe Lauzier St-Pacome, QC
33. 33QC Remi Perreault Joliette, QC
34. 69ME David MacDonald New Gloucester, ME
35. 25ME #Jason Gammon Hollis, ME
36. 7NH Cody Leblanc Berlin, NH
37. 77MA James Linardy Somerville, MA
38. 22WC Mike Clark Littleton, NH
Thirty-eight cars!?! On that track. Wow, that’s a race. And I’d be willing to bet there were less fenders bent up than with the 20 LMs of the Stafford demo derby.
Don’t get me wrong; I love Stafford in many regards, but all the full-fendered divisions are never cleanly run. Never.
Getserious,
I unfortunately didn’t get to watch this one, but per the race report on the ACT website (https://www.acttour.com/results), 32 of the 38 starters finished the race, and 23 of them were on the lead lap. So it appears that not only was it a relatively clean race (despite the eight cautions), it was a competitive race throughout the field, too.
It wasn’t a very clean race. Track was one groove. The ACT winner, 60, bullnosed his way to the front, running through the 21 and 03 while on his way. The 21 kept trying to return the favor but missed. Then then was the restart games played by the 60 and defacto team mate 04 which caused some of the later cautions. The 250 next day was another clunker due to one good groove and the 53 running through and over any body in his way an unpopular win.
The MRS race was won by Rich Savory, going away. He went to the lead early and gapped them. Everybody else was kind of riding around saving tires for a late caution, but so was Rich once he was way out there. Swanson in the 25 had nothing for him. Jarvis in the 04 had a good run to finish 2nd. 13 cars started.
The parking situation at Oxford for the 250 sucked. Not because of all the rain that fell earler, but because they let a bazillion campers take up 75% of available lot space forcing everyone else to park all over each other and leading to lot rage trying to get out on Saturday. Reminded me of Grateful Dead concert when they were there.