Shaw widens GSPSS all-time leader gap with Claremont checkers

Entering Friday night’s Granite State Pro Stock Series stop at Claremont Motorsports Park, two of veteran racer D.J. Shaw’s series milestones were in jeopardy.

Until Shaw came in and raised the bar himself.

The multi-time Pro All Stars Series and Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour champion took control of the McGee Automotive 125 on a late restart, earning his 12th career GSPSS win and his fifth at the New Hampshire oval.

And Shaw relished the chance to win at a track that has especially challenged his competitors.

“I know a lot of people don’t like it, and I love it,” Shaw said of the speedway. “We don’t get to come here and support it as much as we’d like to.”

The Center Conway, N.H. native manages a full-time presence in both PASS and ACT, neither of which visits the quirky third-mile oval. But with a free Friday night, and with support from his sponsors, Shaw made a late addition to his season schedule, heading to a track where he won last July and placed seventh in May after a flat tire spoiled his Sunday drive.

Shaw arrived at Claremont with two series superlatives facing a challenge. Joey Doiron and Gabe Brown, each with three wins at Claremont, hoped to tie Shaw’s four wins at the speedway. And Joey Polewarczyk, fresh off a win at Hudson Speedway, had closed within two of Shaw’s GSPSS-leading 11 career victories.

Polewarczyk, who dominated May’s season opener at Claremont before settling for second, clocked the fastest lap in time trials.

But Shaw was fast on his own merit, winning the second heat after Brown captured the first. Brown drew a six-car invert for the feature, putting Casey Call and Jeremy Sorel on the front row. Shaw was relegated to fifth.

Sorel, who came within inches and a video review of victory last July, shot out to the early lead as defending champion Call faded through the field. “Joey Pole” made a quick charge from fourth to second, reeling Sorel in before taking the point on lap 12. Shaw settled into third with Brown fourth, until trouble on the backstretch ended the 2021 GSPSS champion’s evening on lap 38.

Doiron diced through the top five after the restart, blowing by Polewarczyk for the lead on lap 45. Wheeling the car he drove to his second GSPSS title in 2022, Doiron stretched his advantage over Polewarczyk as Shaw and May winner Wayne Helliwell, Jr. entered the picture. Shaw cleared Polewarczyk for second at halfway, while Helliwell needed more time to get by his friend and rival.

Helliwell had made the pass for third when Joe Kendall spun out of turn two to bring out the yellow at lap 84. Doiron needed a few laps on the restart to break free of Shaw, singling out with Helliwell in third. Points leader Evan Beaulieu powered to fourth as Polewarczyk, nursing what he believed was a low tire, slipped to fifth. As Shaw continued to test Doiron out front, Helliwell stalked the pair in third, hoping to steal his second win of the year.

But with 20 laps to go, Helliwell suddenly blew an oil line in turn two, soaking the track. Polewarczyk got sideways in the oil and Sorel slammed into him, turning Polewarczyk’s car back into the backstretch wall. Helliwell’s smoking car came to a stop atop the turn-three pit exit.

The yellow flag quickly became the red flag as safety crews tended to Helliwell and Polewarczyk.

With the field whittled to eight cars, Doiron and Shaw brought the field back to green once again. This time, though, Shaw was more tenacious on the outside, drawing door-to-door with Doiron through the corners and poking ahead on the straights.

Doiron, unable to run high off the corners to counter Shaw, tagged the curb in turn two, bobbling just enough for Shaw to pull ahead by a bumper.

With clear track ahead, Shaw pulled away in the final ten laps, taking the checkered flag by over a second.

In an echo of last July’s nail-biting finish, Friday’s win was Shaw’s first victory of 2025 across all series. Despite Shaw never running for GSPSS driver points – his eight-race 2016 schedule is the only time he has started more than four races in a season – he leads the series with 12 wins, including four in his last six GSPSS starts dating back to 2022.

A disappointed Doiron settled for second, his third runner-up finish in his last three races. The Berwick, Me. ace was second to Polewarczyk at Hudson with the GSPSS, then finished second at Oxford Plains Speedway three days later in the second-ever Celebration of America 300.

Beaulieu, best among the series full-timers, finished third to pad his points lead.

Cory Casagrande took advantage of attrition to notch a fourth-place finish, his best GSPSS run this year. Rookie Cam Curtis, who made his series debut at Claremont in May, improved with a lead-lap fifth-place finish.

Dan Winter rounded out the lead-lap finishers in sixth, with Kendall recovering from his lap-84 spin to post his best GSPSS finish since 2021 in seventh. Rookie Cole Robie, second in points entering the evening, peeled off with a few laps left. Robie was credited with eighth place.

Despite their late-race incident, Helliwell and Polewarczyk still managed top-ten results. Friday marked Polewarczyk’s first failure to finish a GSPSS event since 2021. Only once in his 27-race GSPSS career has he not finished a race in the top ten.

Friday night’s race was the first event in a four-week stretch run through the summer that gives teams little time to freshen up between events. Next Saturday’s race at Monadnock Speedway, the series’ first visit there since 2022, is followed by a Friday-evening tilt at Lee USA Speedway and a Saturday showdown at Riverside Speedway in Groveton, N.H.

Beaulieu, with two third-place finishes following his first career GSPSS win at Speedway 95, has the early-season momentum in hand. Call, the early favorite to repeat last year’s title success, has instead struggled, finishing fourth at Speedway 95 but fading out of contention early in his other three starts. Helliwell won the season opener but has failed to finish a race since.

With an ACT race in Quebec next Saturday and PASS racing at Oxford on Sunday, Shaw will not be in Monadnock to defend his win in the series’ last visit, almost certainly opening the door for a first-time “Mad Dog” winner.

Over the next four weeks, momentum could swing yet again.

Unofficial Results
Granite State Pro Stock Series | McGee Automotive 125
Claremont Motorsports Park, Claremont, N.H.
1. (60) D.J. Shaw
2. (73D) Joey Doiron
3. (56) Evan Beaulieu
4. (7CT) Cory Casagrande
5. (77) Cam Curtis
6. (81) Dan Winter
7. (62) Joe Kendall
8. (29) Cole Robie
9. (27NH) Wayne Helliwell, Jr.
10. (97) Joey Polewarczyk
11. (7) Jeremy Sorel
12. (90NH) Casey Call
13. (47) Gabe Brown

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