Alexendre Tardif puts on a clinic at Oxford Plains ahead of Oxford 250

It was an action packed Sunday at the historic Oxford Plains Speedway, with plenty of sunshine on hand. It was one final chance for the stars and cars of the Pro All-Star Series before they return in three weeks for the 53rd running of the Oxford 250.

It was a dominating performance Sunday evening by the driver out of Quebec, Canada, Alexendre Tardif who would lead every lap of the 150 lap feature event. 

Tardif was the driver that everyone would be chasing in this final tune-up at Oxford, where he would lead every lap of the 150 lapper, lapping much of the field, with only 12 cars on the lead lap of the 28 that started the race and only one caution being brought out.

For “Fireball” Tardif, it was a monumental win for him and his team coming from Quebec.

“This is awesome. It’s my biggest win in a long time. I will remember this one for a long time also. I’m very proud of my team. We work hard on this thing and the result doesn’t always show, but I think today was a great example of all the work we put in it,” a very excited Tardif says.

With the Oxford 250 around the corner, Tardif now has his eyes set on the bigger prize too.

“I think we will be the one to watch for sure, but we never know what can happen on 250 weekend, but I’m very confident, we will just need luck on our side,” a confident Tardif says.

The Oxford 250 trophy has been known to be taken back to Canada, most recently being NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Cole Butcher. Butcher, from Nova Scotia won back-to-back Oxford 250s back in 2022 and 2023. For Tardif, it’s a win he is dreaming of.

“Ah, that would be the cherry on top of the cake. I mean, that would be insane. That’s my biggest dream. And if I win it, I don’t think I will sleep a lot that night,” a hopeful Tardif says.

For the young hot-shoe out of Quebec, it was also a win that carried meaning as a team member battles health issues.

“I have a special thought for Greg, my spotter, who has some health issues, he’s not feeling very well, and I think about him, and then, like I say thank you to all my sponsors, but really thinking of Greg a lot,” a thoughtful Tardif says.

Finishing in 2nd was Jimmy Renfrew Jr., who had already picked up a win earlier in the day against the weekly regulars at Oxford. Renfrew Jr.started on the outside of the sixth, fell back early on to 15th, but then would begin his trek towards the front. When the caution flew on lap 28, Renfrew was back to 13th, but then would make quick work on the restart, getting up to the top 5 by lap 30.

Renfrew was moving around on the track, getting to the top side and was up to 3rd by lap 57, then would begin to track down at the time Corey Bubar in 2nd, making his move at the halfway point to take over the runner-up spot. With heavy lap traffic between him and Tardif, it would become a difficult task to reel in Tardif.

Overall, on the day, Renfrew was pleased with the outcome ahead of 250 weekend.

 “A win and a second. I think we had a really good car in the PASS race, just started too far back there, and the 21 had track position on us starting from the pole. But  the car was really good. We got a good notebook to come back for the 250 and just thankful to have, you know, 2 good finishes today,” a very pleased Renfrew Jr. explains.

For the driver out of Candia, New Hampshire, he feels things are rolling their way heading towards Oxford 250 weekend.

“We got a lot of momentum going here at Oxford for the 250, and just happy to be driving this Hamke race car, and can’t thank everybody at Hamke, Donny Wilson Racing, and Renfrew Motorsports. Everybody that works on this thing every weekend and just thankful to be here,” a grateful Renfrew Jr. explains.

“Obviously that’s kind of why we all race here for all year long is to try to get good enough to win the 250 and it takes people a long time to win that race. And there’s been a lot of people trying for a lot more years than me, but if I get my chance this year,  I’ll take it and just be thankful for the opportunity and be thankful to have a good team and a good car behind me,” a confident and humble Renfrew Jr says.

Coming home with a strong third place finish, coming from a 13th, was Gabe Brown and the Bobby Webber Racing team. Brown and the Webber Racing team are feeling confident now as we head towards the 250 weekend.

“Obviously good momentum going into the 250,  I feel like every race in this thing, we either top 3 or break or something happens and we limp home. So we’ve had a lot of good runs this year and just hopefully the 250 is the best one yet. Next week we’re gonna park this car and bring something else out so we can save it for the 250 and do a little bit more work on it. And we’ll see how that goes,” a pleased and confident Gabe Brown says post race.

A driver that was coming on strong in the final 50 laps of the 150 lapper, was that of the 17-year-old Cole Robie, coming home with a 4th place finish, edging out Trevor Sanborn at the line.

“I think we had a really good car. You know, it gives us a really, really good notebook for the 250 coming into it. This isn’t the car that I am going to be racing at the 250, but it gives us good notes.I think we had a really good car at the end of that race, and if it wasn’t for traffic, I think we could have gone for 2nd or 3rd,” a very happy Robie explains.

Rounding out the top 5 in the Pro All-Star Series race was Trevor Sanborn, who was finding his rhythm in the latter half of the 150 and coming alive, and felt he had a strong day ahead of the 250 in a few weeks and boosted the teams confidence after the solid day.

“We honestly just needed a restart to get us all back together and jumbled up and go at it. I still think we had a top 3 car. My mistake is when I went to the outside of Gabe there at the end and gave up a little bit. I thought the lap car in front of him would slow him down some, but that lap car had a little more speed in it for 5 laps. And I just couldn’t enter very hard and I couldn’t come off the corner very hard. So, I mean, I’ll take this. We’ve had some awful runs. This is really good for our team,” a confident Sanborn explains.

Other notable stories on the day included that with Garrett Hall, who started off the Sunday with an incident during practice early in the day. The incident was extensive enough that forced Hall to go to the back-up car for the PASS 150 race.

Hall would rebound on the day, finishing 5th in his respective heat race, and would start 9th in the 150 lapper, and come home in 6th place. 

Despite the hard start to the day, Hall was thankful for the way his team responded.

“Five laps out in the practice, get wrecked. Nothing that we could have done, just circumstances of being in the wrong place, wrong time. But, I am really proud of my team and everybody for working so hard and putting everything together. I really appreciate them all,” a grateful Hall explains.

For the veteran driver, who has won the Celebration of America 300 before, he feels confident heading towards 250 weekend.

“I thought right around that lap 50 mark, that we had a pretty decent car, and I thought maybe we were going to be able to salvage a top three out of it, but it just seemed like once I tried to pick it up a little bit, it just fell off. is what it is. The car’s in one piece. We’re all rolling pretty good here and just excited to try to get our luck turned around,” a content Garret Hall explained.

For the 2020 Oxford 250 champion, Johnny Clark, he was slightly disappointed with the end result of his race with a 7th place finish. .

“I think as the sun got down further and the track tightened up. We were getting better. We were just way too free. I thought we were going to be way better than that, really disappointed. It was way too free. We felt a lot better going into this weekend to get ready for the 250, but we got a little more work to do,” the veteran driver explains.

For weekly regular Brandon Varney, who sits 4th in the Oxford Plains super late model points, it was a strong day despite a slow start in the 150 lapper.

“We thought we had a pretty good car. Unfortunately on our end the first 10 laps we were horrible. However, for the next 140 laps, we were very pleased with how the car ran and the pace we had. It felt good to take everything we’ve been working on in the weekly series, pay off for the PASS race as well. Feel as though we have a really good starting point for the 100 lapper next week and the 250,” a confident Brandon Varney says. 

Another notable driver among the top 10 was Derek Griffith, coming away with a 9th place finish. Griffith says he hopes to get his car more dialed in over the next few weeks ahead of the 250 weekend.

“We just missed, I guess, a little bit. We were really, really, really tight. I don’t really know what happened, but it’s only the second time this car has ever been here. So we’re still trying to work on it. This place is so odd and so unique that you gotta work on your stuff to come here and race it. And that’s what we’re trying to do,” a slightly disappointed Griffith says.

Griffith, who has had strong finishes in the 250 in his attempts, remains hungry like many others who will make the attempt to write their name into the history books as an Oxford 250 champion at the end of August.

“We’ve been so f***ing close a couple times and we want it pretty bad. It’s been the only race up here that we haven’t had a chance to get down.This place has always been my Achilles heel, so we work really hard to get good here. This car, I think we’ll get there with this car. I really thought it was going to be really good tonight, but I just missed the setup. So we’ll see. Now I have a decision to make whether to take the old girl out of the trailer and use that or use this thing for the 250, but we’ll figure it out,” a positive Derek Griffith says.

The Pro All-Star Series heads to Riverside Speedway in Groveton, New Hampshire this Sunday, August 16th, the final race ahead of the Oxford 250 coming up the weekend of August 28th-30th.

PASS 150 Quick Results:

1. Alexendre Tardif 150 laps
2. Jimmy Renfrew Jr.150 laps
3. Gabe Brown 150 laps
4. Cole Robie 150 laps
5. Trevor Sanborn 150 laps
6. Garrett Hall 150 laps
7. Johnny Clark 150 laps
8. Brandon Varney 150 laps
9. Derrick Griffith 150 laps
10. Eddie Macdonald 150 laps
11. Sylas Ripley 150 laps
12. DJ Shaw 150 laps
13. Dominic Curit 149 laps
14. Corey Bubar 149 laps
15. Dan Mckeage Jr. 149 laps
16. Ryan Littlefield 149 laps
17. Brodie Whorff 149 laps
18. Joey Doiron 149 laps
19. Ryan Kuhn 149 laps
20. Steve Chicoine 149 laps
21. Matthew Bourgine 149 laps
22. Troy Patterson 148 laps
23. Chad Dow 148 laps
24. Garrett Lamb 148 laps
25. Pat Corbett 148 laps
26. Kevin Douglas 148 laps
27. Travis Stearns 73 laps DNF
28. Mike Rowe 35 laps DNF