This is the sort of title defense Gabe Brown had in mind.
The reigning Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour champion made a statement Saturday afternoon, taking his fourth win of the year in the Pine Tree State 125 at Oxford Plains Speedway.
And while Brown still has plenty of work to do next week to repeat as champion, he did everything he could this time around.
Saturday’s race was a rain-delayed makeup from early in the season, with the year’s second Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour event becoming the penultimate race in the title chase. The 125-lap showdown also brought the Tour back after a one-month layoff, with only the non-points Vermont Milk Bowl contested since mid-September’s Fall Foliage 200.
Brown won the Fall Foliage 200, but the Center Conway, N.H. native entered Saturday with a 67-point deficit to overcome against Canadian challenger Raphaël Lessard.
Jesse Switser and Derek Gluchacki, both former winners at Oxford, led the 28-car field to the green flag, with Switser quickly settling into the lead. Erick Sands and Lessard filed in, the four leaders pulling away from the pack with nothing but open asphalt ahead.
As they caught up to the tail of the field, Gluchacki began testing Switser for first, as Sands looked for a lane by both. Sands used a slower car as a pick to get under Gluchacki, but Gluchacki powered back by for second.
Gluchacki finally found his opening in traffic on lap 34, wresting the top spot from Switser. The top four ran nose to tail in traffic, with Brown closing quickly from tenth on the grid.
Early leader Switser began leaving enough room for Sands’ bumper, and on lap 42, Sands slipped around Switser with Brown in tow. Gluchacki continued to show the way, but Brown’s car was coming into its own.
With halfway approaching, and Brandon Barker also carving through traffic, Brown made his move on Sands for second, taking the spot on lap 56 as Barker worked around Lessard. It only took four laps for Brown to reel in Gluchacki, taking the lead from the Bay Stater on lap 60. Brown was solidly in command when Jonathan Bouvrette and rookie Holdyn Sullivan made contact, spinning through turn three and bringing out the first caution flag with 68 laps on the board.
Brown and Gluchacki got away on the green, while Barker worked over Sands for third. Barker finally cleared Sands, but the battle had allowed Trevor Sanborn and Lessard to catch up, and they went to work on Sands for fourth.
While Brown showed the way, Barker closed the gap to Gluchacki, making the pass for second with 27 laps to go. Now solidly in second, Barker tried to shave time off Brown’s advantage. His best shot was as Brown approached the slower car of Sullivan, Barker’s teammate for the day, but the young rookie gave both leaders plenty of room as they powered past.
And without a caution, Barker could not make up enough ground to threaten Brown for the top spot.
Barker gave chase in the final ten laps, but Brown kept the Star Speedway winner at bay by nearly a second to win his fourth Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour race of 2025 and the sixth of his career.
Gluchacki was over three seconds back in third, with Lessard rebounding to fourth after the mid-race restart shuffle. Sands, consistently in the mix at the last several Oxford outings, settled for fifth.
Early leader Switser finished sixth, with two-time champion D.J. Shaw seventh after a quiet race. Trevor Sanborn, making his third ACT start with CSV Motorsports, tasted the top five before sliding to eighth at the finish. Quebec’s Alexendre Tardif and Thunder Road International Speedbowl ace Nick Sweet rounded out the top ten.
Jimmy Renfrew, Jr., who won ACT’s last stop at the venerable Maine oval in August, watched from the sidelines as his car was eliminated in a heat-race snafu. Reilly Lanphear also bowed out prior to heats, leaving 28 cars to take the green flag.
As Brown celebrated his fifth career touring win at Oxford, the speedway where his stock car career took shape, his victory had a greater personal significance. Brown dedicated the win to Elwin “Pork” King, a longtime supporter of Brown and the Shaw family. King, the father of ACT general manager Cale King, passed away last Sunday following a battle with cancer.
Brown’s fourth win of the season was his third in the last five races, part of a late-season charge that has vaulted the 23-year-old back into title contention. The self-confessed hard charger surprisingly won last year’s championship on the back of consistency, winning once but finishing on the podium six times and earning ten top-ten finishes in 13 races.
While Brown’s numbers this year look roughly the same—eight top fives and nine top tens in 13 starts—three finishes of 18th or worse have him at a deficit to the ever-consistent Lessard, the two-time Série ACT champion and former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series winner. Lessard is the only other driver to score multiple wins this season. Shaw, still winless in his first year as ACT owner and driver, remains in the hunt as well.
The championship battle concludes next Saturday at Seekonk Speedway, where Shaw is the favorite among the title contenders with four career touring wins at the “Cement Palace.” Lessard finished fourth at Seekonk in this year’s Spring Green, while miscues have tainted Brown’s last two Seekonk starts.
With $20,000 on the line, all three will be pulling out all the stops in Massachusetts.
Unofficial Results
Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour | Pine Tree State 125
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (47NH) Gabe Brown
2. (0ME) Brandon Barker
3. (03MA) Derek Gluchacki
4. (48QC) Raphaël Lessard
5. (36NH) Erick Sands
6. (25NH) Jesse Switser
7. (60BH) D.J. Shaw
8. (45NH) Trevor Sanborn
9. (31CT) Alexendre Tardif
10. (88VT) Nick Sweet
11. (29NH) Aaron Fellows
12. (41QC) Jonathan Bouvrette
13. (68NH) Tanner Woodard
14. (10NH) Bryan Mason
15. (28ME) JR Robinson
16. (27NH) Cam Huntress
17. (02NH) Brian Whalley
18. (18VT) Kaiden Fisher
19. (0NH) Holdyn Sullivan
20. (61NH) Ryan Olsen
21. (27MA) Chase Curtis
22. (33QC) Rémi Perreault
23. (47MA) Justin Storace
24. (73MA) Cole Littlewood
25. (92ME) Colby Meserve
26. (10ME) Christian LaFlamme
27. (78NH) Quinny Welch
28. (1NH) Corey Mason
DNS (00NH) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
DNS (21VT) Reilly Lanphear
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