Carey Cruises To Victory In ACT Tour Pine Tree State 125

Big tracks and banked tracks are the venues that best cater to Tom Carey III. Oxford Plains Speedway is neither. But that didn’t stop the American-Canadian Tour veteran from putting on a clinic en route to victory.

Tom Carey III celebrates his third career ACT Tour win and his first of 2023. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Carey claimed his first ACT Tour checkered flag of 2023 in Sunday’s Pine Tree State 125, the first of two scheduled stops at the legendary Maine oval.

The Orange, Mass. racer took control on lap 42 en route to the third win of his ACT Tour career and his first in the state of Maine.

Sunday’s showdown, the sixth of the season, was part of a twilight tripleheader with the Pro All Stars Series, with the PASS Modifieds and PASS North Super Late Models sandwiching the Tour’s 125-lap contest.

And in the opening laps, Gabe Brown seemed poised to repeat his success from a year ago. Brown, who broke through for his first PASS North win in last July’s doubleheader, started from the pole and drove off from the pack. Thirty laps in, the 2018 Oxford track champion was on the hunt for a first career ACT Tour win as well.

But Carey and DJ Shaw were marching forward, carving their way into the top five. And as Brown caught lapped traffic, his lead evaporated. Carey made quick work of Dylan Payea for second, then pounced on Brown for the top spot.

Gabe Brown’s stock car career began at Oxford, and the polesitter showed the way early in search of his first career ACT Tour win. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Carey was able to build an advantage over Brown, but the young Granite Stater was reeling him in on the outside when Bryan Wall, Jr. and Jeffrey Labrecque, Jr. got together to bring out the first caution flag on lap 62.

Problems for Dillon Moltz at the drop of the green prompted a second yellow, with Carey taking the high line to fend off Brown on the ensuing restart. Payea was not so fortunate, getting together with Brandon Barker and then Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. before skidding off course and plummeting through the pack. A few laps later, the fading Payea spun down the frontstretch, forcing the third caution of the day and bringing a disappointing end to his strong start.

Out front, Carey and Brown were in control, with Derek Gluchacki knocking on the door of the top five. Reilly Lanphear’s lap-82 spin bunched up the field, but Gluchacki was shuffled backwards on the restart, forcing him to claw his way back into contention.

Carey, meanwhile, set a fast pace out front, with Brown settling into second and Barker battling outside polesitter Jesse Switser for third. With seven laps remaining, Barker got into the lapped car of Tanner Woodard, turning the rookie and bringing out the final caution of the night.

Brown dug in on the restart, but he had nothing for Carey, who cruised to victory for the first time since last October’s tilt at Thompson Speedway in Connecticut.

Once out front, Carey was in control, clearing traffic in a hurry on restarts to drive off from the field. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Brown, who picked up a win in a special feature a month ago at White Mountain Motorsports Park, earned his second runner-up finish of the year.

Jesse Switser hung with the lead pack all night, coming home a strong third. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Switser edged out Barker on the last lap to finish third, by far his best Oxford result in seven starts. Switser’s run also closed out a top-four sweep for Dale Shaw Race Cars chassis.

Barker held on for fourth, with Gluchacki charging back to fifth at the finish.

Shaw fought back to a sixth-place finish after losing ground in the lap-118 incident. Rookie Andrew Molleur was a career-best seventh ahead of Autodrome Chaudiere winner Renfrew. Ryan Kuhn was ninth in his second start of the year, while defending race winner Marcel Gravel rounded out the top ten.

Surprisingly absent from the lineup was Jason Corliss. Fifth in points headed to Oxford and a feature winner earlier this year, the three-time Thunder Road “King of the Road” was quietly scratched from the entry list earlier in the week, likely ending the veteran racer’s title chase.

Nine drivers, though, have attempted every race this year, with Shaw’s sixth-place finish maintaining his points lead over Renfrew and Brown.

Derek Gluchacki (#03MA) battles Maine’s Brandon Barker en route to a fifth-place finish. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Carey is not among the nine full-timers this season, but he has established himself among the frontrunners on a part-time itinerary. Before Sunday’s victory, the veteran racer had Tour victories at WMMP and Thompson, plus a host of Thompson feature wins to his credit. And at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Carey has three straight second-place finishes and a fourth in his four points-paying starts at the “Magic Mile.”

But “TC III” has also assembled a stout record at Oxford. A crash last August relegated Carey to a 27th-place finish, but he had finished in the top ten in his four previous starts, including a runner-up performance in 2020 to local favorite Ben Rowe.

Carey became the sixth different ACT Tour winner in 2023, a trend evident across all ACT’s Late Model programs. In 21 points races sanctioned under the ACT banner, including Quebec’s Série ACT LMS and weekly competition at Thunder Road, no driver has won twice this year.

That streak may continue in two weeks at Autodrome Montmagny, when the ACT Tour crosses the border for its second Canadian event of the season. With a healthy contingent of Canadian racers on hand, and some of the province’s biggest stars still winless this year, another new winner could be in the cards.

Unofficial Results
American-Canadian Tour Pine Tree State 125
Oxford Plains Speedway

1. (5MA) Tom Carey III
2. (60ME) Gabe Brown
3. (25NH) Jesse Switser
4. (0NH) Brandon Barker
5. (03MA) Derek Gluchacki
6. (04VT) DJ Shaw
7. (31CT) Andrew Molleur
8. (00NH) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
9. (72MA) Ryan Kuhn
10. (86VT) Marcel J. Gravel
11. (04NH) Shawn Swallow
12. (5ME) Dominic Curit
13. (77NH) Bryan Wall, Jr.
14. (7NC) Davey Riendeau
15. (41QC) Jonathan Bouvrette
16. (12NH) Jeffrey Labrecque, Jr.
17. (48NY) Taylor Hoar
18. (27NH) Cam Huntress
19. (5CT) Dillon Moltz
20. (36NH) Erick Sands
21. (68NH) Tanner Woodard
22. (47NH) Brockton Davis
23. (73MA) Cole Littlewood
24. (25ME) Jason Gammon
25. (21VT) Reilly Lanphear
26. (7ME) Dylan Payea
DNS (19ME) Shane Kaherl

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