Gluchacki unseats Sands for ACT Tour checkers at Oxford

Despite sitting second in the American-Canadian Tour standings, Derek Gluchacki’s season has lacked that statement moment to propel them headlong into the title chase.

He just might have found that moment.

Gluchacki dethroned a dominant Erick Sands to claim his second win of 2024 and the eighth of his ACT Late Model Tour career in the Oxford 125, the headliner of a jam-packed Saturday night prelude to Sunday’s 51st Annual Oxford 250.

And while the Dartmouth, Mass. driver was dominant in his 2022 victory at Oxford Plains Speedway, this time it was about letting the opportunity present itself.

“[Sands] slipped up a little bit there into one,” he said. “We filled the hole. We did what we needed to do, right?”

What Gluchacki needed, or wanted, was something to set himself apart from the pack chasing Gabe Brown for the ACT Tour crown. Brown, still winless after eight races, had not finished worse than sixth since the season-opening Northeast Classic at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Gluchacki won the Northeast Classic, albeit via disqualification, but had finished no better than fourth since then. Third in points was defending two-time champion D.J. Shaw, coming off a Midsummer Classic victory at White Mountain Motorsports Park and finding momentum of his own.

Gluchacki won his heat, but it was Sands who would lead the 43-car field to green alongside Shawn Swallow. Swallow dropped back quickly as Brown carved his way through the top five in the first thirty-lap stint. As slower traffic became an issue for the leaders, Brown moved to second, with ProTruck Challenge graduate Devin Deshaies running a stout third in his first career ACT Tour start.

The first yellow flew on lap 33 as April Oxford winner Jesse Switser closed quickly on a slower Mike Foster, climbing Foster’s left-rear fender down the backstretch and prompting officials to slow the race for what looked like it would be a much worse incident. Foster was done for the night, but Switser soldiered on.

Sands continued to show the way, distancing himself from Brown after separate wrecks that sent Reilly Lanphear and Rémi Perreault pitside with terminal damage. Sands led Brown to the green on lap 49 with former Oxford winner Tom Carey III in third, while Gluchacki shadowed Deshaies in fifth.

Another long run allowed Sands to get away from Brown, but Brown reeled the Granite Stater in as they caught up with the tail of the field. As Sands and Brown were poised to lap rookie Jeremy Sorel on lap 81, the yellow flew once again, sparing Sorel and giving Brown a new threat in third-place Gluchacki.

Sands was unassailable on restarts, but hard racing deep in the pack kept him from getting too far away. Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. went for a spin on lap 89, and a lap after the restart, Brockton Davis and Ryan Flood skated off the top of the turn-three banking to bring out another quick yellow.

With Gluchacki in third, Brown had been unable to mount a whole-hearted effort at taking the lead, forced to play defense against his title rival.

But on a lap-106 restart, it was Brown who surged ahead off turn two, nabbing the lead before Sands powered back to the point. Behind them, Deshaies’ strong rookie run ended as he got off the banking in turn three. Deshaies got back on course quickly, but one lap later, Tanner Woodard and Bryan Wall, Jr. went spinning through turn three, as Swallow, Deshaies and others took evasive action to avoid the stalled cars in the corner.

Sands led Brown and Gluchacki back to the green, with Alexendre Tardif and Marcel Gravel now rounding out the top five. Brown made a play for the lead, but he quickly found Gluchacki at his door challenging for second. Brown held off Gluchacki as Shawn Swallow and Star Speedway regular Adam Lovejoy tangled to bring out the yellow once more with ten laps to go.

With victory in sight, Sands played defense against Brown to keep the lead. But he left a lane open on the inside as the two made contact.

Gluchacki pounced, taking the lead battle three wide into turn three, then diving into one to take the preferred line away. Gluchacki emerged with the lead, with Brown losing third to Tardif as they came off turn two.

Sands could only give chase as Gluchacki held on over the final nine circuits for his second win of 2024 and his second ACT Tour win at Oxford.

“When we got to third, after the yellows, it seemed they didn’t fire off great,” Gluchacki said of Sands. “I was just saving, trying to save the rear tires, to have that launch off the corner there at the end.”

Rolling off deeper in the field due to ACT’s handicap procedure for race winners, Gluchacki had to manage his run to the front.

“We came from a long ways back,” he said. “It seemed like it took forever to get there. It all worked out for us and I’m super thankful.”

Sands settled for second, his second runner-up finish of 2024 and his fourth career ACT Tour podium finish. Tardif held on for third, best in class among the six Quebecers in the field.

Brown, fourth at the finish, seemed frustrated with Gluchacki after the race, stopping at the winner’s door on his way back to the paddock. Gluchacki was unsure if Brown’s behavior was directed at him, but shrugged it off. “He’s taken trophies away from me too, right?” he said. “It is what it is.”

Gravel, the Thunder Road regular preparing for his first Oxford 250 attempt with a converted ACT Tour car, rounded out the top five.

Switser recovered from his early incident to finish sixth, with J.R. Robinson seventh in the final rundown. Sorel posted his first career ACT top ten with an eighth-place finish. Cam Huntress was ninth, while reigning champion Shaw was relegated to tenth in the late-race scramble.

Gluchacki managed another milestone Saturday night. A participant in the Kulwicki Driver Development Program, Gluchacki was able to share the winner’s circle for the first time with KDDP executive director Tom Roberts. “I met him for the first time in person today,” he said of the privilege.

Paying homage to the Polish-American heritage he shares with the late Alan Kulwicki, Gluchacki executed Kulwicki’s signature “Polish victory lap” around Oxford before his own winner’s circle celebration.

“It’s such an honor to be on the program, and have [Roberts] come all this way to watch us do our thing and race,” he said. “Super thankful for him and the whole program, everything they do for us. They’ve definitely taken our program to the next level.”

That level, if Gluchacki has his way, includes an ACT Tour championship. Gluchacki was outgunned for the title by Ben Rowe and Shaw in 2021. In 2022, he missed both Canadian races due to lingering border restrictions on traveling racers. Last year, a heat-race crash at Thunder Road kept him from taking the green flag in the feature, ending his shot at the championship.

This is Gluchacki’s best shot at the championship since 2021. But Saturday’s win only represents a small gain on Brown’s 32-point advantage. And the next date on the calendar is the Labor Day Classic at Thunder Road, the race that stifled Gluchacki’s hopes last year, the track that has been a thorn in his side since he joined the Tour full-time in 2020.

But Gluchacki was sixth there in May, and sixth in last fall’s Vermont Milk Bowl.

He might be turning the corner at just the right time.

Unofficial Results
ACT Late Model Tour | Oxford 125
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (03MA) Derek Gluchacki
2. (36NH) Erick Sands
3. (21QC) Alexendre Tardif
4. (47NH) Gabe Brown
5. (86VT) Marcel J. Gravel
6. (25NH) Jesse Switser
7. (28ME) JR Robinson
8. (7MA) Jeremy Sorel
9. (27NH) Cam Huntress
10. (04VT) D.J. Shaw
11. (45NH) Kasey Beattie
12. (5MA) Tom Carey III
13. (5VT) Bobby Therrien
14. (4NH) Jamie Swallow, Jr.
15. (78QC) Michaël Lavoie
16. (68NH) Tanner Woodard
17. (92VT) Jaden Perry
18. (18VT) Kaiden Fisher
19. (27MA) Chase Curtis
20. (99NH) Ben Belanger
21. (64RI) Devin Deshaies
22. (77NH) Bryan Wall, Jr.
23. (29NH) Aaron Fellows
24. (28NH) Ricky Bly
25. (73MA) Cole Littlewood
26. (92ME) Colby Meserve
27. (47MA) Justin Storace
28. (72QC) Louis-Philippe Lauzier
29. (22VT) Peyton Lanphear
30. (2NH) Adam Lovejoy
31. (04NH) Shawn Swallow
32. (47ME) Brockton Davis
33. (41QC) Jonathan Bouvrette
34. (01GC) Dylan Payea
35. (98MA) Ryan Flood
36. (0NH) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
37. (49NH) Matt Anderson
38. (23ME) Dave Farrington, Jr.
39. (33QC) Rémi Perreault
40. (21VT) Reilly Lanphear
41. (39VT) Mike Foster
42. (69ME) Dave MacDonald
43. (11QC) Claude Leclerc

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