Renfrew scores ACT victory on eve of Oxford 250

Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. learned a lesson in Friday night’s Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour tilt. If he wanted to get to victory lane at Oxford Plains Speedway, he needed to get to the point early.

So on Saturday night, he did.

The Granite Stater led all but the opening lap en route to victory in Saturday’s Oxford 125, the second leg of a weekend double feature on the eve of the 52nd annual All That’s Metal Oxford 250.

“My car was really good on the restarts,” Renfrew said, “but we just knew that we had to get away to be able to run my race.”

For years, the Saturday-night ACT feature has headlined the second day of Oxford 250 festivities, anchoring a day of practice sessions for Sunday’s 250 and an evening of feature races for weekly classes, the Pro All Stars Series Modifieds and New England Supermodified Series.

And with Friday’s PASS Sunoco 150 and ACT Yvon Bedard 109, Saturday’s 125-lapper was the third race of the weekend for drivers like Renfrew, seeking to maximize track time in anticipation of Sunday’s big race.

Renfrew finished third Friday night, while Gabe Brown planted himself out front early and held off Derek Gluchacki in the closing laps for the victory. 

The Candia, N.H. racer started third for Saturday night’s feature, but made quick work of polesitter Geoff Rollins to take the lead. Rollins settled into second, with outside polesitter D.J. Shaw dogging Rollins for third.

A long green-flag stint to open the race came to an end as Brandon Lambert spun down the backstretch, drawing the first caution flag on lap 39. On the restart, Rollins bobbled off turn two, stacking up the field with Erick Sands leading Jonathan Bouvrette and Gluchacki through traffic. Sands took over the runner-up slot, with Gluchacki testing Bouvrette for third and Joey Polewarczyk holding off Brown’s advances behind them.

Rollins continued to slide back before spinning on the frontstretch, bringing the yellow back out on lap 45.

Shaw had been held up by Rollins on the previous restart, and the two-time champion was shuffled to the outside again. Shaw fell outside of the top fifteen as Renfrew set a quick pace out front, eventually catching the tail of the field. Renfrew’s advantage evaporated in traffic, with former Oxford winner Gluchacki haunting Sands for second.

Brown, looking to sweep the weekend double, was making his own bold moves behind the leaders, forcing his way past points leader Raphaël Lessard and shoving Yvon Bedard aside in traffic. Sands, meanwhile, shook free of Gluchacki and began pressuring Renfrew for the lead.

But Renfrew earned a reprieve when, on lap 76, ACT newcomer Joey Lemay went for a ride off turn three in Jason Glaude’s Team 31 Racing entry, bringing out the caution to retrieve the errant car. Renfrew again jumped out to the point, with Sands fending off Gluchacki for several laps. With 35 laps remaining, Gluchacki slipped past Sands and into second, chasing Renfrew for his third Oxford win.

Another yellow flag bunched up the leaders on lap 95. Officials waved off the restart attempt, and as Will Larue got shuffled to the outside on the second attempt, the yellow flew again to freeze the field. Renfrew got out front again on the restart, but only two laps later, Rémi Perreault spun in turn two to bring the caution out once again. Renfrew, Gluchacki and Sands doubled up for the restart, with Brown up to fourth and Lessard fifth.

Gluchacki was unable to hang with Renfrew on the restart, and the race settled into a green-flag rhythm until Michaël Lavoie went for a spin on lap 115. With ten to go, Renfrew again escaped from the pack on the restart, with Brown facing a double threat from teammates Lessard and Larue. As the field battled behind him, Renfrew seemed to have the race in hand.

But tough racing on the edge of the top ten with three laps to go set off a multi-car conflagration in turn one, with Polewarczyk and Jeremy Davis skidding through the turns. Jeremy Sorel spun to the apron, where he was drilled in the door by rookie Colby Meserve as the yellow waved once again.

Sands, now in second, lined up alongside Renfrew with Lessard up to third. But neither driver had an answer for Renfrew, who powered away at the drop of the green.

Comfortably in control, Renfrew gapped the field by .761 seconds as he cruised to his fourth career Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour win and his first of 2025.

Suffice it to say, Renfrew did not want the bevy of late-race restarts. 

“I knew that everybody was gonna try to win and do what they had to do to win,” Renfrew said. “But I was pretty confident that I wouldn’t get wrecked after having a pretty dominant car most of the race, and leading every lap except one. There’s always a thought in your mind, when you’re restarting with the whole field behind you in the last ten laps of the race, that that could happen.

“But you always hope that it doesn’t.”

The 22-year-old raced with the CARS Pro Late Model Tour in 2024, earning some experience outside of his native New England. Managing restarts, naturally, was part of his education away from home.

“When I raced down south, if you weren’t leading by four car-lengths inside the last ten laps on a restart, you were probably gonna get wrecked for the win,” he said. “So I knew that I had to get out, and be clear off of two and be able to run my race and not overdrive it, and be able to be smooth there on the last restarts inside the last ten laps and try not to get run over. But luckily I had some pretty respectful guys behind me, the 03, the 36, the 48. They didn’t try to rough me up at all and I appreciate that.”

Lessard, who struggled in the closing laps of Friday’s feature, rebounded nicely to finish second. However, the two-time Série ACT champ and current points leader was quick to admit that the flat Maine oval had not been his easiest experience.

In fact, Lessard made four starts at Oxford as a teenaged rookie in PASS a decade ago, finishing no better than 20th and never cracking the lead lap.

“To be honest, every time I ran here, we pretty much sucked,” he said. “I was terrible every time, like I would start the race, not too bad, and then I would fade really bad at the end. And I didn’t have any experience at 13 years old and 14, I didn’t know what I was doing. So I didn’t remember much of it.”

Instead, Lessard made the most of a clean slate. “But now the experience I’ve gained, I think it helped us to be way better today than we were yesterday,” he said. “So just a lot more experience under my belt. And now I feel good leaving Oxford, finally [with] a good result!”

More importantly, with the season’s penultimate race at Oxford in October, Lessard has a thicker notebook in hand. 

“We still need to work on it, ‘cause I don’t think we found the speed we wanted,” he said. “But tonight, it just seems like we didn’t fade as much as everybody else. But we didn’t have enough speed, I thought, to compete, especially with the 00. So I think there’s lots of room to improve, but the McColl chassis is treating us very well.”

Sands, still in search of his first ACT win of 2025, raced his way to third in the final sprint. Brown came up short of the weekend sweep with a fourth-place finish, while defending race winner Gluchacki fell to fifth at the finish.

Bouvrette wound up sixth, ahead of fellow Quebecer Alexendre Tardif, who wheeled his Team 31 Racing entry to a seventh place on the eve of his first Oxford 250 attempt. Shaw battled back into the top ten, finishing eighth. Trevor Sanborn was ninth in his second ACT start for CSV Motorsports. Cam Huntress rounded out the top ten.

Thirty-seven cars took the green Saturday night, two more than Friday’s feature. Cody LeBlanc, usually at the track as Shaw’s spotter, made his first ACT start in two years and finished 12th. Rookie Taylor Hoar, joined at the track by representatives from the Kulwicki Driver Development Program, finished 22nd in her third Oxford start.

Renfrew’s fourth career ACT win was his first since 2023 for his family-owned team, having won once last year for car owner Chad Sullivan. Renfrew has only chased points a few times in his career, and this season is no exception, with Renfrew making starts in PASS, ACT, and the Granite State Pro Stock Series.

The young racer’s attention now shifts to Sunday’s Oxford 250. Renfrew finished sixth in Friday night’s Sunoco 150 qualifying race and earned the pole for his first Oxford 250 start in 2023. However, only twice has he cracked the top ten in a Super Late Model race at the challenging oval.

Saturday night’s victory may be the boost Renfrew needs.

Unofficial Results
Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour | Oxford 125
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (00NH) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
2. (48QC) Raphaël Lessard
3. (36NH) Erick Sands
4. (47NH) Gabe Brown
5. (03MA) Derek Gluchacki
6. (41QC) Jonathan Bouvrette
7. (31CT) Alexendre Tardif
8. (60BH) D.J. Shaw
9. (45NH) Trevor Sanborn
10. (27NH) Cam Huntress
11. (02NH) Geoff Rollins
12. (7NH) Cody LeBlanc
13. (45QC) William Larue
14. (73MA) Cole Littlewood
15. (72QC) Louis-Philippe Lauzier
16. (5ME) Troy Patterson
17. (25NH) Jesse Switser
18. (47MA) Justin Storace
19. (04VT) Justin Prescott
20. (22VT) Peyton Lanphear
21. (33QC) Rémi Perreault
22. (48VT) Taylor Hoar
23. (03QC) Sébastien Couture
24. (78QC) Michaël Lavoie
25. (18VT) Kaiden Fisher
26. (28NH) Ricky Bly
27. (53NH) Jeremy Davis
28. (10NH) Bryan Mason
29. (97NH) Joey Polewarczyk
30. (7MA) Jeremy Sorel
31. (92ME) Colby Meserve
32. (11QC) Claude Leclerc
33. (16QC) Jimmy Lehoux
34. (15QC) Christopher Bedard
35. (77AZ) Brandon Lambert
36. (31X) Joey Lemay
37. (9MX) Yvon Bedard

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