Doiron outduels Renfrew for GSPSS Iron Sight 125 trophy

As Joey Doiron got together with Jimmy Renfrew, Jr. in a battle for the lead in Friday night’s Iron Sight 125, it looked like Doiron’s hopes of victory had taken a fatal shot.

Then he made the pass for the win anyway.

Doiron scored his fourth win of the year, but his first in Granite State Pro Stock Series competition, in the main event of Lee USA Speedway’s Mid-Season Shootout.

The Berwick, Me. veteran outdueled Renfrew on lap 103 and outpaced Mike Hopkins in the closing laps to cap off a night that dealt double points to Lee’s weekly racers, a $4,000 payday to the GSPSS feature winner, and rifle trophies to all feature winners as part of a “Wild West” theme.

Friday’s feature marked the midpoint of the GSPSS’ 2025 schedule, with five different winners in the first five races and three of those five contending for the points championship. 

Renfrew, making his first GSPSS start since the 2023 season finale, was there for the purse. And after a top-four invert, the New Hampshire racer found himself on the pole alongside Doiron for the initial green flag.

But Doiron faltered on the entry to turn one, falling to fourth as Renfrew took command with Wayne Helliwell, Jr. in tow. Hopkins slotted in third as Doiron settled back into a rhythm.

The rhythm was short-lived, though, as a yellow flag waved on lap nine for Frankie Eldredge’s solo spin on the frontstretch. Defending champion Casey Call was among a small group that pitted for early adjustments at their first opportunity.

As the field came back to green, the field accordioned behind Renfrew and Helliwell, the chain reaction claiming a handful of cars in the middle of the pack. Eddie MacDonald tagged Evan Beaulieu and shot into the outside wall, while Beaulieu was turned into the path of Cory Casagrande. Casagrande and others drove off as the yellow flag unfurled again, but MacDonald and Beaulieu were parked in turn four, their respective evenings over with terminal damage.

Renfrew remained at the point, but Doiron made quick work of the frontrunners to steal second after the restart. Helliwell, the fastest in time trials before the invert, fell from the top five as Renfrew and Doiron distanced themselves from third-place Hopkins. Gabe Brown emerged in fourth as two-time Lee track champion Brandon Barker drove to fifth with 40 laps on the scoreboard.

Lapped traffic had just started to factor into the lead battle when the third caution of the night waved at lap 57. Points leader Cole Robie led a handful of cars onto pit road, with Robie and two-time Lee winner Corey Bubar lining up at the tail of the field. 

Renfrew and Doiron broke from the field again, in a class by themselves as Hopkins held down third. Doiron tucked in behind Renfrew, ready to pounce if the young racer made a mistake. Renfrew, winless in the series since 2022, defended the inside line in every turn, keeping Doiron at his back bumper.

With Renfrew keeping his car wide, Doiron tested the high line on lap 101, peeking high out of turn two as Renfrew stayed low. Renfrew pulled high to close the hole, but Doiron was already there. The leaders bobbled down the backstretch, Renfrew maintaining the lead as Doiron fell in line with heavy damage to the left front corner of his car. Hopkins quickly closed the gap to the two leaders.

Despite the damage, Doiron had not lost any pace. Two laps later, he shot to the inside down the backstretch, sending Renfrew up the banking.

Doiron came out with the lead, with Hopkins suddenly challenging Renfrew for second.

Hopkins ultimately shook Renfrew free and moved into second, but by then, Doiron had pulled away, and without lapped traffic or a yellow flag, Hopkins was not going to carve into his lead.

Instead, Doiron crossed the line over two seconds ahead of his fellow Pine Tree State native, winning his eighth career GSPSS feature.

Doiron, for his part, still wanted to see how the on-track battle had unfolded from the grandstands. “I’d like to watch it back and see what happened down in two,” he said. “But I felt like I kinda got ran in the fence. And after that, I’m not gonna go to the outside.”

He shrugged. “So, it’s time to go.”

But was Doiron concerned about retaliation from Renfrew?

He shook his head. “I waited until [Hopkins] got there so he could fill the hole.”

Hopkins, who swept both GSPSS races at Speedway 95 in 2024, finished second in his first GSPSS race outside the state of Maine since 2020. The Pro All Stars Series fixture has only finished worse than fourth once in six series starts.

Brown, the 2021 GSPSS champion, raced to his first GSPSS podium finish since 2022. Barker was fourth at the line, while Nick Cusack rallied late to finish fifth.

Ryan Green was sixth at the stripe, ahead of Bubar, who drove back to seventh. Renfrew backslid to eighth over the final laps, while Dave Farrington, Jr. and Josh St. Clair rounded out the top ten.

Robie’s 11th-place finish was best among the points contenders. Helliwell and Casagrande struggled to lead-lap finishes just outside the top ten. Casey Call made multiple pit stops before retiring only 42 laps in, his runner-up result at Monadnock not quite enough to right the ship.

But Beaulieu suffered the biggest loss. The tow to the infield after Beaulieu’s lap-nine crash dealt additional damage to his car, leaving the family team with a long list of repairs. With the next race only a week away, Beaulieu was doubtful they would be able to regroup in time. Another competitor offered a race car for him to keep his title hopes afloat, but with the next race scheduled at the recently-repaved Riverside Speedway, Beaulieu acknowledged that the cost of wrecking a borrowed car would be unrecoverable.

The matter became moot mid-week, as GSPSS scuttled Saturday’s tilt at Riverside due to a short entry list. Thanks to quick work by chassis builder Alan Berry and the commitment of his crew, Beaulieu was optimistic about being race-ready, but the four-races-in-four-weeks grind had left a few others unable to make a fifth-straight event.

A similar fate befell Call last year, as he started another driver’s backup car to collect last-place points at Lee following a car-claiming crash the week before. Call rallied in the following weeks to defeat Beaulieu for the title by a single point.

Current points leader Robie’s last few races have been up and down, with his worst finishes of the year sandwiching his first career win at Monadnock. For Beaulieu – or anyone – to close the gap will require a tough turn of fortune for the teenager from Windham, Me.

Fortunately for Robie, Doiron is well out of the mix. The two-time GSPSS champion sits sixth in the standings after only three starts in which he has finished no worse than second. Doiron is on an “outlaw” schedule this year, chasing trophies over points. So far, his strategy has paid dividends. Doiron has three PASS-sanctioned wins already. Two of those wins came in the new car Doiron debuted in Star Speedway’s victory lane in May. Combined with Friday’s GSPSS win, Doiron has three wins and a second-place finish in the new car’s first four races.

Doiron’s victory moved him into a three-way tie for second on the series’ all-time win list. Joey Polewarczyk, whose car remained sidelined for Lee after a hard crash at Claremont Motorsports Park, tied Jeremy Davis for second earlier this year with June’s win at Hudson Speedway. Davis has not competed with the series in several years. GSPSS win leader D.J. Shaw was on hand Friday, spotting for Doiron from the grandstands.

Doiron also broke a six-way tie for the most series wins at  “New Hampshire’s Center of Speed.” In addition to his three GSPSS wins at Lee, Doiron has a 2021 PASS victory, a victory in Lee’s 2022 Freedom 300, and a win in last May’s North American Pro Stock Nationals.

A midseason schedule change has Doiron and the powerhouse Petit Motorsports team planning for a trip to Berlin Raceway in Michigan for the upcoming Battle at Berlin. Doiron has long wanted to put a Dale Shaw Race Cars chassis through its paces at a major Super Late Model race, and this summer has presented the team with that opportunity at last. And with his car’s near-perfect record, Doiron feels he has the right car for the task.

It just may need some cosmetic repairs first.

Unofficial Results
Granite State Pro Stock Series | Iron Sight 125
Lee USA Speedway, Lee, N.H.
1. (73D) Joey Doiron
2. (15) Mike Hopkins
3. (47) Gabe Brown
4. (32) Brandon Barker
5. (2) Nick Cusack
6. (93) Ryan Green
7. (12X) Corey Bubar
8. (00) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
9. (23) Dave Farrington, Jr.
10. (14) Josh St. Clair
11. (29) Cole Robie
12. (27NH) Wayne Helliwell, Jr.
13. (81) Dan Winter
14. (7CT) Cory Casagrande
15. (44) Rusty Poland
16. (77) Cam Curtis
17. (5) Dominic Curit
18. (82) Bobby Baillargeon
19. (90NH) Casey Call
20. (48) Mike Mitchell
21. (56) Evan Beaulieu
22. (50) Eddie MacDonald
23. (09) Frankie Eldredge

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