Shaw Stymies Doiron’s Drive For GSPSS Riverside Win

Fans at New Hampshire’s Riverside Speedway had to wait until after Saturday’s Milton CAT 100 to see proper fireworks. But that hardly means they got any less of a show.

DJ Shaw held off Joey Doiron’s last-lap, last-ditch charge to the front to win the fifth race of the Granite State Pro Stock Series season and his second series event of the year.

And in the process, Shaw extended a streak of dominance that traces a path to his family’s Center Conway, N.H. chassis shop.

DJ Shaw celebrates his second straight GSPSS trophy and the tenth of his career. (Photo courtesy GSPSS/Rob Branning)

The five-time Pro All Stars Series North champion and American-Canadian Tour points leader stole the glory two weeks ago in a GSPSS bout at Monadnock Speedway, filing a last-minute entry when the weekend’s PASS event was postponed due to a rainy forecast. Rain affected the GSPSS schedule too, but Shaw stuck around overnight, then made a mid-race pass on Dylan Estrella to earn a convincing victory.

This time, Shaw took advantage of a scheduled week off from his usual touring haunts to enter the event that marked the midpoint of the 2022 GSPSS itinerary.

Doiron, the points leader and the 2019 GSPSS champion, was fastest in time trials, but Nick Cusack was awarded the pole after a redraw. In race trim, though, Shaw went to the front, flexing his muscle in a race that barely clocked in under a half-hour and was slowed by one mid-race caution.

In the closing laps, Doiron reeled Shaw back in, taking to the outside groove to make a last-lap bid for the lead. Doiron drew alongside Shaw, getting as close as his right-front tire. But Shaw crossed the line first, officially .040 seconds ahead, for the big victory.

Shaw’s tenth career GSPSS win leads all drivers in the series’ twelve-year history, with five of those ten wins coming on quarter-mile ovals like Riverside. The young veteran racer and chassis builder has never competed full-time with GSPSS, though he ran all but two races in 2016, narrowly missing the championship despite his partial schedule.

In finishing second, Doiron came up just short of a second win but added to his advantage in the season-long standings. Doiron was second to Shaw, albeit by a half a straightaway, at Monadnock.

Cusack, too, repeated his Monadnock performance, hanging on for a third-place finish. A rookie in GSPSS competition after years of weekly racing at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, the Scarborough, Me. native has settled in quickly at the front of the field.

Reigning champion Gabe Brown returned for the first time since winning the season opener at Claremont Motorsports Park. Fighting back from mechanical gremlins in the day’s practice sessions, Brown raced his way to fourth.

Jimmy Renfrew, Jr., who won a Pro Stock feature Friday night at Lee USA Speedway, came home fifth.

Cory Casagrande, one of a few drivers who was unable to return for the second day of racing at Monadnock two weeks ago, was sixth in his first GSPSS race at Riverside since 2016. Jeremy Sorel was seventh, ahead of rookie Dylan Estrella. Kentucky’s Isaac Bevin, who also ran the Friday-night Lee doubleheader, wheeled his Petit Motorsports entry to a ninth-place finish. Trevor Sanborn, a PASS winner at Riverside in 2010, finished tenth.

Local racer Brenna Humphrey made series history with her twelfth-place finish, becoming the first woman ever to take the green flag in a GSPSS feature. In addition to owning the speedway, Humphrey’s family is entrenched in the small-block Supermodified scene. Brenna’s cousin Nette picked up a win in the evening’s 350 Supermodified feature.

But the story of the night was Shaw and the dominance of chassis from the Dale Shaw Race Cars operation headed up by the racer and his esteemed father.

In 2020, Shaw was the only driver to take one of his family’s cars to a GSPSS winner’s circle. But a year later, six of the ten GSPSS events were won by drivers in a Dale Shaw Race Cars chassis. This year, Shaw cars have swept the season, with a streak of eight straight wins for the operation dating back to last year.

At Riverside, Shaw-designed chassis swept the top five positions, with Cory Casagrande’s Fury entry the best of the rest.

Doiron has raced Shaw equipment for years, even filling in as a crew member or spotter for Shaw or his customers on off weeks. Brown has run Shaw cars since breaking into Pro Stock competition, learning car construction and setup in the Shaw shop. Cusack’s current car is Brown’s championship-tested ride from last year. Renfrew and Bobby Webber Racing driver Bryan Kruczek, who won at Star Speedway in May, are also Shaw customers.

Shaw’s winning car the last two weeks is not even the newest horse from the stable. To the contrary, the car dates back to Dale’s driving days in the mid-2000s. When Shaw won at Monadnock, the venerable chassis became the first car that both Dale and DJ had won in.

Shaw’s cars have not lacked for success in other series, but in GSPSS competition, his chassis have been utterly dominant.

Whether that success continues will be tested in two weeks at Lee USA Speedway, where Doiron, Renfrew and Cusack will face a challenge from a deep entry list vying for the $10,000-to-win Keen Parts 150. With PASS racing elsewhere that evening, Shaw will likely not be at Lee.

But plenty of capable cars built from his blueprints will be.

Unofficial Results, GSPSS Milton CAT 100 at Riverside Speedway:
1. (60) DJ Shaw
2. (73) Joey Doiron
3. (2) Nick Cusack
4. (61) Gabe Brown
5. (00) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
6. (7CT) Cory Casagrande
7. (77) Jeremy Sorel
8. (46) Dylan Estrella
9. (7B) Isaac Bevin
10. (29) Trevor Sanborn
11. (N40) Dan McKeage, Jr.
12. (3) Brenna Humphrey

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