Doiron, Gerry Take The Long Road To The Oxford 250 Field

Joey Doiron climbed from his car after last Sunday night’s Spencer Group Paving Oxford 250, slumping to the ground by his door. The exhausted driver had clawed his way from shotgun on the field to finish a frustrating second.

The stress of the day’s qualifying rounds weighs on Doiron as he sits in his car. (STS/Jeff Brown)

But just to make the starting lineup, he had to run seventy laps that winner Cole Butcher didn’t have to race.

Doiron and Curtis Gerry advanced to the iconic race’s 50th iteration by way of a last-chance qualifier. And yet, by the second half of the race, both veteran racers were in position to complete their own Cinderella stories.

That they were, and how they were, is part of the Oxford 250’s mystique.

It all starts with the draw.

New England has long favored heat races to set starting lineups, a preference that extends to marquee events like the Oxford 250. The Oxford 250’s heat races even predate the Pro All Stars Series’ sanctioning of the event. With sixty-plus Super Late Models likely to challenge for a spot on the grid, from top touring teams to weekly competitors at Oxford Plains Speedway and other local tracks, the process is one of attrition.

Gerry gets some last-minute advice before heading out for the last-chance qualifier. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Five qualifying heats advance five drivers each to the feature lineup. The unqualified teams regroup for a round of three consis, with the top-four of each consi advancing to the feature. With 37 cars locked in, provisionals are awarded to the top teams in PASS and Oxford weekly points. The rest of the prospects are relegated to a 50-lap last-chance qualifier. The winner advances to the Oxford 250 grid. The rest go home early, or pack the backstretch grandstands to see the show.

Those initial heats, though, are seeded by a random draw. Each driver or team pulls a pill on the frontstretch shortly before post time, setting their starting position for the heats. A good draw can elevate a team to the front of a heat, giving them a clearer path to the starting field. A bad draw can leave a good team fighting from the rear of the pack all day.

The last-chance qualifier at the Oxford 250, then, is no mere “best-of-the-rest” B-feature. The pitfalls and perils of heats and consis often consign more than a few fast cars to the LCQ. And even with the typical provisionals and promoter’s options, a few top names are left to wonder what might have been.

Names like Joey Doiron.

Joey Doiron joined Petit Motorsports in 2023, even bringing along the Dale Shaw Race Cars chassis he’d driven to multiple wins in 2022 (and a reference to his familiar #73). But despite plenty of potential, fortunes have not smiled upon the “dream team” pairing. (STS/Jeff Brown)

The 31-year-old from Berwick, Me. has been knocking on victory lane’s door in the Oxford 250 since finishing second in 2013. In his last five starts, he had finished no worse than sixth. Doiron joined two-time PASS champions and 2019 Oxford 250 winners Petit Motorsports for his first full-time PASS schedule since 2015, but so far the season has been a struggle.

Doiron drew pill 40, gridding him fourth in the fourth heat. In the heat, Doiron kept a cool head and picked up one spot to come home third. But in post-heat inspection, Doiron’s car failed.

Doiron struggled with the handling of his car in the consi, only to discover the sway bar had not been connected in the rush to get the car in line. (STS/Jeff Brown)

PASS has a frame height rule, aimed at saving costs by eliminating trick shocks and setups. It’s something that can be checked quickly after heats, and something where a shock that’s slow to rebound could fail an otherwise-legal car. It’s a rule that some consider controversial, but it’s a rule nonetheless.

It’s a rule Doiron is intimately familiar with, having lost a win at the tech shed at Oxford in July. It was deja vu for Doiron, a driver who rarely finds himself mired in controversy. It bounced Doiron from the field, and back to the round of consis.

Doiron’s crew hustled to get the car set up for the first consi, where he would have to start last. Once on track, he discovered the sway bar had been left loose, a crucial error when he had to drive into the top four. Doiron nursed the ill-handling car to a ninth-place finish in one piece.

With the other seven full-time PASS competitors already locked in the field, Doiron was next in line for the PASS full-time provisional. But when Michael Scorzelli was listed on the board with the PASS provisional, Doiron’s chances seemingly hung on winning the last-chance qualifier.

At least Doiron was in good company. Ryan Moore’s consi win was negated at the tech shed. Tim Brackett, second in the second consi, failed inspection as well. And 2021 Oxford 250 winner Cassius Clark, third in the third consi, failed to pass muster, too.

Curtis Gerry’s issues were nothing of the sort.

Gerry had raced in PASS without a win since 2006, even briefly driving for car owner Peter Petit. Then, starting with the 2017 Oxford 250, the weekly warrior won ten races in the next four seasons, nine of them at Oxford. (STS/Jeff Brown)

An unheralded journeyman from Waterboro, Me., Gerry emerged from obscurity with an upset victory in the 2017 Oxford 250. Gerry’s big win opened the floodgates; from 2017 to 2020, he and his humble family team won ten PASS races, nine of them at Oxford, including five in a row in 2017 and 2018. For four years, the two-time Beech Ridge Motor Speedway and 2019 Oxford track champion was the driver to beat at Oxford.

Gerry was winless in PASS since, but finished second in the 2021 250, started on the 250 pole in 2022, and managed four runner-up finishes at Oxford in nine starts, all while being a constant top-five threat in weekly racing at the oval.

But Gerry stepped back in a big way in 2023, putting one of his cars up for sale and eschewing the Oxford weekly grind. Gerry’s first race of the year was an early-August PASS tilt at Oxford, where he finished sixth. The Oxford 250 would be his second.

PASS official Liza Macomber grimaces as Gerry draws the 60th and final pill for the Oxford 250 grid. (STS/Jeff Brown)

And in the draw, Gerry drew pill 60, the last pill, putting him at the tail of the fifth heat.

Gerry had five-time PASS North champ D.J. Shaw to follow to the front. But he was caught up in not one but two spins, first with Josh St. Clair, then with Dillon Moltz. While Max Cookson dominated the heat, Gerry limped to an eleventh-place finish.

Despite starting from the rear of the third consi, Gerry’s fortunes improved as he raced his way to sixth. But only four moved on. Even after Cassius Clark’s disqualification, which advanced Gerry’s former Beech Ridge rival Corey Bubar to the lineup, Gerry was one spot short.

It was on to the last-chance qualifier for Gerry, too.

Gerry had been in this spot before. In 2018, mechanical issues forced Gerry to the pits during his heat. Gerry and team got the car back together for the consi, but missed the cut for the feature. And while Gerry was the defending winner of the 250, his part-time operation meant he was ineligible for the past-winner’s provisional. Backed into a must-win scenario, Gerry made a late pass on Ivan Kaffel to win the LCQ and advance to the feature.

As the remaining competitors gridded for the last-chance qualifier, a few did not answer the call. Veteran Tracy Gordon, winless in 19 starts in the Oxford 250, was packing up early. Long-shots Kyle Salemi and Kevin Kimball were done for the day. Former winner Jeremie Whorff had bowed out after his heat, and Dan Winter and Nick Jenkins were already loaded up to go home. And Ryan Moore, who would have had to start at the rear after his disqualification, apparently decided the slim chance of making the feature was outweighed by the prospects of tearing the car apart to get there.

But that still left fourteen cars to settle the final guaranteed starting spot in the Oxford 250 field.

Scott McDaniel leads the last-chance race early, with Gerry third and Doiron fifth in line. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Scott McDaniel, a PASS touring vet with seven Oxford 250 starts and a ninth-place finish in 2017, led the field to green alongside Justin Larsen, a Mini Stock graduate with one prior start in the 250. Gerry started third. Doiron rolled off ninth. Clark, one of the post-consi DQs, would have to come from all the way back in 13th.

St. Clair and McDaniel collide during the last-chance race, taking both leaders out of contention only 15 laps in. (STS/Jeff Brown)

McDaniel got off to a fast start, while Gerry put early pressure on Larsen for second. Matt Dow spun back in the pack, slowing up Brackett and taking the two out of early contention. Travis Stearns, a former PASS feature winner racing one of Mike Hopkins’ cars, withdrew his mount only four laps in.

Josh St. Clair, a Wiscasset Speedway regular who won a Granite State Pro Stock Series feature a week before, was on the move from seventh, getting around Larsen and then Gerry for second and chasing down McDaniel. As Larsen continued to drop back, Doiron quietly rose to fourth.

St. Clair finally caught McDaniel, but it didn’t take long for the lead battle to turn physical. With 15 laps in the books, St. Clair got under McDaniel in turn one, then caught McDaniel’s left rear, launching his own car skyward as they collided. McDaniel tried to hang on, but looped his car off turn two with help from St. Clair.

Gerry dove low to avoid the wreck, taking the lead, while Doiron had to pull up on the reins to dodge the spinning cars.

St. Clair lined up alongside Gerry for the restart, but immediately peeled off for the pits, leaving Doiron second and Alan Tardiff battling Larsen for third. McDaniel, still fast despite a flapping left quarter-panel, worked the high line to stay in the hunt.

Out front, though, it was Gerry showing the way, Doiron in second, and Tardiff a distant third as the laps wore on.

Gerry and Doiron take the point as St. Clair takes his car to the pits. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Larsen’s flagging hopes went up in smoke late in the race as he went for a spin down the frontstretch. Officials held onto the caution, with Larsen and fan favorite Calvin Rose, Jr. losing laps to Gerry in sight of the checkered flag.

But neither slower car hampered Gerry’s pace, and Doiron could only watch as Gerry took the checkered flag. Tardiff, who had made repairs of his own after a heat crash, was third. McDaniel brought his damaged car home fourth. J.T. Thurlow rounded out the top five.

Doiron’s car sits at the team’s trailer as final preparations are made. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Gerry, after a quick inspection, was in the show. He would line up 38th.

Doiron was not so sure, pulling up to his trailer after inspection. With Scorzelli awarded the PASS provisional earlier, it appeared Doiron would fail to qualify for the Oxford 250 for the first time since 2009, when the race was sanctioned under the American-Canadian Tour’s Late Model rules. Both of car owner Peter Petit’s entries missed the field a year before, though teammate Travis Benjamin had already locked his car into Sunday’s field.

But as rain started to fall on the track, Doiron learned that they would receive a provisional after all. Doiron would start 41st.

And that was it. Cassius Clark, the 2021 Oxford 250 winner and a 19-time PASS feature winner, was out. Scott Robbins, the 2002 winner, was out. Tardiff and Brackett, both former Oxford track champions, were out. Surprisingly, none were tacked on as promoter’s options, making the 41-car grid the shortest Oxford 250 field since 2015.

Doiron finally takes the last position on the grid after rain dampened the track just before the race. (STS/Jeff Brown)

To make the grid, Doiron and Gerry had run 70 more laps than the top-25 competitors, and 50 more laps than 39 of the starters. But much as the rain reset the track surface before the feature, the two veteran racers had to reset themselves for the longest Super Late Model race in New England.

And while the path to the front looked similar for Doiron and Gerry, how it played out was quite different.

Gerry found his way there first, cycling into the top five after 100 laps and challenging touring rookie Max Cookson for the lead at halfway. Gerry took the top spot on lap 141, leading 40 laps. It looked like Gerry could become the first LCQ winner to win the Oxford 250 since Mike Rowe managed the feat in 2005. Gerry failed to qualify that year.

But when the caution flew at lap 180, and most of the field pitted for tires and fuel, Gerry and team mistimed their pit stop. They had to pit again, restarting at the tail of the field. Gerry’s hopes to win had dimmed, and two spins in heavy traffic turned the lights out altogether. Gerry finished two laps down in 25th with a battered car.

Doiron works around Gerry’s battered car in the closing laps as he chases Cole Butcher for the win. (STS/Jeff Brown)

Ever the strategist, Doiron picked his way through traffic slowly, staying out of harm’s way. And on the lap-180 pit sequence, Doiron came out of the pits second to friend and former teammate Brandon Barker. When Barker pitted a few laps later, Doiron inherited the lead.

Doiron had driven from last to first, and while Johnny Clark kept him honest out front, Doiron was on track to grab the Oxford 250 gold that had eluded him for so long. Clark poked his nose out front on a lap-208 restart, but Doiron edged out the seven-time champ for a few more laps.

From the last spot on the grid, Doiron led 39 laps and came home second, his fifth straight top-six finish in the race (he did not field an entry in 2019). (STS/Jeff Brown)

Then came Butcher, the defending race winner, on his own drive from the back after a rough-driving penalty on lap seven. Butcher carved up the top five and set his sights on Doiron, making the battle for the lead physical, perhaps more physical than Doiron preferred.

But Doiron would not yield, so Butcher made his move, bumping his way past and into the lead on lap 224. Doiron gave chase, but lapped car courtesy kept him from getting close enough to repay the favor.

Butcher came away with the win. Doiron came home second. But four hours before, Doiron was expecting to go home with nothing.

“Hell, they were lining cars up and I was pushing my stuff in the trailer,” Doiron said after the race.

Instead, they raced. Though as Doiron reminded, they had been racing all day.

Doiron’s team services the #73D under caution. (STS/Jeff Brown)

“Luckily we were able to get a provisional, and show how good our car was,” he said. “I knew we had a good car. It’s just hard, you know. You’re in a consi with probably arguably one of the fastest cars here every time, the 7G, and he started third and I was starting ninth, and it was like, it was just gonna be hard to beat him in that. We ran second, and I felt like the two of us deserved to be in the race. We had the speed to be in the race. Fortunately, we were both able to get in, and we both ran pretty good.”

Good enough to lead almost a third of the race in cars that, an hour and a half before the scheduled green flag, were still not locked into the field.

For Gerry, Sunday’s Oxford 250 may have been his last dance for a while. Gerry sold the car, battle scars and all, to Joe Pastore following the race. And with additional equipment on the market, the veteran may be stepping away from the sport for now.

Doiron has plenty of time, and no doubt plenty of motivation. And as Doiron finds his stride with Petit Motorsports, they should be in line for plenty of success.

An oft-repeated adage in the pits is “if you can’t win the show, be the show.”

For those who had been watching all day long, Joey Doiron and Curtis Gerry put on quite the show.

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