Sanborn sets expectations for Oxford 250 success with midweek PASS win

Trevor Sanborn felt like he gave away one of the biggest wins of his career in July’s Pro All Stars Series Celebration of America 300.

With another big race looming, he isn’t about to give away another one.

Sanborn earned a statement win Tuesday night, outpacing D.J. Shaw to win the rain-delayed PASS North Pierson Heating and Cooling 150 at Oxford Plains Speedway.

The Parsonsfield, Me. native came agonizingly close to a $40,000 win in the early-July PASS spectacular, carrying a heat-race win to the pole and leading the opening 174 laps. But Sanborn’s planned pit stop came too early in retrospect, leaving him mired in traffic as others played their own tire strategy to perfection. Sanborn finished a gut-wrenching tenth, his team wondering what could have been.

And with one final tune-up before this month’s Oxford 250, Sanborn and the Richard Moody Racing team were ready to show that they will not be denied a second time.

Tuesday’s tilt, originally scheduled for Sunday, was the last PASS race scheduled before the Oxford 250 later this month. Neither of the two weekends before the 250 were ideal for a rescheduled event, so PASS made the rare move of booking a weeknight make-up date.

A solid 27-car field still turned out for the Tuesday date, with Gabe Brown leading Jeremie Whorff to the green flag. Brown was coming around to complete the first lap when Whorff and Dave Farrington, Jr. got together in his mirror. T.J. Brackett launched over Farrington’s car in turn four, piling into the frontstretch wall head first. Brackett climbed from the car on his own, but he, Whorff, Johnny Clark, Scott McDaniel and J.R. Robinson were done for the night.

Brown showed the way for the opening stretch, but Sanborn took over on lap 40. And for Sanborn, a winner at Spud Speedway earlier this season, there was no looking back. Even a late-race caution could not slow his momentum as he rolled to an easy but crucial win.

D.J. Shaw, finally shaking off the winless label in his PASS and American-Canadian Tour campaigns over the last few weeks, drove to second but could not close within a second of Sanborn, taking his seventh runner-up finish in PASS competition this year.

Brown finished third, a reversal of the tough luck the young racer has faced in recent weeks.

Fourth went to Derek Kneeland, taking advantage of a break in the NASCAR schedule to turn in some solid results at the wheel. Dennis Spencer, Jr. rounded out the top five.

Not all drivers were out to prove their potency. Joey Doiron kept his Celebration of America 300-winning mount safely in the garage, bringing a car he had fielded in two Granite State Pro Stock Series events with close friend Ryan Green at the wheel. Doiron’s call proved prescient; he was swept up in the early crash, but drove back to the top ten before bowing out with 28 laps to go.

But Sanborn relished the opportunity to remind the competition that he was still among the Oxford 250 favorites.

This year has been about mixed results for Sanborn in his second season back with Richard Moody Racing. Sanborn was swept into a hard crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in April, leaving the perceived powerhouse team down one car for most of this year. Two top-five finishes in the first five PASS North races were offset by a pair of DNFs and a 13th-place run at Thompson Speedway, putting the team in an early hole in the championship standings. As they slipped out of title contention on the road, Sanborn quickly found himself in contention for the Oxford weekly championship with a pair of wins.

As August opens, Sanborn is out of the PASS points race by design, but he has a points-paying win at Oxford, a non-points win at Spud Speedway in July, and a runner-up finish at Oxford in June. But at Oxford, Sanborn leads the track standings with multiple feature wins to his credit and a boatload of momentum going to the Oxford 250. The Spud victory also gives Sanborn a guaranteed start in the 250, though his early-season pace and his track points lead should lock him in the field regardless.

Despite the lasting impact from the NHMS crash, the RMR operation has made strides this year, its first full season with former PASS regular Kyle DeSouza dialing in the team’s car. DeSouza and his Landshark Performance venture also fields a weekly entry for Sanborn’s stepdaughter, Amara Parker, as she breaks into Super Late Model competition.

Formally, Tuesday was the final PASS North points race before the 250. Oxford has its own weekly feature this weekend, a 100-lap special with a provisional awarded to the highest finisher who does not qualify for the 250. But then teams have a structured week off to make their final preparations.

Sanborn, who raced Parker’s car in the weekly feature before the Celebration of America 300 while she recovered from knee surgery, will not have that luxury this weekend. Surely, he would prefer to sit both weeks out to fine-tune the car for the big dance and the $25,000-plus winner’s share.

But another shot at punctuating his preparedness in victory lane couldn’t hurt either.

Unofficial Results
PASS North | Pierson Heating and Cooling 150
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (44) Trevor Sanborn
2. (60) D.J. Shaw
3. (47) Gabe Brown
4. (90) Derek Kneeland
5. (12S) Dennis Spencer, Jr.
6. (5R) Ben Rowe
7. (17MA) Eddie MacDonald
8. (32) Brandon Barker
9. (72) Ryan Kuhn
10. (24) Mike Rowe
11. (60B) Tim Brackett
12. (41) Tracy Gordon
13. (19) Rusty Poland
14. (18S) Michael Scorzelli
15. (13) Evan Roy
16. (73D) Joey Doiron
17. (39) Max Cookson
18. (38) Garrett Lamb
19. (1V) Brandon Varney
20. (12X) Corey Bubar
21. (00) Jeremie Whorff
22. (94) Garrett Hall
23. (14) Scott McDaniel
24. (23) Dave Farrington, Jr.
25. (28) J.R. Robinson
26. (54) Johnny Clark
27. (61) T.J. Brackett

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