Trevor Sanborn earned a few different trophies at Spud Speedway last Sunday. But one of them could not be picked up.
Sanborn led wire-to-wire to claim victory in the Spud 150, a non-points Pro All Stars Series bout at the remote race track in Caribou, Me., earning a medallion and a bag of locally-grown Maine potatoes.
And the trophy Sanborn could not hold, a guaranteed berth in the Oxford 250, may technically still be up for grabs.
Spud, named for northern Maine’s iconic cash cow crop and now in its sixtieth year of operation, was a late addition to this year’s PASS North schedule. For two years, the track’s only race was the PASS-sanctioned Feed The County 150, a massive fundraiser for the food banks of the economically-challenged Aroostook County. But with Spud experiencing a rebirth this year as an active speedway and powersports facility, and with PASS trying to avoid schedule conflicts with the American-Canadian Tour, the race was not booked for 2024.
But Spud and PASS collaborated to add the race back to the schedule, tacking it on as a non-points affair that sweetened the promised pot with a provisional berth for the highest-finishing competitor who does not qualify for August’s Oxford 250.
Sanborn, who bowed out of the PASS points battle while chasing a track championship at Oxford Plains Speedway, faced stiff competition from D.J. Shaw through the feature. But the five-time champion could not find a way past Sanborn, who picked up his second PASS-sanctioned win for Richard Moody Racing.
For Shaw, the runner-up finish extended a frustrating streak for the Center Conway, N.H. star. Shaw opened the PASS North season with four second-place finishes, adding a fifth at White Mountain Motorsports Park. Sunday’s race marked his sixth second-place run in PASS this year, with no finishes worse than a seventh-place run at Hickory Motor Speedway in a PASS National Championship event.
Seven-time champ Johnny Clark was third in the final rundown, with Jeremie Whorff and Brandon Barker rounding out the top five but finishing off the lead lap.
Only nine cars took the green flag for the event, with Canadian Ian Rasmussen the only one not to complete the 150-lap affair.
Spud Speedway has always been a challenging addition to the PASS schedule. The track is remote, three hours from the Maine city of Bangor and nearly five hours from the series’ hub in Oxford. Indeed, the track is a half-hour closer to Speedway 660 in neighboring New Brunswick than to Speedway 95 in Hermon, just outside Bangor. With no local Super Late Model base to draw from, the track’s events are dependent on teams that travel.
PASS’ captive audience from Oxford was racing Saturday night; Sanborn finished fourth and Dominic Curit tenth in a 26-car field before heading to Spud. But those teams still faced a ten-hour round trip on Sunday. The ACT Tour competed Saturday at Autodrome Montmagny outside Québec City in a race that was rain-delayed into the twilight hours; Shaw’s spotter Cody LeBlanc cited a three-hour trip from Canada that landed them in Maine after 3:00am.
An interesting opportunity for a double feature arose in June when Granite State Pro Stock Series promoter Mike Parks moved a scheduled race at Speedway 95 to the Saturday prior to the Spud feature, dodging a direct conflict with a PASS doubleheader. Teams could, in theory, race at Speedway 95 Saturday night and then truck up to Spud the next day. But Ryan Deane was the only driver to attempt the double.
Hence the dangling carrot of the Oxford 250 provisional. Sanborn leads the Oxford weekly standings at present, making him eligible for the provisional handed to the track’s top weekly contender, should he have to fall back on it.
But the provisional, as clarified in PASS’ post-race results, is awarded to the top finisher in the race who needs it. Assuming Shaw and Clark are guaranteed based on their PASS performances, the provisional could be a boon to part-timers like Whorff and Ben Rowe, both former Oxford 250 winners, or rookie Curit, who sits third in Oxford points.
Sanborn became the fourth different winner in PASS competition at Spud, with both Clark (2010 and 2022) and Shaw (2019 and 2023) winning twice. Derek Griffith won PASS’ 2018 visit to the third-mile.
With two weekly feature wins at Oxford and Sunday’s non-points win, Sanborn is enjoying a solid season even without the touring accolades. The Oxford 250 win, especially after coming up short in early July’s Celebration of America 300, is the big goal for Sanborn and his team.
To that end, Sunday’s race may have earned the team some insurance on making the grid.
Unofficial Results
PASS North | Spud 150
Spud Speedway, Caribou, Me.
1. (44) Trevor Sanborn
2. (60) D.J. Shaw
3. (54) Johnny Clark
4. (00) Jeremie Whorff
5. (32S) Brandon Barker
6. (5) Ben Rowe
7. (5C) Dominic Curit
8. (22) Ryan Deane
9. (81) Ian Rasmussen
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