Shaw sweeps Oxford, picks up first PASS win of season

Last weekend at Oxford Plains Speedway presented one last opportunity for racers to dial in their equipment for the upcoming All That’s Metal Oxford 250.

And from the looks of it, D.J. Shaw is locked in.

The six-time Pro All Stars Series North champion swept the weekend at the historic Maine oval, winning both Saturday’s 100-lap Oxford 250 qualifier and Sunday’s Stearns & Daughters PASS 150.

Suddenly, the veteran racer who has yet to win the region’s most prestigious Super Late Model race is on the short list of pre-race favorites.

Saturday’s race, part of the weekly Oxford Championship Series, was an extra-distance feature promising a provisional berth in the August 24 crown jewel event to the feature winner. With a guaranteed slot on the line, and the points-paying PASS race the following afternoon, Oxford’s weekly Super Late Model aces were joined by contingents from the PASS touring ranks and nearby Wiscasset Speedway’s Pro Stock class.

Thirty-one Super Late Models took the green for the 100-lap qualifier.

But thirty of them had nothing for Shaw in the long run. The Center Conway, N.H. veteran took the lead from Evan Roy early and built a five-second advantage over Austin Teras en route to the win. Fellow PASS competitor Trevor Sanborn was third, while Roy and Kate Re rounded out the top five.

Visiting North Carolina racer and Anthony Campi Racing development prospect Carson Brown, in a car fielded by Mainer Nick Jenkins, raced to a sixth-place finish.

Other big guns in Saturday’s lineup were Eddie MacDonald, a two-time Oxford 250 winner under American-Canadian Tour rules, and Derek Griffith, who was shaking down a new Fury chassis. MacDonald and Griffith finished 10th and 11th.

Shaw’s win presented a tough question for Sunday’s race. The initial plan was to field an older car in the qualifier, with a brand-new chassis on deck for Sunday. Instead, Shaw opted to ride the hot hand and run the old car for the 150-lap PASS points race.

Another 31-car field was on hand for Sunday’s race, with touring aces and Oxford 250 prospects replacing many of Saturday’s weekly challengers. One of the touring aces, Brandon Barker, had planted himself at the front of the field past halfway.

Shaw started out slow in the old car. But as the race wore on, he found his way to the front. A lap-122 pass for the lead had Shaw out front at last. And on a restart with ten to go, Shaw outraced Teras for the second night in a row.

Winless at Oxford since this same event in 2022, in which late contact with leader Joey Doiron resulted in a subdued victory lane, Shaw was able to celebrate the end of the drought with a weekend sweep.

Teras’ runner-up finish was a welcome turning point for the Gray, Me. youngster. While he has multiple weekly wins at Oxford this season, Teras’ touring fortunes have been catastrophic. An apparent PASS win in June was rescinded following technical inspection. Teras was on the way to a second-place finish in July’s Celebration of America 300, but a late hit from Mike Rowe sent him spinning from the podium, and contact after the wreck resulted in a disqualification. Second place heading into the Oxford 250 is a boost for the Jay Cushman team.

Seven-time PASS North champ Johnny Clark finished third after a late-race duel with Teras. Celebration of America 300 winner Garrett Hall and Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour standout Alexendre Tardif rounded out the top five.

Shaw’s victory maintains his slim advantage in the series standings over Clark, with five races remaining in the championship chase.

Sunday’s race has traditionally been the final shakedown for Oxford 250 hopefuls before the big event next weekend. However, with rain affecting all aspects of Oxford’s schedule this season, the 150-lap PASS feature originally scheduled for April has been bounced to the Friday night before the 250. Now a non-points race and an Oxford 250 qualifier, the race is doubled with an ACT feature pushed from its own July rainout.

Rainouts have kept touring events to a minimum at Oxford this year, but given a small sample set, cars from the Dale Shaw Race Cars stable have had a productive season at the track. Doiron won May’s inaugural Memorial Day Clash 200, and Hall nipped Doiron at the line to win July’s second Celebration of America 300. Doiron won three PASS features at Oxford last year, including the inaugural Independence Day 300-lapper.

Doiron is not entered for the Oxford 250. With one of the presumptive favorites absent from the entry list, that opens the door for Shaw’s other customers, among them Hall, sixth-place Sunday finisher Sylas Ripley, and Shaw’s own protégé Gabe Brown, preparing a car owned by Bobby Webber.

But Shaw, who has finished third in the last two Oxford 250s and has two more third-place finishes in the big race, faces the chassis builder’s challenge of keeping enough tricks of the trade for himself.

Based on Doiron’s success with his newest car, the biggest trick may be the car Shaw never got to race.

Unofficial Results
PASS North | Stearns & Daughters PASS 150
Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me.
1. (60) D.J. Shaw
2. (29) Austin Teras
3. (54) Johnny Clark
4. (94) Garrett Hall
5. (21QC) Alexendre Tardif
6. (09R) Sylas Ripley
7. (29R) Cole Robie
8. (17MA) Eddie MacDonald
9. (72K) Ryan Kuhn
10. (32B) Brandon Barker
11. (28) Carson Brown
12. (72R) Scott Robbins
13. (09D) Jeremy Davis
14. (5) Dominic Curit
15. (5X) Bobby Therrien
16. (18S) Michael Scorzelli
17. (01D) Jet Decker
18. (24) Mike Rowe
19. (12S) Dennis Spencer, Jr.
20. (32CT) Max Cookson
21. (44P) Rusty Poland
22. (44S) Trevor Sanborn
23. (5M) Dillon Moltz
24. (1V) Brandon Varney
25. (12X) Corey Bubar
26. (5R) Ben Rowe
27. (8) Angelo Belsito
28. (5CT) Pat Corbett
29. (00) Jeremie Whorff
30. (153) Travis Stearns
31. (60B) Tim Brackett

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