For Tim Brackett, even a second-place run in Sunday’s Pro All Stars Series North Mid-Coast Excavation 150 would have been cause for celebration.
But trouble for the early leader paved the way for an even greater feat.
Brackett took charge on lap 91 of the afternoon’s second Super Late Model feature, holding on to capture his long-awaited first PASS North victory.
The 62-year-old veteran from Buckfield, Me. has his share of touring experience, making a handful of NASCAR Busch North Series starts in the 1980s and 1990s with his most recent attempt in 2001. He has 68 starts with PASS dating back to the Maine-based series’ 2001 inception, with his best outing a fifth-place finish in 2015.
But most of those starts, especially in recent years, have been at Oxford Plains Speedway, the track he and his family have called home. Brackett is a three-time Oxford track champion. His son T.J. has two track titles of his own. And daughter Vanna, the first woman to win a Super Late Model feature at Oxford, is one of four women to have started the Oxford 250. In 2013, Tim, T.J. and Vanna swept the top three in Oxford’s weekly points standings.
But the patriarch had not won a weekly feature since 2022.
An early wreck spelled short days for Garrett Lamb, Ryan Green, and T.J. Brackett, who was on the sidelines only four laps into the main event. Trevor Sanborn limped around with damage but pulled off the track before twenty laps were complete.
Out front, Joey Doiron was well en route to sweeping the day’s PASS features, extending a streak of success that reached back to May’s North American Pro Stock Nationals at Lee USA Speedway. But on lap 91, Doiron’s car gave up the ghost, ending his afternoon prematurely, too.
That handed the top spot to the elder Brackett, who did not yield in the final stretch.
In his 68th PASS start, Brackett crossed the line 0.618 seconds ahead of D.J. Shaw to take the PASS win he had not been able to achieve.
Shaw’s runner-up finish came ahead of Dillon Moltz, who finished 12th in the Stearns & Daughters 150 to open the afternoon. Ben Rowe was fourth, with Garrett Hall fifth at the finish.
Derek Griffith was sixth, earning solid finishes in both of the afternoon’s features. Title contenders Gabe Brown and Johnny Clark were seventh and eighth. Dennis Spencer and rookie Brandon Varney, the reigning PASS Modified champion, rounded out the top ten.
The fourth and fifth races of the PASS season were largely about making up for lost time after yet another series of early-season rain delays. The Stearns & Daughters 150 had been postponed from late April, setting up an early-June double feature that was itself postponed a week by inclement weather.
And at last, in mid-June, the title race has taken shape, with five-time PASS North champ Shaw leading the standings by 59 markers over Gabe Brown. Seven-time champion Johnny Clark sits a few points back in third. Sanborn and new full-timer Austin Teras are fourth and fifth, though Sanborn is expected to sit out the next race on the calendar.
That race is this weekend’s much-anticipated doubleheader with the American-Canadian Tour at Star Speedway, marking the return of both touring groups to the Epping, N.H. quarter-mile for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Formerly a mainstay of the PASS schedule, Star is a familiar yet challenging battleground for the series’ rookies and veterans alike.
Brackett will not be in the lineup at Star to go two-for-two. But the emotions after Sunday’s big victory are likely pretty hard to top.
Unofficial Results
Pro All Stars Series North Mid-Coast Excavation 150
Oxford Plains Speedway
1. (60B) Tim Brackett
2. (60) D.J. Shaw
3. (5M) Dillon Moltz
4. (5R) Ben Rowe
5. (94) Garrett Hall
6. (444) Derek Griffith
7. (47) Gabe Brown
8. (54) Johnny Clark
9. (12S) Dennis Spencer, Jr.
10. (1V) Brandon Varney
11. (09) Sylas Ripley
12. (153) Travis Stearns
13. (32CT) Tom Abele, Jr.
14. (14S) Josh St. Clair
15. (99) Craig Slaunwhite
16. (01) Jet Decker
17. (12X) Corey Bubar
18. (29T) Austin Teras
19. (5K) Bryan Kruczek
20. (18) Michael Scorzelli
21. (41) Tracy Gordon
22. (00) Jeremie Whorff
23. (73D) Joey Doiron
24. (19) Rusty Poland
25. (07) Nick Calvert
26. (44) Trevor Sanborn
27. (61) T.J. Brackett
28. (38) Garrett Hall
29. (93) Ryan Green
30. (32J) Nick Jenkins
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