Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, Maine, heads into the next stop on the ACT Late Model Tour — the ACT 150 at Oxford Plains Speedway in Oxford, Maine, on Saturday, June 19 — riding momentum. The ACT Rookie of the Year candidate posted a career-best finish of 9th last weekend at Lee USA Speedway, and he heads to a track he’s very familiar with. After making his ACT debut at Oxford Plains Speedway last year, he’s made exactly half of his four career series starts at the facility. He led several laps early in the race in May at Oxford en route to a 16th-place finish.
WHO: Austin Theriault, Fort Kent, Maine
TEAM: No. 57 Varney Insurance/Hogan Tire/Daigle & Houghton Ford Fusion
BEST CAREER OXFORD PLAINS SPEEDWAY FINISH: 16th (May 2010)
LAST RACE AT OXFORD PLAINS SPEEDWAY: 16th (May 2010)
WHAT: ACT Late Model Tour ACT 150
WHERE: Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Maine (.375-mile oval)
WHEN: 6:30 p.m., Saturday, June 19
ACT Late Model Tour
LAST RACE: June 11, Lee USA Speedway, Lee, N.H. (9th-place finish)
NEXT RACE: Saturday, June 26, White Mountain Motorsports Park, North Woodstock, N.H.
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AUSTIN, HOW EXCITED ARE YOU ABOUT HEADING TO OXFORD AFTER LAST WEEKEND’S RUN AT LEE USA?
I’m really looking forward to getting back there. It’s one of my favorite tracks so far — I really like Oxford. I seem to go good at the flatter tracks, and we ran good there at the first ACT race before we ran into some handling issues halfway through the race. We know where to go with the setup now and what changes we need to make.
Down at Lee, I was pretty encouraged. The car didn’t do what it did at Oxford — instead, it got better and better as race went on. As others backed up, we went forward. Joey (Polewarczyk) went past me at one point, and we kind of teamed up and went. He kind of opened up the path and I just followed behind him.
TALK ABOUT YOUR LAST PASS NORTH SERIES START OF THE SEASON LAST WEEKEND AT SPEEDWAY 660 IN FREDERICTION, NEW BRUNSWICK. (18th-PLACE FINISH)
It was another learning experience. We had some issues with the car — had some power steering issues, which was probably the biggest issue of the day. Then we had some brake issues during the day.
That’s a pretty tough start right there. I just seemed to struggle with the car all day and never could quite get it to turn.
GIVEN HOW WELL YOU RAN AT LEE USA AND YOUR FAMILIARITY WITH OXFORD, HAVE YOUR GOALS CHANGED FOR THIS WEEKEND?
We know we’re capable of getting top-10s. We’re shooting for one of those, maybe even better if everything works in our favor. But really, we want another top-10, especially because we’re back at a track where I feel comfortable.