Oxford, ME – Joey Doiron was able to take his second place starting spot and dominate the season opener for the Pro All Stars Series North in the #73 Wild Willy’s Burgers Chevrolet on his way to an eventual second place finish at Oxford Plains Speedway. After winning the season opener a year ago at Beech Ridge, Doiron was confident he would have a car that could contend for another win after a great practice session in the morning.
It wasn’t long before Doiron got to show just how good of a car he had, as he took the win in the second heat race very convincingly. With that, he would start from the outside of the front row in the feature event, lined up alongside fellow Dale Shaw Racecars driver Brad Babb.
“I was sort of surprised with how well we went in the heat race,” Doiron said of the heat win, “we do have a good car handling wise but we were even better on long runs.”
At the start of the 150 lap feature event, Doiron fell back into second but was looking for a way to grab the lead. On lap 11, he was able to grab the top spot and start to pull away. Doiron would open up a lead of over a straightaway on the rest of the 32 car field before a caution on lap 77 bunched the field back together. That wouldn’t slow down Doiron’s pace, as he once again was able to get a lead over the rest of the field on the next long run. However, a caution with forty laps to go would begin the sprint to the finish. ‘
With series veteran Cassius Clark on his outside, the two drivers would fight door to door through the rest of the final forty laps, with Clark getting the upper hand on a late race restart to grab the victory over Doiron. The dogfight to the finish had both competitors racing each other hard, but clean, as neither laid a bumper on one another, resulting in one many fans considered as one of the best races in recent history at Oxford Plains.
“We wanted to get the win but we didn’t need that last caution there,” said Doiron after the finish, “We were real good on the long run but Cassius and I had a great race racing real close without making any contact and to open the season strong again is big for us.”
Doiron will now have a week off before the next PASS North event at his home track of Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on May 4th, a track that Doiron grabbed the victory at just a year ago. For more information on Joey Doiron, find him on Facebook at Joey Doiron Racing, on Twitter @joeydoiron73 and online at joeydoiron.com.