Oxford, ME – With one remaining in the Pro All Stars Series North season, Joey Doiron and the 73 Wild Willy’s Burgers/JBJ Machine team was right in the thick of the championship battle. After relinquishing the top spot in the last race at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Doiron sat just three points behind Cassius Clark going into the final race at Oxford Plains Speedway. The season began with those tow driver duking it out for the victory, and it was only fitting that they do the same to decide the championship.
Oxford had proven to be one of Doiron’s best tracks during the season, with a few runner up finishes going into this race. He would start third in his heat qualifying race that would determine the starting lineup for the 48 Super Late Models that showed up to run in the final event. It didn’t take him long before he was in the lead, and he drove away with the heat win. This gave Doiron the best possible starting spot for a former winner during the season, 11th spot for the 150 feature event.
Doiron was wasting no time to get to the front, as he sliced his way through the field early on. Clark was right behind him though, as those two were on their way to the front to settle the championship. Just 20 laps into the race, Doiron found himself in the top five and looking for more. He grabbed the lead for the first time on lap 74, passing Scott Mulkern on a restart to grab the lead. With Clark now into the third position, it was a great battle, even three wide at times, between the leaders during a series of restarts in the races mid stages. In the races late stages, Doiron’s car began to tighten up, pushing him back to the fourth spot as the other championship contender, DJ Shaw, was making his way to the lead and eventual win. After driving the car to its limit in the races final laps to ensure he got as many points as he could, Doiron was credited with a fifth place finish, leaving Doiron second in the point’s to Cassius Clark for the PASS North Championship.
“I felt like we were in a good spot for the title early in the race, but our car just tightened up too much at the end, and I was just hanging on to what we had at the end there,” Doiron said after the race, “Even though we didn’t win the title, we had a great year and I’m really proud of this team, they knew we were here and we will be working hard to improve by one next year.”
Doiron will now have a little over a month off before his next race in the final PASS National event at Southern National Motorsports Park for the Mason Dixon Meltdown 200 lap event on November 23rd. He is 24 points behind leader Jay Fogelman in the PASS National point’s standings.
For more information on Joey Doiron, find him on Facebook at Joey Doiron Racing, on Twitter @joeydoiron73 and online at joeydoiron.com.
Story by Evan Beaulieu
Photos by Norm Marx