Joey Doiron: PASS North Series
Star Speedway Race Preview
THE STORY
BERWICK, Maine – Joey Doiron of Berwick, Maine, will try and win his second consecutive PASS North Series race to open the 2012 season in the Star 150 at Star Speedway in Epping, N.H., on Saturday, May 12. Doiron collected his first career victory last weekend at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway and did so in dominant fashion, winning the SouthernMaineMotors.com 150 by a final margin of victory of more than 6.9 seconds. The driver of the No. 73 JBJ Machine/Dale Shaw Race Cars Chevrolet considers Star Speedway his favorite stop on the PASS North circuit, and he won there in a Late Model event in 2008.
WHO: Joey Doiron, Berwick, Maine
TEAM: Joey Doiron Racing No. 73 JBJ Machine/Dale Shaw Race Cars Chevrolet
CREW CHIEF: John Doiron, Berwick, Maine
BEST CAREER STAR SPEEDWAY FINISH: 10th (May 2011)
LAST RACE AT STAR SPEEDWAY: 10th (May 2011)
WHAT: PASS North Series Star 150
WHERE: Star Speedway, Epping, N.H. (.25-mile oval)
WHEN: Practice, 4 p.m., Friday, May 11; 1:30 p.m., Saturday, May 12; Qualifying, 4:30 p.m., Saturday, May 12; Race, 7 p.m., Saturday, May 12.
PASS North Series
LAST RACE: May 5, SouthernMaineMotors.com 150, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine (1st)
NEXT RACE: May 26, PASS 150, White Mountain Motorsports Park, N. Woodstock, N.H. (.25-mile banked oval)
CURRENT POINTS POSITION: T-1st
DID YOU KNOW?
Joey Doiron has been selected as one of 10 drivers to participate in Go Green Racing’s “Maine Young Guns” competition this summer.
Joey Doiron was the 2010 PASS North Series Rookie of the Year, one year after being named Rookie of the Year on the ACT Late Model Tour.
The first career Late Model victory for Joey Doiron came at Star Speedway in an open competition event in 2008. He also finished second there that season in a Late Model.
Joey Doiron became the first first-time PASS North Series winner since Gary Smith won at Lee USA Speedway in July of 2011.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
JOEY DOIRON, Driver of the No. 73 JBJ Machine/Dale Shaw Race Cars Chevrolet, On how important winning at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway last weekend was for him: “It was a really big deal, not just for me but for everybody on the team and the crew. I went to bed Saturday night and still couldn’t believe I won the race. I woke up on Sunday, and the trophy was sitting there in the living room, and I was like, ‘Well, I guess I still won.’
“Confidence is definitely a big thing in this sport. Look at last year. When we weren’t running good it carried into every week, just like running well every week can carry over from week to week. We had lost so much confidence last year that we literally got to a point where just finishing races was a big deal to us. Going into this week, we have a lot of confidence, which is great.”
On why he likes Star Speedway so much: “I don’t really know how to explain it. If you ask around, not many people really like this place. They dread going here. But for some reason, I love it. I always have.
Even in last year’s race, we finished 10th – but we were going to finish second or third before we got caught in that accident (on the last lap).”
On how Star Speedway compares to other quarter-mile tracks that the PASS North Series visits: “It’s more a track where the driver plays a part. It’s one of the few places you can carry a car to a finish that’s probably a little better than the car is.
“It’s one of the few places we go and it races like a bullring. White Mountain doesn’t really race like a bullring, even though it’s a quarter-mile, too. With Star, people think of it as a bump-and-run track. It’s somewhere that you can move guys to try and get under a guy and move him just a little bit to pass him. At Star, if you have a fifth-place car, you can get a Top-3 if you want it bad enough.”
UP NEXT
The PASS North Series heads to its second straight quarter-mile for the PASS 150 at White Mountain Motorsports Park in N. Woodstock, N.H., on Saturday, May 26… Joey Doiron finished eighth in the event a year ago.
