Andrew McLaughlin, a business fisherman through the exchange, makes a nearly six-hour round trip to Wiscasset Speedway each different week at some point of the season to race his Late Model for one easy reason.
“I need to be anyplace the high-quality opposition is for my fashion of vehicle, and when there’s a race, I need to be one of the motors that have a chance to win,” McLaughlin stated from his domestic in Harrington this week at the same time as getting ready for Saturday’s season opener on the Wiscasset music. “Racing Saturday nights at Wiscasset is probably going to be the top of my career, and (song proprietors Richard and Vanessa Jordan) make it pleasant for various humans to return race in an excellent department.”
McLaughlin became the shining famous person in one of the healthiest weekly fields within the kingdom, routinely attracting in the low-20s for automobile counts all through the remaining season. He won three races and completed within the pinnacle-five in all; however, one in all of his eleven starts offevolved, posting a remarkable seven podium finishes. All that consistency added to the Late Model championship for the 34-year-old McLaughlin, the primary in his profession at Wiscasset.
His handiest preceding championship came within the Street Stock division at Speedway ninety-five in Hermon in the early 2010s.
He said he needed to keep off former tune champions Chris Thorne of Sidney and Will Collins of Waldoboro and almost a dozen drivers racing every week for factors, which introduced McLaughlin’s sense of feat.
“I’ve raced at tracks where maybe best or three guys are racing for points,” McLaughlin stated. “It does provide you with a touch bit greater sense of feat when so many suitable vehicles are obtainable. I suppose it’s going to be a competitive elegance again, too. There’s a whole lot of veterans like Chris and (Daren) Ripley, who’ve been doing this for 20 or 30 years. It’s noticeably aggressive, and there’s a lot of young expertise within thence, too.”
McLaughlin spent little time this winter considering the ultimate season’s identify run. His awareness remains, at the least from season’s give up until Memorial Day, on the annual Coastal 2 hundred at Wiscasset.
“For me, the Coastal is the most important race of the year,” McLaughlin stated of the May 26 occasion. “I don’t suppose too much about what I’ve executed in the beyond. Racing is week to week, and you’re continually searching ahead to the following element, working hard on what you need to do for that. Right now, I will try to sign and get my vehicle as rapidly as I can for the Coastal 200. That’s continually the primary mindset of the year.
“After that, you may sort of set your desires for the rest of the summer season.”
The 50th year of Wiscasset Speedway, once you were rained out last weekend, is ready to start at 2 p.m. On Saturday. The Late Models are slated for a 40-lap feature occasion. The Strictly Street, Outlaw Mini, Modified, and NELCAR Legends divisions are also on the cardboard.
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Oxford Plains Speedway will take on double responsibility this weekend. It will commence its weekly racing application on Saturday evening and web host the Pro All Stars Series and American-Canadian Tour for a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon.
One driver among several who can be busy this weekend is Waterboro’s Curtis Gerry.
Gerry, the two-time and reigning Beech Ridge Motor Speedway champion, competes weekly at Oxford this season. He is entered in Saturday’s weekly 50-lap Super Late Model occasion and Sunday’s PASS Honey Badger Bar & Grill one hundred fifty.
Gerry’s latest records at Oxford could represent a Hall of Fame profession for maximum drivers. He gained the 2017 Oxford 250 on the date of his first professional collection victory. That win touched off a stretch of five straight PASS wins at Oxford’s forty-eight-year-old motive force, making him the primary driver in collection history to win five consecutive races at an unmarried track.
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Hudson, New Hampshire’s Joey Polewarczyk will be lower back at Oxford Plains this weekend, a song he considers his home far away from home. He’s entered inside the ACT Late Model Tour part of Sunday’s one hundred fifty-lap doubleheader, sparkling off a win in ACT’s inaugural occasion at Richmond (Virginia) Raceway remaining month. It could be one in evf a handful of begins he makes on a part-time basis with the series in 2019 while also competing component-time on the Super Late Model facet.
“We’re wearing some momentum, and that genuinely does not hurt,” Polewarczyk stated in a press release. “It keeps all and sundry pumped up. As I stated, it’s been some time since we’ve run the American-Canadian Tour vehicle (at Oxford), but I’m searching ahead to it. We had a lot of fulfillment in the Late Model-style cars at Oxford, mainly while the Oxford 250 turned into Late Model-fashion, so I’m excited to get lower back.”
Polewarczyk, the 2014 ACT champion, gained the 2012 Oxford 250 while it became a Late Model race. But he received’t the simplest Oxford 250 winner on the subject Sunday.
Wayne Helliwell Jr. Of Pelham, New Hampshire, has returned to full-time ACT opposition this season. The 3-time ACT champion received the 2016 Oxford 250 in a Super Late Model.