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 has 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 a variety of humans to return race in a definitely excellent department.”
In one of the healthiest weekly fields within the kingdom, routinely attracting in the low-20s for automobile counts all through remaining season, McLaughlin become the shining famous person. He won three races and completed within the pinnacle-five in all however one in all his eleven starts offevolved, posting an remarkable seven podium finishes. All that consistency added up to the Late Model championship for the 34-yr-old McLaughlin, the primary in his profession at Wiscasset.
His handiest preceding championship of any kind came within the Street Stock division at Speedway ninety five in Hermon inside the early 2010s.
That he needed to keep off former tune champions Chris Thorne of Sidney and Will Collins of Waldoboro, in addition to almost a dozen drivers racing every week for factors, introduced to McLaughlin’s sense of feat.
“I’ve raced at tracks where there are maybe best or three guys racing for points,” McLaughlin stated. “It does provide you with a touch bit greater sense of feat when there’s so many suitable vehicles obtainable. I suppose it’s going to be a clearly 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 the elegance, too.”
McLaughlin spent little time this winter considering 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 yr,” McLaughlin stated of the May 26 occasion. “I don’t suppose too much approximately 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, the following thing is to try and song and get my vehicle as rapid as I can for the Coastal 200. That’s continually the primary mindset of the yr.
“After that, you may sort of set your desires for the rest of the summer season.”
The 50th year of Wiscasset Speedway, once you have 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 also are on the cardboard.
• • •
Oxford Plains Speedway will pull double-responsibility this weekend, commencing its weekly racing application Saturday evening and web hosting 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, is competing weekly this season at Oxford. He is entered in both Saturday’s weekly 50-lap Super Late Model occasion as well as 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 time his first profession traveling collection victory of any type. That win touched off a stretch of five straight PASS wins at Oxford for the forty eight-year-old motive force, making him the primary driver in collection history to win 5 consecutive races at a unmarried track.
• • •
Hudson, New Hampshire’s Joey Polewarczyk will be lower back at Oxford Plains this weekend, a song he considers his home faraway 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 every of 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. Like I stated, it’s been some time considering the fact that we’ve run the American-Canadian Tour vehicle (at Oxford), but I’m searching ahead to it. We had a whole 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 become a Late Model race. But he received’t be the simplest Oxford 250 winner inside 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.
