Photos by Norm Marx
Oxford, ME – DJ Shaw and the #60 Precision JLM Racing team have had a very successful 2014 season, one of Shaw’s best to date. One race missing from his resume however, is the prestigious Oxford 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway is. This year, Shaw’s team went into the race hoping to bounce back from a disappointing night at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway two weeks ago when they had a shock go bad. In the end, Shaw played his pit strategy to be in position for the win late, but couldn’t hold off the teams with fresher tires at the end and ended up with a 12th place effort in the 44 car field.
“We just fought the handle on the car all day for some reason,” Shaw said of the day, “We made our pit stop early to get on a different strategy as the front runners and it almost worked for us, we were there at the end and that’s all we can really ask for, my team did a great job all day and I’m proud of the effort.”
The day started off on the wrong foot for Shaw, as he drew to start last in the first heat race of the day. With close to 70 Super Late Models trying for just 44 spots in the field, it was hard enough just to make it into the race. After driving his way through the field in the 20 lap heat race, Shaw wound up fifth, just one spot from the transfer spot. He took advantage of that finish in the consolation race though, as he drove from the pole position to the win, giving him the 25th starting spot for the 250 lap feature event.
At the start of the race, Shaw fought his way through the field, making steady progress early on. The field had racing all around the track, and sometimes had to be forced into three wide racing. Shaw found himself just outside the top ten 100 laps into the race, but he had to be up on the wheel to keep from going a lap down with the fast pace the leaders were running. At lap 125, a caution came out for a wreck on the front stretch, giving Shaw and the team the break they were looking for as the came in for their pit stop earlier than most of the leaders. After the caution, Shaw drove his way up into the top five and at lap 187, the leaders came in for their pit stop under yellow, giving Shaw second place with just over 50 laps to go in the race. After battling with Cassius Clark for the lead, the two began to drive away from the field, but another caution late in the race let the drivers with fresher tires catch back up. Between running on older tires and fighting a tight race car, Shaw fell back to finish in the 12th position.
The next race for the Pro All Stars Series North will be back in a few weeks on August 5th, when they travel north of the border once again for the “Budweiser 150” at Autodrome Chaudiere. Shaw won the first race of the Chaudiere Triple Crown, and will be looking to get back on track with a win again during this special Tuesday night event.
Learn more about DJ Shaw and the Precision JLM team on Facebook at the Precision JLM Racing page, on Twitter @djshaw60 and on the web at DJShaw60.com.
Story by Evan Beaulieu