Polewarczyk Completes Season Sweep at Oxford After Late Incident
Oxford, ME – Joey Polewarczyk Jr. won his fourth American-Canadian Tour (ACT) event of the season in the Oxford Plains 150 at Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway on Saturday, July 25 after a late incident while fighting with Brad Babb for the lead.
Hudson, NH’s “Joey Pole” took the lead for the final time with four laps remaining after he and Babb made contact racing for the top spot in turn one. Babb slid up the track before gathering the car, but subsequently lost control exiting turn two and spun to bring out the caution.
After another caution on the restart, Pole held off a final charge from Dillon Moltz to complete the season sweep at the 3/8-mile oval and unofficially retake the points lead. The normally popular driver was then booed in Victory Lane.
“I was able to drive down and get a good run coming out of turn four going into turn one, and I was up to Brad’s door,” Pole said of the incident. “At that point, as a driver I said to myself, ‘I’m in here now.’ It’s the other driver’s job to respect that, and if not, there’s going to be contact. Brad took a hard left to try and come down in front of me, and I felt like I had earned that spot and that’s where I should have been.
“I hate getting booed, and I hate confrontation like that,” Pole added. “It kills me, because I’m friends with Brad, and he’s a great guy; hopefully we can get past this. But I promise you that, if he was in my shoes, he would have done the same thing.”
Pole started on the pole after earning a +6 in his qualifying heat and led the first 112 laps, holding the lead through three cautions for minor spins. However, he was unable to shake Babb, who kept Pole in his sights after starting third. The Windham, ME driver eventually got to Pole’s inside and took the lead on lap 113.
After riding in Babb’s tire tracks for 20 laps, Pole went on the attack. He first tried the inside, then switched to the outside, nosing ahead for a circuit as the two went four-wide through lapped traffic. Babb eventually staved him off and Pole switched back to the inside, setting up the incident in the closing laps.
Moltz finished second while Bobby Therrien beat Jimmy Hebert in a photo finish for third. Wayne Helliwell Jr. took fifth after starting 17th. Emily Packard, Rowland Robinson Jr., Travis Fadden, Eddie MacDonald, and Nick Sweet completed the top-10. Babb ended up 11th.
The ACT Tour has a week off before returning to Maine for their annual visit to Scarborough’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Saturday, August 8. Post time for the Beech Ridge 150 is 7:00pm.
AMERICAN-CANADIAN TOUR
OXFORD PLAINS 150
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
Pos Start Pos Driver Car # Hometown Laps
( 1 ) Joey Polewarczyk Jr. ( 97NH ) , Hudson, NH , 150 Laps
( 16 ) Dillon Moltz ( 5CT ) , Waterford, CT , 150 Laps
( 13 ) Bobby Therrien ( 5VT ) , Hinesburg, VT , 150 Laps
( 10 ) Jimmy Hebert ( 58VT ) , Williamstown, VT , 150 Laps
( 17 ) Wayne Helliwell Jr. ( 27NH ) , Dover, NH , 150 Laps
( 11 ) Emily Packard ( 9ME ) , E. Montpelier, VT , 150 Laps
( 4 ) Rowland Robinson, Jr. ( 28ME ) , Steuben, ME , 150 Laps
( 7 ) Travis Fadden ( 16NH ) , No. Haverhill, NH , 150 Laps
( 6 ) Eddie MacDonald ( 17MA ) , Rowley, MA , 150 Laps
( 2 ) Nick Sweet ( 40VT ) , Barre, VT , 150 Laps
( 3 ) Brad Babb ( 15NH ) , Windham, ME , 150 Laps
( 5 ) Travis Stearns ( 16ME ) , Auburn, ME , 150 Laps
( 15 ) Brandon Atkins ( 4NY ) , AuSable Forks, NY , 149 Laps
( 8 ) Kyle Welch ( 9NH ) , Newport, NH , 149 Laps
( 9 ) #Rich Dubeau ( 30NH ) , Plainfield, NH , 149 Laps
( 19 ) Arthur Heino Jr. ( 07ME ) , Newport, NH , 148 Laps
( 14 ) Jeff White ( 50ME ) , Winthrop, ME , 148 Laps
( 18 ) Ryan Deane ( 54ME ) , Winterport, ME , 148 Laps
( 12 ) Corey Mason ( 1NH ) , Groveton, NH , 148 Laps
( 20 ) James Linardy ( 77MA ) , Somerville, MA , 147 Laps
( 21 ) Paul Charette ( 14CT ) , Woodstock, CT , 145 Laps
DNS Mike Ziter ( 54VT ) , Barre Town, VT , 0 Laps
Lap Leaders: ( lead changes among drivers) Joey Polewarczyk Jr., 1-112; Brad Babb, 113-141; Polewarczyk, 142; Babb, 143-146; Polewarczyk, 147-150. (4 lead changes among 2 drivers)
Time of Race: 1:03:31 Margin of Victory: 0.141 seconds
Cautions: (laps 10, 32, 100, 146, 146)
Heat Winners: Eddie MacDonald, Travis Fadden