photo by Norm Marx
Geary, New Brunswick – Joey Doiron and the 73 Wild Willy’s Burgers/JBJ Machine team traveled back to Canada this past weekend to Geary, New Brunswick for one of the biggest short track races in the north, the Re/Max 250 at Speedway 660. 32 Super Late Models were on hand to try their hand at the $15,000 prize including lap money to be earned during the event. The event didn’t go quite as planned however, as rain began to fall just before the start of the race on Sunday night, and was pushed back to early Monday morning. After a hard fought drive at the end, Joey Doiron ended the race just off the podium in fourth place.
“We were really loose at the beginning of the race, we made a charge up there but I don’t think we would’ve stayed on the lead lap if we didn’t pit early,” Doiron said of the race, “It was our only shot to win and I think we would’ve had something for them if we had equal tires there at the end, all in all though it was a great run for us, I’m proud of everyone’s effort and we’ll get geared up for Chaudiere next weekend.”
After starting fifth in his heat race, Doiron charged to the front, but was sent to the rear after making incidental contact with the leader. He was able to recover to finish third, giving him a tenth place starting spot for the 250. After waiting a day, the race was run on Monday morning, and Doiron was on his way to the front early. He was able to use the outside line to fight his way into the sixth spot during the first caution at lap 52. On the ensuing restart, Doiron was trapped behind a lapped car, but pulled off a brilliant three wide move to make his way into the fifth spot. After dropping a few spots with a loose racecar, the team decided to pit just before halfway at lap 123, one of only three lead lap cars to do so.
With four fresh tires, Doiron made quick work through the field after restarting in the 15th position. He was in the top five by lap 160, and was reeling in the two leaders from the third spot when the caution flew at lap 180, giving the rest of the leaders a chance to pit. Doiron inherited the lead, and lead the field until lap 195 when Travis Benjamin used his four fresh tires to fight his way around Doiron after restarting from fourth. After fighting through some late race cautions, Doiron ended the race in the fourth position, a great run with older tires against the teams around him.
After another solid run at Speedway 660, the team will travel to Quebec next weekend for the third race in the Autodrome Chaudiere series, part of the Pro All Stars Series North championship. The racing on Saturday night, September 6th will start at 5:00PM with the Thunder Valley PASS National 200 slated to start at 8:00PM. We thank all of our fans north of the border, and we look forward to coming back to Canada this weekend!
For more information on Joey Doiron, find him on Facebook at Joey Doiron Racing, on Twitter @joeydoiron73 and online at joeydoiron.com.
Story by Evan Beaulieu