OXFORD, Maine — Mike Hopkins stretched the streak of first-time American-Canadian Tour winners to five with a commanding victory at Maine’s Oxford Plains Speedway on Sunday.
The reigning Pro All Stars Series National champion started on the pole of a 29-car field and stayed ahead of some wild action behind him for a wire-to-wire win at the Oxford 150.
In the process, Hopkins became the 83rd different winner in ACT Late Model Tour history. The series now has six different winners in six races at the season’s halfway mark.
Hopkins earned the first starting position by going from 10th to fifth in his qualifying heat for a plus-five under ACT’s longstanding plus-minus system. The field got feisty early with two quick cautions for spins by Joey Laquerre and Reilly Lanphear, respectively. Defending ACT champion Jimmy Hebert also got a piece of the first accident, rendering the former Oxford winner a non-factor for the rest of the evening.
Once the field sorted itself out, Hopkins showed what his Port City Racecars Chevy Camaro was capable of. He slowly but surely pulled away with Barre’s Nick Sweet the only driver who could even stay in his zip code. Things stayed active behind them with Dylan Payea, Derek Gluchacki, D.J. Shaw, Ben Rowe, and others trying to slice their way to the front.
Another flurry of cautions flew between laps 43 and 70, which included ACT point leader Tom Carey III grinding to a halt with a flat right front tire on lap 48. When another long green-flag run ensued, the same song repeated itself, with Hopkins driving off even as he negotiated through heavy lapped traffic.
With the race winding down, things got desperate throughout the field, and it showed in the amount of bent sheet metal. Six cautions flew between laps 106 and 139, which included one for an eight-car turn-one logjam following a lap 133 restart.
The repeated yellows gave Sweet and Gluchacki, who had established themselves as the best of the rest, plenty of chances to show what they had for Hopkins. Time after time, their bids came up empty, as the redhead could seemly put his #15ME wherever he wanted to on the three-eighths-mile oval. After the last yellow on lap 139 for Stephen Donahue’s turn-two spin cycle, Hopkins put the hammer down and drove off into the setting Maine sun for his first ACT win.
Gluchacki got past Sweet following the lap-134 dustup to get second, which was his best career ACT finish. Sweet took third in the first time out for his new family car. Shaw finished fourth, meaning that three of the top four were double-duty drivers who immediately jumped into the PASS Super Late Model feature.
Jimmy Renfrew Jr., the winner the last time out, made a late run to come home fifth. Carey recovered from his flat tire to place sixth and unofficially retain the point lead. Payea, Ben Rowe, Trenton Goodrow, and rookie Shawn Swallow rounded out the top-10.
The finish:
Mike Hopkins, Derek Gluchacki, Nick Sweet, D.J. Shaw, Jimmy Renfrew Jr., Tom Carey III, Dylan Payea, Ben Rowe, Trenton Goodrow, Shawn Swallow, Dillon Moltz, Kasey Beattie, Jesse Switser, Jimmy Hebert, Corey Mason, Stephen Donahue, Marcel J. Gravel, Jamie Swallow Jr., Erick Sands, Peyton Lanphear, Kris Matchett, Brockton Davis, Chris Burgess, Bryan Mason, David MacDonald, Reilly Lanphear, Matt Anderson, Joey Laquerre, Mike Foster.