OXFORD — His resume in NASCAR racing is nearly unmatched, with multiple victories in the Spring Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.

And now, the hottest commodity in professional stock car racing has a major victory in the Pine Tree State.

Kyle Busch took the lead from Patrick Laperle on lap 113, survived an intense battle with Farmington native Cassius Clark and hung on to win the Brackett Mechanical/RB Performance 150 for the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Saturday night at Oxford Plains Speedway.

Canadian veteran Lonnie Somerville made a thrilling late-race charge to claim third, while Laperle settled for fourth. Five-time PASS North champion Johnny Clark of Farmingdale completed the top five.

“That was a great race,” Busch said. “I can’t thank all these guys in the PASS series, they run strong and have a great tour. The guys at Kyle Busch Motorsports did a super job putting this car together for me, it ran great all night. I was a little nervous on a couplemof those restarts, I saw Patrick go low so I went outside and was a little loose out there. It seemed like you really had to keep the rear tires under you, I’m sure that is going to be the deal for tomorrow, as well. It’s the TD Bank 250 we’re really after up here, but winning the preliminary race tonight is a great start. We’ll work on the Late Model some more in practice tomorrow and see what we can accomplish.”

Finishing sixth through 10th in the PASS 150 was Joey Polewarczyk Jr., Mike Rowe, Brian Hoar, Ben Rowe and Scott Mulkern. Only two cautions slowed the pace, neither for serious incident.

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The return of Super Late Model racing at Oxford provided plenty of thrills, with Oxford veterans like the Rowe’s and Alan Wilson all in the show. Fans roared in approval as the field was introduced, and they made lots of noise as Busch made his move for the lead shortly after lap 100.

The PASS North series will close out their 2011 season right here at Oxford on October 1.

In the Valenti Modified Racing series, series veteran Joe Doucette earned his first career victory with a thrilling pass on Chris Pasteryak with just two laps remaining. Doucette had been trying for five seasons to win a feature on the popular mod tour, and recorded his first victory in dramatic fashion. Pasteryak had absolutely dominated the first 95-plus laps until Doucette made his late-race charge. Max Zachem came from deep in the field to finish third, while Rowan Pennink and Norm

Wrenn completed the top five. Only one caution slowed the pace, as the 600 horsepower ground-pounders knocked off 100 laps in short order.

“I don’t even know what to think,” Doucette said. “That race was quite a workout. I have to thank Chris for running me clean, I expected nothing less from him. I always figured we’d win of these things some day, but I never thought it would come on a flat track. This is a really tough series, we are a low-budget team and we work hard to compete against the big teams. We were on the bottom of the speed charts in practice, the team made wholesale changes to the car and it came around well tonight. Winning on this tour takes a strong car and a little luck, everything sure came together for us this time out.”

In earlier feature action, Calvin Rose Jr. went wire-to-wire in a 30-lap sprint for the Mini Stock division. The veteran from Turner used the low groove to his advantage as the leaders went three-wide on the first lap. Darrell Moore charged up from sixth on the 14-car grid to finish second, while former champion Ashley Marshall came home third in his first start of 2011. Jimmy Childs and Kevin Bishop completed the top five.

“I was pretty worried about Jimmy (Childs) there for a little while,” Rose said. “Then he started fading after halfway, and I was able to build a cushion. My family works hard on both this car and my Late Model, I just hope tonight’s win is a good omen for how our day will go tomorrow.”

Jim Davis Jr. made a triumphant return to Oxford in the Strictly Stock division with a dominant performance. The veteran from Sabattus is taking this season off for the most part, but like most with racing in their blood, couldn’t resist digging the car out of mothballs on TD Bank 250 weekend. Matt Williams powered his way from sixth on the grid to finish second, while Zach Emerson came home third. Defending champion Kurt Hewins of Leeds and his son Ryan completed the top five.

“We took off on that last restart, and the engine bobbled and I thought our chances to win were over,” Davis said. “We discovered a problem with the engine in this car just this morning, we took another car apart and made that engine for this car. To win the feature tonight is pretty sweet.”


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