SCARBOROUGH — Former series champion DJ Shaw took advantage of a late-race restart, driving inside of leader Joey Doiron with just two laps remaining and hung on to win the Southern Maine Jeep 150 for PASS North Super Late Models Saturday afternoon at the Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.

Shaw, of Center Conway, N.H., was involved in a wild, three-wide finish just two weeks ago at Oxford. This time, he took a top-three car and managed to put in Victory Lane. Doiron led on three occasions for a total of 109 laps, yet settled for the second spot by a margin of only .122 seconds.

Scarborough’s Garrett Hall started 14th on the grid and backed up his season-opening win at Thompson with a solid third, while 2014 Beech Ridge track champion Dave Farrington Jr. and defending series champion Mike Rowe of Turner completed the top five.

“I can’t believe I won,” an amazed Shaw said in Victory Lane. “It was just so close at Oxford to take a fifth or sixth-place car and come home second. Today, we got a lucky break with a third or fourth-place car. Joey had the dominant car, and could have used me up at the end, but he didn’t. He’s a class act, a real pleasure to race against, and one of my best friends. He’s also a good customer of Dale Shaw Race Cars (DJ’s father), so to finish one-two with him is awesome. I can’t thank my team enough.”

Doiron was easily the class of the field all afternoon, building as much as a straightaway lead at one point — only to see it all vanish when the caution flag waved. For him, second wasn’t easy to accept.

“It’s pretty frustrating after leading that many laps to not get the victory,” a dejected Doiron lamented when it was over. “I had the best car, which makes it tough to swallow. It was sliding badly on a late restart in Turn 1 battling with Garrett, but I was able to hold onto the lead. Then on the final restart it slid up the track in Turn 3, which allowed DJ to get under me. If we would have had another five laps, I think I could have won it. It is what it is; we’ll just go on to Star and do our best to win there.”

Hall, who came up just short of Reid Lanpher in last year’s NASCAR Pro Series points battle at Beech Ridge, was pleased with another solid run as his 2016 campaign continues to exceed expectations.

“I was trying to save my car for the closing stages,” Hall said. “I got up to second, and on that last restart I spun the tires and ended up third. It was still a good day for us. I used to come here with my father and dream about competing at this level, but never thought we could do it. Now here are with a win at Thompson and a third-place finish at The Ridge. I’m more than happy.”

Finishing sixth through 10th in Saturday’s PASS 150 were Trevor Sanborn, Johnny Clark, Bobby Timmons, Ben Rowe and Brandon Barker. Six cautions slowed the pace, all for single-car incidents with the exception of one multi-car fracas on the backstretch at Lap 146.

Seventeen of the 33 starters finished on the lead lap, while five drivers other than Shaw (Hopkins, Farrington, Dan McKeage and Doiron) took turns at the front. Qualifying heat winners were Hopkins, Trevor Sanborn and Farrington. Ben Rowe won the Consi ahead of his father and Jeremy Davis, of Tamworth, N.H.

Mike Hopkins led the 33-car field to green, holding the point until spinning in Dan Winter’s oil on lap 28. He would charge back to a 14th place finish. Other notable efforts in the final rundown include 2015v Oxford 250 winner Glen Luce (16th); former NASCAR champion Kelley Moore (22nd); twotime 250 winner Travis Benjamin (26th); and former Oxford standout Tracy Gordon (31st).

The Pro All Stars Series returns to action next weekend at the Star Speedway, in Epping, N.H., for event No. 4 on its 2016 schedule. 

pwhipple@sunjournal.com