Kevin Douglass had been running well week after week, one Pro Stocks race after another.

It wasn’t good enough. The Sidney resident wanted a victory.

“We’ve been good, so I know we’re good, but it’s having those victories that really tops it all off,” he said. “I could finish second all year and I probably still wouldn’t be all that happy if I didn’t win any races.”

He’s won one now, as he took the July 3 race at Wiscasset Speedway by 0.985 seconds after runner-up finishes in three of the previous four races.

“It was kind of getting over the hump, honestly,” Douglass said. “The car’s new this year. … It was just nice to finally show we can win races with it. It was awesome last week.”

Douglass moved on from a 2008 model this season, and before this past race, brought the new car to Jeff Taylor, who built it, for work. The result was a car Douglass knew could make it to Victory Lane, which was proven when he set the Wiscasset Pro Stocks record with a lap at 14.561 seconds during practice.

“(Taylor’s) definitely the best in the business,” Douglass said. “It wasn’t driving quite like I liked. I brought it back to him and brought it back to the track, and right out of the gate the thing was a rocket ship.”

With win No. 1 in hand, Douglass is hoping there’s more coming for the new car.

“It was an emotional win for me,” he said. “To get that, it felt really, really good.”

 

• • •

The 2020 season couldn’t have gone much better for Dave Farrington Jr. The 2021 season is looking like a pretty good sequel.

After winning the Super Late Model title at Oxford Plains Speedway last season, Farrington has been just as hot this time around. He won a PASS race at the track on April 25, and then grabbed back-to-back first-place finishes on June 26 and July 5 after second-place finishes in four of the previous five races.

The Sabattus driver said he and his team have been able to keep the momentum going from last season’s success.

“We came into the start of this season in April and we sort of left from the previous year in October,” he said. “We were certainly happy to start off the way we did. We really didn’t seem to miss a beat, everything was right where it was when we left at the end of last season.”

Farrington credited his team’s work in the shop for the consistency, which is reminiscent of the four straight wins he had last season that led into the Oxford 250. Farrington finished fourth in that race, his best showing yet.

The 250 this season isn’t until Aug. 29, but Farrington said he’s hoping to use his track familiarity and comfort to his advantage when that day does roll around.

“We’re trying to hopefully break the spell of Oxford weekly competitors and their performance in the 250, because it hasn’t really been superb,” he said. “I can’t think of the last time a weekly Oxford competitor has won the 250. Ourselves, (Travis Benjamin), (Kyle Desouza), a couple of other weekly competitors, barring the circumstances of how the race plays out, they very well could be up top there.”

 

• • •

 

Avery Stoehr said his car was feeling “exceptional” as he headed into his final two laps during a June 29 heat race in the NEMA Midgets division at Wiscasset Speedway in Wiscasset.

“It (the car) felt great, I figured I’d see what she had for the final two laps and go all out with it,” said the Freetown, Massachusetts native.

So, he did.

Stoehr sped around the ⅜ mile racetrack in 12.875 seconds to break the track record that was set in 2019 according to co-owner Vanessa Jordan. Stoehr reached a top speed of 104.8 miles per hour.

“It was neat, I knew I had gone pretty fast, but I didn’t know what I had done until they told me afterward,” said Stoehr, who races for Bertrand Motorsports in a 4-cylander “midget” car. “It’s nights like those that make all the preparations so worth it, and it was certainly something I will remember for some time.”

Stoehr is a part of the Northeastern Midget Association (NEMA) circuit that comes to Wiscasset twice a year. He is already looking forward to returning on August 21.

“Wiscasset is awesome, I always seem to race well here,” he said. “The improvements they made are great, and the family-like atmosphere is electric for everyone. Every track should be like this one.”

According to Jordan, cars reached speeds as fast as 109 mph during the June 21 heat race. When asked if she thinks cars are getting faster, Jordan said other factors come into play.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily the cars, there are a lot of different things that come into play,” said Jordan, who co-owns the track with her husband Richard. “The conditions of the track, the weather they are racing in, and the style of the car all can make a difference.”

 

• • •

 

Overall at Wiscasset, it’s been a “tremendous season” according to Jordan. With full capacity crowds and no protocols in place to hinder the races, it’s safe to say the season is in full swing.

“We’ve had more racers this season whether they are experienced drivers or not, we’ve definitely fully ramped back up with a bang,” said Jordan. “The more they come the better they are which makes everything more exciting for all.”

With the season just about halfway over, Wiscasset is set to hold the plus IDEAL ENDURO #2 on July 10. The plus NELCAR Legends comes to town the following week on July 17. Both races start at 5 PM.

 

Times Record writer Eli Canfield contributed to this story.

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