Everyone from promoters to drivers to mechanics to maintenance workers to journalists — at least the ones associated with the TD Bank 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway — wants a week off.

Most of the competitors, whether they ran in the top five of the pressure-packed late model showcase or failed to qualify for it, would argue that they deserve one.

But that will have to wait. For a while.

Many of the top drivers in the region, including a healthy contingent of OPS weekly competitors, will swarm Beech Ridge Motor Speedway for a 150-lap American-Canadian Tour race Saturday night.

It isn’t Oxford. It isn’t Loudon. The race is significant enough to the local scene, however, that for the third straight year OPS will take a week off from championship series racing.

Late model competitors such as past Oxford champions Shawn Martin and Tim Brackett consequently get a rare chance to compete at the track less than an hour to the south.

Speaking of Oxford personalities, nine-time champion Jeff Taylor dominated the early stages of the Beech Ridge ACT race last July until a flat tire sent him reeling from contention.

Joey Polewarczyk Jr. inherited the lead and rolled on to a historic victory. It was the first ACT win for Ford since the introduction of a motor program that allowed the blue oval to fully compete with the series.

“Our team is really looking forward to this weekend at Beech Ridge. It is a special place for us,” Polewarczyk said in an ACT news release. “It gave us a big lift in 2010. If we can pull off a win this Saturday, maybe we can use that momentum to jump back into the hunt for a respectable finish over this second half.”

Brian Hoar enjoys a substantial lead in pursuit of what would be a record eighth ACT championship. Hoar, who finished fifth in the TD Bank 250 — a non-points race for ACT — leads John Donahue by 68 points.

Hoar is the only driver to finish in the top five of all six ACT races this season.

Randy Potter, Wayne Helliwell Jr. and Brent Dragon follow Donahue in the standings. Polewarczyk is sixth.

Ben Ashline of Pittston is the top Maine driver and the leading rookie in seventh.

Hot off his third-place finish in the TD Bank 250, 17-year-old Austin Theriault is enthusiastic about his turn to Beech Ridge after a career-best runner-up result last summer.

Theriault is a teammate to Hoar in 2011. His crew chief is Mickey Green of West Paris.

“Brian won the (Beech Ridge) race two years ago, so hopefully he can give me and Mickey some pointers and we can bring the RPM cars to the front,” Theriault said in the ACT release. “The 250 was really special. We hope we can use that as a stepping stone to more top finishes as we head to the second half of the season.”

From Beech Ridge, ACT teams will travel to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for testing Monday and Tuesday.

ACT will hold the first of its two NHMS races this season on the weekend of August 12-13, as a companion event to the return of Indy cars to the speedway.

Youth was served

Ashline and Theriault each shattered a TD Bank 250 record on Sunday.

By winning the opening heat race from his ninth starting position, Ashline, 20, became the youngest pole winner in the history of the race.

Theriault is now the youngest top-three finisher at the 250 by two years. Tom Rosati was 19 when he won the sixth-annual event in 1979.

Left turns

• OPS won’t be idle Saturday. The speedway will host its third Motor Mayhem card of the season. Non-traditional fare include enduro race, backwards drag racing, the more conventional spectator drags, a burnout competition and a camper race. Action starts at 6:30 p.m.

• Darrell Moore (Mini Stock) and Skip Tripp (Strictly Stock) maintained their point leads at OPS over the 250 doubleheader weekend.

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