Auto racing: Trevor Sanborn back behind wheel after health scare last fall

Trevor Sanborn, left, looks over adjustments to his car following a practice session last Sunday at Oxford Plains Speedway. Travis Barrett/Kennebec Journal

OXFORD — Nobody passed more cars in Sunday’s Pro All Stars Series Honey Badger Bar & Grill 150 at Oxford than Limerick’s Trevor Sanborn.

Sanborn posted the fastest time in final practice Sunday morning, but he struggled in his qualifying race and started 27th in the 31-car field. He finished third in the feature.

“We tore it up a little bit, but nothing that isn’t repairable,” Sanborn said. That Sanborn is even on a race track in 2021 is an amazing feat.

Like his car, apparently Sanborn is repairable.

Last fall, not long after winning the Boss Hogg 150 at Wiscasset Speedway, the 33-year-old Sanborn developed Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus — commonly known as MRSA — and was hospitalized for several weeks. The MRSA infection turned into sepsis, a blood infection, and then double-pneumonia in his lungs.

“It was pretty rough,” Sanborn said. “I was in ICU for nine days and in (rehabilitation) in the hospital for another four or five. I feel good. It doesn’t bother me to drive this race car, but you wouldn’t get me to run around this track. I’d be out of wind.”

Sanborn was hospitalized while his son, Talon, celebrated his first birthday.

“I really struggle with my lung still,” Sanborn said. “Even when I horse around with my kid, I’m out of breath.”

Days like Sunday, with a race car that passed more competitors than anybody else on the track, certainly help Sanborn feel a little better.

“It’s satisfying knowing we’ve struggled here a lot. I knew we had a good enough car to run up here, but you just need time. It doesn’t come into it for about 60 laps.”

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Just as Curtis Gerry did three years ago, Dave Farrington Jr. has emerged as the bar by which all other drivers are measured against at Oxford.

Farrington won the Honey Badger Bar & Grill 150 at Oxford, making it six wins in his last nine Super Late Model starts at the track. In the three races he did not win, Farrington hasn’t finished worse than 10th.

Dave Farrington Jr. celebrates in victory lane after winning the Pro All Star Series Honey Badger Bar & Grill 150 at Oxford Plains Speedway on Sunday in Oxford. Staff photo by Travis Barrett

The driver from Jay had won four in a row at Oxford entering last August’s Oxford 250. He finished fourth in that event.

“I guess we’ve found our stride here, to say the least,” Farrington said Sunday. “Once we found what this car likes, we just maintain it and keep it the way it needs to be. If the weather changes, we must make a few adjustments.

“It’s a complete, total package. With the business — DMD Racing — we sell race car parts. I’ll sell anything off this car. It’s not just one piece, it’s the whole package deal. We’ve got it working here.”

Beginning with his Oxford 250 victory in 2017, Gerry rattled off five consecutive PASS wins at Oxford. He later won the 2019 track championship in weekly competition there.

Like Gerry has said in the past, Farrington said success at Oxford is not about finding new ways to reinvent the wheel. Instead, it’s all about not getting overly aggressive on the flat, .375-mile oval.

“Roll, roll the center, be smooth, don’t spin the rear tires, don’t get all excited and everything,” Farrington said. “It’s been preached to me about consistency ever since I was seven years old running go-karts. It’s all about consistency, hitting your mark lap after lap, and that will be key.”

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Scarborough’s Garrett Hall has competed for championships at the weekly level and at the touring level, but at 26 years old he’s looking to satisfy more of his racing bucket list this season.

“I have a set plan, but it’s always floating around,” Hall said after finishing second in Saturday’s season opener at Wiscasset Speedway. “I’ve been doing the touring thing for a couple of years now, but it’s a lot. I don’t really want to commit to anything. I’d like to go to Jennerstown (Pennsylvania) for the CARS Tour race, which is a $20,000 to win race. I’d like to go do that. There’s the (Oxford) 250, too, obviously.

“I just want to keep my options open.”

Hall finished fifth in the CARS Tour race at Hickory (North Carolina) Motor Speedway on March 20, but he’s yet to hit a consistent groove in 2021. A crash took him out of the PASS race at Thompson, Connecticut earlier this month, and he finished a disappointing 25th — four laps down — at Oxford on Sunday.

“One was a different car, and the other was a wreck at Thompson two laps in,” Hall said Saturday at Wiscasset. “We threw this car together and had a good day and overcame all of our battles to finish second, which is a plus.”

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Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough and Speedway 95 in Hermon both open for their respective seasons on Saturday. … Wiscasset Speedway has a second opening day on Saturday for it’s Group 2 divisions, including the Late Model class. … Josh St. Clair of Liberty, who won the season opener for the Pro Stock/Super Late Model class at Wiscasset last weekend, said he plans to compete full-time in the Late Models while running select Super Late Model races at his home track.