OXFORD — Johnny Clark of Hallowell was feeling pain after his fourth-place finish at the 42nd annual Oxford 250 on Sunday and it had nothing to do with the fractured right shoulder or the broken bones in his right foot.

What hurt was feeling he had a chance to win taken away. Clark got caught up in an accident on lap 198 – shortly after pitting and getting in position for a late run.

“I really thought we had something for them after the pit stop,” said Clark, who sustained his injuries 12 days ago in a work accident. “We were coming up through, I went three wide and making some good headway, and we got back in the top 10 and looking at the top five cars right in front of us. Trevor Sanborn, I don’t know what happened, but from what I saw he just run over a slow car. I know we all want to go somewhere. I went to the third groove and went around him. He had that opportunity. He didn’t do it and he run him over and it took us all out of (a chance to win).”

Clark brought his No. 54 out of turn two but was never able to get the leaders back in his sights.

In the first half of the race Clark moved up from 21st on the grid into second behind early leader Wayne Helliwell Jr. on lap 64, where he stayed until less than 100 laps remained.

“Disappointing because I felt it was us and (Helliwell’s) 27,” Clark said. “We made that very clear that we were the two fastest cars here.”

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Clark said the 100 laps of practice convinced him he would be able to drive despite his still healing injuries.

“The place I feel best is in the car,” Clark said.

FORMER 250 winners struggled in the race.

Joey Polewarczyk, the 2012 winner, worked hard for his fifth-place finish, having to win the “Last Chance” race to make the field.

“I’ve never had to do that,” Polewarczyk said. “We drew terrible and we didn’t have a super fast car for short runs.”

For the first 100-plus laps the leader in the ACT point standings had made only marginal improvement on his 34th starting position, prompting his decision to come in early for four tires on lap 118.

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“We positioned ourselves where we were in the top 10 when everybody came in and took tires on that caution (lap 191) and we just took two and we came out fourth,” Polewarczyk said.

Travis Benjamin, who won in 2013 and 2014, started with a tough draw and his day never got better. He got in with a PASS North provisional, was involved in multiple early-race skirmishes and finished 27th.

Mike Rowe (1984, 1997, 2005) ran in the top three for the first half of the race, then faded to 25th. Ben Rowe (2003, 2004) was involved in a lap 32 accident and parked his car soon after, officially finishing 40th. Pole-sitter Eddie MacDonald (2009, 2010) dropped off the pace quickly and never made a charge, finishing 25th and four laps back.

Scott Robbins (2002) and Jeremie Whorff (2006) needed provisional spots to get in and finished 22nd and 37th, respectively.

VANNA BRACKETT became the second female driver to start the Oxford 250 when she was granted a provisional starting spot as the top Oxford Plains driver in the weekly points series not already in the field. She is third in the Super Late Model point standings behind her father, Tim Brackett, and her boyfriend, Kyle Treadwell, who both qualified on their own.

Vanna Brackett started 38th and finished 38th, completing 99 laps. Karen Schulz started and finished 42nd in 1989.

 


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