SCARBOROUGH – After dueling with Wayne Helliwell Jr. for more than 100 laps, Jeff Taylor, a veteran driver from Farmington, pulled away during the last 11 to win the American Canadian Tour 150-lap race for Late Model cars at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

Taylor, 44, took the lead for good four laps after Helliwell, an ACT regular from Dover, N.H., jumped into the lead on the third and final restart.

“He seemed to be better on the shorter runs, and my car seemed to be better on the long runs,” said Taylor, a nine-time champion in the old Pro Stocks series at Oxford Plains Speedway, who now builds race cars. “I just tried to stay with him. He gave me a lane and I got to thank him for that. He could have made it a lot tougher than he did.”

“We had the preferred line on the outside at the end, but he had the better car and he was just able to drive away,” Helliwell said. “When the cautions came out, our car was a little tight on the entry. It would cool down the tires enough to get the jump on the outside lane.”

It was best finish of the season on the ACT tour for Helliwell.

“We have had trouble running on flat tracks like Beech Ridge,” he said.

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“Hopefully, this will help us turn things around.”

Taylor ran well in last Sunday’s TD Bank 250 before fading to a sixth-place finish.

Randy Potter of Groveton, N.H., finished third and pole sitter Jeffrey Lebrecque Jr. of Rochester, N.H., finished fourth.

Rounding out the top 10 were 17-year-old Austin Theriault of Fort Kent, seven-time ACT champion Brian Hoar of Williston, Vt., 2011 TD Bank North runner-up Nick Sweet of Barre, Vt., ACT rookie Dave Farrington Jr. of Jay, 2010 ACT rookie of the year Brad Babb of Windham and Glen Luce of Turner.

The regional Late Model tour will return to Maine on Aug. 20 for a 150-lap race at OPS.

In other action at Beech Ridge Saturday night, Joey Doiron, a 19-year-old driver from Berwick, pulled away from Aaron Ricker of Tamworth, N.H., on a restart with five laps to go in the track’s Pro Series feature.

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Earlier, Marcel Chauvette of Waterboro won the 35-lap Sports Series feature, Dave Cameron of Alfred won the 20-lap Road Runner feature, and Keith Stuart of Naples won the 30-lap Wildcat race.

Staff Writer Paul Betit can be contacted at 791-6424 or at:

pbetit@pressherald.com

Twitter: PaulBetitPPH

 


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