Dave Farrington Jr. of Sabattus celebrates with his father in victory lane at Wiscasset Speedway last Saturday night.
Dave Farrington Jr. is making his part-time presence at Wiscasset Speedway felt.
The 25-year-old who now lives in Sabattus won again at the track over the weekend, claiming the 40-lap Pro Stock feature on Saturday. It was his sixth career victory at the track and his second already this season.
“It’s always a lot of fun racing at Wiscasset,” said Farrington, who won on opening day at Wiscasset in April. “We’ve been very competitive every time we’ve been there. … Wiscasset is where we (cut) our teeth the first time around running a Super Late Model.”
Farrington may consider Wiscasset his home — or at the very least where he grew up racing — but it’s not the focus of his season. He’s raced there three times this year, while focusing on winning a second career NASCAR Whelen All-American Series championship at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough. Farrington, the 2014 champion at Beech Ridge, is currently tied for sixth in the standings there, just 15 points out of the lead.
Beech Ridge’s schedule this season calls for only three Saturday night races a month, freeing up one weekend for Farrington to go somewhere else. When that off-weekend at Beech Ridge lines up with a Pro Stock race at Wiscasset, expect Farrington to head to the mid-coast.
Efforts like Saturday’s certainly help fire his enthusiasm.
“Dad and I spent some additional time in the shop (last week) that we hadn’t planned on, just because something wasn’t perfectly right on the setup. We weren’t going to call it ‘good enough’ and load the car to go,” said Farrington, who estimates it takes six to eight hours during the week to change the car over from a Beech Ridge setup to a Wiscasset one. “We wanted to take the time to make sure we got everything exactly the way we wanted it.
“We essentially won this race in the shop with all the preparation time.”
The 2014 championship season at Beech Ridge was the first time Farrington chased a championship anywhere, and last year he entered a full-time season on the Pro All Stars Series (PASS). It’s a departure from the first half of the decade, when he chased individual races and events over full-season commitments — a throwback to his go-karting days as a bit of a barnstormer.
Having participated in the Kulwicki Driver Development Program in 2015 changed his mindset. He’s seen the benefit of letting both fans and sponsors know where he is going to be each weekend.
“They definitely changed who I am for the better, as far as being overall a better communicator, better involved with the community and the fans and everybody,” Farrington said of the national Kulwicki DDP competition, where he was a finalist. “It introduced me to a world outside of racing I’d never seen before.”
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Ellsworth native Wyatt Alexander finished seventh in the PASS 150 at Speedway 95 in Hermon on Father’s Day.
It was the first start of the season in Maine for Alexander, who is going to school at University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Though the family-owned race cars are housed here in Maine, Alexander’s season is split between starts both in New England and the southeastern United States.
“The physically moving part is not always easy… but in the back of my mind I knew this was something I wanted to do and I’ve dreamed of doing for a really long time,” said Alexander, 18, who is studying mechanical engineering technology. “It hasn’t been easy as a full-time student, trying to race and having a part-time job. It’s been difficult, but I’m living a dream so I feel very fortunate to be where I am.”
Alexander — a former Boss Hogg 100 winner and Wiscasset Speedway rookie of the year — is a finalist for the Valvoline Fast Track To Fame this year, joining three other young drivers from all over the country. The contest is aimed at giving a promising team a cash prize to help elevate their race program.
“I was fairly familiar with the contest-type format, looking for sponsorship and things of that nature,” aid Alexander, who admitted to entering the contest on a whim. “I didn’t think a ton of it. There were like 800 or so entering, so I thought, ‘It would be great (to win), but what are my chances here, honestly?’
“It’s a pretty awesome deal. I’m pretty excited just to have made it this far.”
Alexander will be back in Maine on a few more occasions this summer, and he’s expecting to try and qualify for the Oxford 250 in August.
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Speaking of the Oxford 250, there are already 43 cars entered for the Aug. 26 event, according to a list PASS released on its website last Friday.
There are not a lot of early surprises, though previous Oxford 250 winners Mike Rowe (three times), Ben Rowe and Travis Benjamin (twice each), and Wayne Helliwell and Joey Polewarczyk have all filed entries. So, too, has PASS point leader D.J. Shaw and six-time series champion Johnny Clark.
Southern drivers Kodie Conner and Tate Fogleman are on the entry list. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series spotter Derek Kneeland — who works for Ganassi Racing and driver Kyle Larson — will attempt another start in the Oxford 250 this year. A Windham native, Kneeland now lives in Sebago.
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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