Farmington’s Cassius Clark had run just one of the 10 Pro All Stars Series Super Late Model North races this season, and he won it at Oxford Plains Speedway two weeks ago.
He took the checkered flag again on Sunday night in Oxford, but this time his victory was much more significant.
It was the state’s most prestigious race: the 48th annual Oxford 250.
Clark, who started 25th, took the lead on lap 177 after the race leaders got tangled up with lapped traffic. He was able to hold off challenges from runner-up Curtis Gerry from Waterboro and third-place Derek Griffith from Hudson, New Hampshire, to register his first Oxford 250 win.
Clark survived six more restarts after caution flags came out, including the 13th and final caution with just 13 laps remaining.
It came down to Clark and Gerry after Griffith had tried unsuccessfully to track him down for several laps and Clark was able to hold off Gerry.
Gerry, the 2017 Oxford 250 winner, had qualified fourth and Griffith began the race in the 29th slot in the 43-car field.
Joey Doiron of Berwick was fourth and defending champ Johnny Clark from Farmingdale completed the top five.
Clark was 31st in the starting grid.
Two-time winner Eddie MacDonald from Rowley, Massachusetts, was sixth and rounding out the top 10 were Dennis Spencer from Oxford; Trevor Sanborn from Parsonsfield; Joey Polewarczyk from Hudson, New Hampshire; and 2018 winner Bubba Pollard from Senoia, Georgia.
Sanborn started 42nd and Pollard began the race in the last spot, 43rd.
Turner’s Mike Rowe and Morrill’s Travis Benjamin were trying to become the first four-time winners of the race but finished 20th and 21st, respectively.
Rowe started 18th and Benjamin was 28th.
Kate Re from Harrison, the only woman in the field, finished 27th after starting 36th.
T.J. Brackett of Buckfield, who started on the pole, wound up 39th.