WISCASSET — If Chris Thorne never runs another stock car race, he’d leave the sport a happy man.

The Sidney driver recovered from a lapse in pit strategy judgement in the final third of the race, rallying from the back of the field with a furious charge to win the Coastal 200 at Wiscasset Speedway on Sunday. The victory was the first Coastal 200 win for the three-time Late Model champion at the track.

“If I never win another race at Wiscasset, I’ll be OK with that,” said Thorne, who collected $3,525 in purse money with the victory. “We’ve won a lot of races and we’ve won championships here, and now we’ve won the biggest race. We’re happy.”

Jeff Burgess, of East Madison, finished second, while 2015 Coastal 200 winner Dave Farrington Jr., of Jay, was third. Winterport’s Joey Doyon and Nick Hinkley, of Wiscasset, completed the top five.

Burgess started on the outside pole on the 24-car starting grid and went immediately to the lead at the drop of the green flag, staying at the point until he spun while running by himself under a lapped car on lap 67.

That spin handed the lead over to Hinkley, who held the top spot through the halfway mark — picking up a $500 bonus for leading lap 100 — until Thorne worked past him on lap 103. At that point, most of the leaders had still yet to pit for fresh right side tires. All of the lead lap cars pitted on a caution on lap 135, leaving Thorne on the track as a sitting duck.

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When another caution flag flew almost immediately on the lap 136 restart, Thorne pitted alone and had to restart in ninth at the very rear of the field. That left him 17th in the on-track running order, including lapped cars.

“I thought I was in trouble,” Thorne admitted. “I wanted to stick to my plan. I wanted to wait (to pit) until 50 to go and no more, and I didn’t end up doing it. I figured I better not take any more chances.

“I didn’t think the whole field was going to pit then, but it all worked out.”

While Thorne was second-guessing his own pit strategy, Burgess was making his way back to the front following the lap 67 spin and another incident in the first half of the race that left him with cosmetic damage to his left front fender.

On lap 141, Burgess was back in the lead with Thorne in fourth nearly half a track behind.

But Thorne was making a charge of his own, chopping into Burgess’ advantage as he passed cars and worked his way back up to fourth. On lap 155, he was fourth and still more than four seconds behind.

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Thorne’s big break came on lap 185, after racing his way into second and sitting 1.2 seconds off the lead. As Burgess came up on the lapped car of John Kalel in turn four, he ran into the back of the slower machine and got trapped behind him. He slowed considerably and Thorne dove to the inside of him — bursting through an opening left by Burgess, Kalel and Jay Bailey, another lapped car running on the bottom side of the track.

From there, Thorne cruised off to win by more than three and a half seconds.

“Lapped traffic. I was behind (Kalel), and he looked like he was going into the third groove, and I stayed in my lane,” said Burgess, who led a race-high 110 laps. “Coming off the corner, he came down in front of me and we connected. I’m still just happy to finish second. We were wrecked at that point.”

Thorne saw the opportunity and knew he couldn’t afford to waste it as the laps wound down.

“I said, ‘To heck with it. Hammer down,’ and I just went,” Thorne said.

“Once I got up to fifth and then third, I knew I could drive it. I was catching (Burgess) pretty quick,” Thorne added. “Even with the lapped car, if it wasn’t for that, I think I could have gotten him.”

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Burgess agreed with Thorne’s assessment.

“We knew he was fast. He was coming,” said Burgess, who was making his first start of the 2016 season. “There was nothing I could do — when he got there he was going to go by me. It just made it a lot easier for him with the lapped traffic there.”

In earlier feature racing, Shawn Kimball of Augusta took the lead with 11 laps remaining and held off point leader Zach Audet of Skowhegan over three late restarts to win the 25-lap Outlaw Mini Stock main. The win was Kimball’s second straight in the division.

Mark Lucas of Harpswell won the 30-lap Modified feature, and Montville’s Bryan Robbins survived a caution-marred Strictly Street main event to win the 25-lap feature over Kurt Hewins of Leeds and five-time track champion Maurice Young of Chelsea.


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