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(Naples, ME – May 15, 2005) Cassius Clark in the E. J. Prescott Ford never fell lower in the running order than his fourth place starting spot in the PASS 100 at Thomspn Int'l Speedway today, the first PASS race under the banner of new title sponsor The Infinity Business Group, Inc. Between laps one and 100, however, he moved around quite a bit, but it was the move on lap 87 that made all the difference.
Ben Rowe was second fastest in Sunoco time trials with a 19.646 second lap, with Cassius at 16.705 for third and Louie Mechalides of Tewksbury, MA fourth at 19.750 in the car he won the championship in at New Smyrna, FL during February Speedweeks, followed by Mike Rowe at 19.789 in a backup car. But it was local pro stocker Andy Johnson from Rehoboth, MA in the #16 Propane Plus car who grabbed the pole with a 19.600 second lap around the tough 5/8-mile.
J. R. Baril of Haverhill, MA with Corey Williams of Boothbay, ME on the outside led the field to the green after a redraw of the top ten in time trials. The heat races and the Dash were cut from the schedule because of the threatening weather conditions.
Corey jumped out to the lead and everyone seemed to settle in for the 100 lap run, but on lap 11 the 47X of Michalides, the 14G of Tracy Gordon, the 97 of Walt Hammond, the 08X of Mike O’Sullivan of Springfield, MA, the 48 of Chuck Dockerty of Northbridge, MA, and the 34 of Ted Christopher all piled into the first turn wall, with Christopher taking a pretty nasty hit. Everyone was OK, but all the cars were through for the day except for Hammond’s #97.
On the restart, Cassius Clark had the preferred outside line and powered past Williams, bringing Richie Dearborn in the #33 with him. After a quick yellow for debris from the #97 on lap 15, it was Dearborn to the point from the outside with the #00 of Ben Rowe following along for second. Ben took the lead on lap 21 with the 8 of Clark in tow and Dearborn falling to third.
At lap 40 Mike Rowe’s bad weekend got worse when he blew a right-front tire going into turn one and ended up against the wall between turns one and two. The car had to be hauled off by the wrecker to join Mike’s primary car that was destroyed in a practice crash on Saturday after an engine blew right in front of him.
On the restart it was Cassius making the outside work again as he got by the 00 for the lead, and the #54 of 2004 champion Johnny Clark and the #84 of Scott Mulkern were starting to make their presence felt as they moved through the field from the 10th and 14th starting spots.
Cassius pulled out to a five car-length lead over Ben as the laps ticked off until lap 71 when the 81X of Todd Owen and the #16 of Johnson tangled coming out of turn four with both cars into the outside wall. On the subsequent restart it was Ben’s turn to make the power move on the outside through turns one and two and down the backstretch.
Ben and Cassius went at it for the next ten laps with Cassius looking for a place to make a move and Ben getting there first. At one point, the two were weaving down the frontstretch as Cassius faked to the outside then moved under Ben, only to be blocked as they headed into turn one.
After a synchronized spin in turn two by the #73 of Chris Ross of Malta, NY and Michael Ruttkamp of Wilton, CT brought out the final caution of the day on lap 85, it was show time for Cassius and Ben, with Johnny Clark and Corey Williams right on their tail and Mulkern and Dearborn lurking and ready to pounce. The restart was aborted as the #35 of Garry Johnson of Hollis, ME came to a stop on the frontstretch and had to be pushed behind the wall, ending a top ten run for Garry in his first start of the season.
Ben drove into turn one really hard and beat Cassius off turn two and held the lead as they went down the backstretch. However, Cassius was not to be denied today as he dove under Ben coming off four a lap later on lap 87 and the two went tearing off into turn one where Ben washed up into the loose stuff, and by the time Ben recovered Cassius was gone with Johnny Clark slipping by for second.
At the line it was Cassius Clark with his hand out the window pumping at the raindrops that started to fall as they came off turn four. Clark was next with Ben’s 00 holding off second year driver Corey Williams, with Mulkern fifth, Dearborn sixth, followed by Donnie Whitten’s 83, J. R. Baril, Travis Benjamin ninth, and Michael Ruttkamp getting his first top ten in only his second PASS race.
The Infinity Business Group sponsored PASS teams will be back at it next Sunday afternoon at Speedway 95 in Hermon, ME in the Communities Pharmacies 150.
