PASS Completes Five Month Run at Speedway 95

(Naples. ME – September 11, 2005) What started out as a Sunday afternoon race at the end of May ended as a doubleheader for the IBG-PASS Super Late Models- Pro Stocks on Saturday and Sunday September 10 and 11th.

In the Saturday night Community Pharmacies 100 presented by Freightliner of Maine, it was Cassius Clark taking down the win with Johnny Clark second, Corey Williams third in his best finish of the year, Gary Drew fourth, and Ben Rowe fifth. With Cassius and Johnny up front, Ben fifth, and Mike Rowe ninth, the point’s race tightened even further as Ben’s lead was reduced to 28 points over Johnny and Cassius, and 30 over Mike going into Sunday afternoon’s E. J. Prescott 150 presented by Dysarts, C. B. Kenworth, and Clay GMC.

Some of the teams were not as happy as the top five Saturday night. Chuck Lachance took a wild ride into the tire barrier in turn three that heavily damaged the #38, Scott Chubbuck’s #29 lost a motor, and Rick Martin suffered the same fate. The #49 of Richard Brideau and the #88 of Mark Watson were unable to make the turnaround for the Sunday show. However, Matt Lee of Albion, ME and Skip Decker of Farmington joined the field on Sunday morning.

It was Cassius Clark on the outside of Gary Smith of Bangor on the pole in front of the hometown crowd as the E. J. Prescott 150 went green a little after 4pm. Richie Dearborn’s #33 did not fire as the field pulled away, and he retired to the pits after being pushed off. He returned on lap four, but had to retire for the day with a broken shifter, ending a recent streak of strong finishes for the Dearborn team.

Cassius jumped out to a five car-length lead over Smith as the cars settled into place. On lap 20, Gary Drew pitted, returned four laps later, only to retire for good after two more laps. In the meantime, Johnny Clark was moving into the top ten from his thirteenth starting spot.

The first yellow came on lap 33 as the #17 of Travis Benjamin went off in turn one. On the restart the # 00X of Matt Lee moved to third under Mike Rowe with Johnny Clark quickly moving to sixth followed by Paul White in the #15 as Cassius and Gary Smith moved away. On lap 44, Mike Rowe took third back from Matt Lee, and then it was Ben Rowe and Matt in a side by side battle for fourth that went on for ten laps until Ben prevailed.

On lap 58, Gary Smith had a front end failure that caused the car to roll over on the right front, but the veteran kept going as he fell back through the field hoping for a yellow that wasn’t him.

The second yellow of the day came out on lap 64 as Donnie Whitten’s #84 ended up in the tires between turns three and four. In a big surprise, Cassius pitted under the caution from the lead and rejoined the tail end of the field. On the restart, Johnny Clark moved to second to Mike Rowe with Matt Lee back in front of Ben Rowe for third and fourth. Donnie Lashua had something break on his car on lap 68 sending him off in turn one for a quick yellow. On lap 74, Matt Lee pulled up out of third place and headed for the pits with a mechanical problem.

At halfway, it was Mike, Johnny, Ben, Corey Williams fourth, Paul White ‘s #15 fifth, Alan Wilson sixth from his sixteenth spot on the grid,  Gary Smith back after repairs under the cautions, Cassius Clark up to eighth, the #54X of Ryan Deane, and the #02 of Eric Hudson tenth.

The battle was on between Gary Smith and Cassius as the wily veteran took Cassius’s line lap after lap until lap 98 when Cassius was finally able to get by and take the position.

On lap 110 the yellow flew for Matt Lee’s spin in turn four after some help from behind, and the field was bunched up again. On the restart, Mike and Johnny pulled away, but the yellow flew again on lap 115 as the #28 of Matt Eaton went around in turn four after the #15 of Paul White put down some fluid. Eaton was able to continue, but White was done for the day after a strong run to the front.

On the restart it was still Mike, with Johnny on the outside, but Cassius was now third with Ben Rowe fourth, and Corey William fifth. Cassius tried Johnny on the outside for lap after lap and then on the inside, but Johnny held him off as he was able to maintain his momentum.

With ten to go, it was Mike out front and cruising, with Johnny and Cassius still going at it as Ben and Corey Williams were engaged in their own little battle. With five to go, Mike was in heavy traffic with Johnny and Cassius closing in a hurry. Cassius went high and trapped Johnny behind a lapped car with three to go and took second.

With one to go, it was Mike with Cassius on the high side trying for the weekend sweep and Johnny lurking on their bumpers looking for his chance. As they came out of turn three, it was Mike with Cassius now up beside him. Johnny saw a hole on the low side, and when they came out of turn four, the three were side by side.

Mike held the middle ground for the win over Johnny on the low side and Cassius on the high side with two tires in the dirt.  The winning margin was .066 seconds, with Cassius .0165 seconds behind for third. Ben Rowe was fourth. Corey Williams backed up his third on Saturday with a fifth on Sunday, Alan Wilson was sixth, Ryan Deane in the #54X seventh in a great run, Erik Worster of Lee, ME in the #1 was eighth, Gary Bellefleur in the #40 ninth, and Eric Hudson on the #02 rounding out to the top ten.

After 250 laps of action on the weekend, the point’s race is even closer as Mike’s win moved him into a tie for second with Johnny only 24 behind Ben and two ahead of Cassius in the unofficial point’s tally.

On Saturday night September 17th, we head for White Mountain Motorsports Park in N. Woodstock, NH for the HK Powersports 150 for the next chapter in the 2005 PASS season.  After that, it’s 300 laps in the PASS/Pullen 400 Weekend at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, ME on September 24th  – 25th, and it’ll all come down to the season finale on Saturday October 1st at Star Speedway in Epping, NH.