Speedway 95 Victory Ends Dearborn's
PASS North Dry Spell
by Mike Twist

Good Luck for Benjamin, Clark vs. Dearborn,
Bad Luck for Bates, & More Notes as Well

Before the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) North Super Late Models headed to Speedway 95 near Bangor, Maine, on Sunday, Richie Dearborn had finished second in a race this year. He’d also finished third…and fourth. The Hollis, Maine, driver has been strong in just about every race, and consistent enough to place himself in the middle of the battle for the championship.

But one thing was missing. Dearborn had not been able to win a race on the tour in 2007. That was until Sunday, when he took the top spot for the first time since September, 2005, at White Mountain Motorsports Park (NH).

“It had almost been two years and we’ve finally got another one,” said Dearborn. “We’ve been running good all year long. Last weekend we finished 12th, and that was our worst finish all year. We’ve been very consistent.

“We’ve had a bunch of seconds and thirds and last weekend we had a 12th-place finish. I’ve been thinking all week that I might have forgotten how to drive. It’s a tough deal. But if racing was easy, everyone would be doing it.”

Racing at Speedway 95 is anything but easy. Drivers either seem to love the track or hate the place. Dearborn probably fell into the second group until this weekend, and he surely didn’t expect to break his winless streak there.

“I would have never thought so,” said Dearborn. “This is the last place I expected to win. We usually go good at places like White Mountain and Star. This is our first flat track win and I can’t believe it.”

Dearborn started on the outside pole and led early. Meanwhile, a pair of Clarks were busy advancing through the field. PASS rules dictate that any current season race winners need to start outside of the top 10, and since the unrelated Johnny Clark and Cassius Clark had both visited victory lane in 2007, they started deep in the field.

Cassius Clark got to Dearborn around the 50-lap mark of the race and tried to take the lead by sliding under Dearborn’s #33 car. The first attempt at a pass didn’t stick. The second attempt did not completely work either. But when Dearborn got trapped behind a lapped car. Clark got by for the lead. At that point, Clark pulled away to a straightaway lead. Johnny Clark also got by Dearborn, who slipped to third, but maintained his race pace.

“The car stayed about the same the whole race,” said Dearborn. “I tried not to use the car up too much at the beginning. I knew that Cassius and Johnny would be coming from the back. I saw them coming and I didn’t let them go, but they were faster than us at the time and got by. Something happened to them at the end of the race and we got lucky and won the race.”

Cassius Clark’s day went south when he suffered from a fuel pick-up problem on his #8 machine. Johnny Clark had a flat tire on his #54 and finished 13th.

Several others who spent considerable time in the top five during the race also had misfortune. Rookie Adam Bates had a top-three run going went he had a flat tire. Sam Sessions had a tire go flat and then took a hard trip into the turn one tire barrier. He was okay, but his day was ruined.

That left rookie Trevor Sanborn and veteran Scott Chubbuck left to challenge Dearborn for the victory. Sanborn made the show an exciting one by passing Dearborn for the lead with 10 laps to go, but a caution on lap 143 closed up the field and Dearborn retook the point on that restart.

“We were battling hard,” said Sanborn. “The fans saw a good show and it was fun for me too.”

Sanborn had to settle for a close second at Speedway 95 with Chubbuck, Ben Rowe and Travis Benjamin in tow to complete the top five.

The win at Bangor allowed Dearborn to inch closer to Ben Rowe’s point lead, but that fact was one of the last things on his mind in victory lane.

"Everyone keeps asking about points, but we’re not thinking about that. We can’t say that we aren’t in it for points because we’ve been to every race, but we’re here to win.”