GELINAS
PASS WINNER AT WHITE MOUNTAIN |
Larry Gelinas got the jump on Ben
Rowe on a lap 25 restart to put his Watts Race Cars Chevrolet Monte Carlo out front and
lead the remaining 125 circuits to earn his first PASS series victory in the D-J Equipment
150 at North Woodstock’s (NH) White Mountain Motorsports Park.. Pro All Stars Series
point leader Ben Rowe came home in the runner up position, .432 seconds behind Gelinas
with Johnny Clark third, Scott Mulkern fourth and Canadian Dave Gorveatt fifth. Dale Shaw,
Wayne Helliwell, Randy Turner, Louis Mechalides and PASS newcomer Joey Pastore rounded out
the top ten.
Cassius Clark earned the Sunoco
Race Fuels fast time award with a 12.336 second pass through the clocks but redrew eighth
for the fast car dash. Scott Mulkern pulled the lucky number one but couldn’t hold
off the advances of Ben Rowe who took off from the outside pole to claim the dash win.
Mulkern finished second followed by Richie Dearborn, Sam Sessions and Gelinas. Dale Shaw
and Dave Gorveatt were victorious in their respective heat races.
Twenty-five cars lined up for the
150-lap feature event and at the green Rowe jumped out to a solid lead from the pole
position. Outside pole sitter Mulkern was freight trained, the outside groove not the
place to be in the early going. First Dearborn then Sessions, Gelinas and a charging
Cassius Clark raced under Mulkern. Clark was backing up his impressive fast time run,
moving from seventh to second by lap nineteen and making progress in his efforts to reel
in Rowe.
The complexion of the event changed dramatically on lap 25 when Mike Rowe, making
his debut in Carleton Robie's 24x, spun on the backstretch and was collected by Scott
Watts. The impact compromised the integrity of Rowe’s fuel cell and a fire erupted.
Rowe drove his blazing machine to the pit area where crewmembers and track personnel
immediately went to his aid, assisting Rowe from his race car and extinguishing the fire.
For more, see the report and photos
51sportsracing.com/passwm
A 30- minute red flag period halted
the event to clean up the racing surface as well as pit road. The race leaders came upon
the fiery wreck and checked up quickly for the red flag, causing a chain reaction crash
that ended Richie Dearborn’s night and sent Clark and Sam Sessions to the pit area
for repairs.
With a number of the frontrunners
either done for the night or on the rear of the lineup, the top five for the restart was
Ben Rowe, Gelinas, Johnny Clark, Shaw and Mulkern.
At the green Rowe battled a balky transmission and Gelinas had a perfect restart,
taking the lead and bringing Shaw with him to second. Rowe may have been at a disadvantage
on the restarts but he still had a strong race car, dueling with Dale Shaw lap after lap
for the runner-up position as the pair swapped spots on several occasions over the next
seventy five laps with Rowe finally getting the measure of a fading Shaw on lap 107.
Rowe made one final charge at Gelinas in the final laps but came up short in his
bid for the win. 2002 PASS rookie of the year Johnny Clark continued his mid-season drive
up the points ladder with his third consecutive third place finish.
NEXT RACE:
The Pro All Stars Series takes a week off before returning to action on Friday August 1st at Wiscasset Raceway. Sunoco Race Fuels time
trials get underway at 6:30 PM with racing directly thereafter. For more information
please log on to www.WiscassetRaceway.com.
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