2024 PASS EVENT

SATURDAY, JUNE 22nd, 2024

starspeedwaynh.com
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*Photos by Sharon Perry & Norm Marx*


*Photos by Sharon Perry*

		*Photos by Mike Rothwell*

Kuhn Tops Doiron for PASS 150 Win at Star
After On-Track Spat Between Griffith, Shaw

By Toby Christie - Racing America News

Ryan Kuhn was the dominant car of the first half of Saturday's PASS Super Late Model Series event at Star Speedway, and he ended up scoring the win, but he'll be the first to admit that it looked like he was going to come up a little bit short as the race crossed the half-way point.

"That was unbelievable. Kind of speechless, man," Kuhn stated in his victory interview. "[with] 25 [laps] to go, I thought we were done and out of it. I just wanted to ride back and manage my stuff for a late-race restart and we got that."

In racing, you never give up, because you just never know what can happen. Saturday's race at the 0.250-mile short track in Epping, New Hampshire, was a prime example of that fact.

Series points leader DJ Shaw and the hard-charging Derek Griffith muscled past Kuhn during a restart around the mid-way point of the race. And from there, it was the Shaw and Griffith show.

The battle between the two racers was entertaining as all get out, and everything you'd expect from two of Super Late Model racing's best, that is until both drivers went over the line during their duel, and ruined each other's hopes of winning the race.

Griffith shoved his way to the lead with 17 laps to go, but Shaw wasn't a fan of the move, and gave a shot of his own right back to Griffith heading into the next set of turns. The contact from Shaw sent Griffith spinning from the lead, and the caution flag would come back out.

Shaw was now the leader of the race, but under the yellow, race control would penalize Shaw with an end of line penalty for the contact, which caused Griffth to spin out.

This handed the lead to Joey Doiron, and Kuhn, who all of a sudden had new life, was alongside on the front row. Kuhn would snag the lead away with 16 laps to go, and he would hold off Doiron's final charge on a restart with 12 laps remaining to take the victory.

"Oh man, that was one heck of a battle with Joey there. You know, he's one of the best around," Kuhn gushed about his competitor for the race win.

For the 24-year-old native of East Bridgewater, MA, the win was the culmination of perserverance through some tough times recently on the race track. The 2022 PASS North Super Late Model champion concluded his victory interview by thanking his team for sticking by him through thick and thin.

"I want to thank my whole crew for sticking with me," Kuhn stated. "These last few weeks, really few months, have been really rough. We really needed this one."

The official margin of victory for Kuhn was 0.550 seconds over Doiron, the 32-year-old racer from Berwick, ME.

While Doiron, the 2015 PASS Super Late Model Series National Champion, failed to take the win on Saturday, he did pick up his second best finish of the 2024 season through the season's opening five events.

Gabe Brown, who was disappointed by a fourth-place finish after a rough and tumble battle with Jimmy Renfrew Jr. in the ACT Tour event earlier in the afternoon, came home third in the race, and Shaw rallied from the rear of the field to finish fourth.

Bryan Kruczek scored a top-five in the No. 5K machine, and Griffith's rally back through the 15-car field stalled out with a sixth-place finish.

While the ACT Tour, PASS MODS, and PASS Super Late Model events were successful in dodging the threatening weather in the area throughout the afternoon, the skies finally opened up just as Kuhn concluded his victory interview.