Hermon, Me – The Pro All Stars
Series (PASS) traveled to Speedway 95 in Hermon, Me for its fifth event of the 2002 season
and Scott Chubbuck of Wiscasset scored his first career PASS series victory in the Clay
GMC 150. Chubbuck swapped the lead with current PASS point leader Ben Rowe three times
over the final 23 laps to claim the $4,000 first prize and lay claim to the title of the
hottest Pro Stock driver in the region. The driver of the Lamoureaux Floor Sanding Monte
Carlo withstood a late race restart and dodged a last lap skirmish to take the checkers.
Thirty-one cars were on hand for the event despite a questionable weather outlook, and a
surprisingly large crowd enjoyed a race that left them wanting more.
The Sunoco Time Trials took place under partially sunny skies and Rowe won his fourth
consecutive Sunoco Racing Fuels Fast Time Award with a lap of 14.764 seconds. Larry
Gelinas was just .003 seconds behind while Wayne Helliwell continued to impress with the
third fastest time. The draw for the Pole Dash saw the last two PASS race winners, Kenny
Wright and Dave Gorveatt, start on the front row. The Dash was an excellent race in itself
as Wright had to hold off Rowe for several laps before claiming the win, and more
importantly, earning the pole position for the feature event. True Value heat race winners
were Johnny Clark and Chuck LaChance.
Dwayne Overlock claimed the crash-filled consolation race and all 31 cars were
awarded starting positions in the Clay GMC 150.
The green flag flew for the feature event under a moonlit sky and Prince Edward
Island’s Gorveatt jumped to point. He and Gelinas swapped the lead on an early
restart, but Gorveatt would grab the top spot on lap 18 and lead the early portions of the
event. The action began to heat up on lap 61 when Rowe took the top spot for the first
time while Chubbuck continued to hang around the top five. Multiple cautions slowed the
event in the first sixty laps, but things settled down until lap 122. A restart on lap 122 saw Rowe, Gorveatt, Ralph Nason, and Kenny Wright
bottled up out of turn two causing contact and sending Gorveatt and Nason spinning on the
backstretch. This moved Chubbuck into the top 3 and in sight of the leaders with 30 laps
to go which is just what he and his team had planned on. Chubbuck saved his tires for the
final sprint to the finish which was the ultimate key to the victory.
“This guy (indicating his crew chief) told me it was going take good tires to win
today,” noted Chubbuck. “I was just patient. It’s a long race so I just had
to bide my time.”
Johnny Clark, Chuck LaChance and a charging Sammy Sessions made the crowd gasp for breath
on lap 124 when they successfully raced three abreast with Sessions jumping into the top 5
on the move. A caution just a couple of laps later set the stage for a Rowe-Chubbuck
restart and Chubbuck was up to the task by taking the lead from the preferred high groove.
Rowe returned the favor just five laps later on another restart and they switched for a
third time just one lap later after the tenth caution flew. The final caution (the
eleventh of the event) created a green-white-checkers finish and it appeared Rowe was in
the right spot in the high groove. Chubbuck had other ideas, however, and stole the
preferred line through turns one and two to set his sights on the checkers. Rowe held on
to second with a fading race car while Kenny Wright, Gelinas, and the surprising Randy
Turner rounded out the top five.
Rowe was forthcoming in the post race interview and also knew that having tires left was
the key to victory.
“I got tight and tighter and I over-abused the right front. I pushed it a little too
hard into turn one on one of those restarts and shouldn’t have. We came out of this
event with the car in one piece, a second place finish, and maintain the point lead so it
wasn’t too bad.”
Chubbuck plans on racing some of the Maine PASS events, but on this night he was happy to
come out on top of a talent-laden field of regional racers.
“It’s a big win. It’s nice to come out on top against the good guys. On
that last restart I was able to get him (Rowe). He said he went into turn one a bit too
hard and that was it.”
Cautions: 11 Lead
Changes: 6 Time: approx. 1
1/2 hours
Lap Leaders: (Gorveatt grid-2, Gelinas 3-17, Gorveatt 18-60, Rowe 61-126, Chubbuck
127-131, Rowe 132, Chubbuck 133-150) |
