TOM MAYBERRY
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Nineth Race - September 15th at WMMP

Top Three - L to R - 3rd: Ralph Nason, Winner: Ben Rowe, 2nd: Jeff Taylor

IT’S ROWE AT WHITE MOUNTAIN

NORTH WOODSTOCK NH - Ben Rowe survived a lap107 skirmish with lapped traffic and fended off challenges from Ralph Nason and Jeff Taylor to win Saturday nights’ PASS 150 presented by Kawasaki –Yamaha of Laconia at White Mountain Motorsports Park. The Turner Maine Pro Stock ace notched his sixth Pro All Stars victory of the season and tightened the P.A.S.S. championship standings even further.

Larry Gelinas topped the 34-car field in time trials with a lap of 12.125 seconds, beating out Rowe for the Sunoco Race Fuel fast time award by five one-thousandths of a second. Wayne Helliwell Jr. was third fastest in Carleton Robie’s 24 with Jeff Taylor fourth and Kenny Wright’s Newmarket Sand and Gravel Machine fifth. The Pole Dash redraw saw Taylor grab the lucky number one PASS flag and he took advantage of the draw to wire the dash and earn the number one staring position. Rowe raced up from sixth to claim the second spot, followed by Scott Chubbuck, Nason, Steve Knowlton, Wright, Louie Mechalides, Gelinas, Pat Patten and Helliwell Jr.

It was Taylor and Rowe leading the field to the green for the 150-lap feature and Rowe wasted little time going to the point. A lap 24 spin by Tim Brackett and Mike Parks allowed Nason to slip by both Rowe and Taylor and take away the lead but Rowe quickly powered by Nason on the restart to reclaim the top spot. Scott Chubbuck was showing some strength early on, moving up to second when the caution flew for Mike Maietta ’s contact with the turn one wall. Rowe took command on the restart and built up a straightaway lead during a 67 lap green flag stretch, but the battles for position continued throughout the field as Nason and Taylor moved around Chubbuck for second and third spots and the 88x of Steve Knowlton raced back into the top five after an early trip to the pits.

Rowe survived a scare on lap 107 when he made contact with a car he was attempting to lap in an eight-car pack all racing for position. He retained his lead to the caution stripe but Rowe’s 00 suffered damage to the nose, leaving the crowd wondering if he could maintain his dominance. Although the Mechanical Services/Hi-Tech Insulation Monte Carlo wasn’t quite as quick on the restart, Rowe still had the car to beat. Jeff Taylor mounted a late race charge, taking second away from Nason on lap 129 and threatening Rowe on several occasions over the final 20 laps but Taylor could get no closer than four car lengths as the two received the checkered flag. Nason raced home third followed by Knowlton in fourth and Scott Chubbuck in fifth. Larry Gelinas was sixth, PASS points leader Sam Sessions seventh and Helliwell Jr. eighth. Louie Mechalides and Tim Brackett rounded out the top ten.

Heat wins went to Chip Keene, Bub Bilodeau and Danny Bubar. Tom Oliphant was victorious in the consolation round. Richie Dearborn took home the Northern Race Tires Rookie of the Race award for his thirteenth place finish.

With Rowe in victory lane and points leader Sessions seventh, the battle for the 2001 Pro All Stars Championship will go down top the wire at Star Speedway on Saturday September 29^th. Unofficially, Sessions lead is now fourteen points over Mechalides and Rowe who are tied for the second spot with 1892 each.

Official Results

NOTE - For this event: 10x Ralph Nason is running as 110 - which posts as 11 on the scoreboard 29w Wayne Helliwell is running as 24
Rowe moves out at the restart - lap 119