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PASS MASTER
2010 SCHEDULE
.
2010 Schedules for North SLM,
South SLM, MODS, & Sportsman |
Page 2 |
Changes
at Trey Mitchell Racing Prepares Them for
2010 PASS South Championship Hunt |
Mooresville, NC
3/8/10 - A new year means a fresh start for many race teams.
That fact is no different for Texas’s own Trey Mitchell. After a
few top five finishes last season, including a runner up finish
in the Independence 150 at Hickory Motor Speedway, Mitchell is
making the move to Gary Crooks Racing for the 2010 season with
plans to chase the PASS South series championship title.
“This year we decided to go in a little different direction and
run for a championship in the PASS South Series and I believe
having Gary Crooks calling the shots will give our team the best
opportunity to do that this year,” said Mitchell. “It’s a new
year and a new chance to get our first career win and I’m hoping
sometime in 2010 we can do that.”
Mitchell’s plans are to run the entire 2010 PASS South series
schedule beginning with this weekend’s South Carolina Clash 150
at the 4/10th mile egg shaped Dillon Motor Speedway. The track
features wide fourteen degree banked turns with narrow straights
that can create chaos off of the corners.
This weekend’s race will mark a few firsts for the duo. Not only
will the event be the first time the two will work together in
2010, but neither Crooks nor Mitchell has ever competed at the
Dillon, South Carolina track before and had yet to see the
facility until a recent test just a week ago. “We just want to
get off to a great start,” said Mitchell. “It is important to
start off the season strong with us running for the
championship. We don’t want to be trying to dig out of a hole
from the very start of the season.”
Not only are Dillon’s confines tight down the straights, but the
track has a similar shape to its big sister just 40 miles down
the road in Darlington, SC. Turns three and four have a bit
tighter radius than one and two, making it harder for drivers
and crew chiefs to find the right balance for their car.
“We went to Dillon just last week and did some testing and we’re
pretty happy with how things went,” said Mitchell. “It’s a new
season and everything is new for both me and Gary. We just
wanted to work out the kinks, build up a relationship, and a
line of communication so when we come back for the race we are
prepared once we unload and hopefully start off the year on the
right foot.”
In six PASS South Series starts in 2009, Mitchell earned one
last chance qualifier win, four top tens and three top fives to
go along with a seventh place showing in his Super Later Model
debut at the 2009 Rattler 250 in Opp, AL. Mitchell and his team
are looking for much bigger and better things in 2010 and hope
that the new duo gets things started right away.
www.treymitchellracing.com |
|
 |
JOEY
DOIRON TACKLES
NEW CHALLENGE IN 2010
BERWICK, Maine -- Dale Shaw. Brad
Leighton. Tom Curley. Some of New England's most notable racing
personalities have stood up and taken notice of young Joey
Doiron's abilities behind the wheel of a stock car.
Doiron, a soft-spoken high school senior, hopes that he'll
continue to open eyes in 2010. One year after winning the ACT
Late Model Tour's Rookie of the Year award, Doiron has his
sights sent on the same mark in the PASS North Series this
season.
"It will be a lot different," said the 18-year-old Doiron. "ACT
has some good caliber teams there, but going against guys like
Richard Moody Racing, Scott Mulkern's team and Johnny Clark on
all those different tracks with PASS this year -- it's going to
be a big step for me."
It's a step that many believe Doiron will make seamlessly. |
Last
year, car builder Dale Shaw noted that Doiron's go-kart racing
background built him into a smooth driver that "doesn't make
waves." Doiron said he and Brad Leighton -- a multi-time
champion in what is now the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East -- have
developed a good working relationship. And Tom Curley, a Hall of
Famer in New England racing circles, saw fit to include Doiron
in the first-ever Late Model race contested at New Hampshire
Motor Speedway last September.
"My goal is to win Rookie of the Year with PASS and just run
competitively," Doiron said. "I think we can do that."
Last season was Doiron's first full-time season in a stock-car
touring series of any kind. He ran a limited schedule in 2008 in
a Late Model at Oxford Plains Speedway and Wiscasset Raceway in
his home state of Maine, after a few seasons of competition in a
weekly support division at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.
Prior to that, Doiron spent the better part of five years racing
go-karts -- where he found his racing addiction.
"I used to be into baseball as a kid," said Doiron, who works
with his father and crew chief, John Doiron. "Then I went and
watched a go-kart race -- and after that, I didn't want to do
anything else."
In the highly-competitive ACT Late Model ranks, Doiron finished
12th in the 2009 standings after posting one top-5 finish and a
pair of top-10s in 10 starts. His best career finish came in
early September when he ran fourth at Twin State Speedway in
Claremont, N.H., just days before he was one of 36 drivers
invited to compete in the ACT Invitational at New Hampshire
Motor Speedway -- New England's largest track and host to two
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events each year.
All Doiron did at New Hampshire was start from the outside pole
and lead the first 20 laps in the 50-lap event on the 1.058-mile
oval, before blistered tires on his family-owned No. 73 took him
out of contention.
Those days are gone, though, for Doiron -- who will tackle the
challenge of PASS. He has two career PASS North starts, at Beech
Ridge last season. In one of those races, he was in position to
win before running out of gas late.
That particular disappointment has worn off for Doiron now. In
fact, he's encouraged by his ability to compete against seasoned
race teams as he enters a year where he will encounter bigger
teams, bigger tracks and bigger speeds than he saw as a Late
Model competitor.
"The races for the most part in PASS are going to be a little
longer, so that will be a challenge," Doiron said. 'But we get
to go back to Beech Ridge, which is a plus, because we know that
track well.
"I'm a fairly patient driver and I like to wait for the end to
make our moves. With longer races, I think that helps me -- it's
more finesse than just running to the front as soon as you can,
which I think is good for me.
"If I could make a living at racing, that would be great, but
I'm not going to hold my breath that someday I'll end up in
NASCAR -- but I'm going to enjoy doing this every day that I
can."
Doiron's racing season
begins with the April 18th PASS North Series opener at Speedway
95 in Hermon, Maine. |
|
| Florida Trip Brings Rowe, Team
Together |
NEW SMYRNA BEACH,
Fla. -- Ben Rowe could have left Florida in a bad mood. Instead,
he left encouraged.
A twice-wrecked race car during the 4-time PASS North Series
champion’s first voyage with Mulkern Racing did cast a mild pall
over the trip to New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway last week, but Rowe
saw the silver lining.
"I’m really happy, and I can tell you I’m excited about the
season," Rowe said after finishing 14th in the Winterfest 150,
the first of five races in the PASS National Series for 2010.
"We had a good run going, the entire team worked really hard and
we’re going to be ready for the start (of the PASS North
season)."
Rowe was fastest in the final practice, qualified eighth in the
22-car field and was the leader of the race at the halfway break
-- all in his first race with his new team and in his first race
at New Smyrna’s fast half-mile track.
He took the lead in the No. 48 Community Pharmacies Chevrolet on
lap 65 and held it until a lap 76 restart.
Rowe, of Turner, Maine, watched as leaders Johnny Clark and Brad
Leighton moved ahead early in the second half of the event,
planning to let them burn through their equipment while waiting
to make a late-race run for the lead. Instead, he was caught up
in a wreck on lap 104 that was a harbinger of things to come.
Rowe saw Leighton wave his hand out the window to indicate he
was slowing down for an apparent caution flag -- but as Rowe
checked up, he was hit from behind and ended up in the turn one
wall.
"It was just miscommunication between (Leighton) and his
spotter," Rowe said, noting that the race director never called
for a caution. "I talked to Brad after the race, and he felt
bad. He thought he’d been told there was a caution out."
Just three laps later, after restarting at the rear of the field
with what was largely cosmetic damage, Rowe was involved in a
second incident -- this time a much harder hit into the
frontstretch wall that ended the No. 48’s day.
"I was just racing with guys I should never have been back there
racing with," Rowe said.
Still, after the disappointment of seeing a possible winning car
sidelined, Rowe was excited.
"I was real happy," said the reigning PASS National and PASS
South champion. "The entire team -- Tony Ricci, Scott Chubbuck,
Mark Lyden, Shawn Plowman, every single one of the guys -- all
worked their tails off… There wasn’t anything anyone could have
done different, it was just one of those deals that happens.
"But I’m really, really looking forward to going to the track
again with those guys."
When that will be exactly Rowe isn’t sure.
"There’s some things we want to do to the car," he said. "It was
my first time in a Junior Hanley car. My first time with bump
stops like that. Maybe we can get to another (National or South)
race before the North season starts, but we’ll just have to see
how much we can get done."
www.mulkernracing.com |
|
| Joey Gase Get's Caught in Wreck
at New Smyrna |
New Smyrna, FL
(January 31, 2010) Joey Gase and the SS Green Light Racing team
had a heartbreaking finish to a very good day in Sunday’s
rain-postponed Pro All Star Series WinterFest 150 at New Smyrna
Raceway. On lap 104, Gase was caught-up in a wreck not of his
making and was relegated to a seventeenth place finish.
Following an incident in Friday’s open practice, the SS Green
Light team was forced to use an underpowered back-up car for
Sunday’s race. Despite the horsepower handicap, Joey qualified
in 18th place. With the help of his spotter and advice of crew
chief Butch Miller, the young Iowan stayed clean through the
first half of the 150-lap race and was sitting in the top-15 at
the halfway break.
In the second half of the race, Joey started to assert himself
in the outside grove and despite giving away several hundred
horsepower, he was able to move into the top ten. Several
on-track incidents bunched the field and Gase moved into the
ninth place and looked to be in position for a solid finish.
Following a restart on lap 104, Devin Jones and Tim Russell got
together directly in front of the young driver and Joey could
not avoid contact that ended his debut in the SS Green Light
Late Model.
“They were all just wrecking there, I had no where to go. The
whole track was blocked. I actually hit the outside wall and
then got into the other cars.” Gase said. “I hate for Butch and
the guys that we tore up these cars. It was pretty ridiculous
the way some of the guys were driving. It was like every lap was
the last lap during the second half of the race.”
“The car felt real good and I was adapting real well. We were
pretty good on the outside,” Gase said. “I was really getting
through the corners good and I could actually make up more than
I was loosing in the straights.”
“It was really good working with Butch. I was learning a lot all
weekend, he taught me a lot about braking and it helped our lap
times a lot. If we can run this well when we come back for the
ASA race, I think we should do pretty good.”
“I like our driver, he's a good kid," said crew chief Butch
Miller. "Friday, I was pushing him hard to attack the corner and
he got in just a little to deep and looped it.”
“In the race Joey did a good job,” Miller added. “He made huge
improvements throughout the weekend. I think we’ll be pretty
good there in March.
www.SSRacingonline.com |
|
| Solid Effort Gets Clark’s
Season Off On Right Foot |
NEW SMYRNA
BEACH, Fla. -- Johnny Clark Motorsports got its 2010 racing
season off to a great start on Sunday, with a dominating effort
en route to a 2nd-place finish in the PASS Winterfest 150 at New
Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway.
The race was originally scheduled for Saturday evening, but bad
weather forced its postponement until Sunday afternoon.
Clark enjoyed a full straightaway lead with just five laps
remaining and appeared to have a win in hand. But a late caution
flag bunched the field to set up a race restart with just five
laps remaining.
"I was pretty bad on restarts all day," said Clark, of
Farmingdale, Maine. "I was just a sitting duck."
Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, N.H., capitalized by taking the
lead and then the victory.
"It would take me four or five laps to catch the guy in front of
me (on restarts)," said Clark, noting that the outside lane was
the preferred groove on the fast, half-mile track. "I just
didn’t have enough time at the end to get the lead back."
Clark led a total of nearly 90 laps in the first of five PASS
National Series races scheduled for 2010. The 4-time PASS North
Series champion was the quickest of 24 cars in time trials
earlier in the afternoon and lined up fourth on the starting
grid following a re-draw of the fastest qualifiers.
He was disappointed not to have won after leading on a number of
different occasions Sunday, but he conceded it was a great start
to the new year.
"Absolutely," Clark said. "We were awesome all weekend.
Considering we didn’t even have a race car together two weeks
ago, I think this said a lot about our team. We didn’t even know
we were coming to Florida until the last-minute, but we proved
that we’re ready to go."
Clark anticipates that his next start will come in round No. 2
of the PASS National Series -- in the Easter Bunny 150 at
Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway on April 3.
www.johnnyclarkmotorsports.com |
|
SS Green Light
Racing Signs Joey Gase
16 Year Old Will
Kick Off 2010 at PASS Florida Winterfest |
MOORESVILLE, N.C.,
January 25, 2010 -- The SS Green Light Racing team is pleased to
announce that sixteen year-old Joey Gase has been signed by the
Butch Miller led team for a multi-series developmental program
for 2010.
The talented teen from Cedar Rapids, IA started racing go-karts
when he was eight years old, winning his first race in 2001.
Gase had several karting championships under his belt by the
time he moved into a modified in 2007. In his first year behind
the wheel of the modified, fourteen year-old Joey became the
youngest driver to ever win during Oktoberfest in a modified at
LaCrosse Speedway in Wisconsin.
In 2008 Joey moved into an ASA Late Model and finished fifth in
points while earning rookie of the year honors at Hawkeye Downs
Speedway.
2009 was a breakout season for the aspiring second-generation
driver; he finished fifth in the crate Late Model points at the
World Series of Stock Car racing at New Smyrna Speedway in
February. Then in just his second year in a late model, Joey
became the youngest late model champion ever at Hawkeye Downs.
Under the guidance of three-time ASA National Champion Miller,
Gase will run an A-B-C style multi-series schedule including the
Pro All Star Series, the ASA Challenge Series and the team will
enter Joey in two Camping World East Series races. The first
race the team will run together will be January 30th in the PASS
Winterfest Super Late Model event at the New Smyrna Raceway.
Gase will also do some
testing in SS Green Light Racing’s NASCAR Camping World trucks
this summer and may run a few late model races back home at
Hawkeye Downs on off-weekends.
The SS Green Light Late Model team has proven to be one of the
strongest in the country over the last several seasons
accumulating 12 victories including six in 2009 while winning
the ASA Late Models South division title and finishing second in
the ASA Challenge Series point’s championship.
Miller looks forward to the upcoming season working with another
understudy. “Our test with Joey was very good. He was smooth and
adapted well to a track he had never seen before.”
“Most impressive to me was how well he communicated and listened
during the test. I think Joey is a quick learner and we should
have a good season together.”
The young driver feels he is ready for the challenge ahead and
is ready to work hard to reach his goal of racing in NASCAR some
day. “My goal is to try to work my way up to Sprint Cup. I know
that is a lofty goal, but I hope I can make it into one of
NASCAR’S top three series.”
“I really enjoyed the couple days I spent with Butch. I think I
can learn a lot from him.”
Joey’s father Bob, who also raced at Hawkeye Downs before
turning the wheel over to his son, has seen the desire his son
has to move up to the next level of competition. “He’s learned a
lot of the fundamentals about racing from how to build a race
car and how to maintain a race car. Having that knowledge is a
very big step in moving up and try to win an ASA championship.”
SS Green Light Racing owner Ken Smith feels the team can
continue the performance it has shown over the last few seasons.
“Butch and Troy (Smith) have done a great job working with some
very talented young drivers over the last few seasons. We won
our first championship last season in addition to winning six
races and working with Joey this year we hope to continue that
success on the track.”
A complete schedule for Joey Gase and the SS Green Light Racing
team will be released shortly.
www.SSRacingonline.com |
|
Brandon Ward Will Chase 2010
PASS South &
National Titles with New Day Motorsports |
WINSTON-SALEM,
NC (January 19) – Jeff and Jane Day’s New Day Motorsports LLC
are proud to announce that veteran driver Brandon Ward will be
the new driver of their #62 for the 2010 racing season. The New
Day Motorsports team, along with Ward’s personal race team,
Brandon Ward Racing (BWR), will join together to compete in the
Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Model division and
will make a run at both the PASS South and PASS National
Championships. Previously, BWR joined with the Cline Brothers’
team to win the 2006 UARA-STARS Late Model Championship. The BWR
personnel bring extensive racing knowledge and experience that
will only help strengthen New Day Motorsports. Ward’s 2010
Chevrolet Impala will be equipped with a Hamke Chassis and Five
Star Bodies and powered by B & R Automotive. While primary
sponsorship is still available, several fine associate sponsors
will be returning including: Yarbrough Transfer Company, Rayco
Safety Inc., Miller Welders, Old Town Jewelry & Pawn, Texas Pete
Sauces, Hank Thomas Performance, Precision Built Spindle, and
Oakley Paint.
Ward will also
return to Mac Hill Motorsports for the 2010 USAR Pro Cup Series
after a successful season that saw him win two races and finish
fourth in points. Despite the challenge of competing in two
different series in one season, Ward is excited about his
chances with the PASS South Super Late Models. And, why
shouldn’t he be? In his first start with New Day Motorsports at
last year’s Howler 125 at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway, Ward
finished 10th in a stellar field of Super Late Models.
“I’m really pumped to have this opportunity to drive the New Day
Motorsports Chevrolet for the entire 2010 season,” said Ward.
“Jeff [Day] and I worked great together last year with my Pro
Cup car and I’m glad we’ve been able to put this deal together.
Of all the cars I’ve driven over the years, it’s just been a
blast to drive these PASS Super Late Models. The yellow #62 of
New Day Motorsports is one of the most recognizable cars in PASS
South and I’m honored Jeff asked me to drive it. I think we’ve
got a great shot at some championships and I can’t wait to get
to New Smyrna in a couple of weeks to take that first PASS
checkered flag for New Day Motorsports.”
With the addition of Brandon Ward to the New Day Motorsports
team, car owner Jeff Day hopes this takes his team to the next
level.
“Brandon and I are both from Winston-Salem and I’ve been
impressed with him for a number of years,” said Day. “In
everything Brandon’s ever driven, he’s been a winner. As soon as
we got the chance to work together last year, our communication
was right on target. I think Brandon will compliment the great
roster of drivers PASS already has and I know he will give us
the opportunity to join the elite teams and compete for wins and
championships.”
Brandon Ward’s
racing career started in Go-Karts in 1989 where he won multiple
championships over the next ten years. Ward then moved to the
NASCAR Goody’s Dash Series finishing a career high third in
points in 2004. Ward won three races in his NASCAR Goody’s Dash
Series career at Bristol Motor Speedway, Motordrome Speedway,
and Kentucky Speedway. From there, Ward moved on to the
UARA-STARS Late Model Stock series where he won the championship
in 2006. After winning Rookie-Of-The-Year honors and the Most
Popular Driver Award in the 2007 USAR Pro Cup Series, Ward
continues to be a threat for victory lane.
New Day Motorsports has been an integral part of the PASS South
Series since 2006. With former driver Mark Gibson behind the
wheel, the team scored its best finish with the series in the
2008 Piedmont Pride 125 at the Caraway Speedway, finishing
fourth after leading the most laps. New Day Motorsports and
Gibson finished in the top ten in PASS South points in 2007 and
2008 and finished second in the 2009 PASS National Series behind
champion Ben Rowe.
New Day Motorsports first chance at a checkered flag in 2010 is
right around the corner with the inaugural Florida Winterfest on
January 29-30 at the New Smyrna Speedway in New Smyrna
Beach, FL.
newdaymotorsports.com
or
brandonwardracing.com |
|
Lonnie Sommerville Florida Bound
for Double Duty Action |
Saint John,
NB, Canada 1/18/10- The typical off-season for Canadian racing
is a long six month process for the drivers to suffer through.
Harsh winters that bring snow and freezing temperatures easily
force drivers and their teams to find any opportunity to get
back on the track in a much warmer region even if that means
making a nearly 1,700 mile trip to Florida in order to do so.
Lonnie Sommerville and his Saint John, New Brunswick based race
team will make the most out of the trip as they plan to compete
in a double duty style format, first racing in the first PASS
National event of 2010 at the New Smyrna Speedway Saturday
January 30th. Then with just a few days in between, the team
will stay down to make their first ever New Smyrna World Series
of Asphalt speed weeks appearance on Friday February 5th. The
event includes a grueling eight days of racing for competitors
in the super late model division.
“It will be really nice to get away from the weather and get
back behind the wheel of a race car again. For me, I can’t get
down south fast enough because I get bored pretty easily when
there’s no racing going on, even though I’ve got a lot going on
in the shop these days working on customers’ race cars,” said
Sommerville. “Racing down at New Smyrna will be a whole new
experience for me. I have never been on a track that has the
speed in it like that place. It should be a pretty awesome
experience but I’m confident we can run well enough to have a
shot at getting our first win on U.S. soil.”
Even though the Lonnie Sommerville Racing team doesn’t have
their exact 2010 racing plans 100% decided on, one option the
team would like to keep open is the possibility of capturing the
2010 PASS National championship. The five race series, which
kicks off with the 150 lap Florida Winterfest event, will
determine a lot for future events.
“Depending on how we finish Winterfest will decide if we will
continue on for the national championship. With the series only
being a five race series you can win or lose a championship in
the first race. Our goal like always is to win but if we can
leave there with a solid top five finish that would at least put
us in a position to compete for the title,” added
Lonnie.
www.lonniesommerville.com |
|
Six-Time PASS Champ Ben Rowe
Signs On With Mulkern Racing |
FALMOUTH, Maine --
Championship-caliber equipment now has a championship-caliber
driver to call its own. A four-time championship driver, that
is.
Mulkern Racing LLC has announced Ben Rowe, the all-time
winningest driver in PASS history, will drive the Community
Pharmacies No. 48 full-time on the PASS North Series in 2010.
With team owner Scott Mulkern, Rowe will attempt to win a record
fifth PASS North title.
"It's exciting for me all over again. Anytime you start
something new, it's pretty exciting to me," said Rowe, who has
39 career combined victories in PASS North and PASS South and is
coming off a season in which he won both the PASS South and PASS
National championships in 2009.
"Scott's just a great guy to be around, and he knows what it
takes to win."
Rowe will debut with Mulkern Racing this weekend at the
Northeast Motorsports Expo at the Augusta Civic Center, where he
will sign autographs both Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
Mulkern is no stranger to victory lane himself, with three
career wins in PASS-sanctioned events and 19 career top-5
finishes in PASS North. He's competed part-time as a driver with
his own team over the last few
seasons, but this year has made the commitment to a full-time
operation as an owner with his wife, Vickie.
"The real focus for us now is on Ben and trying to win a
championship for Ben in PASS North," Mulkern said.
Accomplished crew chief Seth Holbrook, who has ties to both Kyle
Busch Motorsports and veteran New England racers like Mike Rowe,
Joey Laquerre and Tim Brackett, has been hired by Mulkern to
lead the No. 48 team. Tony
Ricci works full-time at the Mulkern Racing shop preparing and
maintaining the team's cars.
Already, Rowe said he believes the new No. 48 is capable of
contending for the PASS North title.
" I think we can go to (Speedway 95) and win the first race of
the year," Rowe said of the April 18 season opener in Hermon,
Maine. "Scott wants to do it, and he wants to do it right. He
wants to go for the North championship, and it gets him all
pumped up talking about it.
"Seeing him get so pumped up gets me wound up to get going
again, too, so it's good for me. I think it's going to be a fun
year."
Mulkern said the team is concentrating on racing here in the
North Series, with an eye on a possible race or two in PASS
South.
"We may do some," said Mulkern, who also plans to run a couple
of PASS North races himself in a team car. "If everything goes
well, we might run a race down south early before the North
season starts."
Mulkern Racing has four cars, including a Lefthander Chassis,
two Junior Hanley-prepared cars and a new Howe chassis from
Distance Racing. The team will use both Chevrolet engines
prepared by Butler-MacMaster Automotive and Dodge engines from
Performance Automotive Machine.
www.mulkernracing.com |
|
|
Johnny Clark Ready to Drive for 5 |
FARMINGDALE, Maine -- Johnny Clark is getting an early start on
the 2010 PASS North Series season.
Clark, a 4-time PASS North champion, was among the first three
drivers to register with the sanctioning body for the upcoming
season as he seeks to become the first driver to win five
championships in the PASS North Super Late Model ranks.
"There's no reason to believe we can't contend for a fifth
championship," said Clark, who won back-to-back series
championships in 2008-2009. "The same team is coming back, with
(crew chief Robert Green) heading it up. I think it's going to
be a great year for us."
That year kicks off this coming weekend, Jan. 8-10, at the
Northeast Motorsports Expo at the Augusta Civic Center, just a
few miles down the road from Clark's Farmingdale home. Clark
will be on hand to sign autographs on Friday night and again on
Saturday afternoon.
The racing season begins in earnest with the opener at Speedway
95 in Hermon, Maine, on April 18.
Clark has 19 career PASS North victories to rank second all-time
in the series. He'd not only like to break the 20-win plateau
this season, but he'd also like to snap a tie with Ben Rowe for
the most career PASS championships.
Green, of Benton, Maine, will be back as crew chief on the
familiar black, red and yellow No. 54 Port City/Clark's Car
Crushing Chevrolet which won three times in 2009.
"The bottom line is that he wants to win races and that's it,"
Clark said of Green. "That's really it. He doesn't go to the
racetrack to make friends. That's a little hard sometimes,
because it even goes for our own team, but he simply wants to
win races.
"You've got to respect that."
The 30-year-old Clark also won championships in the 2004 and
2006 PASS North seasons, giving him three of the last four
series titles. He's one of only two PASS drivers with multiple
championships and more than 15 career wins.
He hopes that the momentum from last year will continue to right
through the first half of the 2010 season. Four of the first
five series races will be held at tracks where Clark has visited
victory lane -- Speedway 95, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway,
Speedway 660 in Geary, New Brunswick, and Unity Raceway.
But winning isn't everything on the path to the championship,
Clark said.
"You've got to be consistent all year," he said. "The
competition is so tough on this tour that you can't really
afford to have any bad races, especially early in the year.
"We'll be ready, for sure."
www.johnnyclarkmotorsports.com |
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Leighton Heads To
PASS With Richard Moody Racing |
Center Harbor, NH (December 18, 2009): Former
NASCAR Camping World Series East and American Canadian Tour Champion
Brad Leighton announced today a partnership with Richard Moody Racing to
race in the Pro All Star Series (PASS) Super Late Model Series for the
2010 season. Leighton will run his familiar #55 on RMR’s Ford Fusions.
Sponsorship negotiations are still underway.
“I’m very excited to be announcing this deal,” said Leighton. “One of
the most important reasons I decided to do this was because of the
people – it’s a good team. I worked with (crew chief) Brian Burgess and
some of the other team members a few years back when I ran some races
with SP2 Motorsports, and he’s a real sharp guy. At that time, SP2 was
at the top of their game, and I view this team, Moody Racing, at the
same level. This is one of the best teams in the PASS series – no doubt
about it.”
Richard Moody Racing has raised the bar on competition in the PASS
Series. With driver Ben Rowe, the team earned the 2009 PASS South
Championship and finished runner-up in the 2009 PASS North point
standings. Their combined regional accomplishments earned them the PASS
National title for the 2009 season. In addition, they won a championship
in 2007 with Rowe behind the wheel.
Leighton has been equally successful in his driving career. He’s won
championships in the American Canadian Tour (1995) and NASCAR Camping
World Series East (1999 and 2000), won the New Hampshire Motor Speedway
track championship four times (1998, 2000-02), and finished 11th in the
American Canadian Tour point standings last season after competing in
only eight races. He won at Thunder Road and Lee USA Speedway.
“At this point in my career I don't view any opportunity as one of
filling anybody's shoes or a seat, or needing too live up to their
success,” said Leighton about the new partnership. “Ben (Rowe) has been
extremely successful with this team and obviously inherited the genes
from his father. I have a lot of respect for both Mike Rowe and Ben.
It's a father and son that have enjoyed success that's unparalleled in
the Northeast and possibly at any short track level.”
Leighton will kick off his duties as RMR’s driver late next month when
they head to New Smyrna Speedway in Florida for the Winter Fest 150, a
PASS National race.
“Some of the guys in my race shop had worked with Brad in the past and
told me that we should talk to him about driving our cars,” said car
owner Richard Moody. “I met with him at his hotel in Auburn (Maine) and
we got along really well. We want to have fun racing and I think we’ll
be extremely competitive. We’re going to put some good cars underneath
him and Brad’s record speaks for itself.”
Leighton’s schedule will include venues on both the North and South
divisions of the Pro All Star Series. Full details of his schedule,
which will include stops on the American Canadian Tour, are pending and
will be announced at a later date.
www.richardmoodyracing.com |
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