Connecticut Super Late Model Victory is a First in Three-Time Champion’s Career
NAPLES, ME (July 16, 2007) – Ben Rowe owns three PASS North championship trophies. He has won most of the biggest Super Late Model races throughout the Northeastern United States and Canadian Maritimes at least once. Anywhere that he goes nationally, he is a threat to win the race.
But up until this week, there is one place where he had run exceptionally well at, but had never won a race. That was Thompson International Speedway. The key word in that sentence though is “was”. After Saturday night’s 75-lap PASS North feature there, Rowe has now joined the list of winners at the historic Connecticut track.
Rowe won the race as part of the Full Fendered Frenzy show, which also included the NASCAR Busch East Series and several NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions, at the 5/8 th-mile oval.
“This is one of my better wins,” said Rowe. “I love this place and it’s one of our better race tracks. I’m just glad that they keep having us come back to put on a show here. It’s real good to be here with the Busch cars and I’ve gotten to go over [to their pit area] and see some of the guys that I know there. It brings out a good crowd when we race with those guys.”
Rowe started on the pole position with his #4 Richard Moody Racing Super Late Model. He ended the race in the first position as well, but going from start to finish in the lead was not an easy task. Rowe raced hard for the lead with Rick Martin early on, before Martin had wheel problems. Then at the end of the race, Rowe had to fend off Trevor Sanborn and his father Mike Rowe, who finished second and third.
“The car was super, staring on the pole made things easier,” said Rowe. “The only concern that I had was on a couple of those restarts. They would pin you down and get a jump on you on the outside. I really wasn’t concerned though because it would take five or six laps for me to get going anyways. The #14 [Martin] got by me for a little bit, but I’d just go wherever he wasn’t. My car was that good.”
Martin did lead for several laps, but he knew that holding off Rowe wasn’t going to be easy – it was, however, very fun.
“Yeah, that was fun,” said Martin. “I knew that he was faster than me, but I wanted to make it exciting. I got by him on the restart and I knew that he would get back by sooner or later. I knew that he’d be back.”
Rowe enjoyed the hard racing too – just like he also enjoyed racing with the other podium finishers near the end.
“It was real fun,” said Rowe. “You can do that with a bunch of guys like that and not slam fenders. t’s good racing.
“I love racing against Trevor and my Dad too – if I can stay ahead of him. It was fun racing with those guys. Just like with the #14 car [Martin] early on and Johnny [Clark]. I saw him coming up through and I don’t know what happened to him [Clark, who crashed after cutting a tire while moving through the field from his 12th starting position].”
Rowe was teammates with Sanborn last year at Richard Moody Racing and takes a special interest in the young driver, who now runs the #29 Cushman Competition Ford.
“Trevor – he’s going to be good. He is good. He seems to be finishing right behind me every week. We went out for practice today and he wanted me to lead the way. He wanted me to show him the way around here, but I need to stop showing him things because he’s going to start beating me here pretty quick.”
That almost happened at Thompson.
“I thought that I had something for Ben, but I used my tires up earlier racing through the pack,” said Sanborn. “The car went away a little bit. We were dead even, but I didn’t have quite enough to get by him, so we stayed in second and finished in one piece.”
Mike Rowe finished third. He started deep in the field after having clutch problems in his heat race. Rowe was happy with his podium finish, but didn’t think that he could advanced much further than third.
“No, Benji and Trevor were just too stout,” said Rowe. “They had a lot more bite off the corner than I did. But we were happy with what we got.”
Richie Dearborn finished in fourth, with rookie Adam Bates finishing behind to record his first career top five finish.
The three PASS North heat races were won by Ben Rowe, Steve Berry and Derek Ramstrom.
Rowe extended his PASS North point lead with his victory. His father Mike has now moved in the runner-up spot in the standings.
The PASS North Series now heads to Riverside Speedway in Antigonish, Nova Scotia for Saturday’s IWK 250.
The 2007 PASS Super Late Model schedules will be highlighted by two major fall events. The PASS 400 weekend at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway (ME) is set for September 23rd-24th, and the Second Annual Mason-Dixon Meltdown is scheduled for Concord Motorsport Park on November 16th-17th.
For more information on the PASS North Series, contact Mike Twist at (207) 499-2565; for more information on the PASS South Series, contact Jeremy Troiano at (704) 788-2134, and for technical and rules information on all of the PASS tours, please contact Scott Reed at (207) 625-3230.
Also, be sure to visit the official PASS South website at www.racewithpass.com and the official website of PASS North, www.proallstarsseries.com.
PASS North Super Late Models
Thompson Speedway
July 14, 2007
Unofficial Results
1. Ben Rowe
2. Trevor Sanborn
3. Mike Rowe
4. Richie Dearborn
5. Adam Bates
6. Derek Ramstrom
7. Bill Penfold
8. Larry Gelinas
9. Les Rose, Jr.
10. Gary Bellefleur
11. Mike Parks
12. Rick Martin
13. Mike Rivard
14. Joey Porciello
15. Norm Wrenn
16. Johnny Clark
17. Steve Desmarais
18. Alan Tardiff
19. Steve Berry
20. Jeremie Whorff
21. Travis Benjamin
22. Dave Macomber
23. Curtis Gerry