HARLOTTE, NC (May 2, 2008) With just two races completed of the fourteen that will make up the 2008 Pro All Stars (PASS) South super late model season, the roller coaster ride is in full effect. Teams that were up following Hickory are down and several teams that were down are up after last Saturday’s race at Watermelon Capital. It’s a ride that should experience even more ups and downs, twists and turns, as PASS South gets set for it’s first ever visit to the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA for the MOM 150 on May 10th.
First off, let’s take a look at who’s up. It’s fitting that the two “up” drivers are currently tied for the points lead. While Florida’s Perry Brown and North Carolina’s John Stancill are at the top of the PASS South standings, the two have taken very different paths to get there. Perry Brown moved from go-karts to Florida modifieds in the late 1990’s. Right about the time his super late model career was getting started, Perry got married and that put his racing on hold. In 2007, Brown returned and started the season out in Florida’s FASCAR Series before moving up to the PASS South Series. In his three PASS South starts in 2007, Brown scored two top ten finishes. After starting this season out with an 11th place finish at Hickory, Perry flexed his muscle at the PASS South Series first visit to the Watermelon Capital Speedway by leading all but four laps to score his first series victory in the Watermelon 125.
John Stancill’s racing career has been going on for half as long as Brown’s, at best. However, with just two PASS South Super Late Model starts under his belt, Stancill finds himself tied with Brown for the points lead. At just 15 years of age, John has already won several championships since beginning his go-kart career back in 2000. Stancill moved from go-karts to Pro Challenge in 2006 and took the Semi-Pro National Championship in INEX Legends competition in 2007. At Hickory, Stancill arrived as an unassuming teenager, never having raced a Super Late Model, just hoping to make the prestigious Easter Bunny 150. After starting 26th, Stancill shocked the competition, racing with the likes of Choquette, Lawler and Rowe to score a third place finish in the process. Despite an accident at Watermelon Capital Speedway, Stancill soldiered on to a ninth place finish and a share of the points lead.
On the other end of the spectrum, several drivers have already experienced their fair share of trouble. After winning at Hickory, you might ask how Corey Williams could be on a list of “down” drivers. Following his win at Hickory, Williams set a new track record at Watermelon Capital, but that’s where his “watermelon” soured. While running in the top five, Williams suffered the first of at least three flat tires. Losing two laps under green, Williams was penalized another lap under a new PASS rule aimed at protecting drivers with old, worn tires from being outrun by a driver with fresh tires. Thanks to attrition, Williams managed to finish twelfth and only fell to third in points.
Colorado’s Mitch Cobb was yet again denied by the PASS racing gods. Strong top five finishes by Cobb in the Blizzard Series have the eyes of the racing world taking notice. PASS South has been a tough step up for Cobb though. Good qualifying runs at Hickory and Watermelon Capital have not translated to good race runs for Cobb. An early wreck at Hickory sent Cobb back to a 29th place finish. At Watermelon Capital, Cobb and his team hoped to give the Georgia fans something to cheer about. Cobb’s car is out of the Dawsonville, GA shops of Bill Elliott Racing, with Ernie Elliott engines and Dan Elliott transmissions. Cobb’s top ten run once again ended after a tangle with John Stancill resulted in Cobb finishing 16th.
As for Alex Fleming, where do you start? Fleming has to be the hard luck driver of the PASS South Series. In 2007, Fleming finished 11th in PASS South points despite the fact that he raced weekly on Friday nights and won the track championship at Raleigh, NC’s Wake County Speedway. At Hickory, Fleming had a top ten run going until an accident not of his making knocked him out of the race and down to a 28th place finish. If that was bad, Watermelon Capital was even worse. On Friday night, Fleming finished fourth at Wake County before driving all night to be at Watermelon Capital for the PASS South race. Fleming qualified tenth and started second after the qualifying redraw. Fleming jumped to the front to lead his first ever laps in PASS South competition. Pretty good, right? Wrong. Fleming ran off the track, bringing out a caution that dropped him to the back of the field. Then, after making it all the way back to the top ten, Fleming was taken out on a restart when Zach Stroupe spun due to a broken panhard bar.
Good or bad, all of the drivers mentioned have shown glimpses of promise and with some luck, might be able to join Corey Williams and Perry Brown on the winner’s list. That win could come at the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA when the PASS South super late models once again take to the track. Jeff Choquette, Ben Rowe and many more plan to join the best Super Late Models in the country on Saturday, May 10th when PASS South heads to Motor Mile for the Inaugural MOM 150. Also in action will be the PASS Rolling Thunder Modifieds as well as points races for the Motor Mile Limited Sportsmen and U-Cars. Gates open at 10 AM, PASS South qualifying is at 4:30 PM, with racing starting at 6:30 PM.