Naples ME (September 6 2008) – The Pro All Stars Series (PASS) North super late model season is winding down, and the battle for the 2008 title is one of the best in the series’ eight year history.
Travis Benjamin sits atop the point standings with 2,244 points. The Morrill Maine racer and his family owned race team are enjoying their best touring season ever with a breakthrough win in one of the biggest races of the year, the Atlantic CAT 250 at Scotia Speedworld , and nine top ten finishes in ten starts.
But the two drivers right behind Benjamin represent the last six PASS North championships, and he'll have to take his game to yet another level if he expects to keep Ben Rowe and Johnny Clark in his rear view mirror.
Heading to the D-J Equipment 150 at North Woodstock New Hampshire’s’ White Mountain Motorsports Park on Saturday September 13th ,Benjamin has a fifteen point lead over Rowe in the standings; that’s a swing of just eight spots in the finishing order. White Mountain could easily be called “The House that Rowe Built”, a fast high banked quarter mile where Rowe has won nearly half the PASS races run at the scenic mountain oval. . It’s an enviable statistic for certain. But 2008 has been a year of breakthrough winners and first timers D.J. Shaw, Adam Bates, Derek Ramstrom and Benjamin himself all have the potential to add another victory to their win columns.
Then there’s Johnny Clark, who has to have momentum on his side after a $30,000.00 plus payday in the PASS North Toyota Tundra 250 at Wiscasset Raceway. Clark sits third in the standings with 2218, just twenty six behind Benjamin and eleven back from Rowe. Clark has the most wins, laps led and money won in the season to date. He’s scored twice at Wiscasset Raceway and won at Riverside Speedway too. He gave up the lead at All-Star with a flat in the late stages of the race and battled Benjamin for the win at Scotia Speedworld. Clark’s been fast everywhere, especially in the second half of the season.
But when it’s all said and done, statistics don’t win races, drivers and their race teams do. Travis Benjamin knows it; so do Ben Rowe and Johnny Clark. Adam Bates and D.J. Shaw, the men that hold down fourth and fifth in the current point standings, know it as well. There are more than a dozen drivers that have ta shot at victory lane in the D-J Equipment 150. Super Late Model ace Travis Kittleson will make the trip from Florida to take on the PASS regulars at White Mountain in Jay Cushman’s familiar 29 Ford. And, there are always a few surprise entrants as regular season racing throughout the region winds down.
In addition to the PASS D-J Equipment 150, the popular “night before the cup” event will feature the speedway’s own super competitive weekly racing divisions. Racing gets underway at 5:00 P.M. Learn more about the PASS North super late models at www.racewithpass.com or www.proallstarsseries.com . Check out White Mountain Motorsports Park on line at www.whitemtnmotorsports.com .