Lonnie Sommerville: PASS North Series
Beech Ridge Motor Speedway Race Report
SCARBOROUGH, Maine – Lonnie Sommerville of Saint John, New Brunswick, opened the 2011 PASS North Series season with a 4th-place finish in the PASS 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, on Saturday, April 30. The Mulkern Racing driver started mid-pack in the 31-car field but spent the final 30 laps of the event battling hard for third, fourth and fifth spots in a tight pack of five cars. Sommerville’s fourth-place run marked his best career PASS North Series finish in his first series race with Mulkern Racing.
WHO: Lonnie Sommerville, Saint John, New Brunswick
TEAM: Mulkern Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet
WHAT: PASS North Series PASS 150
WHERE: Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine (.333-mile oval)
STARTED: 16th
FINISHED: 4th
LAPS LED: 0 times for 0 laps
PASS North Series
NEXT RACE: May 14, PASS 150, Star Speedway, Epping, N.H. (.25-mile oval)
CURRENT POINTS POSITION: 4th
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LONNIE, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT FINISHING FOURTH?
It’s sad to say I’m disappointed in finishing fourth. All in all I’m going for a points championship, so that’s what we have to look at. It was a good points day for us. The guys we’re probably going to be racing are (Johnny Clark) and (Ben Rowe) and they were right there in front of us, so it was obviously a good points day.
IT SEEMED LIKE TRAFFIC HELD YOU UP TOWARD THE END OF THE RACE.
We had a stout car. I thought we had something for (race winner Johnny Clark) but the 29 car and the 4 car just held me up long enough to get the tires hot. We were really good on the long runs, but we just didn’t have enough at the end.
We’ll take fourth place and go on to next week.
AFTER NOT QUALIFYING AT NORTH WILKESBORO, IT MUST FEEL GOOD TO HAVE A SOLID DEBUT HERE ON THE PASS NORTH SERIES.
It’s a brand new team, and obviously our first day wasn’t so good (after failing to qualify at North Wilkesboro). So to come back with a fourth place and build from that, it builds some momentum for the rest of the season.
Now we just have to keep working on it.
TEAM OWNER SCOTT MULKERN FINISHED 15th.
SCOTT, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE DAY FOR MULKERN RACING?
I’m happy for Lonnie. That was a great run for him. He had a good car. (Crew chief Gary Crooks) set that all up for him. He wanted to do it for me – next time we will.