SCARBOROUGH, Maine – Lonnie Sommerville broke through for his first career PASS North Series victory on Saturday night.
The Saint John, New Brunswick, driver led the final 34 laps at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway en route to winning the Southern Maine Motors.com 150. The victory was the first for Mulkern Racing this season.
“It’s just so huge,” Sommerville said. “I’ve wanted it so bad – and at times too much. I’ve tried too hard, and sometimes when you do that, you end up over-driving the car. It’s exciting. This is the next level for me.”
Sommerville started third in the 28-car field and initially took the lead on Lap 37 before the caution came out. On the restart, he settled into second behind Ben Rowe, hounding him for the next 75 laps before finally making a move in lapped traffic.
Once Sommerville got by, it was smooth sailing until the end of the race. He won by nearly a full straightaway after leading twice for a total of 35 laps.
“These guys at Mulkern Racing, they give us everything we need. We’ve had it every week, but we’ve just had a little bit of bad luck,” Sommerville said. “We all knew we could do it – and what a way to get the monkey off our back.”
“That was awesome. That was a really dominant performance,” team owner Scott Mulkern said. “The whole crew – Gary (Crooks) and Seth (Holbrook) – they just did a great job.That was just a dominant performance, really, so I’m happy for the whole team.”
Sommerville’s victory came in his 24th career start in PASS-sanctioned races. Now his team has the momentum as the series heads to the Bastille 200 at Lee USA Speedway on Tuesday night.
“I’m excited about going to Lee,” Sommerville said. “I can’t wait to get there.”
Mulkern finished 27th after being caught up in a multi-car accident on a Lap 38 restart.
“We wrecked,” Mulkern said. “I don’t know what happened. Somebody drove underneath me, got into me, and we broke the transmission.”
Read more on the PASS forum – http://www.neracingforum.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=17