Mulkern Racing Right At Home This Weekend
PASS 300 At Beech Ridge A Highlight For Mulkern, Sommerville
FALMOUTH, Maine – If there’s one win that Mulkern Racing would really like to have for themselves, it’s a victory in the longest and most prestigious race on the PASS North Series schedule.
Team owner Scott Mulkern of Falmouth finished second in the SouthernMaineMotors.com 300 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway last season, and he and Lonnie Sommerville of Saint John, New Brunswick, will both take aim at the checkered flag in the event this time around on Sunday, September 16. Qualifying for the longest race on the schedule begins at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, with the main event slated for approximately 3 p.m. on Sunday.
Both Mulkern Racing entries have victories at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on their respective resumes, most recently Sommerville who took the PASS 150 at the track in July of 2011 with the No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders/Southern Maine Motors Chevrolet.
“It’s kind of like a home track to me, being that it’s (team owners Scott and Vickie Mulkern)’s home track, and with Southern Maine Motors sponsoring the races there,” said Sommerville, who is currently fifth in the PASS North Series standings with three races remaining. “We definitely take some pride in going there with our stuff and trying to win a race there for them.”
Mulkern, the 1985 track champion at Beech Ridge in what was then known as the Limited Sportsman division, posted his best career PASS North Series finish at the track in this race a year ago. He won a PASS Outlaw Late Model race at the flat, .333-mile oval in 2005.
Over the years, the driver of the No. 84 Southern Maine Motors/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet has had to adapt to the ever-changing conditions at Beech Ridge.
“The slower you go, it seems the faster you go. You just can’t overdrive it there,” Mulkern said.
Mulkern’s crew chief, Seth Holbrook of Turner, Maine, said that Beech Ridge can be complicated enough to figure out. Holbrook has won the SouthernMaineMotors.com 300 with other teams, and he believes a 300-lap race only compounds things if a team isn’t careful.
“You have to do your best to keep up with the race track, because it changes all the time,” Holbrook said. “It’s tough to do that there, but if you can win at Beech Ridge or Oxford, you can win anywhere.”
Sommerville has finished in the Top-5 in three of his last four starts at Beech Ridge, including a second-place finish in the PASS North Series season opener at the track back in May. As he still looks for his first win of 2012 – he has eight Top-10 finishes in 12 starts this season – he has the SoutherMaineMotors.com 300 circled on his calendar.
“It’s been an up and down year for us,” Sommerville said. “But we know how good our race team is, and we’re still working as hard as we ever have to get a win for Mulkern Racing. Like all of the other 30 teams that will be there this weekend, we really believe we have a shot.
“We’ve always run well at Beech Ridge, and there’s no reason to believe we won’t again. I’m looking forward to Sunday.”