Mulkern Racing: PASS North Series
Beech Ridge Motor Speedway Race Report
SCARBOROUGH, Maine – Lonnie Sommerville of Saint John, New Brunswick, finished seventh while teammate and car owner Scott Mulkern of Falmouth, Maine, finished 11th in the PASS North Series SouthernMaineMotors.com 300 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Sunday, September 16. Sommerville started 23 in the No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders/Southern Maine Motors Chevrolet and led briefly in the second half of the event after gaining track position with a fast pit stop, while Mulkern started seventh after an impressive run in qualifying before battling a handling issue in the No. 84 Southern Maine Motors/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet throughout the afternoon. It marked the fourth straight Top-10 finish for Sommerville this season.
WHO: Lonnie Sommerville, Saint John, New Brunswick
TEAM: Mulkern Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders/Southern Maine Motors Chevrolet
CREW CHIEF: Gary Crooks, Mooresville, N.C.
WHAT: PASS North Series SouthernMaineMotors.com 300
WHERE: Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine (.333-mile oval)
STARTED: 23rd
FINISHED: 7th
LAPS LED: 2 times for 39 laps
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LONNIE, TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN.
It went pretty good… We tried a couple of things in practice and picked up some speed, but it probably hurt us the longer the race went, just because of the rubber on the track it got us a little too tight. It’s three years now (in this race), we’ve come from mid-pack to the front and led some laps – but out of the last three years, it’s probably the third-best car we’ve had. Just too tight.
I think the track with these new tires, not knowing what they were going to do, we probably just need to come back with a different setup. All in all, it was a good day, but it wasn’t what we wanted or what we expected.
HOW GOOD WAS YOUR PIT STOP?
Gary and the guys didn’t really want to come in (on Lap 157), but at that point we were sixth and we weren’t going to improve our position. We’re not here to finish sixth. If we’re not going ahead, we might as well come in and make a change.
It was an awesome pit stop. We came in and did four tires, two spring rubbers in the right rear and up on the track bar – and we beat everybody out of the pits. It was pretty neat. It was a bunch of guys that help me back in Canada, so it was a pretty good deal. In these races, it’s not all driver – you need to pit, and the guys need to do a good job to get you out so you don’t have to pass all those cars again out on the race track. They did a great job.
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WHO: Scott Mulkern, Falmouth, Maine
TEAM: Mulkern Racing No. 84 Southern Maine Motors/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet
CREW CHIEF: Seth Holbrook, Turner, Maine
WHAT: PASS North Series SouthernMaineMotors.com 300
WHERE: Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine (.333-mile oval)
STARTED: 7th
FINISHED: 11th
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SCOTT, HOW WAS YOUR DAY?
We just kind of had the stagger off on the first set of tires, and we couldn’t tell if we had too much to start with or if it grew. We guessed we had too much to start with, but it actually grew. We really just weren’t very good. We were fighting it.
I don’t know what you’d do. I don’t know how you’d fix that. We’ll figure it out.