Johnny Clark PASS North king pin at Lee USA; Shaw’s the PASS Mod winner

LEE NH (7/14/2009) Johnny Clark grabbed the race lead from Joey Pole on lap 123 of the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Bastille 200 and held off a green-white-checker challenge from Louis Mechalides to earn his third PASS North super late model win of 2009 at Lee USA Speedway Tuesday night. Mechalides settled for runner-up and Cassius Clark scored his first podium appearance since April, finishing third. Matt Frahm earned a career best fourth, and Eddie MacDonald completed the top five.

Clark’s key to victory came when the front runners came down pit road for fuel and a two-tire change on lap 117. Mechalides won his heat race and started from the pole, and the infrequent PASS competitor was the class of the field In the Cat Scales 1C.  Clark had worked his way to second from eleventh on the grid and his team got him out front of the pack that pitted, while Mechalides came out seventh. The quick stop resulted in Clark lining up fifth on the restart and Mechalides back in the pack, fifteenth.

Mechalides made a second stop during a quick caution and on the restart Clark quickly worked past Joey Pole to take over the top spot. Meanwhile Mechalides was weaving his way through the field, cracking the top five on lap 147 as the race stayed under green. It was Clark, Pole, Cassius Clark, Derek Ramstrom and Mechalides with fifty to go, and at lap 172 Mechalides took over second. Clark had built up a considerable lead but a skirmish that collected Travis Benjamin, Michael Pope and DJ Shaw on lap 198 gave Mechalides one last shot at the leader. Clark kept his cool and got a great restart, leaving Mechalides to settle for second.

While Clark was victorious, most of the PASS point title contenders didn’t fare as well. Ben Rowe was in contention until he knocked the right front corner off his race car after contact with a spinning Harry Olson. Rowe retired at lap 117 and finished 20^th. Adam Bates pounded the wall Saturday at Thompson International Speedway but the PASS racing community came through for the team in a big way. With a borrowed race car from Distance Racing and one of Kelly Moore’s power plants under the hood, Bates kept his title hopes alive with a thirteenth place finish.  Derek Ramstrom backed up his Thompson win with a ninth place run which will move him up the points ladder. 

Andy Shaw continued his PASS Mod dominance at Lee, coming from twelfth on the grid to lead on lap 19 of their feature to capture his second straight Lee  win and third Mod win of 2009. Sumner Sessions earned his best PASS Mod finish to date with a second and Gary Norris took the checkers in third.

PASS North teams take a week off before getting back on track at Groveton New Hampshire’s Riverside Speedway on Saturday July 25. Both the super late models and mods are on the card, part of the speedways’ annual Summerfest that includes plenty of racing and monster trucks too. Post time is 5:00 PM. PASS South is off to the Volunteer State on Saturday July 18^th for the Daniel Boone Classic at Newport (TN) Speedway.

All the latest PASS news is online now at www.racewithpass.com and www.proallstarsseries.com .

 

Unofficial Results – Pro All Stars Series super late model Bastille 200 – Lee USA Speedway – Lee NH 7/14/2009 –with finishing position, (starting position), driver, home town, (laps completed)

1 (11) 54 Johnny Clark Hallowell ME (200) 2  (1)1C Louis Mechalides, Montville MA (200) 3 (5) 8 Cassius Clark, Farmington ME (200) 4 (10) 14M Matt Frahm, N Salem NH (200) 5 (19) 71 Eddie MacDonald, Rowley MA (200) 6 (9) 97 Joey Pole, East Providence RI (200) 7 (21) 7 Donnie Whitten, Biddeford ME (200) 8 (15) 33 Richie Dearborn, Hollis ME (200)  9 (12) 35 Derek Ramstrom, Worcester MA (200) 10 (6) 85 Nick Ribbe Kingston MA (200) 11 (3) 77 Scott Chubbuck Dresden ME (199) 12 (2) 60 DJ Shaw Center Conway NH (199) 13 (14) Adam Bates Warner NH (198) 14 (4) 01 Wayne Helliwell Jr., Pelham NH (197) 15 (8) 17 Travis Benjamin Morrill ME (197) 16 (23) 51 Michael Pope, Concord NC (197) 17 (16) 17A Scott Alexander Orrington ME   (197) 18 (24) 6 Steve Desmarais, Westport MA (191) 19 (28) 12 John Dabrowski West Bridgewater MA (188) 20 (13) 4 Ben Rowe Turner ME (117) 21 (27) 22 Harry Olson, Salisbury MA (111)   22 (25) 11 Steve Johnson Rochester NH (108) 23 (18) 20 Steve Legendre, St. Johnsbury VT (79) 24 (26) 23 Dave Farrington Jr.  Jay ME (78) 25 (20) 10 Steve Knowlton, Ipswich MA (29) 26 (17) 14 Aric Almirola Tampa FL (22) 27 (7) 47 Kelly Moore, Scarborough ME (22) 28 (22) 73 Joey Doiron, Berwick ME 8

 

Unofficial Results – PASS Mod feature (Thirty Laps) Lee USA Speedway

1) 66 Andy Shaw, Center Conway NH 2) 50 Sumner Sessions, Norway ME 3) 03 Gary Norris Jr., West Gardiner ME 4) 56 Dan Somes, Belgrade ME 5) 85 Glen Bradbury, Hollis Center ME 6) 12 Steve Bennett Jr., Buckfield ME  7) 27 Scott Grant, Waterboro ME 8) 29 Greg Ellis, Hermon ME 9) 33 Bill Dixon, North Waterboro ME 10) 4 Wayne Whitten Jr., Arundel ME 11) 14 Scott McDaniel, Livermore ME 12) 31 Glen Boss , Danielson CT 13) 26 Bobby Studley Jr., Sidney ME 14) Sulo Burbank , Gorham ME