HERMON – Ben Rowe’s persistence paid off at Speedway 95 Sunday night.

Turner’s Rowe had dogged race leader Chuck Lachance of Cushing for 50 laps. He had tried to slip past him countless times without success.

But with 40 laps remaining in the Pro All-Stars Series 150, Rowe took advantage of lapped traffic to slide underneath Lachance and he led the rest of the way to claim his fourth win in his last five PASS starts. Rowe, whose wife Melissa is expecting their first child next month, pocketed $4,000 for the triumph.

It was the seventh race in the series and a large crowd turned out for the event.

Louis Mechalides of Tyngsboro, Mass., maneuvered past Lachance with 25 laps remaining for second place. Lachance wound up third.

Mechalides took home a check for $2,000 and Lachance notched $1,200.

Rowe finished eight car-lengths ahead of Mechalides.

Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck finished fourth followed by Woolwich’s Kenny Wright, Standish’s Bub Bilodeau, points leader Sam Sessions of South Paris, Brewer’s Aaron St. Peter, Farmingdale’s Johnny Clark and Scarborough’s Larry Gelinas.

Nine finished on the lead lap in the 29-car field.

“Chuck was good. He got stuck in lapped traffic, one car didn’t pull up and I stuck my nose in there,” said Rowe, who was driving a 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo with a new Distance Racing Products chassis.

In the previous Speedway 95 PASS race on July 1, Rowe was running second to Lachance with 10 laps remaining when he accidentally bumped Lachance and then sailed around him for the win.

“What happened last time wasn’t going to happen tonight. I would have drove off the track in turn one rather than have that happen again,” said the 26-year-old Rowe, who said his car ran strong all night.

“I didn’t want to lead the race that early. I knew the 29 [Mechalides] was saving his tires. It was save, save, save and then the guys [crew chief Rick Burgess and his crew] said ‘Go for it.”

Lachance said Rowe earned the win.

“I couldn’t run on the bottom of the track as well as he could. There was a string of four lapped cars [on the outside]. I could see it coming just like Ben could. I didn’t protect the bottom soon enough and I had to let him go,” said Lachance who was primarily stuck behind Surry’s Dwayne Overlock.

Still, the 48-year-old Lachance, who was behind the wheel of a 1997 Ford Thunderbird, was pleased with his showing.

“When we ran at Canaan [USA Speedway, N.H.], the car was skipping and popping,” said Lachance. “We tore the thing all apart and we didn’t know if it would run when we got here. But we were real happy with it,” said Lachance.

The 30-ye-ar-old Mechalides was equally pleased with his finish.

“I’m always happy [with a race like this],” said Mechalides, who drove a 2001 Ford Taurus. “I just kept on riding and riding and tried not to bang anything up. I felt good. We were pretty close [to the front] the whole day. The car was real good.”

Rowe had started the race in the fourth slot, Lachance was sixth and Mechalides began third.

Fort Fairfield’s Kirk Thibeau was the pole-sitter and led six laps before Mechalides passed him.

Unity’s Ralph Nason appeared to be the man to beat when he maneuvered his way from 13th to second in just 36 laps.

But an accident with Thibeau and eventual car trouble caused Nason, the three-time Oxford True Value 250 winner, to finish 24th.

There were seven cautions during the race.

In earlier racing series action at Speedway 95, Hermon’s Steve Moulton overtook Bradford’s Greg Markee for a one car-length win in the sport four class. Bangor’s Wally Gibbons was third; Hermon’s Alex Shaw beat Eastport’s Eric Mitchell and Milbridge’s Clarence Suydam in the strictly street feature and Deer Isle’s Matt Eaton nipped Hermon’s Bernier Thayer by two feet in the super street feature with Winterport’s Bill Harnish taking third.