Wright survives challenges from Rowe to capture PASS race at Unity

UNITY – It was the Ken and Ben show during the D.N.K. 150 Pro All Stars Series race at Unity Raceway Saturday.

Turner’s Ben Rowe chased race leader Kenny Wright of Woolwich the final 97 laps. He tried to duck to the inside, pull around him on the outside, and even got right up under his back bumper to loosen him up a little.

But nothing worked as Wright survived Rowe, the loss of his rear view mirror four laps into the race, and 13 caution flags to claim his first PASS victory in the tour’s two-year existence.

Wright and his 1999 Monte Carlo crossed the finish line four car-lengths ahead of Rowe and his 1999 Monte Carlo. Cushing’s Chuck Lachance finished third in his 1997 Ford Taurus.

Wright pocketed $4,000, Rowe took home $2,000, and Lachance earned $1,200.

Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck was fourth followed by Falmouth’s Scott Mulkern. Rounding out the top 10 were, in order, Hallowell’s Johnny Clark, Winterport’s Patrick Thibodeau, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island’s Dave Gorveatt, Canaan’s Walter Hammond Jr., and Standish’s Bub Bilodeau. There were 28 cars in the field but only 16 completed the event.

Eight of the 13 caution flags occurred during their 97-lap duel but Wright was terrific on the restarts and quickly pulled away from Rowe.

“I love it here. Ralph [Unity Raceway owner and veteran racer Ralph Nason] taught me a lot about restarts at this place and it paid off tonight,” said Wright. “As long as I could get going and go, not have to lift [up the track], I was all set. In past experience here, if you can put it on the floor and leave it and come off the turn, you’ll be leading going into [turn] one.”

He added, “I wanted to run below the white line as much as I could.”

Rowe said, “He had good restarts every time. And I couldn’t do anything with him on the short runs.”

“Kenny was better than we were. I was better on the long runs, but we needed a 50- to 60-lap green flag run [but didn’t get it],” added Rowe.

Wright said he compensated for the loss of his rear view mirror by listening to his spotter and “knowing the lines on the race track. I knew where to go into the corner, how to keep it low in the middle, and make sure I could get it coming off.”

Rowe had nothing but praise for Wright.

“The man is awesome. Finishing second to him is great. If I have to finish second to anybody, I’m glad to finish second behind them. This has been a long time coming for him,” said Rowe, whose car received considerable front-end damage on the final lap of the 12-lap dash for cash among the 10 drivers who qualified with the best times during time trials.

The dash for cash establishes the top 10 starting spots and was held four hours before the race.

The race itself didn’t start until approximately 10:30 due to a half-hour rain delay and several caution-filled Unity regular series races.

“I can’t say enough about my crew. … We ended up on the sand pile in the dash for cash and stove the car all to hell. The right front came right off the car,” said Rowe. “But they put it back together. The car was super. I’d also like to thank [drivers] Walter Hammond and Andy Shaw and their crews for coming down and giving my guys a hand. They were all working on the car right up until the point we had to go to the line.”

Wright’s win erased PASS race frustrations.

“The car has been real good all year. Last year, it ran good, but we didn’t have any luck. Little stupid things hurt us,” said the 37-year-old Wright. “In the first race this year, we had two flat tires at Oxford [and finished 33rd]. We were fifth at New Brunswick last week but didn’t run good because we had shock problems. But we fixed that. Hard work has paid off.”

Lachance was pleased with his third.

“I’ve struggled with my car, but it acted like a race car tonight. I could stay with Kenny and Ben for five or six laps, but then we’d start fading and the car would get a little bit loose,” he said.