Chubbuck holds off Rowe for PASS win Final-lap caution flag doesn’t affect race

HERMON – Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck was hoping for green flag racing over the final 10 laps of the Clay GMC 150 PASS race at Speedway 95 Saturday night. He was leading the race and if there was a caution and a restart, PASS points leader Ben Rowe of Turner, who was running second, would get the preferred groove on the outside of the front row.

Sure enough, when Cassius Clark of Farmington spun out with four laps to go, it created the race’s 11th caution and that meant Rowe would get one last shot at Chubbuck.

But Chubbuck held him off and became the fifth different winner of the five PASS races so far this season. Chubbuck, who admitted that he anticipated another caution, pocketed $4,000 for his trip to victory lane. Rowe took home $2,000 and expanded his points lead.

Woolwich’s Kenny Wright was third and earned $1,200.

All three drove Chevy Monte Carlos.

Rounding out the top 10 were Scarborough’s Larry Gelinas, Freedom’s Randy Turner, Hallowell’s Johnny Clark, Cushing’s Chuck Lachance, Standish’s Bob Bilodeau, Dave Gorveatt of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and Litchfield’s Doug Averill.

Gelinas and Clark each suffered flat tires but timely caution flags allowed them to change them without going a lap down.

Just 10 of the 31 cars finished on the lead lap.

“Definitely, the outside was faster. When the caution came out, I figured I’d finish second. But I got him,” said Chubbuck. “You’ve got to get a perfect restart. I didn’t get quite enough ahead of him but I ran him a little bit out of room. Got to do it. I worked him up the race track. I took my part of it.”

Rowe said, “I just ran out of room. I thought I could get a run on him but he got a good run on the restart and I overdrove it into [turn] one. Scott was good and low for three to four laps and I was tight. I chunked up the right front tire. But it was good racing with Scott and Kenny. They’re both super here.”

Rowe, who has been fighting the stomach flu for four days and vomited before the race, has finished in the top four in his last four PASS races.

He added that in light of the circumstances, he was “tickled to death” with his second and the fact he was able to add to his points lead.

“Scott has a lot of experience at this track and once he got the lead, I thought he’d hold [Rowe] off,” said Hallowell’s Clark, who remained second in points with his fifth straight top eight finish. “I ran with Scott early and he was running good high and low. Usually, if you’re good high, you aren’t good low and vice versa. But Scott looked good all over the track.”

Chubbuck said he almost brought his car into the pits midway through the race “because it was so tight. But it ended up working all right.”

Wright was pleased with his third-place finish.

“We lost an electric fan so we couldn’t get the car cooled down. I’m just glad the motor stayed together for the night. We could have blown up 20 laps into it,” said Wright, who claimed his fourth consecutive top six finish.

Wright started on the pole after winning the 12-lap Dash for Cash among the top 10 time qualifiers.

Chubbuck started seventh and caught a break when Gorveatt and Unity’s Ralph Nason, running second and third, got tangled up on lap 121. Chubbuck moved up from fifth to third behind Rowe and Wright.

He passed Wright a few laps later and took his first lead on lap 132. Rowe recaptured it a lap later but Chubbuck took the lead for good on lap 137.

Louie Mechalides of Tynsboro, Mass., who started third, was disqualified four laps into the race for refusing to line up on a restart.

He had been penalized for making an apparent obscene gesture to a race official although members of his team insisted he was displaying three fingers to inform the official he should be re-starting in third place.