UNITY – Sam Sessions missed a good race, but there was a legitimate reason for it.

Two of the northeast’s premier pro stock racers, Turner’s Ben Rowe and Unity’s Ralph Nason, swapped paint on a couple of occasions as they waged a thrilling duel during the Unity 150 Pro All-Stars Series race at Unity Raceway Saturday night.

The reason Sessions didn’t get to witness most of the Rowe-Nason battle was they weren’t within range of his rear view mirror.

South Paris’ Sessions took the lead from Woolwich’s Kenny Wright when Wright’s right rear tire began going flat on lap 38 and Sessions never looked back to post an impressive victory by nearly half the length of the one-third mile oval. The Rowe-Nason duel was for second and Rowe crossed the finish line four car-lengths ahead of Nason.

Sessions started eighth, Rowe was the pole-sitter and Nason started third.

Rounding out the top 10 were Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck, Louis Mechalides of Tynsboro, Mass., Scarborough’s Larry Gelinas, Dave Gorveatt of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Hallowell’s Johnny Clark, Bangor’s Gary Smith and Oakland’s Jeff Burgess.

It was Rowe’s fifth consecutive top two finish, seventh top- three and eighth top-four in the nine PASS races to date. Rowe is the points leader.

Sessions won the PASS championship last year without winning a race but Saturday’s triumph was his second straight. It was the first win of his race career at Unity Raceway.

“I knew we had a real good shot at winning this race when we came up here but to run away with it wasn’t something I expected,” said the 45-year-old Sessions, a welder by trade who is a self-employed real estate developer.

“We got here and unloaded today and, ever since the [Oxford True Value] 250, we got a day to practice and we really got the car dialed in. And the car has been awesome since then,” added Sessions about his Chevy Monte Carlo. “It was a little bit loose in the heat race but we made an adjustment [to the chassis] for the feature and, right away, it was a rocket.”

Only six of the 24 cars finished on the lead lap as Sessions benefited from the fact the last 116 laps were green-flag laps.

The only two cautions occurred on the first lap and lap 32.

“Sammy was awesome,” said Rowe. “Even if we had received a [late] caution, it wouldn’t have mattered. Sammy was gone.”

The Rowe-Nason battle saw Nason get inside leader Rowe and bump him up the track on lap 16, allowing the opportunistic Wright to slip into the lead. Rowe got shuffled back to sixth.

Rowe returned the favor on lap 115, nudging Nason up the track to take over second place.

Nason and Rowe enjoyed their duel.

“It was fun. I had to back off and save my tires and make another run at him. Back off again and make another run,” Rowe said. “But I [finally] got him down on the inside and made the slide move on him.”

Nason said, “Benny and I had a good race going. He was using a lot of the track. I got him in a couple of spots and then he got under me and whacked me coming off a turn. It was good, hard door-to-door racing. Sammy had a good car and drove away. I was so pleased for him. I’ll take this.”