Opportunistic Sessions wins Pine Tree 150

HERMON – South Paris’ Sam Sessions was an opportunist Saturday night.

Running third on a lap 122 restart, Sessions watched as leader Ben Rowe and second-place Scott Chubbuck bumped side panels and moved up the track.

So Sessions sped to the inside groove to take the lead and he never looked back as he claimed his fourth Pro All-Stars Series race this season in the Pine Tree 150 at a packed Speedway 95.

“I saw them get together [and I took advantage],” said Sessions. “This was the first time my car has run really good on the bottom here. That’s the secret to getting around Bangor. I usually run pretty decent here but I have to rely on being on the top. Today I could go on the bottom and pass cars and that’s what you’ve got to be able to do here.”

Rowe finished second and Chubbuck was third. The top three drove Chevy Monte Carlos.

Wiscasset’s Chubbuck wasn’t happy with points leader Rowe.

“He’s got all the money in the world and the best equipment in the world but he wants to go five miles an hour on the restart and then he’ll still run you high.

“He can start slow because he doesn’t have to use the clutch,” Chubbuck said. “He has the best transmission in the world. They can just slam gears. I have to jump him. I tried to jump him and we hit. We bounced off each other and he lost the race because of it.”

Rowe apologized to Chubbuck after the race.

“He crept out in front of me [as they were preparing for the restart], which is fine. The leader sets the pace and that whole deal. When I wanted to go, I just went. He got a jump and we just kind of banged wheels,” said Rowe.

“I guess I had him up in the second groove or something. Everybody is fighting for the high groove. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing here [on the front stretch]. When you get down in turn one, you want to be in the high groove. If you can get a jump on a guy in [turns] three and four, you can get that groove. It’s just racing.”

Sessions said once he took the lead with 28 laps to go and was able to slide down into the low groove, he knew the race was his.

“Benny couldn’t drive on the bottom,” said Sessions, whose car got better as the race progressed.

“By the end of the race, the car was flawless,” added Sessions, who like most of the other 22 drivers, got tangled up in some paint-swapping.

“I got into the back of Ralph [Nason] early in the race and I had to go into the pits because my hood got pushed. I had to get it pushed down to see where I was going. While I was in, we also put a little wedge in the car. The car wasn’t that good until we did that. When we did that, we were really good,” said Sessions.

Twenty-three cars started the race but only five finished on the lead lap as there were plenty of collisions resulting in nine caution flags.

Bangor’s Gary Smith finished fourth and Doug Averill of Litchfield was fifth.

Kenny Wright of Woolwich and Unity’s Nason finished sixth and seventh, two laps back. Rounding out the top 10 were Russ Hersey of Swanzy, N.H., Johnny Clark of Hallowell and Andy Saunders of Ellsworth.

Freedom’s Randy Turner won the pole in the dash for cash but exited early due to an accident. Wayne Helliwell Jr. and Dave Gorveatt, who started second and third, were also accident victims.

“You’ve got to be patient at Bangor. If you’re overaggressive, you know where you’re going to be: in the tires [along the wall]. It doesn’t pay [to be overaggressive] on the first lap or lap 149,” said Rowe.

Smith was happy with his finish.

“We survived it. It seemed like the guys who were running in front kept getting in the wrecks,” he said. “They put me to the rear when the car wouldn’t go into fourth gear on a restart [causing a multi-car accident] but I was able to make my way up through the pack. I apologized to the guys who wrecked because of it.”