Dale Shaw of Center Conway, N.H. won the Busch North points championship in 1994.

He was second two seasons ago and seventh last year.

But the 39-year-old Shaw has decided, for financial reasons, to run the Pro All-Stars Series instead of Busch North this season.

The third-year series begins Saturday at Wiscasset Raceway when the Wiscasset Quik Stop 150 kicks off the 16-race tour.

Time trials begin at 1:00 with the heats to follow at 2:00. Series president Tom Mayberry said the feature will start somewhere between 4:30-5:00.

There will also be regular weekly racing interspersed.

“The Busch series has gotten way out of hand,” said Shaw. “The PASS races pay more than the Busch North races. It shouldn’t be that way because you have three to five times more money wrapped up in a Busch car. The PASS tour is a lot more affordable.”

He also said the PASS tour is more worker friendly.

“The Busch North tour isn’t worker friendly any more. You have to take too much time off from work. I figure I’ll be away from my bed four nights this summer. With the Busch series, it seemed like we weren’t even home four nights. We were never home.”

Shaw added that he is “really looking forward to the change.

“Sometimes you get stale doing the same old thing,” said Shaw, who made a triumphant return to pro stock racing last weekend when he won the New England Dodge Dealers 100 at Oxford Plains Speedway.

He was driving a brand new Dodge Intrepid with a chassis he built himself.

He hasn’t been a full-time pro stock racer since 1993 when he won the Maine State Late Model championship.

The man Shaw and every other PASS regular will set their sights on will be defending points champion Ben Rowe of Turner.

The 27-year-old Rowe won five times a year ago and has the same Chevy Monte Carlo he ran a year ago. He has also added a new Monte Carlo.

“We’d like to win some races this year. That’s why we go to the track every week,” said Rowe.

He said crew chief Brian Burgess and other members of the crew were busy in the offseason working on the cars.

“Every winter, we try to get better and better. We’ve done some things designed to improve us,” said Rowe. “Brian has been more involved with the shocks.”

But Rowe readily admits that the challenge will be greater with the likes of his father, Mike, and Shaw joining an already talented field that will include Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck, Woolwich’s Kenny Wright, Norway’s Sammy Sessions and Cushing’s Chuck Lachance.

Sessions was the PASS champ two years ago and finished second a year ago thanks to a string of four wins in five races.

Lachance was third last season and Wright tied for fourth with Hallowell’s Johnny Clark.

“There are a lot of guys who could win it,” said Rowe. “I think people like Dale [Shaw] will be surprised how good these [regular] guys are.”

Mayberry said things have gone well in the off-season and he expects “25 or 26 teams” to run all of the PASS races.

“I’m very happy with that,” said Mayberry. “The corps of talent has gotten deep. I’m pretty excited about it.”

Former Winston Cup owner and Busch Grand National driver Joe Bessey of Scarborough intends to run eight PASS races this season, according to Mayberry, including Saturday’s.

Bessey is running the Busch North team of Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre, who won the Busch North title a year ago.

Another Busch North driver, Yarmouth’s Billy Penfold, is expected to race this weekend and “he is going to run as many PASS races as he can this season.”

Mayberry added that he is hoping to attract a big-time tour sponsor.

“I’m talking to three companies right now and negotiations with two of them are going very well,” said Mayberry.

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or dmahoney@bangordailynews.net