Ben Rowe tips Clark at Unity Driver’s father, Mike Rowe is 3rd

UNITY – For 1493/4 laps, Hallowell’s Johnny Clark did exactly what he needed to in order to win his first Pro All-Stars Series race.

But when the front end of his Chevy Monte Carlo wobbled in turns three and four, that gave Ben Rowe the opening he needed and the defending PASS points champ took full advantage to win the Unity 150 Saturday night.

In a finish resembling the Ricky Craven-Kurt Busch duel at the Winston Cup Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 at Darlington Raceway (S.C.) on March 16, Rowe nipped Clark by inches before the tangled-up cars crashed into the dirt banks.

Clark had the fastest car in time trials, won his heat race and took the pole when his number was chosen in a random draw among the top 10 cars in time trials.

“I’d love to do that lap over,” said the 23-year-old Clark. “I don’t know what happened. I was excited. Coming out of [turn] four, my car washed up. I couldn’t keep it down. It wouldn’t stick. He [Rowe] filled the hole. I tried to scrub some speed off him and rip the wheel out of both of our hands. That’s what you do when you’re in turn four and you have a 500-foot drag race.

“I didn’t think for a second that he was going by me. But he got in there and he won the race. Our time is coming. That’s how it goes. Hopefully, the next time, I’ll be on the other end,” added Clark, who car was especially good on the restarts.

The car had pushed up the track on him on the previous lap, also, but he had been able to hold off Rowe.

Turner’s Rowe said he told his dad, third-place finisher Mike Rowe, he thought he could catch Clark in the closing laps.

“Then he [Clark] pulled away from me so I said ‘Nah, I’m done,'” said Ben Rowe. “But he started pushing the front end so I said ‘I can get back up there.’ He left the door open for me. I got inside of him, he stayed up so I filled the hole. I was going to start lifting [off the accelerator] but he stayed up so I kept it [accelerator] right down to the floor. We were banging coming to the checkered [flag]. We were hooked together. I don’t think I had [control of] the steering wheel.

“That’s racing. If the circumstances changed, he’d do the same thing and I hope he does,” Rowe added. “There’s nobody I’d rather see win a race than Johnny. But I’ve got a job to do, too. I just can’t lay back and finish second. I had to run my old man into the dirt just to get by him [into second place on lap 126]. It’s tough.”

Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck was fourth after starting 12th.

“My car changed. It was tight and loose, tight and loose. Coming from where we came from, we didn’t have a bad run, I guess,” said Chubbuck.

Rounding out the top 10 in the 24-car field were Litchfield’s Doug Averill, Dave Gorveatt of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, South Paris’ Sam Sessions, Dale Shaw of Center Conway, N.H., Scarborough’s Larry Gelinas and Bangor’s Gary Smith.

Rowe, who won five PASS races last year, started 11th.

Mike Rowe, also from Turner, said his car “got loose at the end. If we had stayed green, my car would have been better. But the yellows [caution flags] killed me.”