Ben Rowe exceeds goal with seventh PASS win

HERMON – Turner’s Ben Rowe, the defending Pro All-Stars Series points champion, figured he’d win four or five races on the PASS tour this season. Maybe six.

How about seven? And there are three races remaining on the 15-race schedule.

The 28-year-old Rowe started on the outside pole, took the lead from pole-sitter Sammy Sessions on the first lap and never trailed Saturday night en route to his seventh win at the Auto Dealer Magazine 150 at Speedway 95.

Rowe drove a Chevy Monte Carlo.

Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck finished second in his Ford Taurus, 2.713 seconds behind Rowe. For Chubbuck, who started eighth, it was his first top-three finish of the season on the PASS tour.

South Paris’ Sessions was third in his Monte Carlo, 3.316 seconds behind Rowe. It was his second top-three finish.

Rounding out the top 10 in the 27-car field were Farmington’s Cassius Clark; Hollis’ Richie Dearborn; Hallowell’s Johnny Clark; Falmouth’s Scott Mulkern, Scarborough’s Larry Gelinas; Freedom’s Randy Turner and Rowe’s dad, Mike. Nine cars finished on the lead lap.

“This shows you how good this team is,” said Rowe noting that crew chief Brian Burgess and the crew always supply him with a fast car capable of winning.

“The car was decent tonight. It was pretty good on the outside and, at the end, I went on the bottom for a few laps and it ran well so I stayed there,” said Rowe.

Rowe, who also has three seconds and a third, was particularly good on restarts following the six cautions.

“I just took it slow because I didn’t want to spin my tires,” said Rowe, who quickly established a lead on the restarts.

The only exception occurred on the lap 79 restart when second-place Andy Saunders of Ellsworth, the recently crowed Speedway 95 points champion, blew around Rowe.

But Saunders was black-flagged for passing Rowe before the green flag was dropped. He would have had to serve a stop-and-go penalty by either going to the back of the pack or driving into the pits.

He kept racing but Rowe and several other cars eventually passed him and then Saunders slid off the track on lap 102.

“I felt bad for Andy,” said Sessions. “It would have been great for a local guy to win here. But they have been black-flagging guys for jumping the restarts all season. That’s why I wait.”

Sessions said Rowe was exceptional on the restarts.

“I didn’t have anything for Benny on the restarts,” said Sessions. “If I could have gotten the lead, I think I could have kept it. But there was no way to beat Benny on the restarts.”

Chubbuck concurred, saying, “Benny has the restarts mastered.”

Chubbuck and Sessions were both pleased with their evenings.

“I finished in the top three and the car is in one piece. You can’t beat it, especially the way the season has gone. It has been a rough summer. The car was a little too tight to win,” said Chubbuck.

“We beat a lot of teams with higher budgets and better cars than we have,” said Sessions.

Clark’s fourth-place finish was his best of the year.

“We started 14th and worked our way up. Our car was better on the long runs,” said the 21-year-old Clark.