Ben Rowe had a memorable 2003 season on the Pro All-Stars Series tour.

The Turner native not only annexed his second consecutive points championship, he had a remarkable 13 top-three finishes and eight victories in 15 races.

The 16-race PASS tour gets under way Saturday with the D-J Equipment 150 at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, N.H.

Time trials start at 1 p.m.

Rowe is looking forward to the season but he doesn’t consider himself the front-runner in the points chase.

“My father [Mike] has a new car and a bunch of guys helping him. I think he’ll be the one to beat week in and week out,” said Ben Rowe.

“I think he’s right,” said South Paris’ Sam Sessions, the 2001 points champion. “He has put two complete cars together and he hasn’t skimped on anything. He’s going to be real tough. He has good backing behind him.”

Ben expects to be in the hunt. He has his crew back and on Saturday he will drive the same Chevy Monte Carlo he piloted to victory in the Oxford True Value 250 last July.

“We’re looking for another championship. That’s always on our mind,” said Ben Rowe. “We want to win races. We haven’t set a number. We want to try to win every one.”

Sessions, who won the Big Dawg Challenge at Wiscasset Raceway in October and pocketed $100,000, is looking for a good season after finishing fourth in points last year.

“We’ll be all right. We had a good car last year. It just didn’t work out that well. We were running in the top four in at least six races when something not of our own making took us out,” said Sessions, who retooled his car in the off-season.

“I’ve completely gone through the car down to the bare chassis. It’s basically a new car,” said Sessions.

Sessions said another driver to keep an eye on this season will be Cushing’s Chuck Lachance, who finished third in points in 2002 behind Rowe and Sessions.

“He bought a new car from Jeff Burgess and Jeff has built some really fast cars the last couple of years,” said Sessions.

Wiscasset’s Scott Chubbuck is another title threat, according to Sessions.

Hallowell’s Johnny Clark, who was second last season, and Falmouth’s Scott Mulkern, who was fifth, should also contend.

Third-place finisher Dale Shaw intends to run just a part-time schedule.

Strong’s Tracy Gordon will run most of the races but not all so he probably won’t be in the points chase. He will be vying for wins, however.

“We’ve got to get the setups right. I’ve got the fastest car I’ve ever had but it’s finicky,” said Gordon, who will be driving a Monte Carlo.

PASS President Tom Mayberry said he is optimistic about the season.

“I’m extremely happy. We have 34-35 licensed drivers so far and that’s the most we’ve ever had, by far,” said Mayberry. “The fan support seems to be getting better all the time and I’m real happy with the schedule.”

Ben Rowe has four wins and two seconds in six PASS races over the high-banked, quarter-mile oval at White Mountain Motorsports Park.

“I love it there. It’s a fun track. You can get aggressive and the track will hold you there,” said Rowe. “It’s a fast little place.”