November 22, 2024
AUTO RACING

Clark seeks to PASS field in series opener

In 2002, his first full season on the Pro All-Stars Series tour, Farmingdale’s Johnny Clark finished fourth in the points chase.

He followed that up with a second-place finish last season.

“So, what’s left?” joked the 24-year-old Clark.

That, of course, would be dethroning two-time PASS champion Ben Rowe of Turner.

The chase for the points championship will begin Sunday at Hermon’s Speedway 95 since last weekend’s opener at White Mountain Motorsports Park was suspended after 27 laps due to rain.

Clark considers Rowe the favorite again but listed Strong’s Tracy Gordon, Turner’s Mike Rowe and Sam Sessions of South Paris among the other primary challengers.

“There’s a lot of competition,” said Clark, who posted eight top-five finishes in 15 races a year ago, including a win, a second, and four thirds.

Clark’s team has set its goals higher this year.

“When we finished fourth, we set out to get as many top-10s as we could. At the outset of last season, we said we wanted as many top-sevens. This year, we want as many top-fives as possible,” said Clark. “That’s what it takes to win championships.”

“We’d like to win three races. That’s an achievable goal for us,” Clark added.

He ran a Chevy Monte Carlo in 2003 and he will have a second one this season.

“We gave the car I ran last year a facelift,” said Clark.

Clark said he learned some things from last weekend’s suspended race and addressed them at a team meeting.

“We tried to find more speed by trying a few things with the shocks. It didn’t do anything and made the car more uncomfortable to drive,” said Clark. “We don’t need to find more speed. We need to make sure if we’re running second or third, we don’t take ourselves out of contention by doing something foolish.”

Clark said he has had his “ups and downs” at Speedway 95 in the past but has enlisted the help of friend and 2001 Speedway 95 super street points champion Matt Eaton of Deer Isle.

“He told me to set the car up for the bottom and stay on the bottom,” said Clark. “He told me no one else is there. Everyone is fighting for the top [groove].”

Clark said you can’t afford to “overdrive” the one-third-mile track or “you’ll end up in the tire wall.”

Time trials will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday and racing will start at 2.

In addition to the 150-lap PASS race, there will be a 30-lap PASS modifieds race, a New England Allison Legacy Series feature and season-opening points races for Speedway 95s super street and sport four classes.

Montmagny PASS races canceled

The two PASS races scheduled at Montmagny, Quebec, one of three tracks owned by Unity’s Ralph Nason, have been canceled.

“The way the political situation is in the world right now, with the feelings between that area and the United States, made us think racing there isn’t in anyone’s best interest right now,” said PASS president Tom Mayberry, who noted that a Canadian crowd booed the American national anthem before a recent Stanley Cup hockey playoff game in Montreal between the Boston Bruins and Canadiens.

“There was definitely no problem between PASS and Ralph Nason. Ralph has been terrific,” said Mayberry.

He said they are trying to find another venue for the Sept. 25 Montmagny race but the May 8 date will be used to finish the suspended race held at White Mountain Motorsports Park last weekend.

Two other races are scheduled in Canada at Scotia Speedworld in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Mayberry said they will be held.

“They are much more U.S.-friendly,” said Mayberry, who added that PASS will gladly return to Montmagny in the future if the attitude changes.


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