Veteran Rowe seeks big finish to strong season

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He is 55 and has nine grandchildren, but Mike Rowe isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

The Turner native has made five trips to Victory Lane this summer. In addition to his third TD Banknorth 250 triumph, he has also won four Pro All-Stars Series races.

“Even if we don’t win another race, we’ve had a good year,” said Rowe. “I don’t know if this is my best year ever. I know at Oxford I won 15 out of 18 races one year. But this year ranks right up there with the good ones.”

Rowe never hesitated when pinpointing the reason behind this season’s success.

“The key is we have a brand new Distance [Racing Products] car that Jeff Taylor put together for us. It has been awesome all year. It was good right out of the box,” said Rowe, who drives a 2005 Chevy Monte Carlo.

Rowe also praised crew chief Seth Holbrook and the crew.

“Seth is a hard worker. They’ve all done a good job,” said Rowe, who has eight top three finishes and 10 top fives in 16 PASS races.

Rowe began his racing career in 1968.

“I had a friend, Wes Coates, who ran in the late model class at Oxford. I helped him with his car [as a mechanic]. He wanted to know if I wanted to try it out. Driving was a heckuva lot better than working on them,” said Rowe.

Rowe ran a couple of late model races before moving up to chargers in 1969.

He has won seven Oxford points championships; one at Wiscasset Raceway and another on the American-Canadian Tour.

Despite his four PASS victories, Mike Rowe is a longshot to win the points title as he trails his son, Ben, by 32 points with two races left.

Farmingdale’s Johnny Clark is between the Rowes, 28 points behind Ben. Mike Rowe is tied with Farmington’s Cassius Clark for third.

“Ben’s been steady. All he has to do is finish up near the front in the last two races and he’ll sew it up,” said Mike Rowe.

But he also knows anything can happen and Sunday’s Pullen 300 Heavy Industries race at Scarborough’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway is a long race that could take its toll.

“It’s still anybody’s championship to win. No matter who wins it, any of the four of us deserve it. We’ve all had good cars all year,” said Rowe.

Cusack excited about weekend

Andy Cusack, owner and president of Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, said he was glad he was able to negotiate a deal with PASS President Tom Mayberry to bring that tour to his track for the first time ever.

“It has really worked out well. It has been a great cooperative effort,” said Cusack. “It has been really good to work with Tom and his staff.”

He said several of his drivers had wanted him to put together an end-of-season race “but I didn’t have time to put one together.”

Mayberry and his staff have orchestrated this weekend’s race card, which also will include a 100-lap, $5,000-to-win street stock/limited race, a $1,000-to-win 75-lap wildcat/strictly street feature; a 75-lap outlaw/late model feature and a 30-lap PASS modifieds race.

There will be heat races and everything gets under way at 1 p.m. Saturday and 12:15 p.m. Sunday.

Cusack said Mayberry and his staff have put together rules packages that will enable his Beech Ridge drivers to run in all divisions.

“It’s a perfect situation for us. All indications are this weekend is going to be a big success. And I don’t see any reason we can’t do it again next year,” said Cusack.

Griswold enjoying team success

It certainly has been a productive year for Grizco Racing and Steve Griswold, owner of the team with his wife Peg, is understandably pleased with his team’s performance in the Busch North Series.

Team manager Andy Santerre of Cherryfield leads the points with 1,633 as he tries to annex his fourth straight Busch North championship. Teammate Mike Stefanik is second with 1,600 points.

Santerre and Stefanik have finished in the top 10 in all 10 races with Santerre having nine top-fives and Stefanik notching six.

Part-time driver Brad Leighton has had a top-five in five races, finishing second at the Sylvania 125 last Friday at New Hampshire International Speedway.

“Things are going real well. You set certain goals at the beginning of a season to try to develop a new concept of team racing here in Busch North. If you’d say we’d be running one-two at this point, you probably would have gulped a couple times,” said Griswold. “But we’re doing it. It’s working real well as a team.

“A perfect 10 would be winning all the races and running one-two-three. So short of a perfect 10, I would say we’re definitely exceeding reasonable expectations,” added Griswold.

What about next year?

“I’m really looking forward to next year. We’ve got some ideas we’re looking at for expansion still here in the North series,” said Griswold. “It’s a series I love. I’ve stood behind it for years. I think we need to get more attention further up the line as a development series and I’m going to try to do something that helps that out.”

Griswold said he has had plenty of opportunities to move up to the Busch Series.

“I’ve had plenty of opportunities to do [Nextel] Cup or Busch but with my family lifestyle and my other business lifestyle, this is about the level of racing that I can still enjoy and still have a part to play in the other thing I love as well. So I think I’m pretty dedicated to Busch North,” said Griswold.

There are three races left beginning with today’s 150-lap race at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.