Norris’ first-ever Pro Stock win comes in ‘big’ Outlaw race

UNITY – Thirty-year-old Gary Norris Jr. had never won a Pro Stock race until Sunday’s Hight Chevrolet 100 Pro All-Star Series Outlaw North feature at Unity Raceway.

And his first victory will be even more memorable because of the dominating fashion in which he took the checkered flag.

By lap 48, the West Gardiner native had lapped all but four of the other 14 cars in the field.

He took the lead from 14-year-old polesitter Derek Ramstrom of West Boylston, Mass., on lap 2 and, after the two swapped the lead over the next five laps, Norris charged to the front on lap 7 and never looked back.

“This is my fifth or sixth year running pro stocks,” Norris said. “We’ve been close a few times. We’ve had few thirds, but this totally did everything for us.”

He added that to collect his first win in a “big race topped it off.”

Albion’s Matt Lee was a distant second and Ramstrom was third. Ben Erksine of Solon was fourth and was the only other car on the lead lap.

Eight cars finished the race, which had three cautions.

Rounding out the top 10 were Joe Decker of Chesterfield, followed by Jay Sands of Seabrook, N.H., Chris Staples of Brunswick, Mike Thomas of Lewiston, Mike Harnish Jr. of Skowhegan and China Village’s Brad Bellows.

Norris said he knew early in the day his Chevy Monte Carlo was dialed in.

“We put five or six laps on new tires during practice. I brought it in, took my suit off and relaxed until the heat race. I knew the car was good right from practice,” said Norris.

“The longer we ran the more I kept looking,” he added. “We had no radio, the wire broke on the [microphone] in my helmet. I just drove.”

He admitted that he was concerned about Lee when they had two midrace restarts.

“I knew the car was good enough [to pull away] but if Matt’s behind you, you better worry all the time,” said Norris. “Matt is a good driver. He won the first two races we had here. When you see him back there, you hope you can keep up the pace you’re going at.”

Norris said when he saw there were 10 laps remaining he just concentrated on “hitting my marks so I wouldn’t screw up. I just kept driving and driving.”

Norris said the car’s body was brand new.

“We put an Outlaw body on. Every time we’ve been here we’ve had a different body,” Norris said.

Three of the first four Outlaw North races have been at Unity Raceway.

Lee was happy with his second-place finish.

His engine seized up him last weekend, but he said Brad Watson put it all back together for this weekend’s race.

“The motor ran strong. I don’t know if I had a left-rear shock gone or what, but Mr. Norris ran a hell of a race,” Lee said.

Lee added that he may have had a shot at Norris if there had been a late-race restart but there weren’t any.

Ramstrom said his car was “a little tight in the turns but it was a good car.”

He credited Norris for his performance.

“That guy was fast. He did a good job,” Ramstrom said.