Gelinas, McKeage, Taylor post PASS wins at Speedway 95

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HERMON – Scarborough’s Larry Gelinas made the most of his first race in two years; Gorham’s Dan McKeage made the most of his first-ever trip to Speedway 95 and Searsmont’s Jason Taylor made a successful return to a track he knows well.

All three took the checkered flag in the Pro All-Stars Series features Sunday afternoon.

Gelinas, driving a Scott Mulkern car, cruised to a comfortable victory in the 100-lap Community Pharmacies Outlaws race. McKeage took advantage of a late caution to pass Levant’s Shane Tatro on the restart and held off Tatro by four car-lengths in the 75-lap Sportsman class debut, while Taylor came home 20 car-lengths ahead of Waterford’s Richie Morse in the 35-lap Modified race.

In the Sportsman race, Iraq War veteran Tatro led the most laps and appeared on his way to a special Memorial Day victory in front of several family members, including his mother (Karen) and stepfather (Bill Bagley) who had recently moved to Brunswick from Virginia.

But when Ellsworth’s Nate Weston and Freeport’s Jerry Harrison spun each other while trying to chase down Tatro and McKeage on lap 63, that gave McKeage another opportunity to pass Tatro on the restart.

Even though Tatro had held him off on previous restarts despite starting on the slower inside groove, McKeage capitalized on the final restart and once he took the lead, he never surrendered it.

Tatro jumped the gun on the first failed restart attempt and was warned by PASS officials.

“I thought he had taken off early on the earlier restarts,” said McKeage, who sensed Tatro would be a little more cautious after the warning. “I knew I had to [pass] him on turn one if I was going to make a race of it. [Tatro’s] car was definitely the class of the field.”

That’s exactly what McKeage did and then he protected the outside groove the rest of the way to hold off Tatro, who tried unsuccessfully to pass him on the outside as well as the inside grooves.

“I wasn’t going to turn [spin] him. I’m not that way,” said pole-sitter Tatro. “And I didn’t want to give up second [by gambling on a pass and possibly wrecking].

“The car wasn’t as good as it was in the heat race. The tires lost grip. The car didn’t have a lot of forward bite. [McKeage] got down into turn one a lot better than I did,” said Tatro, who was pleased to turn in a strong performance in front of his family.

McKeage started 17th but methodically picked his way through the field until he put himself in position at the end.

“I picked some cars off when I could and just rode around the other time. The cars running up front wore their cars out. I was able to save my stuff until the last 15-20 laps,” said McKeage whose first cousin, Mike Landry of Oakland, finished third.

John Kalel III of Orrington was fourth in the 21-car field and Robert Emery Jr. of Limington rounded out the top five.

In the Modifieds, Taylor used the outside groove to pass Scarborough’s Chris Smith on a lap 11 restart and put together a string of impressive restarts to register the victory.

There were nine cautions, seven in the first 15 laps.

“The car was on rails. It was the best car I’ve ever had here,” said Taylor. “The longer the run, the better it was. Early in the race on a restart, I thought I had gotten the debris off my tires but I didn’t. So on the rest of the restarts, I spun my tires right before [we sped up] and that got the debris off them”

Following Taylor and Morse across the finish line were Harpswell’s Mark Lucas, Brunswick’s Chris Staples and Buckfield’s Steve Bennett Jr.

In the Outlaws feature, Gelinas said Mulkern told him that he intended to run that particular car just once this year and asked him if he would be interested in racing it.

Gelinas passed Winterport native Mike Harnish Jr. on lap 42 and was consistently stout on restarts to post the victory.

“I had a good car. You can’t usually run the inside [groove] here but we were able to with this car,” said Gelinas, who won the Oxford 250 in 1996.

“Maybe I’ll have to run some more races in it,” grinned Gelinas.

Harnish, who lives in Readfield, said he was “very happy” with his second-place finish.

Rounding out the top five were Jay Sands of Hampton, N.H., Burnham’s Brian Whitney and Canaan, N.H.’s Walter Hammond Jr.

In the two Speedway 95 weekly classes, Rowland Robinson Jr. of Steuben won the Strictly Street feature followed by Alton’s Tim Daggett, Ellsworth’s Brad Norris, Bangor’s Melanie Hamel and John McCullough of Glenburn.

“The car didn’t have much power but that was probably a good thing because it handled better. The more the engine died, the better it handled,” said Robinson.

In the Sport Four race, Hermon’s Mike Hopkins beat Hampden’s David Green by eight car-lengths.

Completing the top five were Dixmont’s Lewis Batchelder, Belfast’s Spencer Garvin and Hermon’s Andrew Crosby.