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RMR hit both the
highest and lowest notes of the season at Oxford on
Saturday, July 1st. Starting in mid-pack in a field of
34 very competitive cars,
Ben in the #4 got caught up in a very early accordion
jam up and minor body damage but just enough to pinch
off the air flow to the radiator. Rather than risk
injury to a brand new motor, Ben brought the #4 to pit
lane and retired as the first car out of the event.
Even though the motor of the #44 seemed a little off
almost from the green flag, Travis began his move to the
front. Battling with Scott Chubbuck, Patrick Laperle,
and Scott Mulkern, moved into the lead on lap 38 and
held it through lap 78. The #4 and #29 of Chubbuck ran
side by side for more than 10 laps followed by Mulkern
and Laperle also side by side. Chubbuck grabbed the lead
for laps 79 to 94, Travis regained the lead for laps 95
to 133, and Laperle finally took over on lap 134 and
held on to the checkers. On the final restart after a
yellow on lap 146, Travis had a good shot from the
outside of row one, but Laperle had enough to grab the
win. Great run for Travis, fighting a car that had the
toe knocked out after a couple hits during restarts.
One of the best PASS races ever. |
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6-1-06 by Justin St.
Louis
It's Cassius Again, Dearborn From the Back, Martin
The Bridesmaid
and More
FULL SPEED51 COLUMN HERE
BEN
ROWE HAS FAITH IN RICHARD MOODY TEAM
If you’ve been
a short track fan during the last six years, chances are
pretty good that you’ve heard of second-generation racer
Ben Rowe from Turner, ME, and chances are equally as
good that you’ve seen a picture of him holding a
checkered flag out the window of a yellow Tom
Estes-owned #00 car.
In 2000, Rowe piloted the car to the Oxford Plains (ME)
Speedway Open Comp series championship, as well as the
former NEPSA and IPSC touring titles. Since 2001, the
team dominated the PASS North series, winning the
championship in 2002, ’03, and ’05, as well as 26 races
along the way.
During the winter, Rowe and Estes parted ways, and Rowe
accepted a ride in Richard Moody’s black #4 car. While
the results have been decent on paper during the first
three outings this season, fans of Rowe know that he’s
struggling. At Canaan, he managed only a seventh-place
finish, and never ranked higher than fifth in the race.
“Oh man, I don’t know what ails us,” a disappointed Rowe
said after the PASS 150. “We were horrible. We hit it in
the last practice, I thought we were decent, but it was
bad, bad. I was just way too tight. If you’re tight here
it kills ya. I wasn’t bad on the bottom, but every
restart I was on the outside. It’s one of them deals.”
But Rowe is far from giving up on his new team.
Richard Moody is a veteran car owner, and has tasted
success with several drivers, most recently former PASS
Rookie of the Year Donnie Whitten. This season, he’s
fielding the #4 car for Rowe, and the #44 for young
Travis Khiel, another former PASS Rookie of the Year.
Rowe knows that his days of winning will return. It’s
just a matter of time.
“We’re still getting everything together, and it’ll turn
around in our favor one of these days. I like running
with these guys, the team is good. With two teams we’ve
got a lot of guys. Everybody’s working great, they’re
just busting tail. Remember, we only started this two
months ago. It’ll take time, and right now there’s just
no catching the #8 car (Cassius Clark), he’s awesome.
We’ll get there. We’ve got a new car that we should have
hopefully by Oxford. We’ll just take our bruises and go
on from here.”
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