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Ben Rowe Wins Thompson’s Full Fendered Frenzy 75
After posting 2nds in 2003 and 2004 - to Mike Rowe and Ted
Christopher -
Ben scores a win at one of his favorite tracks.
Thompson
Victory is a First in Three-Time Champion’s Career
NAPLES,
ME
(July 16, 2007) –
Ben Rowe owns three PASS North championship trophies. He has
won most of the biggest Super Late Model races throughout the
Northeastern United States and Canadian Maritimes at
least once. Anywhere that he goes nationally, he is a threat to
win the race.
But up until this week, there is one place where he had run
exceptionally well at, but had never won a race. That was
Thompson International Speedway. The key word in that sentence
though is “was”. After Saturday night’s 75-lap PASS North
feature there, Rowe has now joined the list of winners at the
historic Connecticut
track.
Rowe won the race as part of the Full Fendered Frenzy show,
which also included the NASCAR Busch East Series and several
NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions, at the 5/8th-mile
oval.
“This is one of my better wins,” said Rowe. “I love this place
and it’s one of our better race tracks. I’m just glad that they
keep having us come back to put on a show here. It’s real good
to be here with the Busch cars and I’ve gotten to go over [to
their pit area] and see some of the guys that I know there. It
brings out a good crowd when we race with those guys.”
Rowe started on the pole position with his #4 Richard Moody
Racing Super Late Model. He ended the race in the first
position as well, but going from start to finish in the lead was
not an easy task. Rowe raced hard for the lead with Rick Martin
early on, before Martin had wheel problems. Then at the end of
the race, Rowe had to fend off Trevor Sanborn and his father
Mike Rowe, who finished second and third.
“The car was super, staring on the pole made things easier,”
said Rowe. “The only concern that I had was on a couple of
those restarts. They would pin you down and get a jump on you
on the outside. I really wasn’t concerned though because it
would take five or six laps for me to get going anyways. The
#14 [Martin] got by me for a little bit, but I’d just go
wherever he wasn’t. My car was that good.
Martin did lead for several laps, but he knew that holding off
Rowe wasn’t going to be easy – it was, however, very fun.
“Yeah, that was fun,” said Martin. “I knew that he was faster
than me, but I wanted to make it exciting. I got by him on the
restart and I knew that he would get back by sooner or later. I
knew that he’d be back.”
Rowe enjoyed the hard racing too – just like he also enjoyed
racing with the other podium finishers near the end.
“It was real fun,” said Rowe. “You can do that with a bunch of
guys like that and not slam fenders. It’s good racing.
“I love racing against Trevor and my Dad too – if I can stay
ahead of him. It was fun racing with those guys. Just like
with the #14 car [Martin] early on and Johnny [Clark].
I saw him coming up through and I don’t know what happened to
him [Clark, who crashed after cutting a tire while moving
through the field from his 12th starting position].”
Rowe was teammates with Sanborn last year at Richard Moody
Racing and takes a special interest in the young driver, who now
runs the #29 Cushman Competition Ford.
“Trevor – he’s going to be good. He is good. He seems to be
finishing right behind me every week. We went out for practice
today and he wanted me to lead the way. He wanted me to show
him the way around here, but I need to stop showing him things
because he’s going to start beating me here pretty quick.”
That almost happened at Thompson.
“I thought that I had something for Ben, but I used my tires up
earlier racing through the pack,” said Sanborn. “The car went
away a little bit. We were dead even, but I didn’t have quite
enough to get by him, so we stayed in second and finished in one
piece.”
Mike Rowe finished third. He started deep in the field after
having clutch problems in his heat race. Rowe was happy with
his podium finish, but didn’t think that he could advanced much
further than third.
“No, Benji and Trevor were just too stout,” said Rowe. “They
had a lot more bite off the corner than I did. But we were
happy with what we got.”
Richie Dearborn finished in fourth, with rookie Adam Bates
finishing behind to record his first career top five finish.
The three PASS North heat races were won by Ben Rowe, Steve
Berry and Derek Ramstrom.
Rowe extended his PASS North point lead with his victory. His
father Mike has now moved in the runner-up spot in the
standings.
The PASS North Series now heads to Riverside Speedway in
Antigonish, Nova
Scotia
for
Saturday’s IWK 250. |
