Issue 28

Maritime Drivers To Attack The Ridge This Weekend

With the CARQUEST Maritime Pro Stock Tour still over one month away from taking the green flag for the Lucas Oil 100, some of our drivers are expected to get a head start on their season in the next few weeks south of the border.

We have already seen Wayne Smith and Lonnie Sommerville swap paint with some of the best down in Florida this season at New Smyrna Speedway. Sommerville has also entered his #23 in Pro All Stars Series (PASS) National races down south at New Smyrna and Hickory Motor Speedway. Future Maritime Pro Stock competitor Brad Eddy is fine tuning his skills at Hickory as well as Tri-County Motor Speedway in North Carolina. With all those laps though comes a very long haul to get to the tracks from the Canadian Maritimes. One of the “shorter” pre-season long hauls will be taken by some of our teams this weekend as at least two of our Maritime Pro Stockers will be headed to Southern Maine for the PASS North opener on Saturday afternoon.

Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, located just past Portland, Maine in Scarborough is the site for what is now the PASS Super Late Model North opener. The series was scheduled to go green two weeks ago at Speedway 95 outside of Bangor but was postponed due to rain. Last season, it was eventual CARQUEST Tour champ Shawn Turple, former CARQUEST Tour champ John Flemming and former Tour winner Marty Prevost – all from the Halifax Regional Municipality making the haul down to the Ridge. Prevost powered his car to a tenth place finish, besting Flemming’s fourteenth and Turple’s fifteenth place finishes.

Turple is one of those making the return trip to the 1/3-mile oval this season. Turple will be joined by fellow former Scotia Speedworld Sportsman champ Craig Slaunwhite as Slaunwhite will be making the international haul for the first time. Slaunwhite is no stranger to competing with racers from outside the Canadian borders though as he beat the likes of Johnny Clark, Scott Chubbuck and Travis Benjamin en route to his 2008 Peterbilt 250 win at Speedway 660. Slaunwhite has one previous PASS North start, finishing 22nd in the 2008 Atlantic CAT 250 at Scotia Speedworld.  

Turple’s PASS experience dates back to 2004 where he piloted the SFR car to an eighth place run in the Atlantic CAT 250 in his first start in a pro stock car. The 2009 CARQUEST Maritime Pro Stock Tour titlist will look to build on his PASS series high fifth place finish gained at the Forbes 200 back in ’07 at Scotia Speedworld. Keep up to date on the #0 Dexter Construction/Municipal Group Impala team by checking out Shawn’s site at www.shawnturple.com!

John Flemming has the most starts on the PASS tour than any other Maritimer in the past couple of years with the #97 Dodge coming home with two podium finishes in the past two seasons combined with many other podiums, top fives and top tens in the nine year history of PASS racing. Flemming was closing in on a PASS North win in the Geary woods last season but couldn’t get by Warner, NH’s Adam Bates and eventual race winner Ben Rowe (Turner, ME) and had to settle for third at Speedway 660. In 2008, it was Flemming once again chasing Rowe to the line at White Mountain Motorsports Park and having to leave the Northern New Hampshire track with a third place run.

For more information on the race, keep tabs on the series website at ProAllStarsSeries.com. Racing will begin at 3pm Eastern on Saturday, May 1st in Southern Maine for the Super Late Model Series.

The Maritime Pro Stock Tour will begin its tenth season in just over one month on June 5th at Scotia Speedworld for the Lucas Oil 100. Come cheer on favorites Turple, Flemming, Smith, Slaunwhite and Proude among others as they duel for the first checkered silk of 2010! Keep your browsers pointed to MaritimeProStockTour.com for more info on the event!

Until next time, keep the hammer down and we’ll see you at the track.