Story by: Chris Owens ~ [email protected]

Dillon, SC(March 10th, 2012) — Preston Peltier kicked off the 2012 PASS South season in victory lane on Saturday night, winning the South Carolina Clash at the Dillon Motor Speedway.  Peltier started fourteenth and worked his way up through the field.  By lap one hundred, he was all over the back end of Jay Fogleman and Stephen Nasse for the lead.  Peltier finally took the lead in turn three with less then fifty to go and held off Fogleman and Nasse to pick up his seventh PASS South Super Late Model victory.  This was Peltier’s first victory at the Dillon Motor Speedway.

Craig Goess started off the season by setting fast time in qualifying, but that was about the only good thing that happened to him.  Goess was involved in the first caution of the day that also collected Clay Rogers as they exited turn four on the fifth lap.  Both drivers where okay, but didn’t continue in the event.

Jay Fogleman started from the pole after he drew the pole in the redraw.  Fogleman led the opening laps, but fall off over the course of a long green flag run during the middle portion of the race.  After falling all the way back to fourth, Fogleman worked his way back up to second before Peltier got by him.

Stephen Nasse isn’t a hasn’t been a regular on the PASS South tour, but when he shows up, he’s usually one of the cars to beat.  Nasse started third and quickly worked his way up to the lead.  At one point he had a five car length lead of second place, but he too would lose positions late in the race eventually landing in the third spot.

The only northern guy that made the trip to Dillon was Ben Rowe, the all time wins leader in the PASS South Series.  Rowe wasn’t his usually self on Saturday night.  He never really contended for the win, but he run in the top five for a good portion of the race coming home fourth.  Rowe held off Late Model Stock Car veteran Garrett Campbell who was making his first start in a Super Late Model on Saturday night.

Campbell was involved in the first caution of the night that collected Rogers and Goess aswell.  With no hood or right front fender, Campbell worked his way up from the back of the pack and eventually made his way into the top five, battling with veteran Ben Rowe for the fourth spot.  Several times Campbell would pull up along side of Rowe, but could never get the run on the high side to complete the pass.  Campbell was DQ’ed for having too much left side weight.

Kyle Grissom and David LaTour Jr both ran their first Super Late Model race on Saturday, and both had impressive runs for their first race.  Both drivers have numerous laps in a Late Model Stock, but quickly got up to speed in the much faster Super Lates.  Grissom at one point had NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Johnny Sauter all over the back bumper, but held his ground.  LaTour on the other hand run a smart race and found his way into the top ten around the halfway point.  Both drivers stayed out of trouble and brought home a respectable fifth and sixth place finish.

Ross Kenseth, the son of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Matt Kenseth made his second PASS South Series start on Saturday and a rough go of it.  He quickly found himself racing Johnny Sauter for position and pulled over to give the faster machine of Sauter the spot.  Kenseth was running as high as fifth, but the handling on the car went away and faded, eventually going a lap down.

Johnny Sauter and Steven Wallace made rare starts on Saturday night.  Sauter had one of, if not the fastest cars when the green flag dropped and was working his way through the field when his car started smoking around halfway.  He brought the machine down pit road to the attention of his crew and returned to the track under the caution.  Sauter wasn’t able to make his way back to the front resulting in a eighteenth place finish.  Wallace on the other hand suffered problems all day long.  His car was on jackstands for the majority of practice, but he was able to make a qualifying run, timing in twentieth.  Wallace’s race didn’t last long as he brought the car into pit road earlier in the going.

The PASS South Series moves on to the South Boston Speedway on March 24th for the second race of the season.  Andy Loden and Clay Rogers won last year when the series visited the four tenths of a mile speedway in southern Virginia.

South Carolina Clash Unoffcial Results
1. #26 Preston Peltier
2. #4 Jay Fogleman
3. #51 Stephen Nasse
4. #4n Ben Rowe
5. #12 Garrett Campbell
6. #31 Kyle Grissom
7. #89 David Latour, Jr.
8. #33 Brandon Jones
9. #88 Kyle Dessouza
10. #62 Brandon Ward
11. #29 Landon Cling
12. #48 John Batten
13. #02 Tim Nooner
14. #25 Ross Kenseth
15. #18 Bradley McCaskall
16. #17 Kenneth Lilley
17. #2 Gray Gaulding
18. #5 Johnny Sauter
19. #66 Steve Wallace
20. #71 Jimmy Doyle
21. #74 Clay Rogers
22. #81 Craig Goess Jr
23. #55 Kevin Floars
24. #42 Tim Pinion