Story by: Corey Latham — [email protected]

Hickory, NC(April 12, 2009) — Hickory Motor Speedway was the site for the stars of the PASS South series Saturday night, and since this event was also one the four “National” events on the schedule, all the big names made the trip … 41 big names to be exact.

After dominating the season opening PASS South series event at Dillon Motor Speedway on March 21st, Ben Rowe had his work cut out for him as he was faced with some very stiff competition, including Hickory Motor Speedway master Matt McCall, making his PASS South debut. McCall did not disappoint, taking the pole for the 150 lap event, but in the end the master of PASS North series is quickly becoming the South’s worst nightmare. Rowe now is 2 for 2 in 2009.

Rain had washed the Friday Practice completely out, and the teams were given 2 additional hours of practice time Saturday morning to prepare for the event. Things went smoothly for the most part, with the exception of Joey Coulter breaking a valve in the motor and having to load up early. Coulter has become “the guy everywhere” in the last year and a half, racing everything from ARCA, Supers, Hooters Pro Cup and Late-Models, and will surely be back at a PASS event in 2009. Second place finisher at Dillon, Justin Wakefield, had to make a motor change early in the day. It didn’t help much as it looked as if that motor too was down on power and led to Wakefield having a terrible day all-around. Throughout the revolving practices in the day, the usual suspects were at the top of the charts, Jeff Fultz, Ben Rowe, Aric Almirola, Johnny Clark and Ryan Blaney were some of the consistently quick cars.

We moved on to qualifying and it was no surprise who was on the pole. If Matt McCall is racing at Hickory in anything, you had better watch out. Even though this was his first ever competitive ride in a Super Late Model, it really didn’t matter as he put his #35 on the pole with the only sub 15 second lap of the day. He was driving a car owned by Nextel cup star, David Stremme and this is the same car that Matt DiBenedetto drove at Speedfest at Lanier Speedway to a 11th place finish back in January. With McCall being the “man” at Hickory, it looked bad for the competition until the mandatory redraw of the top 10 drivers. McCall drew 6th, and put 5 other great cars in front of him. Straight up qualifying had McCall, Johnny Clark, Jeff Fultz, Ben Rowe and Gene Krilla in the top 5. After the redraw it was Rowe, Clay Jones, Lonnie Sommerville, Devin Jones and Aric Almirola leading the field to the green.

Up first was the new PASS South Truck Series, and after having a decent showing at Dillon with 14 trucks, a large field was expected at Hickory since the track and many others in the area run trucks weekly. It didn’t happen, as only 7 trucks showed up to race. It was a very exciting event none the less, as Ben Ebeling and Grant Davidson had very exciting battle for the lead for the first of the race. Late in the going, as Davidson was under Ebeling, the #44 of Ebeling cut down on Davidson spinning the #44 right into the path of Jody Measamer, causing damage to both trucks, but both were able to continue. On the restart it was now Davidson with 14 year-old Clint King on his bumper making only his 2nd ever start after winning the Pro-Challenge Championship last year. The green waved and King spun his tires on the restart, putting Ebeling into the rear of him taking both trucks out.

“I just spun the tires on the restart and Ben had nowhere to go,” said a calm but disappointed King. Davidson would go on to take the win over Measamer, and after a heated discussion in the pits between the Davidson and Ebeling teams order was restored. The truck series is a great idea that PASS has put in place, but if the support from the racers doesn’t come soon, it’s days could soon be numbered and I for one would hate to see this incredible racing go by the wayside.

Before the PASS 150 lapper could get the green flag, we needed to fill the rest of the field. Only the top 20 were taken in time trials, and the rest would be set in two 15 lap heat races, with the top 3 advancing from each. Lots of people thought with the car count so high, that the day would be as much wrecking as racing. Turns out they were wrong. In the first 15 lapper, Jay Fogleman would led them to green, but he wouldn’t stay there long. Ryan Blaney, son of Sprint Cup Series driver Dave Blaney, was on a tear at Dillon after qualifying bad and was doing the same here. Blaney would take the lead on lap 5 and never look back. The transfer spot was the hot race, as Brad Bischoff would beat Heath Hindman to the line for the final transfer spot. Blaney, Fogleman and Bischoff advance.

The consi #2, Trey Mitchell and Jordan Napier started on the front row and ran side-by-side for four laps before Mitchell claimed the top spot. Napier looked to have a fast car, but getting on the outside hurt his chances as the cars of Bradley McCaskill and Jimmy Doyle would get by also. As the laps winded down, Mitchell was gone but 2nd through 4th was a dogfight. Napier tried everything he could, hitting the wall exiting the corner numerous times, but could not get the final transfer. Mitchell, McCaskill and Doyle advance.

The field was set, and two more provisionals were added bring the field to 30 strong. As the green waved on the main event, you could tell what kind of evening this was going to be. Rowe jumped to the lead, McCall fell from 6th to 8th, Johnny Clark went from 8th to 5th, and Ryan Blaney passed about 4 cars. And this is just on lap 1.

Clean and green was the story for the night, as racing was happening everywhere on the track, and on lap 12, second place starter Clay Jones would begin his downfall. Sommerville would pass for second, and by lap 28 Jones would be nearly out of the top 10. Behind them McCall is working on Devin Jones for 7th, when Jones doesn’t see McCall under him and spins, bringing out the caution, and our first double-file restart.

The PASS series does every restart in double-file fashion, making the leader have to work to keep the top spot. And this instance was great for Sommerville, as he finally pulled in to the lead on the outside after running side-by-side with Rowe for 2 laps. Almirola and Fultz would follow suit and pass Rowe also putting the yellow #4 back to 4th.

As positions were changing every lap, the cars on the move were Cassius Clark and Ryan Blaney. Clark was driving a car out of the Jeff Fultz shop and was moving through the field at will. After starting 15th, Clark would move into the top ten before lap 30. Blaney has had problems qualifying this year, after starting 17th at Dillon and coming home 3rd, he looked to be doing the same thing coming hard from his 21st starting position. Blaney would be a force all night, but Clark would have problems just a few laps after getting in the top ten, making contact with the spinning car of David Pollen Jr. on lap 50, ultimately ending his night a few laps later.

Up front things were picking up, as Aric Almirola was making his presence felt. Almirola had just been told his team at DEI doesn’t have the funds to continue it’s Sprint Cup season, and was driving this car for the first time. As he got to Sommervile for the lead, he made hard contact entering turn 3, almost wrecking Sommerville and allowing Rowe to follow him through to second. Sommerville would end up being a force all night though.

As we move to lap 66 after a few cautions, Rowe would once again take the lead from Almirola. Johnny Clark, the 2008 PASS North champion, would make his way into the top 5 briefly, but the longer the race ran, the more the #54 of Clark would lose the handle, putting him out of the top 10 when things were said and done. Blaney was still the man on the move, as he would move up to the 6th spot just a few laps later.

Almirola and Fultz had fast cars, but as time wore on, they were no match for Rowe and Sommerville, but a prefect match for each other. They put on the greatest battle of the night, with the #67 of Fultz and the #14 of Almirola side-by-side or bumper-to-bumper the last 75 laps. The crowd was focused on their battle, but up front as Sommerville had taken the lead back, Rowe was just waiting for the laps to click off.

Matt McCall was supposed to flex his muscle after being the pole-sitter, but it never materialized. McCall was a top 6 car all night, but didn’t show he had anything for the leaders at any point. He may have been waiting, but his wait was over on lap 114 as he has a right front tire go down in turn 3, and comes to a stop to bring out the caution. the team changed the tire and McCall was set to go from the rear, but all was not well. When the tire went down, the car hit the track and caused more damage, a broken upper A-arm would mean the end to his night.

After another quick caution on lap 117 for the spinning car of Gene Krilla, Ben Rowe would really show what he had. He and Sommerville had been relatively close all night, but on the restart Rowe jumped to the lead and set sail. He pulled out to 10 car lengths, which was the biggest lead of the night, and Sommerville now had Fultz all over his rear bumper. Rowe looked to have things in hand, but anything can happen, and the caution flew once again 9 laps from the finish for the spinning car of Davin Jones.

It looked as if Sommerville had luck shine on him with the caution, as he would now have one last shot to challenge Rowe for the win. But luck was not with him at all. As the cars rode under caution, Sommerville’s front end was noticeably on the ground, and he slowly creeped around the track and into the pits. A bleeder had broken on the right front shock, causing the shock to fail, ending his night. A heartbreak for sure, Sommerville had a top 2 car, but now Jeff Fultz was going to give Rowe everything he had..

On the final restart Fultz dove into the corner hard, too hard, and Rowe would not be challenged again. Behind him Ryan Blaney would end his great run in 4th after battling Trey Mitchell, and after having problems early Hall Goodson would come home 6th.

The “Easter Bunny. 150” has become a classic race at Hickory, and this year’s will go down as one of the best ever. The events of the race have been summarized here, but in reality it could go on for pages, it was very competitive. Ben Rowe has been on tear in PASS so far, and now has his name etched in the history books as a winner in the “Easter Bunny 150”. He can share that list of names with 3 other people, and the first one on that list is named Rowe also. Mike Rowe, Ben’s dad was the winner of the inaugural race back in 2006. Northerners have know this for years, but the Southerners are stating to figure out quick, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

Driver Quotes:
Ben Rowe (1st): “I was trying to follow behind him (Sommerville) there to make him use his stuff up, and just hope he did. With these double-file restarts you never know whats going to happen, so with 30 to go I decide if I could clear him there I wasn’t going to look back. I sure didn’t want to see that caution with 9 to go, but Jeff Fultz and those guys, they race you so clean. I knew I had a better car then, and I just pulled away. When asked if he was saving anything: “You try, I was following the 23 I was back-peddling just a bit, trying to save something for the end. A lot of these guys are sideways every lap and couldn’t save anything. Fortunately for us, we saved just a little bit for the end, I bet my fastest laps all night were at the end of the race.”

Jeff Fultz (2nd): We were just a little free tonight and this was the first time I’ve run the crate engine, we probably should have done a little more adjusting to tighten it up some more. We have been struggling getting too loose at the end of races and It’s my fault. We’ll keep working on it and have the setup better next time. Just gotta thank all these people who came out to watch this race, we put a show on for them and that’s what we came to do. Just got to thank Wearcrete and Hamke racecars,all the guys that come here to work. We brought 4 cars here and 3 of them were in the race, it’s just a good day for CNC Motorsports and Jeff Fultz Racing … you’ll see, we’ll win the next one.”

Aric Almirola (3rd): “We had a decent car, we just weren’t that good on the long runs, we had an awesome car on the short runs. I got on the outside of Ben there towards the end, and he drove me straight in the fence on the backstretch, which I wasn’t very happy about. we were all clean most of the night, I’m not real sure why he did that, but it messed us up a little bit and it wasn’t very good after that. Just proud of DJ Howard and all the guys, they built this car over the winter, It’s brand new and It’s the first time It’s ever seen the racetrack. That’s pretty cool for them to come away with a good run the first time out.”

Unofficial Results:
1. Ben Rowe
2. Jeff Fultz
3. Aric Almirola
4. Ryan Blaney
5. Trey Mitchell
6. Hal Goodson
7. Clay Jones
8. Tim Nooner
9. Corey Williams
10. Gene Kirila
11. Johnny Clark
12. Mark Gibson
13. Ryan Moore
14. John Batten
15. Heath Hindman
16. Bradley McCaskill
17. Preston Peltier
18. David Pollen
19. Michael Pope
20. Adam Bates
21. Devin Jones
22. Lonnie Sommerville
23. Brad Bischoff
24. Matt McCall
25. Jimmy Doyle
26. Spencer Wauters
27. Jay Fogelman
28. Cassius Clark
29. Alex Fleming
30. Justin Wakefield