fourteen that will make up the 2008 Pro All Stars (PASS) South super
late model season, the roller coaster ride is in full effect. Teams
that were up following Hickory are down and several teams that were
down are up after last Saturday's race at Watermelon Capital. It's a
ride that should experience even more ups and downs, twists and turns,
as PASS South gets set for it's first ever visit to the Motor Mile
Speedway in Radford, VA for the MOM 150 on May 10th.
First off, let's take a look at who's up. It's fitting
that the two "up" drivers are currently tied for the points lead.
While Florida's Perry Brown and North Carolina's John Stancill are at
the top of the PASS South standings, the two have taken very different
paths to get there. Perry Brown moved from go-karts to Florida
modifieds in the late 1990's. Right about the time his super late
model career was getting started, Perry got married and that put his
racing on hold. In 2007, Brown returned and started the season out in
Florida's FASCAR Series before moving up to the PASS South Series. In
his three PASS South starts in 2007, Brown scored two top ten
finishes. After starting this season out with an 11th place finish at
Hickory, Perry flexed his muscle at the PASS South Series first visit
to the Watermelon Capital Speedway by leading all but four laps to
score his first series victory in the Watermelon 125.
John Stancill's racing career has been going on for half
as long as Brown's, at best. However, with just two PASS South Super
Late Model starts under his belt, Stancill finds himself tied with
Brown for the points lead. At just 15 years of age, John has already
won several championships since beginning his go-kart career back in
2000. Stancill moved from go-karts to Pro Challenge in 2006 and took
the Semi-Pro National Championship in INEX Legends competition in
2007. At Hickory, Stancill arrived as an unassuming teenager, never
having raced a Super Late Model, just hoping to make the prestigious
Easter Bunny 150. After starting 26th, Stancill shocked the
competition, racing with the likes of Choquette, Lawler and Rowe to
score a third place finish in the process. Despite an accident at
Watermelon Capital Speedway, Stancill soldiered on to a ninth place
finish and a share of the points lead.
On the other end of the spectrum, several drivers have
already experienced their fair share of trouble. After winning at
Hickory, you might ask how Corey Williams could be on a list of "down"
drivers. Following his win at Hickory, Williams set a new track
record at Watermelon Capital, but that's where his "watermelon"
soured. While running in the top five, Williams suffered the first of
at least three flat tires. Losing two laps under green, Williams was
penalized another lap under a new PASS rule aimed at protecting
drivers with old, worn tires from being outrun by a driver with fresh
tires. Thanks to attrition, Williams managed to finish twelfth and
only fell to third in points.
Colorado's Mitch Cobb was yet again denied by the PASS
racing gods. Strong top five finishes by Cobb in the Blizzard Series
have the eyes of the racing world taking notice. PASS South has been
a tough step up for Cobb though. Good qualifying runs at Hickory and
Watermelon Capital have not translated to good race runs for Cobb. An
early wreck at Hickory sent Cobb back to a 29th place finish. At
Watermelon Capital, Cobb and his team hoped to give the Georgia fans
something to cheer about. Cobb's car is out of the Dawsonville, GA
shops of Bill Elliott Racing, with Ernie Elliott engines and Dan
Elliott transmissions. Cobb's top ten run once again ended after a
tangle with John Stancill resulted in Cobb finishing 16th.
As for Alex Fleming, where do you start? Fleming has to
be the hard luck driver of the PASS South Series. In 2007, Fleming
finished 11th in PASS South points despite the fact that he raced
weekly on Friday nights and won the track championship at Raleigh,
NC's Wake County Speedway. At Hickory, Fleming had a top ten run
going until an accident not of his making knocked him out of the race
and down to a 28th place finish. If that was bad, Watermelon Capital
was even worse. On Friday night, Fleming finished fourth at Wake
County before driving all night to be at Watermelon Capital for the
PASS South race. Fleming qualified tenth and started second after the
qualifying redraw. Fleming jumped to the front to lead his first ever
laps in PASS South competition. Pretty good, right? Wrong. Fleming
ran off the track, bringing out a caution that dropped him to the back
of the field. Then, after making it all the way back to the top ten,
Fleming was taken out on a restart when Zach Stroupe spun due to a
broken panhard bar.
Good or bad, all of the drivers mentioned have shown
glimpses of promise and with some luck, might be able to join Corey
Williams and Perry Brown on the winner's list. That win could come at
the Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA when the PASS South super late
models once again take to the track. Jeff Choquette, Ben Rowe and
many more plan to join the best Super Late Models in the country on
Saturday, May 10th when PASS South heads to Motor Mile for the
Inaugural MOM 150. Also in action will be the PASS Rolling Thunder
Modifieds as well as points races for the Motor Mile Limited Sportsmen
and U-Cars. Gates open at 10 AM, PASS South qualifying is at 4:30 PM,
with racing starting at 6:30 PM.
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