Ross Kenseth proved Saturday night at the Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina that in racing sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Kenseth scored his first career PASS South Series win as he passed Preston Peltier who experienced a broken left front lower control arm with just three laps remaining, winning the Orange Blossom Special 150.
Kenseth, who entered the event fifth in championship standings, showed he had a fast car before the green flag dropped on the 150 lap race as he set fast time during series qualifying earlier in the day. After the redraw of the top fastest qualifiers that took time in the twenty-six car starting field Kenseth would be shuffled back to fifth and Gray Gaulding was the lucky driver to lead the field to green.
Fourteen year old Gaulding in his #2 Krispy Kreme Toyota wasted no time settling into the top position. Just as swiftly as Gaulding took the lead, track favorite Jay Fogleman from nearby Durham, North Carolina experienced transmission problems sending his #4 Bull City Racecars machine falling to the rear of the field by lap ten. Two single car incidents slowed the field twice within the first thirty laps before a two car wreck involving #26 Tyler Church and #20 Steve Legendre sent Church’s car into the outside wall in turn one on lap forty-two.
While under caution for the incident #98 Ryan Blaney, who was in the third position at the time, and Jay Fogleman made contact slightly damaging the #98 nose while Fogleman was passing the field for the lucky dog award. Despite the damage Blaney’s Carswell Motorsports team made the decision to stay out as the field went back to green. Just six laps shy of the halfway point Legendre’s motor let go just as the car entered turn one spitting oil on the racing surface sending three cars including that of defending winner #33 Roger Lee Newton into the outside wall.
The lap seventy restart was Blaney’s opportunity to spring to the lead over Gaulding who ended the night leading the most laps in the 150 lap event. As the race came down to twenty-five to go #26 Preston Peltier put pressure on Blaney for the top spot before passing him with ease and setting sail away from the competition. Peltier opened up a five car length lead over Kenseth who had now made his way to second when sparks began to emerge from Peltier’s Chevrolet with just four laps to go. That was all Kenseth needed to score his first series win in just his fourth series start.
“I feel bad for Preston (Peltier) because I’ve lost a few races just like that, but that’s racing as they say,” stated Kenseth in victory lane. “You can say we lucked into this one tonight, but then again Jamie (Rouleau) and the rest of the guys gave me a car that was good enough to be in the position to win and capitalize on Preston’s bad luck. I know we’ve struggled a bit out of the gate, but I think people can see things are headed in the right direction. It just feels real good to get my first win here in the PASS South Series and be back in victory lane.”
Next race for the PASS South Series “Big Boys with the Bad Fast Toys” is the Capital City Clash/Bull Ring Tough Guy Challenge 125 at the Wake County Speedway in Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday night May 11th.
The 2012 PASS North super late model season gets underway on Saturday May 5 at Scarborough Maine’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway. Both the PASS Mods and Sportsman are on the opening day card as well.The first northern New England motorsports extravaganza of 2012 is presented by SouthernMaineMotors.com. Post time is 3:00 PM.
All the latest PASS news, results and point standings are on line at www.proallstarsseries.com .
Unofficial Results – PASS South Orange Blossom Special – Orange County Speedway – Rougemont NC – 4/21
1) #25 Ross Kenseth 2) #62 Brandon Ward 3) #26 Preston Peltier 4) #98 Ryan Blaney 5) #89 David Latour 6) #33 Brandon Jones 7) #1 Justin Allison 8) #118 Bradley McCaskill 9) #29 Landon Cling 10) #12 Scott Hensley 12) #48 John Batten 13) #18 Bill Cantania 14) #4 Jay Fogleman 15) #19 Nate Caruth 16) #67 Duane Linville 17) #2 Gray Gaulding 18) #71 Jimmy Doyle 19) #20 Steve Legendre 20) #129 Spencer Davis 21) # 33n Roger Lee Newton 22) #09 Randy Gentry 23) #81 Craig Goess 24) #26c Tyler Church 25) #101 Trevor Sanborn 26) #14 JD Frey
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