SCARBOROUGH – Scott Dragon knew he had a decent car coming into the PASS North Southern Maine Motors.com 150 on a hot Saturday night at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.

“But I didn’t expect it to be like that,” he said, tipping the winner’s trophy toward the Super Late Model No. 10 car.

“Right off the bat, when I kept pace with the leaders I knew I could reel right in on them in the corners. Generally, you can’t do that here. As soon as I was able to run the low line and get a little traction off the corners, I kind of knew I had a good car.”

Dragon, from Milton, Vt., pushed through from the No. 9 start position to take the lead from veteran Kelly Moore of Scarborough at Lap 113 and then held on from there, collecting his first PASS North series victory.

Trevor Sanborn of Parsonsfield placed second, and Kirk Thibeau of Fort Fairfield was third.

Moore, who started third, placed fourth in the race that saw four cautions.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy getting past Kelly,” Dragon said.

“I got a real good shot off him on Turn 4, launched right by him and was on cruise control after that.”

With Moore running hard from behind.

“I said from the start I was going to pace myself. We got out front early so I had to go,” Moore said.

“I tried to pace myself, not wear the tires out.”

That strategy worked until he ran up behind pole-sitter Bill Rodgers, who was running a lap behind after leaving the track on Lap 104, but drove himself back on course and continued the race a lap down. Rodgers had started on the pole and held the lead until Moore overtook him on Lap 16.

“(Rodgers) was a lap behind and didn’t want to let me by,” said Moore, who led 47 of the 150 laps.

“I wore the right front tire out, after that the car got tight and I had to hang in there. Those last 15 laps were miserable. Like hitting your thumb with a hammer. At every turn I was praying it would turn.”

Pancho Darveau of Chelsea won the 40-lap PASS Mods feature in just his second start on the circuit.

Mark Lundbland Jr., of Conway, N.H., placed second, followed by Alan Wilson of Hebron.

In the track weekly racing series, Steve Benincasa of Buxton edged Nick Cusack of Scarborough by half a car-length to win the 30-lap Wildcat feature. Bill Jackson of Buxton won the 35-lap Sport Series event, and David Cameron of Alfred captured the 20-lap Roadrunner race. It was his third win this season.

The PASS North circuit heads to Thompson, Conn., on Thursday night.

The tour will return to Scarborough on Sept. 14-16 for the PASS 400.

 

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