Since its inception in 2001, the Pro All-Star Series has taken Maine’s top stock car drivers throughout New England, Canada and even south of the Mason-Dixon Line for PASS South events.

But the series had never held a race at New England’s premier track, the tight-turned one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire.

Reid Lanpher, 17, second in the Beech Ridge Pro Series, will be one of the 33 PASS drivers racing in New Hampshire. Staff file photo

That changes this weekend. The AIM PASS Super Late Model 60-lap feature will be held Sunday, with a full day of practice Saturday.

It’s also the first time PASS has raced on a one-mile track.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement but there are also a lot of unknowns,” said Tom Mayberry, the PASS president. “There’s going to be some surprises with the speed and stuff, like how the downforce is going to affect these cars.”

The 33-driver entry list is impressive. Most of the PASS North regulars are entered, including reigning champion D.J. Shaw, points leader Mike Rowe, Johnny Clark, Ben Rowe and Cassius Clark.

Other drivers entered include Kyle Busch Racing drivers Christopher Bell and Kaz Grala (both winners on the PASS South tour), Michigan teenager Vinnie Miller and Florida native Dalton Sargeant. Sargeant won a K&N Pro Series event in California earlier this year.

Maine’s 17-year-old sensation Reid Lanpher, second in the Pro Series at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, is making his first appearance on the speedway.

“I have only run the road course there in my legends car and we tested a little over a month ago there in the big car,” Lanpher said. “We’ve never run on the big oval. The biggest track I’ve raced at is Thompson Speedway in Connecticut and that’s five-eighths of a mile.”

Lanpher said the early May test session was helpful and Saturday’s practice sessions should lead to even greater learning.

“It’s fast,” Lanpher said with a laugh. “It’s just a matter of having the confidence with all the downforce that these cars have to start to make your turn before you let off the gas. More laps are going to help me there.”

Drivers like Mike Rowe, New Hampshire’s Eddie MacDonald, Ted Christopher and Scarborough’s Kelly Moore all have turned hundreds of laps at NHMS.

Christopher, of Plainville, Connecticut, has 10 career wins at NHMS, five each in stock cars and modifieds, including four straight in modifieds in 2004-05. Moore won five times when the then-named New Hampshire International Speedway was the marquee stop for the Busch North/Busch East tour.

Even the veterans will be adapting to driving a lighter car expected to be more maneuverable.

“Teddy (Christopher) was there at the test session,” Mayberry said. “He and (Scott) Mulkern had the fastest cars. He said he just couldn’t believe how quick these cars were.”

Joey Doiron of Berwick, 23, is coming off a 125-lap win at Beech Ridge last Saturday. He has raced at NHMS once on the ACT Tour. Doiron said for him, the competition level is more exciting than being at a one-mile track.

“You never get better racing against the same guys,” Doiron said. “It’s important that you branch out and race against guys that are better than you. If you’re winning every race against the same guys, you’re never going to get better.”

One notable absence from the field will be two-time defending Oxford 250 champ and PASS North regular Travis Benjamin of Morrill.

“I’ve got one car, the one engine, and if anything ever happened to that stuff I’d be out for probably the season,” Benjamin said.

“I know you can do that at any race but at that place, if you go into the fence you’re going to wreck a race car.”

Benjamin raced at NHMS several times on the old Busch North tour from 2000-04.

“To the right person it’s significant. A young kid trying to make your name, you want to go to Loudon,” Benjamin said. “I’m sure Reid Lanpher’s excited to go to Loudon.”

In fact, Lanpher said he’s “pumped” for his first taste of racing at speeds expected to exceed 150 mph on the straights.

“I think there’s going to be quite a few people watching,” Lanpher said. “It will just be an all-around great experience.

“We’ll learn a lot from it and I’m sure I’ll leave there a lot more comfortable with a larger track like that.”

Tickets for Sunday’s racing, which includes the North East Mini Stock tour, are $20 for adults, $10 for juniors (12-17) and $5 for kids (ages 6-11). All tickets will be sold at the track on race day.

The race will use a competition yellow flag after lap 35. Mayberry said the planned stop is to allow teams to come to the track with modest crews, hopefully allowing the race to be determined on the track instead of in the pit.

Locally, both Beech Ridge and Oxford Plains are racing Friday night with fireworks displays added to their regular weekly shows.

At Beech Ridge, Garrett Hall will try to expand on his four-point lead over Lanpher in the Pro Series.

At Oxford Plains, veteran Tim Brackett has a two-point lead over Kyle Treadwell in the Super Late Model division.

Both tracks have seen a different winner in its top division at each race this season.

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