Sibling rivalries are often limited to less adrenaline-pumping pursuits. For Kamren Knowles and his sister, Brooke Knowles, they’ve taken their rivalry to the track.

The brother and sister sit first and third, respectively, in the New England 4-Cylinder Pro Stock division at Wiscasset Speedway. Kamren, 16, has won four of the five feature events for the class this season, including the most recent race, a 50-lap, extra distance feature July 2.

“It’s been pretty good so far,” he said. “We’re always trying something new with it, I guess. I won the first four (races) and then blew up. I like it here.”

Kamren is the two-time defending champion in the 4-Cylinder Pro Stocks, a division born from the now defunct Allison Legacy Series, which features small-scale replicas of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars.

In 2014, Kamren became the youngest champion in Wiscasset Speedway history when he was 14 years old.

There’s a chance that Kamren, who started racing at 10 years old in the Teen division at Unity Raceway, could move up to a full-sized car before long.

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But Brooke Knowles isn’t leaving all the fun to him. The 18-year-old recent Gardiner Area High School graduate is in her second full season of competition.

“My brother said, ‘You can’t do it,’ and I decided right then that if he told me I couldn’t do it I was going to prove him wrong,” said Brooke, who’s best career finish of second came June 18.

Both Knowles have a solid team around them preparing their cars for weekly racing. Maurice Young, of Chelsea, a five-time Street Stock champion at the track, is the crew chief for both cars.

For Brooke, the learning curve is about a lot more than just driving the car. She’s trying to absorb as much as she can about what goes into making the cars go faster.

“I try to learn what they’re doing with the car so I can tell them what it’s doing out there (on the race track) when they can’t see it. I’m still trying to learn that,” she said. “Still, just going out there and driving around and around and around helps a lot — I thought it would be easy, but you have a groove and you want to stick to it.”

Kamren has tried to help accelerate the process, but siblings being siblings, it’s not always that easy.

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“I give her a little bit of advice on some stuff,” Kamren said, “but usually she gives me crap about something.”

While the rivalry may not be heated out on the track, rest assured, the sibling rivalry is alive and well.

“I just took his bedroom over, so he was mad about that,” Brooke said. “I don’t care.”

FINALLY: Morrill’s Travis Benjamin, a two-time Oxford 250 winner, won the PASS Southern Maine Chrysler Dodge Jeep 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Tuesday night. The rare-midweek race was the result of a rainout at the track on Saturday.

It was a significant win for Benjamin, the 2012 series champion, because it was his first victory of the season — while driving for the reigning championship team of Petit Motorsports.

Mike Rowe, of Turner, drove for the team a year ago.

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The win was just Benjamin’s second top 10 finish in six starts this season.

LEFT TURNS: It’s a quadruple-header of auto racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, this weekend. The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and NASCAR Xfinity Series divisions are all on the 1.058-mile oval Saturday with the New Hampshire 301 for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on Sunday. … Wiscasset Speedway will have two Late Model Sportsman features on July 23 after last week’s feature was claimed by rain. Zach Audet of Skowhegan padded his Outlaw Mini point lead by winning the rain-shortened feature for that class. … The trend at Oxford Plains Speedway continues: There have been 11 different winners in 11 races in the Super Late Model division at the track. Curt Gerry became the most recent driver to extend the streak last Friday night.

Travis Barrett — 621-5621

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TBarrettGWC


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