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ON PIT ROAD: Sanborn, Sprint Cup and soggy shoes

It's Thursday again. That means it's time to roll the old Mini Stock out of the garage, wipe the dust off and shake down the setup with a spin around the dirt track at the end of the street. With that, here's the latest list of notes collected in a dog-eared notebook over the last few weeks...

* EVERY TIME A non-Sprint Cup-affiliated team wins a NASCAR Camping World East Series race, it should be celebrated, particularly by fans who lament the significant changes the series has undergone in the last few years.

When the CWES was still a northeastern-based series, Matt Kobyluck’s Mohegan Sun team was one of the better funded teams there was. These days, with Cup teams putting East cars on the dyno every day – every day! – it’s impossible for "regular" guys to keep up.

ON SITE: Rain in victory lane at Wiscasset Raceway

Welcome to Wiscasset Raceway, my new home for rain.

Used to be Unity Raceway filled that bill for me, but now it's this place apparently, Last time I was here, a PASS North Series feature was shortened 27 laps by rain, and -- wouldn't you know it -- on my way here tonight it started pouring like a banshee.

At 6:25 p.m., the track made the official word to cancel the program. It's the 5th rainout of the year for Wiscasset already.

ON PIT ROAD: Cups, combinations and curious decisions

It's Thursday again. That means it's time to roll the old Mini Stock out of the garage, wipe the dust off and shake down the setup with a spin around the dirt track at the end of the street. With that, here's the latest list of notes collected in a dog-eared notebook over the last few weeks...

* I"M HEARING THAT there will be "fewer" big races on the Wiscasset Raceway schedule in 2009.

The track is expected to do away with many of the automatic qualifiers for the Street Stock and Sportsman Nationals events in October, races held as part of the season-ending championship weekend for PASS at Wiscasset.

BREAKING NEWS: DEI has PASS driver Derek Ramstrom "on their radar"

DEI is watching 16-year-old PASS North Series driver Derek Ramstrom.

Ramstrom's father, Rick Ramstrom, confirmed Tuesday that he and his son met with DEI development director Mike Greci for half an hour on Saturday morning at Thompson International Speedway. Greci was at Thompson to watch 3 DEI cars compete in the NASCAR Camping World East Series Pepsi 100, a race won by DEI driver Trevor Bayne.

According to Rick Ramstrom, Greci said that Derek Ramstrom is "on their radar."

BREAKING NEWS: Ben Rowe declared PASS winner at Thompson

Ben Rowe has been declared the winner of the PASS North Series event at Thompson International Speedway.

After seeing Rick Martin celebrate an apparent first-place finish in victory lane at the Pepsi Full Fendered Frenzy 75, Rowe had to wait almost 2 full days before PASS president Tom Mayberry released an official finish on Monday afternoon. Martin was penalized one position for jumping the race's final restart from the pole position.

Johnny Clark was 3rd, while Trevor Sanborn and Derek Ramstrom rounded out the top-5.

Still no Thompson PASS North Series results

It's been 24 hours since THE PEPSI FULL FENDERED FRENZY 75 ENDED IN CONFUSION at Thompson International Speedway, but there's still no word on any official results from the PASS North Series.

Rick Martin was allowed to celebrate in victory lane, ahead of Ben Rowe and Johnny Clark, though PASS said the race was unofficial.

Late Saturday night, PASS informed the media that there would not be an unofficial finishing order released, and that when the race was made official it would be posted on the sanctioning body's Web site. As of 8:50 p.m. Sunday, there was still no word from PASS.

COLUMN: PASS's credibility takes another big hit

The way the PASS North Series handled Saturday night was unacceptable by any standard.

An enthusiastic crowd. A big, high-banked track suited to showing off what these cars are all about. A market that doesn't typically see competitive Super Late Model racing.

What those at Thompson International Speedway for the Pepsi Full Fendered Frenzy 75 got instead of a marquee event was a glorified practice session. No rules. No winners. No losers.

Just a big, ugly mess.

ON SITE: Rick Martin unofficially named PASS winner

Unofficially speaking, of course, Rick Martin won his first PASS North Series race in 2 seasons on Saturday night at Thompson International Speedway.

More than 1 hour after the checkered flag fell on the Pepsi Full Fendered Frenzy 75, PASS official Scott Reed said that the finish was being closely examined. Asked if that meant Martin's win was under scrutiny, Reed responded, "It's way unofficial."

Ben Rowe, at least in the interim, had been credited with 2nd place following 2 green-white-checkered restarts. Johnny Clark was 3rd.

ON SITE: Good thing I drove with the full fenders

This portion of the program is being brought to you by Monster energy drink, CLIF bars and the I'm-Gonna-Run-You-Over 225 at Interstate 95 Speedway.

Seriously folks, I know we joke all the time about tourists driving like it's Talladega out there, but I lived and breathed it today. Put it this way -- if you were going 85 mph, you were in the middle lane being passed on both sides, with hand signals flying your way like Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were about to wreck each other in Nationwide Series cars.

It was that bad.

Derek Ramstrom will run Oxford 250

Derek Ramstrom will attempt to run the Oxford 250 next weekend.

Ramstrom's father, Rick Ramstrom, confirmed Saturday afternoon that Ramstrom will drive a Late Model owned by Denny Stampfl. The car is the same one that David Avery drove in last year's 250. The open Late Model competition is scheduled for July 20th.

Ramstrom, 16, of West Boylston, Mass., had talked about running a PASS National Championship event at Orange County the night before, but with his weekly efforts at Thompson International Speedway taking place on Thursday nights, the team felt they couldn't do it.

Corey Williams returns to PASS North this weekend

Corey Williams will pull double duty of a different kind on Saturday.

Williams, a Boothbay native and the PASS South Series points leader, will run in the 75-lap PASS North event at Thompson International Speedway. Williams will drive the No. 29 Ford of longtime PASS owner Jay Cushman.

Williams was slated to be at Thompson anyway. He works at Andy Santerre Motorsports, which fields cars in the NASCAR Camping World East Series for Peyton Sellers.

Cassius Clark still has something to prove

Don't you think Cassius Clark has something to prove?

The last 2 trips the PASS North Series made to Thompson International Speedway didn't exactly go as Cassius Clark had planned. First Clark beat former Sprint Cup Series drivers Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace, only to have the victory clouded by a DQ in technical inspection. Then, he missed out on the show entirely last year when he and car owner Ed Chapman briefly split for a 2nd time.

Now the driver from Farmington comes to the Full Fendered Frenzy 75 at Thompson this Saturday night leading the PASS North standings for the 1st time since 2006 -- but still in search of his 1st victory of the year.

Adam Bates a PASS winner; Hewins puts end to Rolfe's streak

Can I pick the sand out of my toes long enough to produce any meaningful work? Probably not.

But in case you, too, are living 13 hours behind the rest of the world this week and figured this was the only stop you'd make in your search for results from Saturday night -- here's some of what went down.

Adam Bates, who has been taking steps toward success in the PASS North Series, won the Firecracker 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

ON PIT ROAD: Bruton, Busch and Beech Ridge

It's Thursday again. That means it's time to roll the old Mini Stock out of the garage, wipe the dust off and shake down the setup with a spin around the dirt track at the end of the street. With that, here's the latest list of notes collected in a dog-eared notebook over the last few weeks...

* ON THE ONE hand, you've got about as old New England as they come.

Bob Bahre, the former owner of what was called New Hampshire International Speedway, always wearing a pressed white shirt and work pants, with the same yellow cardigan sweater if he caught a chill in the air. He dined in the same little breakfast nook each morning, spoke shortly and directly, and never seemed to smile -- even when cracking a joke so dry a garden hose couldn't save it.

On the other hand, you've got about as big city glitz as they come.

ON SITE: My sister is a freeloader

Because I have no scruples at all, I willing to throw family members under the bus.

To wit: My sister just called to tell me she's bringing her kids over to Beech Ridge Motor Speedway to watch the fireworks display planned for later on in the night. Of course, she's not actually coming for the racing -- in fact, she's no different that those dozen or so people peering over the fence outside of the turn 1 run-off area.

My sister plans to come late, watch from the parking lot and leave early.

Race traffic, rainouts and rain dates

This is how the day starts: Seeing a race fan walking along Route 106 in Loudon, carrying a bag of donuts and a 6-pack of beer.

The breakfast of champions.

Either fans are car-pooling, or the sight of all the Speedway Motorsports Inc. banners have people feeling like this should be an L.A. kind of thing. No traffic on 106 at 7 a.m. on race day? Hmmm...

ON SITE: Keeping track of the off-site goings on

Another glamorous day in the life of a local auto racing writer...

We've spent most of the day here paying attention to what's going on elsewhere -- namely, where the rains are headed for later today and which events are going to be impacted. Not far from halfway in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, it looks like this will be the only day of the weekend thus far without some sort of weather delay.

The American-Canadian Tour 60 miles up the road in North Woodstock might not be so lucky.

ON SITE: Look out for the golf carts, dude

Some things never change.

Despite all the new signage, logo placements and vibrant color schemes, it's still the same old New Hampshire. How do I know this?

Because it took all of 3 minutes of being in the infield this morning before I was nearly run over by another one of those golf carts on steroids.

ON PIT ROAD: Goats, Ganassi and Gunk

It's Thursday again. That means it's time to roll the old Mini Stock out of the garage, wipe the dust off and shake down the setup with a spin around the dirt track at the end of the street. With that, here's the latest list of notes collected in a dog-eared notebook over the last few weeks...

* YOU GOTTA RESPECT a guy that goes by the name, "The Goat."

And we're not talking Billy Buckner here. We're talking "The Greatest of All-Time," as in Ricky Carmichael. See, Carmichael knows a thing or two about winning in motorsports.

New year, new rule for PASS race at All-Star

Here's to guessing that it will someday come to be known as the "Kyle Busch Rule."

If you can't beat them, then -- well, just convince them to change the rule. One year after Kyle Busch was first to the checkered flag in a PASS North Series race at All-Star Speedway, he'll be back again to try and win the event this Saturday night.

But there's one amendment to the rules for the All-Stars 200. This year, teams are allowed to change 2 tires during the race.