Big Dawg Challenge

[ups88john]

...was postponed until tomorrow. here is the starting line up.

 

1 29 Scott Chubbuck Wiscasset, ME Taurus 2003 Cushman Competition

2 54 Johnny Clark Hallowell, ME Monte Carlo 2002 DNK Select Used Cars, Clarks Cars & Parts

3 8 Cassius Clark Farmington, ME Taurus 2003 Chapman Trucking

4 0 Sam Sessions South Paris, ME Monte Carlo 2003 Call of the Wild RV Center, Auburn Metal Fabrication, Typar House Wrap

5 00 Ben Rowe Turner, ME Monte Carlo 1999 Mechanical Services, Superior Image, Hi Tech Insulation

6 66 Tracy Gordon Strong, ME Monte Carlo 2003 Stalco Construction, SNF Crane

7 10 Bill Whorff, Jr. Topsham, ME Monte Carlo 1999 Plante's Seafood

8 37 Larry Gelinas Scarborough, ME Monte Carlo 2002 Digby's Variety

9 24x Mike Rowe Turner, ME Monte Carlo 1999 K & K Excavation

10 08 Scott Fraser Shubenacadie, NS Monte Carlo 2003 King Freight Lines, Dalton Industries

11 88 Jeff Taylor Mercer, ME Monte Carlo 2003 Coca Cola

12 17 Travis Benjamin Morrill, ME Taurus 2002 Belfast Variety

13 24 Jarod Robie Candia, NH Monte Carlo 2003 -

14 2 Stan Meserve Mooresville, NC Monte Carlo 1999 P.T. Watts, Inc.

15 75 Gary Smith Bangor, ME Monte Carlo 1999 Bud & Rays Auto, Uncle Henry's

16 83 Donnie Whitten Biddeford, ME Monte Carlo 1999 Moody Construction

17 77 Dave Gorveatt Charlottetown, PEI Thunderbird 1999 Johnston Hoe Style, PEI Potatoes

18 2x Jim McCallum Fall River, MA Grand Prix 2003 Hydrostop Roofing

19 02 Kenny Wright Woolwich, ME Monte Carlo 1999 Newmarket Sand & Gravel

20 33 Richie Dearborn Hollis, ME Monte Carlo 2002 Chadwick BaRoss, Dayton Sand & Gravel

21 3 Paul Pierce Lincolnville, ME Monte Carlo 2002 Pierce Plumbing & Electric

22 60 Dale Shaw Center Conway, N Intrepid 2003 American Air Systems, GOD, Hills RV, Plumb Potter Automotive

23 72 Scott Robbins Dixfield, ME Taurus 2002 RoweAuburn, Race Basics

24 38 Chuck LaChance Cushing, M Taurus 2003 Fuller Auto Mall

25 53 Alan Wilson Hebron, ME Monte Carlo 1999 T & K Concrete

26 71 Gary Drew Otisfield, ME Monte Carlo 1999 Surfine Food

27 84 Scott Mulkern Falmouth, ME Intrepid 2003 Community Pharmacies

28 59 John Phippen Bar Harbor, ME Monte Carlo 1999 Blanchard & Gray Contractors

29 01 Wayne Helliwell, Jr. Pelham, ME Monte Carl 2002 Tim Zelonis Excavating, Eliminator Inc., Emerson Engines

30 0x Bill Penfold Yarmouth, ME Monte Carlo 2002 VIP Charter Coaches

31 40 Dan McKeage Gorahm, ME Monte Carlo 2002 L. R. McKeage General Contractors

32 8x Freddie Query Mooresville, NC Monte Carlo 2003 Hamner Racing Engines, A P Brakes, Carrerra Shocks, Appleton, Hawk

33 88x Steve Knowlton Ipswich, MA Monte Carlo 2003 Barfly, Inc.

34 93 Patrick Leperle St. Denis, QU Monte Carlo 2002 Precision JLM

35 38x Bobby Allen Raymond, NH Intrepid 2002 Windham Tree Service, Allen Motors

36 24k Travis Khiel Denmark, ME Monte Carlo 1999 Khiel Logging, Frechette Tire, Beach Cliff Sardines

37 28 Kirk Thibeau Fort Fairfield, ME Taurus 2003 -

38 41 Peter Oakes Boothbay, ME Monte Carlo 2002 Mill Cove Lobster, Ace Well Service

39 97 John Flemming Halifax, NS Intrepid 2002 Atlantic Dodge Dealers, The Roofing Connection

 

big john

[HoosierDaddy]

Seems like Freddie Query would've ran better than that. He reminds me of what we all were looking forward to at this time last year, the Big Shot. It'd be nice to be having that race again. Come on SAS, get it together and lets have a snowball caliber race.

[ups88john]

here are the results.

 

Big Dawg Unofficial Finishing Order

 

Car # Driver City State

1 0 Sam Sessions South Paris ME

2 77 Dave Gorveatt Charlottetown PEI

3 72 Scott Robbins Dixfield M

4 83 Donnie Whitten Biddeford ME

5 33 Richie Dearborn Hollis ME

6 0x Bill Penfold Yarmouth ME

7 88 Jeff Taylor Mercer ME

8 02 Kenny Wright Woolwich ME

9 66 Tracy Gordon Strong ME

10 28 Kirk Thibeau Fort Fairfield ME

11 01 Wayne Helliwell, Jr. Pelham NH

12 38 Chuck LaChance Cushing ME

13 53 Alan Wilson Hebron ME

14 8x Freddie Query Mooresville NC

15 91 Patrick Leperle St. Denis QUE

16 2 Stan Meserve Mooresville NC

17 38x Bobby Allen Raymond NH

18 3 Paul Pierce Lincolnville ME

19 60 Dale Shaw Center Conway NH

20 08 Scott Fraser Shubenacadie NS

21 29 Scott Chubbuck Wiscasset ME

22 59 John Phippen Bar Harbor ME

23 24k Travis Khiel Denmark ME

24 10 Bill Whorff, Jr. Topsham ME

25 40 Dan McKeage Morrill ME

26 17 Travis Benjamin Morrill ME

27 00 Ben Rowe Turner ME

28 24x Mike Rowe Turner ME

29 97 John Flemming Halifax NS

30 54 Johnny Clark Hallowell ME

31 8 Cassius Clark Farmington ME

32 2x Jim McCallum Fall River MA

33 84 Scott Mulkern Falmouth ME

34 37 Larry Gelinas Scarborough ME

35 24 Jarod Robie Candia NH

36 75 Gary Smith Bangor ME

37 41 Peter Oakes Boothbay ME

38 71 Gary Drew Otisfield ME

39 88x Steve Knowlton Ipswich MA

 

big john

[NickHolt]

Story about the Big Dawg from the Bangor (Maine) Daily News

Bangor Daily News story

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Sessions Dashes to Title

Big Dawg won in last eight laps

 

By Larry Mahoney, Of the BANGOR DAILY NEWS Staff

 

WISCASSET, Maine - After 392 green flag laps and 121 non-countable caution flag laps, the first Big Dawg Challenge and a $100,000 paycheck came down to an eight-lap dash to the checkered flag at Wiscasset Raceway Monday between leader Dave Gorveatt of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, and Norway native Sam Sessions. Sessions, who drove a Chevy Monte Carlo, got the jump on the restart, eventually moved down to the inside groove on the one-third-mile track and held off Gorveatt by .681 of a second.

 

"It got a little panicky there and I missed a shift on that last restart," said Gorveatt, who drove a Ford Thunderbird. "I didn't get up into [gear], I had to go the second time and Sammy was gone."

 

"We weren't real good on forward bite, so I knew I had to bring the pace up really good and have him come in fast before we stepped on it. I didn't want to be spinning my tires," said Sessions.

 

"I wasn't taking any chances," added Sessions, who started the race in the fourth slot. "Dave is a tough competitor. On the two restarts before, he got a little bit of a jump on Jeff [Taylor]. I said I know how we're going to play this one."

 

Gorveatt said he expected Sessions to make a dash for the front.

 

"I thought Sammy would try a move. I had a move in my head, too, but it didn't work. I thought I might be able to sweep under him," said Gorveatt. "I was also scared of the 72 [Robbins]. He was strong. I didn't want to lose second to him. I was playing cat-and-mouse."

 

Sessions crew chief Ray Straiton said, "Dave had been strong on restarts, but I thought our tires were a little fresher on that last restart and that's the only thing that made the difference."

 

Gorveatt took home $20,000 and said he was pleased with his second-place finish.

 

"We've had a great year," said Gorveatt, who started 17th in the race.

 

The triumph was especially rewarding for Sessions because he hadn't won a Pro All-Stars Series race this season and had only two top-three finishes after winning four races the previous year. And he has had a string of bad luck in Oxford True Value 250s.

 

"How could this not be the highlight of my career?" posed the 47-year-old Sessions, a welder and developer by trade who now lives in South Paris. "Over the last six years, we have been so competitive in the Oxford 250 and circumstances have just been cruel to us. This time, they were cruel to some other people. It was our day. We definitely had a fast car, we deserved to win, and we also had luck with us."

 

The luck had occurred on lap 383 when pole-sitter Scott Chubbuck of Wiscasset spun leader Dale Shaw of Center Conway, N.H.

 

Chubbuck had hounded Shaw for several laps while trying to take the lead, but Shaw was able to hold him off, just barely at times.

 

This time, Chubbuck got into the back of Shaw's car only to get the worst of the ordeal when his car careened into the wall on the backstretch.

 

There was another restart following a caution on lap 388 with Gorveatt and Mercer's Taylor running up front.

 

Shaw, who had taken the lead on lap 320 and had been pulling away from the field until Chubbuck closed the gap and bumped him, started fifth on the restart and again made a run to the front only to get into the back of Taylor on lap 390.

 

That eliminated their chances of winning.

 

Dixfield's Scott Robbins finished third after starting 23rd and rounding out the top 10 in the 39-car field were Donnie Whitten of Biddeford, Richie Dearborn of Hollis, Yarmouth's Billy Penfold, Taylor, Woolwich's Kenny Wright, Strong's Tracy Gordon, and Fort Fairfield's Kirk Thibeau.

 

Shaw finished 19th and Chubbuck wound up 21st.

 

Only four cars finished on the lead lap.

 

Robbins pocketed $8,000 for third and was also happy, particularly considering "I lost my brakes with 50 laps to go."

 

"We knew we had a car that could stay on the lead lap," said Robbins. "We got pretty close [to the front] a couple of times. We saw what was going on up front and we tried to give everybody on the lead lap a little room. We knew if we didn't get mixed up with any of them, we could finish near the top five."

 

Town Hill's John Phippen was one of the race's hard-luck drivers as he was running third on lap 349 when Chubbuck and Billy Whorff hit side panels. Whorff went into the dirt and then slid up the track and knocked Phippen over the embankment.

 

Phippen drove into the pits but his car couldn't continue. He finished 22nd.

 

Hallowell's Johnny Clark, Farmington's Cassius Clark, two-time PASS champ Ben Rowe of Turner, and Scott Fraser of Shubnacadie, Nova Scotia, ran impressively until accidents or car trouble intervened.

[NickHolt]

This is from the Bangor (Maine) Daily News web site:

 

Bangor Daily News story

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Big Dawg Race May Not Return

 

By Larry Mahoney, Of the BANGOR DAILY NEWS Staff

 

Nobody has done more for Pro Stock racing in the state of Maine over the last three years than Tom Mayberry. Mayberry, a former racer himself, put together the Pro All Stars Series tour, which has flourished in its three years.

 

Established and successful Busch North drivers like Dale Shaw of Center Conway, N.H., and Strong's Tracy Gordon switched allegiances and joined the PASS Tour this past season.

 

Mayberry, who is leasing Wiscasset Raceway this season, outdid himself Monday with the first 400-lap Big Dawg Challenge at Wiscasset.

 

Four hundred green flag laps is new territory to Pro Stock drivers in the northeast. It is 150 laps more than the state's most prestigious race: the Oxford True Value 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway.

 

And the race itself was a gem. It became a fascinating battle of attrition.

 

There were some terrific late-race duels at the front, particularly the one between Shaw and Wiscasset's Scott Chubbuck. Sam Sessions of Norway pocketed the $100,000 winner's purse by blowing past Dave Gorveatt of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on a restart with eight laps remaining.

 

The beauty of 400 green-flag laps is the pit crews take on added importance. And virtually all of the pit crew members are volunteers.

 

There were 19 cautions, so it wasn't as though the pit crews had to change tires during green flag racing. But a lot of cars sustained damage and the duct tape and hammers were getting plenty of use in the pits. So the race became more of a team sport than it is during a regular 50-, 100- or 150-lap feature.

 

Mayberry was a proud father after the race although he speculated that the richest short-track race in Maine racing history may be a one-shot deal. When asked if it would be held again next year, Mayberry said, "I doubt it.

 

"I'll give it some thought over the next couple of weeks. We expected 75-80 cars. We based everything based on 75 cars," said Mayberry, who had just 48 cars vie for the 39 starting positions.

 

"The whole Pro Stock community support wasn't there. Obviously, all the regular guys who run with me [on the PASS tour] and support us all the time did it again. But I'm a little disappointed with all the other Pro Stock guys," said Mayberry. "I don't know if they got scared off because they didn't think they could compete with these guys or what."

 

But Mayberry was happy with the race itself and the turnout. It was rained out Sunday and rescheduled for Monday.

 

"I was happy with the crowd. The fans were tremendous. I think it worked out pretty good. We got a few more people today [Monday] that we didn't get yesterday [sunday] but there were some people who were there yesterday who couldn't make it today.

 

"And I was very proud of the drivers. They did a tremendous job," added Mayberry. "There weren't that many cautions the first half of the race and then they got hungry at the end which you want them to do."

 

Mayberry is extremely popular among the drivers and they tipped their hat to him for pulling it off and expressed the hope it will return next year.

 

"I can't thank Tom and the guys enough for putting everything on the line. Talk about a gamble. I hope these guys made out. For all the people who were dumb enough not to come, it was their loss," said Sessions.

 

Here's hoping there is a second Big Dawg Challenge next year.

 

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or by email at lmahoney@bangordailynews.net.

[tqj3]

HoosierDaddy-

Did you notice A) there were only 48 entries and the promoter said he probably wouldn't do it again? The Big Shot drew more entries and still lost money. Who wants to bankroll it?

As for Query, word is that he called before he went to tell them what he had and how they would tech him and was told, "Oh, we'll probably add 28 pounds or so." They actually added 28 pounds for each thing they found that wasn't to their rules, and he ran some 200 pounds overweight. All in all, he finished pretty well.