At the PASS 2011
Banquet, Lonnie Sommerville received his trophy for
second in the North SLM points standings and a plaque
for Co-Rookie-of-
the-Year alnong with Kyle Desouza.
PASS Champions Day
Saturday, October 15th
Oxford 10-14-11 PASS SLM TOP
THREE
DJ Shaw #60, 3rd; Winner Scott Mulkern #84;
and Travis Benjamin #17, 2nd.
Scott Collects Second Career
PASS North Series Win
Lonnie 7th for 2nd in PASS
North Points
and 2011 PASS SLM Rookie of the Year
OXFORD, Maine – Scott
Mulkern of Falmouth, Maine, led the final 15 laps en
route to his second career PASS North Series win with a
victory in the season-ending PASS Championship 150 at
Oxford Plains Speedway on Saturday.
The race was called by
rain after 118 laps. Two unsuccessful attempts were made
by series officials to dry the track before the win was
granted to Mulkern and the No. 84 Southern Maine
Motors/Community Pharmacies Dodge.
“It means a lot. That's
where you want to be,” said Mulkern, who dedicated the
win to his father, Will Mulkern, who died in June after
a battle with cancer. “I just had a great car. Gary
(Crooks)'s preparation at the shop and Seth Holbrook at
the track is unbelievable.”
Mulkern's only previous
PASS North Series victory came in 2004 when he won at
Thompson International Speedway. He has raced part-time
in the series that last few years.
The win led a great day
for Mulkern Racing. Lonnie Sommerville of Saint John,
New Brunswick, finished seventh in the No. 48 A.E. McKay
Builders Chevrolet to clinch second in the overall PASS
North Series standings and win the 2011 Rookie of the
Year award.
“Second in the points and
Scott winning the race, it's a great day for Mulkern
Racing,” Sommerville said. “Big picture, it's good for
building on next year and what we're going to do in the
future. At some point, this team is going to be
unstoppable.”
Mulkern started 25th in
the 33-car field after both he and Sommerville
encountered problems in first-round qualifying. But the
bad starting spot didn't slow Mulkern, who had cracked
the Top-5 by the midpoint of the event with the aid of
just two early caution flags
When the caution flew
again on Lap 96, Mulkern was in second and just seven
laps later he took the lead from Travis Benjamin. He
lost the lead briefly on another restart before cruising
to the win.
The only thing that slowed
Mulkern was the rain, but even that came too late to
stop him from securing the well-earned victory.
“I've always been pretty
good here (at Oxford),” Mulkern said. “People might not
know it because I always seemed to shoot myself in the
foot, but I've had some really good cars at this track.
It's hard to win here. I thought I could do it with the
right people and the right effort.”
Heat >>
Feature >>
Two-Car
Team To Put Wraps On PASS North Season
FALMOUTH, Maine – Mulkern Racing
will field a two-car effort as the PASS North Series
puts the final touches on the 2011 season with the
rain-delayed PASS Championship 150 at Oxford Plains
Speedway in Oxford, Maine, on Saturday, October 15.
Lonnie Sommerville sits second in the overall PASS North
standings heading into the final race of the year, while
team owner Scott Mulkern will make his fifth start of
the season. Sommerville, who will lock up the Rookie of
the Year title with the start on Saturday, finished
second to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kyle Busch
when the series last visited Oxford Plains in July,
while Mulkern posted a season-best finish of second in
his last outing – in the PASS 300 at Beech Ridge Motor
Speedway last month.
#48 Sommerville POINTS POSITION: 2nd
DID YOU KNOW?
- Lonnie Sommerville will be the highest finishing
rookie in PASS North Series history with a second-place
finish in the final overall standings.
- Mulkern Racing finished with two cars in the Top-11
when the series last visited Oxford Plains Speedway.
- Lonnie has a win and 10 Top-5 finishes in 13 series
starts this season.
- Lonnie won a Sportsman race in Canada at Speedway 660
during the recent break in the PASS North Series
schedule.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
LONNIE SOMMERVILLE, Driver of the No. 48
A.E. McKay Builders/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet, On
finishing second his last time out at Oxford Plains
Speedway: “We probably saved (our car) a
little too long. We talked about it before the race
started, that we were going to try and run about 80
percent to try and save the tires and keep it under us.
We probably didn't expect as many long green-flag runs
as we had.
“I probably used a little bit of it at the end, but I
still think we had more left in it. One or two more
yellows would have been nice – it was pretty good on old
tires. Once we'd get going, I'd get a little tight on
the top and a little free on the bottom.”
On how his first full season in the PASS
North Series has gone: “It's been pretty
good. This race team is just awesome. Vickie and Scott
(Mulkern) give us everything we need, and Andrew McKay
from McKay Builders, too. It's exciting to finish on the
podium with these guys as much as we have, but I think
we can be even better. Going to a lot of new tracks for
me this year has been a challenge, and I feel like we
can't be satisfied – even with as good a year as we've
probably had. I think it will just help motivate us for
next season.
“Everybody on my race team... All my guys just work
their butts off.”
SCOTT MULKERN, Driver of the No. 84 Southern
Maine Motors Dodge, On racing as a part-time competitor
in 2011: “In the big picture, if you look
at my style and the way I sometimes shoot myself in the
foot, I don't care about (points). Not at all. Guys like
Ben (Rowe) – he likes that. Johnny (Clark) likes that.
That's the challenge for those guys. They like that
whole thing, their whole team does, of points racing.
“I don't think they drive much different than if they
weren't racing for points – that's not necessarily the
way they are. But I personally don't care about the
championship. I want to win races more than that. If you
told me I could race all year and not win a race but win
the championship, or I could win four races and no
championship, I'd want to win four races. We're trying
to do that – but it just goes along with everything else
you're doing.”
SETH HOLBROOK, Crew Chief on the No. 84
Southern Maine Motors Dodge, On racing at Oxford Plains
Speedway: “We like going there. It's a a
good place to race, and both of our cars ran well there
last time. Hopefully, we can get a win this weekend.”
The PASS 150 SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24th
Lonnie 4th at White
Mountain
After a bad draw for the heat
resulted in a non-qualifying heat position, Lonnie raced
in the consi to receive a back third of the grid
starting spot.
At the green the began a steady move to the front.
Showing top five speed, the #48 escaped involvement in a
lap 126 restart mess that saw a car pull out of the pits
right into the way of the leasers as the green flew and
then saw a multi-car spin in turns 3 and 4.
The final laps saw the #48 challenging Babb in the #4x
for third, but Lonnie just couldn't get around.
The 4th place finish stretched Lonnie's lead for second
place in the PASS North points standings to 28 over Ben
Rowe in the #4.
The Mulkern sponsored #60 of DJ Shaw took the win. See
the right sidebar. >>>
PASS SLM Top Three - L
to R: Scott Mulkern, 2nd;
Winner Johnny Clark; Trevor Sanborn, 3rd
2nd for SCOTT
SCARBOROUGH, Maine – Scott
Mulkern of Falmouth, Maine, continued to find
success in a part-time role, finishing second in
the PASS North Series PASS 300 at Beech Ridge
Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, on Sunday,
September 18. Mulkern overcame a flat tire early
and a later penalty on pit road to post his best
career PASS finish at Beech Ridge. He moved into
second with under 50 laps remaining and dogged
eventual winner Johnny Clark all the way to the
finish. Mulkern, co-owner of Mulkern Racing, led
a strong day from the team with full-time driver
Lonnie Sommerville also finishing fourth in the
event.
STARTED: 9th FINISHED:
2nd
SCOTT, TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN.
“I couldn't be happier. Two great guys I raced
with here, Johnny (Clark) and Trevor (Sanborn) –
both are great racers. I was right in the middle
of them at the end, and I'm happy as hell.”
DID YOU THINK YOU HAD A SHOT AT THE
WIN LATE?
“If it went green for the whole time, then
maybe. But there weren't enough laps left.
(Clark) was good – he was real good – and I was
good, too. Seth (Holbrook) and the guys did a
great job all weekend adjusting on it. I don't
ever do that in these races. We just don't
usually have hands enough.
“We helped the car from the beginning. I feel
fortunate, getting a flat at the beginning. I'm
happy.”
4th for LONNIE
SCARBOROUGH, Maine– Lonnie
Sommerville of Saint John, New Brunswick,
continued his second-half surge in the PASS
North Series with a fourth-place finish in the
PASS 300 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in
Scarborough, Maine, on Sunday, September 18. It
marked Sommerville's fourth-straight Top-5
finish and catapulted him into second in the
overall PASS North standings with two races
remaining. After starting 17th in the 33-car
field, Sommerville took the lead for a brief
stint on Lap 131. He fought a tight handling
race car, however, over the final third of the
event but was able to hold on and give Mulkern
Racing two cars in the Top-4 at the checkered
flag. Teammate and team owner Scott Mulkern
finished second in just his fourth start of the
season.
STARTED: 17th FINISHED: 4th
TIMES LED: 1
LONNIE, HOW WAS YOUR DAY?
“I'm a little disappointed didn't win this race
today. At points, we had definitely the best
car. But you've got to have the best car at the
end on Lap 300. It is what it is, so we'll go on
to White Mountain next week.”
WHAT CAUSED YOUR HANDLING PROBLEMS?
“Just before we pitted we started hitting the
cross-member on the race track, and we thought
we had a right front going down. It kept hitting
and hitting, but when we pitted it ended up that
we had like 26 pounds (of air pressure) in the
tire, so it was fine. When we put tires on and
went back out, it was still hitting.
“We probably had a spring collapse. That's what
we're figuring. When we put (new) tires on, it
was a bit better – but only because they were
newer tires. But it was still getting down into
the turn, hitting the race track and I was
chasing it up the track.”
YOU ENDED UP HAVING A GREAT POINTS
DAY, THOUGH.
“It's another fourth for us, so it's a good
points day. Ben (Rowe) had some troubles, and
(Alexandre Gingras) had some troubles, too. So
we probably gained a little bit from behind and
we gained a little bit ahead.
“Obviously, Johnny (Clark's) out of reach now,
and rightfully so. They deserve it. They haven't
had any trouble all year. But I'm excited about
this race team.”
Sommerville
and Mulkern Ready To Tackle PASS 300
The weekend of 9/17-18, a
pair of Mulkern Racing entries will try and win
the most prestigious regular-season PASS North
Series race on the schedule, when Lonnie
Sommerville of Saint John, New Brunswick, and
Scott Mulkern of Falmouth, Maine, head to the
PASS 300 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in
Scarborough, Maine. Sommerville won the last
time the series visited Beech Ridge, back in
July, taking the No. 48 A.E. McKay
Builders/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet to
Victory Lane for the first time this season.
Mulkern, who has a both a track championship and
a PASS Outlaw Late Model win at the track on his
resume, competes in a PASS event for the fourth
time this season.
LONNIE'S
BEST CAREER BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY FINISH:
1st (July 2011)
LONNIE'S LAST RACE AT BEECH RIDGE MOTOR
SPEEDWAY: 1st (July 2011)
SCOTT'S BEST CAREER BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FINISH: 3rd (multiple times)
SCOTT'S LAST RACE AT BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY:
27th (July 2011)
CURRENT POINTS POSITION:
3rd (Sommerville)
DID YOU KNOW? - Lonnie Sommerville has eight
Top-5 finishes in 11 starts this season,
including three straight Top-5 runs entering the
weekend, in his first full season in the PASS
North Series.
- Lonnie Sommerville led 49 laps in the PASS 300
in 2010 while racing for his own team before
finishing 17th.
- Scott Mulkern won a track championship at
Beech Ridge in 1985 – the last year the track
operated as a dirt track.
- Mulkern Racing crew chief Seth Holbrook has
won the PASS 300 with driver Mike Rowe.
- Scott Mulkern won a PASS Outlaw Late Model
event at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in 2007.
- Lonnie Sommerville is in 3rd in the PASS North
standings, just 1 point out of 2nd place.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING LONNIE, Driver of the No. 48 A.E.
McKay Builders/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet,
On how the PASS 300 differs from other races at
Beech Ridge: “It's different
mentally, and that's the biggest thing. Beech
Ridge is hard on your body. It's demanding
physically and mentally.
“I love the longer races. It gives you more time
to strategize, more time to plan things out. I
guess the best way to say it is, I'm not a heat
race kind of guy. I used to be a Saturday night
racer – 25-lap, 40-lap races -- but I haven't
been like that in four or five years. I'm just
not that driver anymore.”
On what teams have to worry about
over the course of 300 laps: “This
year, the big thing for us is keep up with the
leaders. We know we have a good enough car that
we can beat them without (weird) strategy, beat
them tire for tire. We don't have to try and pit
early for track position or try to stay out or
anything like that. When they come in, we can
come in and know that we'll be right there with
them.”
SCOTT, Owner of Mulkern Racing and
Driver of the No. 84 Southern Maine Motors
/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet, On racing at
Beech Ridge Motor Speedway: “You
need to be smooth and keep the tires under you
there. It's kind of my style. I kind of like
that. I don't seem to be right there at the end
like I want to be, but it's all about saving
everything that you can for the end.
“The thing about the place is that whenever you
go there, the minute you drop the green for the
feature, you've got something different than you
had in practice. You could be fighting a loose
problem all day in practice, and then they start
the feature and all of a sudden you're pushing.
After five times of that, you realize that's
kind of the way the place is. You just really
have to work to have a neutral (handling) car.
If you get tight, chances are it's the same for
a lot of guys.”
GARY CROOKS, Team Manager For
Mulkern Racing, On the changes Beech Ridge seems
to undergo over the course of a race weekend:
““What's bitten us at Beech Ridge in the past is
when we just don't trust what we had for the
heat race. We were really good in practice for a
couple of races there, but we over-adjusted for
the heat race and we just didn't go forward.
“The biggest thing I've learned there is when
you have a good car during the day, just to
leave it alone.”
The PASS 150
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11th
Lonnie Posts Third Straight
Top-5
NORTH WOODSTOCK, N.H. – Lonnie
finished fifth in the PASS North Series PASS 150 at
White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock,
N.H., on Sunday, September 11. It was Sommerville's
third straight Top-5 finish and his eighth in 11 starts
this season. Sommerville started 13th in his White
Mountain debut and moved into the Top-5 and ran as high
as third before the race was half over, but a loose
condition over the final 100 laps of the event hindered
his progress.
LONNIE, HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP YOUR DAY?
“We just missed it a little bit on the setup. I kept it
too freed up. I didn't want to tighten it up any (for
the feature), but we got really free in, really free
off. I had to change my lines, because I just couldn't
get any drive off the corners. I killed them in middle
of the turn, but I just couldn't get off. I couldn't
even get wide open on the straightaways without spinning
the tires.
“We got up to third early, and I really ran about 80
percent to get there. Then I had a long green flag run,
and it just started getting too free. I had nothing at
the end.
“I can't wait to go back in a couple weeks. The car was
good in practice, good in the heat race. We just had a
really good car.”
AND NOW YOU FINISH THE SEASON WITH THREE
TRACKS YOU'VE BEEN TO ALREADY THIS SEASON.
“We know we'll be better when we go back in two weeks,
and that's the good thing. Most of these places you go
once, then you have to wait until next year to see what
you learned. But places like White Mountain, Beech Ridge
we get to go more than once. Same going back to Oxford.
The next three races are at tracks where we've been good
– we won at Beech Ridge, had a great car and just waited
a little too long at Oxford, and the White Mountain.
“I can't wait.”
Timmons
Earning His Racing Stripes At Beech Ridge in the
#48
FALMOUTH, Maine – Bobby Timmons is
showing that he's a quick study.
Timmons, 19, had never driven anything more than
go-karts and Legend cars before this month, but the
up-and-coming talent on the New England stock-car
circuit is quickly adapting to life in a Super Late
Model. Timmons has just three career starts at Beech
Ridge Motor Speedway, but he's already opening eyes.
“We decided this was the time to do it. It's been a lot
of fun,” said Timmons, of Windham. “It's going good.
We've gotten two sixth-places in a row, so I definitely
can't complain about that.”
In just his second time out in the Mulkern Racing No. 48
SouthernMaineMotors.com Chevrolet, Timmons rolled from
19th in a very competitive 25-car weekly field to finish
sixth in a 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series
event at Beech Ridge. Last weekend at the track, he did
the same thing again – moving from 15th to sixth at the
checkered flag.
“He's a very talented young driver,” said Vickie
Mulkern, who owns Mulkern Racing with her husband, Scott
Mulkern. “It's really been a lot of fun for us seeing
him in these cars and seeing how well he's taken to
them. He and his father deserve a lot of credit for what
he's doing (at Beech Ridge), and we're just happy we
could help him out.”
Timmons' father, Bob Timmons Jr., is the crew chief on
the car – the oldest Super Late Model chassis in the
Mulkern Racing shop. Mulkern Racing's Tony Ricci has
also spent a considerable amount of time on setups
during race week.
After spending the last few seasons as a full-time
fixture on the NELCAR Legends tour in the northeast –
where he was a multi-time feature winner – Timmons was
looking for something different this summer. Scott
Mulkern had offered Timmons one of his cars on several
occasions before Timmons finally accepted.
“For the most part, they're all race cars,” Timmons
said. “But the biggest thing that got me was the
comparative size of the race car. The Legends are
obviously a lot smaller. The first night out (at Beech
Ridge), I thought I was running in the groove and all my
crew was asking, 'Where were you? What were you doing
out there?' So it's been a learning curve, but Scott's
been good help and Vickie's been awesome.
“We've gotten some good crew guys to help us out. My
dad's been a huge help.”
Another big help has been running at Beech Ridge, a
track where the Legends compete weekly on Thursday
nights during the summer and where Timmons has plenty of
experience himself.
“It does help. The driving styles are pretty similar,”
Timmons said of the cars. “If I were to go somewhere
else, it would probably take a little more learning to
get used to it.”
Timmons will join the rest of the Super Late Model class
this Saturday night at Beech Ridge for the final
NASCAR-sanctioned event of the season.
He's hoping to continue his recent run of good luck
while keeping an eye on next year.
“We'll probalby just run here and then we'll call it a
season,” Timmons said. “I'm not sure if I'm quite up to
where I need to be to run the (PASS 300 in September),
but we'll probably come back here next year and run the
full season. We'll see what we can get, maybe even try
to contend for a championship. The way we've been
running, maybe we can do that.”
So far, Timmons has been a perfect fit at Mulkern
Racing, where the cars are kept and maintained by
Timmons, his father and several members of Mulkern
Racing.
“My dad always ran big-block Supermodifieds and
Modifieds, which couldn't be any further from these
cars. They've been great help to us,” Timmons said. “Me
and my dad did most of the work, but anytime we've
needed anything, they've been there. Without them, we'd
be lost.”
The PASS 150 Saturday, August 6th
4th at Seekonk
SEEKONK, Mass. – Lonnie finished
fourth in the PASS North Series PASS 150 at Seekonk
Speedway in Seekonk, Mass., on Saturday, August 6. It
was Sommerville's second straight Top-5 finish, and came
after he won his heat race in his debut at the unique
.333-mile facility. Sommerville started 11th and moved
into the Top-5 by Lap 61. Despite a tight handling race
car, Sommerville capitalized on a restart with 12 laps
remaining to grab fourth at the checkered flag.
STARTED: 11th - FINISHED: 4th
LONNIE, HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP YOUR RUN
TONIGHT?
“The car seemed like it was going to be all right – it
was a little snug – but the longer we ran, the more
green flag laps, it just got tighter and tighter. I just
had a hard time getting it to turn. I moved my line
around, but it just got tight and got away from us a
little bit.
“I'll be honest, it was probably the first race this
year that we didn't have a handle on things when we were
happy going into the race. That's nothing to cry about
this late in the season, going to all these race tracks
we've never been to before all year. We could come back
here next week and we'd be a lot better, I guarantee
that.”
DO YOU TAKE ANYTHING FROM THE FACT THAT YOU
STRUGGLED BUT STILL FINISHED IN THE TOP-5?
“Absolutely. We got here and we were good right off the
truck. We just made a few slight changes here and
there...and we were pretty happy. We were good in
practice, we were good in the heat race. The track
rubbered up, and it had a lot more grip than we needed.
“We'll take a fourth and we'll head on to White
Mountain. We had a pretty good test there (back in May),
so we're pretty excited to go back there and see if we
can get another win under our belt this year.”
DID YOUR ENGINE CHOICE THIS WEEKEND PLAY A
ROLE?
“Our little crate motor probably hurt us a little
tonight. Had we had a bigger motor – our 9-to-1 motor –
more horsepower might have made the difference up. We
thought the crate motor would be fine at a place like
this, that's this round – but when it's this round and
you're not turning, it makes it hard. You've got to turn
and make straightaways out of it, and we couldn't.”
Lonnie Sommerville
Set
For Seekonk Debut
Lonnie looks to start the season's
final stretch on a high note when the PASS North Series
competes in the PASS 150 at Seekonk Speedway in Seekonk,
Mass., on Saturday, August 6. Sommerville has never
competed at Seekonk Speedway, though the tight .333-mile
layout is very similar to his home track in Speedway 660
where he is a multi-time race winner. The Mulkern Racing
No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet is coming off a
third-place finish at Oxford Plains Speedway in its most
recent outing.
CURRENT POINTS POSITION: 3rd
DID YOU KNOW?
- Lonnie has one win and six Top-5 finishes in nine
starts this season, his first full season in the PASS
North Series.
- Lonnie has moved up three spots in the PASS North
Series standings to third over the last four races. In
that span he's posted one win, two Top-3s and three
Top-5s.
- Lonnie still has an outside shot at the series title
in his first full season on tour, sitting 92 points out
of first and just 28 points out of second with five
races remaining.
LONNIE, On heading to Seekonk Speedway for
the first time: “I'm excited about it. I'm assuming
it's a hard place to get around, because there's not too
many PASS (regulars) that win there. A lot of local
racers win there when PASS shows up – so either the
locals are really good, or the PASS teams haven't quite
gotten a handle on the place
“Looking at it, it does remind me a bit of (Speedway)
660. It looks like there's not a lot of straightaway.
You're always turning the car.”
On how tracks like Seekonk Speedway suit his
driving style: “It's pretty much what I've
grown up on. Everything in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
– other than (Riverside Speedway in Antigonish, N.S.) –
are small little bullrings. You really have to get up on
the wheel and really throw the car around. I can relate
a little more to places like that, maybe give better
feedback to Gary (Crooks) and Seth (Holbrook).
“I haven't been to that many big tracks, so maybe I'm
just more comfortable on the smaller ones. You've got to
dissect corners more at the bigger tracks – as opposed
to just entry, middle, exit on the shorter ones. At the
smaller tracks, you're either tight in or loose off. I
think from that standpoint, the small tracks are a
little bit easier to adjust on.”
On how he's approaching the final five races of
the season: “There's five races left, so we're
going to go every time and try and win five more races.
At the start of the year, I had a goal that I wanted to
win three races and win a championship. The championship
is kind of out of reach a little bit right now – Johnny
(Clark) needs to have some bad luck, but we can still go
to try and win those two more races.”
UP NEXT
The PASS North Series takes a couple of weekends off
before heading to White Mountain Motorsports Park in
North Woodstock, N.H., for the PASS 150 on Sunday,
August 28... Lonnie Sommerville will be making his debut
under race conditions at White Mountain, after this race
was rained out in May. Sommerville and the Mulkern
Racing team did test the No. 48 at White Mountain back
in the spring.
Lonnie
Finishes 3rd in PASS Return to Oxford
Plains
OXFORD, Maine – Lonnie Sommerville
of Saint John, New Brunswick, finished third in the PASS
North Series' return to Oxford Plains Speedway, the
Brackett Mechanical 150 on Saturday, July 23.
Sommerville started 11th and slowly worked his way to
the front, cracking the Top-5 on Lap 113. He used a
daring three-wide move on a late restart to put the
Mulkern Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders/Community
Pharmacies Chevrolet on the podium.
STARTED: 11th - FINISHED: 3rd
LONNIE, HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP YOUR RUN
TONIGHT?
“We probably saved it a little too long. We talked about
it before the race started, that we were going to try
and run about 80 percent to try and save the tires and
keep it under us. We probably didn't expect that many
long green-flag runs.
“I probably used a little bit of it at the end, but I
still think we had more left in it. One or two more
yellows would have been nice – it was pretty good on old
tires. Once we'd get going, I'd get a little tight on
the top and a little free on the bottom.”
DOES IT FEEL GOOD TO WORK THAT HARD AND GET
A RESULT TO
SHOW FOR IT?
“Definitely. This race team is just awesome. Vickie and
Scott give us everything we need, and Andrew McKay from
McKay Builders. It's exciting to finish on the podium
with these guys.
“Everybody on my race team... All my guys just work
their butts off. They deserved to be (better) than third
tonight.”
Scott Returns to Action to Finish 11th at Oxford
OXFORD, Maine – Scott Mulkern of
Falmouth, Maine, finished 11th in the PASS North Series'
return to Oxford Plains Speedway, the Brackett
Mechanical 150 on Saturday, July 23. After needing to
qualify through the consi to start 27th in the main
event, Mulkern moved up a full 16 spots without the aid
of a caution flag over the first half of the race. But
Mulkern, making just his third start of the season,
fought a tight-handling race car over the final 50 laps
and settled for the solid 11th-place finish.
STARTED: 27th - FINISHED: 11th
SCOTT, WERE YOU SURPRISED HOW FAR YOU WERE
ABLE TO MOVE TO THE FRONT EARLY?
“It was good right up until the first caution. But right
from the get-go, I got a little tight. I just wore it
out, I guess.
“I just had a little too much steering wheel in it. I
didn't think with Kyle (Busch) on the pole, I'd have a
chance to ride too much. I didn't feel like I was
killing the car. I didn't think I killed it – just right
from the get-go, it needed a little adjustment, that's
all.”
CONSIDERING YOU'RE RUNNING A PART-TIME
SCHEDULE, WAS THIS A GOOD NIGHT FOR YOU?
“Well, I had fun. Any time you pass cars, it's fun. I
was pretty happy. I wished I'd finished in the Top-5,
but I had fun.
“I'm still smiling, so that's a good thing.”
Mulkern
Racing Tackles Key Summer Stretch
FALMOUTH, Maine – The PASS North
Series celebrates the halfway point of the season with
two races in three days this week, and Lonnie
Sommerville of Saint John, New Brunswick, plans to be
right in the mix in both events.
Sommerville, third in the series standings, wants to use
a Thursday night stop at Thompson (Conn.) International
Speedway and a Saturday night return to Oxford Plains
Speedway to springboard his chances at the championship
in the Mulkern Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders
Chevrolet.
“I think we do,” Sommerville said of the need to perform
this week. “I think we have to be Top-4 or Top-5 every
race from here on out, and still have (points leader
Johnny Clark) have some trouble. Even if we win or
finish on the podium, and he finishes a couple spots
behind us, we're not gaining any points.”
Sommerville's teammate and car owner Scott Mulkern will
run a third PASS race this season in the Brackett
Mechanical 150 at Oxford on Saturday night.
Mulkern last ran his No. 84 Community Pharmacies
Chevrolet at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, where
Sommerville collected his first career PASS win earlier
this month. Sommerville said the team's confidence is
high in light of that trip to Victory Lane.
“I think it was a confidence booster for everybody,”
Sommerville said. “We all thought we could do it. We all
knew we could do it, and by doing it at Beech Ridge, it
proved to all of us we could do the job as a team. I
knew that everybody on that team could win races,
because everybody has with other teams.
“It gives you something to build on, and it builds
momentum. Confidence is everything in this sport. Look
at Kyle Busch – he can go out and win two or three races
a week all summer long, because he has that confidence
that when he shows up he's going to win.”
Ironically, Busch is expected to be in the field for the
Brackett Mechanical 150 at Oxford.
But before teams get to Oxford, they will compete in the
PASS 100 at Thompson – the largest track the series
competes on. The .625-mile, high-banked oval is a
challenging horsepower track.
“It's a pretty awesome place, actually,” said
Sommerville, who competed with his own team in this
event a year ago. “It's fast, and it's a fun place to
race.
“The big banked tracks, it's such a different way you
drive them. Usually, they have a lot more grip than flat
race tracks. Don't always have to save the tires so
much, because there's grip naturally built in with the
banking.”
Through the first seven races of the season, Sommerville
has one win and five Top-5 finishes. He trails Clark by
62 points for the lead, and he's just 28 points out of
second-place. After this weekend, only five races will
remain in the season.
Sommerville said the grind of two events in a three-day
span won't be as taxing as a similar Beech Ridge-Lee USA
Speedway double was earlier this month, because the team
plans on using two different cars this week.
Team manager Gary Crooks and crew chief Seth Holbrook
will have a traditional setup and engine at Thompson,
while they'll take their crate engine package to Oxford
Plains.
“This week should be a lot of fun,” Sommerville said.
A
Crash and a 16th at Thompson
After making it through a lap
one-turn one tangle, Lonnie was swept up into the third
turn wall on lap 24 after the #2x came down on the #35
and started them spinning.
The Mulkern Racing team jumped on some pit road repairs
to get the #48 back on track for two more laps at the
end of the race in order to move up two spots to a 16th
place finish.
THOMPSON, Conn. – Lonnie Sommerville of Saint John, New
Brunswick, finished 16th in the PASS North Series PASS
100 at Thompson International Speedway in Thompson,
Conn., on Thursday, July 21. Sommerville was racing in
third place in the early going when the two leaders got
together in front of him, giving him nowhere to go. He
retired after completing just 26 laps. The series gets a
short turnaround when it heads to Oxford Plains Speedway
for the Brackett Mechanical 150 on Saturday, July 23.
STARTED: 13th - FINISHED: 16th
LONNIE, WHAT HAPPENED IN FRONT OF YOU?
“(Derek Ramstrom) was under (Mike Rowe), who pinched him
down. They spun each other, and I got caught right up
into it. I was a couple car lengths back, but not back
far enough that I could have gotten on the brakes and
gotten underneath them.”
HOW WAS THE CAR BEFORE THAT?
“It was good. We drove around with the 26 and the 17 and
all those guys under green. We were actually underneat
(Ramstrom) at one point, but we decided to back off and
just ride behind them and let them battle it out. We
wanted to see if they got worse, instead of using our
stuff up, to see if we could pass them at the end of the
race.
“I think we had a Top-3 car, for sure. It's just
frustrating to know, once again, we had a good car but
nothing to show for it.”
IT MUST BE NICE TO HAVE A QUICK TURNAROUND
TO PUT THIS RACE BEHIND YOU?
“It is. It's nice to come back (to Oxford). We've got
the exact same car we won with at Beech Ridge (on July
9), so hopefully it will run just like it did there.”
Lonnie
Finishes Fourth at Lee USA Speedway
LEE, N.H. – Lonnie finished fourth
in the PASS North Series Bastille 200 at Lee USA
Speedway on Tuesday, July 12. Sommerville led the event
with less than 60 laps remaining, but a flat right front
tire over the closing stages kept him for contending for
a second PASS victory in a span of four days. After a
tough qualifying effort, Sommerville started 16th in the
20-car field and moved into the Top-5 by Lap 80. Despite
the loss of air pressure in the right front tire,
though, he was able to hold on for fourth and
unofficially move to fourth in the overall PASS
standings.
STARTED: 16th - FINISHED: 4th -
LAPS LED: 2 times for 3 laps
LONNIE, WHAT DID YOU IN AT THE END?
“Flat right front. It only had 18 or 19 pounds (of air
pressure) in it at the end. I knew on the second to last
restart, either the bleeder bled down or I had rubber on
(the tire). I went down in the turn and just slid the
nose and lost Johnny (Clark). I was going to turn
underneath him.
“I probably picked something up on the track... and then
it was a slow leak. It started going down. Those (late)
cautions didn't help us. It just didn't allow the
pressure to build up and stay there.”
IS IT FRUSTRATING?
“I had an awesome race car. Even the first half, until
we pitted, we were just playing with driving underneath
Ben (Rowe). I was doing what I was trying to do last
week (in a win at Beech Ridge) – just not abuse my
stuff.
“I ended up doing the same thing with Johnny after we
pitted. I'm pretty sure we had a car that was capable of
getting by Johnny and driving off. We were awesome on
the bottom, but that's part of it, I guess.”
ARE YOU AT LEAST HAPPY THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO
SALVAGE A TOP-5?
“It's frustrating. We won last week – finally – and
thought we got the monkey off our back. It's the if's,
and's and but's kind of thing in racing – we had a flat
tire, but it could have happened on Lap 125, gone down
on the rim and then we'd have had to come in and pit and
go down a lap.
“At least we were able to salvage a fourth out of it.”
Sommerville Wins First Career
PASS North Race at Beech Ridge
SCARBOROUGH, Maine – Lonnie Sommerville broke through
for his first career PASS North Series victory on
Saturday night.
The Saint John, New Brunswick, driver led the final 34
laps at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway en route to winning
the Southern Maine Motors.com 150. The victory was the
first for Mulkern Racing this season.
“It's just so huge,” Sommerville said. “I've wanted it
so bad – and at times too much. I've tried too hard, and
sometimes when you do that, you end up over-driving the
car. It's exciting. This is the next level for me.”
Sommerville started third in the 28-car field and
initially took the lead on Lap 37 before the caution
came out. On the restart, he settled into second behind
Ben Rowe, hounding him for the next 75 laps before
finally making a move in lapped traffic.
Once Sommerville got by, it was smooth sailing until the
end of the race. He won by nearly a full straightaway
after leading twice for a total of 35 laps.
“These guys at Mulkern Racing, they give us everything
we need. We've had it every week, but we've just had a
little bit of bad luck,” Sommerville said. “We all knew
we could do it – and what a way to get the monkey off
our back.”
“That was awesome. That was a really dominant
performance,” team owner Scott Mulkern said. “The whole
crew – Gary (Crooks) and Seth (Holbrook) – they just did
a great job.That was just a dominant performance,
really, so I'm happy for the whole team.”
Sommerville's victory came in his 24th career start in
PASS-sanctioned races. Now his team has the momentum as
the series heads to the Bastille 200 at Lee USA Speedway
on Tuesday night.
“I'm excited about going to Lee,” Sommerville said. “I
can't wait to get there.”
Mulkern finished 27th after being caught up in a
multi-car accident on a Lap 38 restart.
“We wrecked,” Mulkern said. “I don't know what happened.
Somebody drove underneath me, got into me, and we broke
the transmission.”
Two-Car Effort Ready for PASS
Event at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway
Mulkern Racing will field a two-car
effort as the PASS North Series heads back to its hub
for the Southern Maine Motors 150 at Beech Ridge Motor
Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, on Saturday, July 9.
Full-time driver Lonnie Sommerville of Saint John, New
Brunswick, will pilot his usual No. 48 A.E. McKay
Builders Chevrolet, while team owner Scott Mulkern will
make his second start of the season in the No. 84
Southern Maine Motors Chevrolet. Sommerville is coming
off a Top-5 finish at Canaan Fair Speedway last weekend
and hopes to improve on his fourth-place run in the
season opener at Beech Ridge back in April. The race
marks the beginning of a trying stretch for PASS North
teams – it's the first of two races in four days and
four races in two weeks.
LONNIE'S BEST CAREER BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY FINISH:
4th
(April 2011)
LONNIE'S LAST RACE AT BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY: 4th
(April 2011)
SCOTT'S BEST CAREER BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY FINISH:
3rd
(multiple times)
SCOTT'S LAST RACE AT BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY: 15th
(April 2011)
LONNIE'S CURRENT POINTS POSITION: 6th
DID YOU KNOW?
- Lonnie Sommerville has three Top-5 finishes in five
starts this season, his first full season in the PASS
North Series.
- Scott Mulkern won a track championship at Beech Ridge
in 1985 – the last year the track operated as a dirt
track.
- Mulkern Racing crew chief Seth Holbrook has won PASS
races at Beech Ridge with drivers Mike Rowe and Chris
Staples.
- Lonnie Sommerville is in a logjam near the top of the
PASS North standings, just 11 points out of third place.
LONNIE On the busy stretch of racing in July
facing PASS North Series teams: “We were
talking about it in the hauler, and our team has a lot
of depth. Even though we have all these races coming up
in the month of July, we have times to turn cars around,
cars that need to be can be fixed, and everything we
need is accessible to us to keep things rolling.
“This whole race team is 12-18 hour-a-day guys, and it's
not going to bother us any. It's just work, and we're
going to do what we're going to do. Hopefully, we can
start it off on a good note. I'm really looking forward
to going back to Beech Ridge. We learned some things the
last time we were there, and we'll be ready.”
SCOTT On racing at Beech Ridge Motor
Speedway: “You need to be smooth and keep
the tires under you there. It's kind of my style. I kind
of like that. I don't seem to be right there at the end
like I want to be, but it's all about saving everything
that you can for the end.
“The thing about the place is that whenever you go
there, the minute you drop the green for the feature,
you've got something different than you had in practice.
You could be fighting a loose problem all day in
practice, and then they start the feature and all of a
sudden you're pushing. After five times of that, you
realize that's kind of the way the place is. You just
really have to work to have a neutral (handling) car. If
you get tight, chances are it's the same for a lot of
guys.”
GARY CROOKS, Team Manager For Mulkern
Racing, On having two teams competing this weekend:
“It takes a lot of prep in the shop before you ever go
so you can minimize the chaos at the track. It takes
more people, obviously. Scott (Mulkern) has some people
coming in to help him, and Tony (Ricci) will work with
him on Saturday. We'll keep the whole 48 program intact.
Other than the finishes, our program is good and the
team's working really good together.
“We're all there, and we're basically available for
consultations or whatever. For the most part, we'll run
it like two separate teams.”
On what the teams learned at Beech Ridge in
the season opener: “What bit us at Beech
Ridge both times – the (PASS) 300 last year and the
first race this year – is that we just didn't trust what
we had for the heat race. We were really good in
practice the past two races, but we over-adjusted for
the heat race and we just didn't go forward. I think we
started 16th and 15th – and it just takes too long to
get track position back in the feature at that place.
“The biggest thing I've learned there is when you have a
good car during the day, just to leave it alone.”
Sat., July 2nd
5th at Canaan Fair Speedway
CANAAN, N.H. – Lonnie
Sommerville of Saint John, New Brunswick, rallied for a
hard-fought fifth-place finish in the PASS North Series
Firecracker 150 at Canaan Fair Speedway in Canaan, N.H.,
on Saturday, July 2. Sommerville took the lead briefly
in the event's early going after starting fourth, but a
broken control arm before the halfway mark significantly
hindered the handling on the No. 48 A.E. McKay
Builders/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet. Sommerville,
who posted his third Top-5 in five races this season in
the Mulkern Racing entry, led a total of nine laps on
the night. He never dropped lower than sixth in the
running order and used a couple of late restarts to
crack the Top-5 in his first-ever visit to Canaan.
STARTED: 4th - FINISHED: 5th - LAPS LED: 1 time for 9
laps
LONNIE, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAR?
“We had a great car, but we just found out the left
front upper control arm came loose and all the camber
shims came out. That explained our bottoming out. As
soon as I'd get out of the gas, it would hit the race
track. I was just hanging on – it was even hitting the
race track getting off the turn.
“I thought I had a flat (tire); then I thought I had a
(brake) caliper sticking. The whole time – the last 100
laps – we were just trying to figure out what the heck
it was. That's what it was, but we salvaged a fifth out
of it.”
DO YOU KNOW WHAT CAUSED IT?
“No, it just started getting tight. There was no reason
for it – it was good all day, and it never showed any
signs of being tight. It just started getting tighter
and tighter, and then it started getting loose as it was
falling out.
“At one point, I thought I had a flat, but it never got
any worse... When we pushed it through the tech line,
you could hardly roll it because it was binding up on
the caliper.”
DO YOU FIND A POSITIVE IN TONIGHT'S FINISH?
“We're still having bad luck, but at least we got a
Top-5 out of it. It's frustrating. We had a good car. We
were pretty sure we were pretty good on the speed charts
(in practice).
“I'm happy with the way we ran, happy with all the
teamwork. I'm pretty excited about going back to Beech
Ridge (next weekend).”
Lonnie : Canaan
Fair Speedway Preview
Lonnie looks to turn
his bad luck around when the PASS North Series heads to
the Firecracker 150 at Canaan Fair Speedway in Canaan,
N.H., on Saturday, July 2 at 5 PM. Sommerville, who is
coming off back-to-back finishes outside of the Top-10
thanks to mechanical woes, has never competed at the
facility – but his Mulkern Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay
Builders/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet team is the
defending champion of this event. The event kicks off a
busy stretch for the PASS North Series, with the race
serving as the first of three events in an 11-day
stretch.
CURRENT POINTS POSITION: 6th
DID YOU KNOW?
- Lonnie Sommerville will race for the second straight
week on a track he has never competed at. He has also
never tested at Canaan Fair Speedway.
- Mulkern Racing won the Firecracker 150 last season
with driver Ben Rowe.
- Lonnie has set the fast practice time in two of the
four PASS events this season.
LONNIE on what he knows about Canaan Fair
Speedway: “Nothing. We're going to run
lots of horsepower – I know that – and the guys on the
team said it might be kind of similar to the track in
Quebec (Chaudiere). They said it was like that, as far
as the setup they used last year.
“To be honest, I haven't even looked at it. I usually go
on YouTube or the internet and try and look at places
before we go there, but I haven't even done that yet.
I'll probably go on YouTube in the next couple of days
just to get some idea of what to expect. I'm looking
forward to it. They won there with Ben (Rowe), and I
think our cars are better this year than they were last
year.”
On whether or not there's a silver lining in
the team's recent struggles: “Oh yeah.
Right now, I think to be honest – even though I know it
doesn't mean anything – I think we've been better than
Johnny (Clark) every week. Practice doesn't mean
anything or pay anything, but we've been better. I know
it doesn't mean anything if you can't back it up – but
I'm confident we have the best race team in the PASS
series.
“It's just a little bit of a rough stretch.”
On how the team plans to approach the next
several races: “From here on out, we're
going to race for wins and if at the end of the year it
works, it works. But we're going to see how many wins we
can get. Now, to win the championship, it's a long shot.
“There's no lack of funding or effort on (team owners)
Vickie and Scott (Mulkern's) part. Our guys communicate
well. Seth (Holbrook) and Gary (Crooks) are working
great together. We're having fun, and it's a hard game
to have fun at the race track and be fast – but we've
got that right now. Every time we unload, I'm guessing
we're damn near the Top-5 in every practice this year.
“It's a helluva race team Scott and Vickie have put
together... Now it's up to us.”
UP NEXT
The PASS North Series races next weekend in
The Southern Maine
Motors 150
at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Saturday, July 9. The
track was where the 2011 season started, and where
Lonnie Sommerville finished fourth back in April.
19th at Autodrome Chaudiere
after Rear End Failure
VALLEE JONCTION, Que. –
Lonnie finished 19th in the PASS North Series
Habitations Dany Lagace 150 at Autodrome Chaudiere in
Vallee Jonction, Que., on Sunday, June 26. Sommerville
broke the rear end on Lap 58 in the Mulkern Racing No.
48 A.E. McKay Builders/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet
not long after working his way into the Top-10.
STARTED: 20th FINISHED: 19th
LONNIE, WHAT ENDED YOUR NIGHT?
“We broke a rear end. No warning. Just coming off the
turn, it just went. I thought I broke a driveshaft,
actually. It made lot of noise, and I didn't have any
power. I just pulled down and stopped. When we went to
take it out and look at it, it wasn't the driveshaft.
“It's another week with a fast car and nothing to show
for it.”
HOW FRUSTRATING IS IT?
“Obviously, we've been going to every track as a team
and getting better. Every time we make a change now,
we're getting quicker. Everything's a positive as far as
communication – everyone's having fun, everyone's
positive at the track. But this kind of stuff is
disheartening.
“We're going to the track every week and 'winning'
practices, winning heat races. And then stuff like this
happens.”
WHERE DO YOU GO FROM HERE?
“From here on out we're going to race for wins and if at
the end of the year it works, it works. But we're going
to see how many wins we can get. Now, to win the
championship, it's a long shot.”
Lonnie :
Autodrome
Chaudiere Preview
Lonnie joins the PASS
North Series for its debut at Autodrome Chaudiere in
Vallee Jonction, Que., with the Habitations Dany Lagace
150 on Saturday, June 25. Sommerville hopes to rebound
from a tough effort last time out at Speedway 660, when
a mechanical failure took him out of contention shortly
after leading the 200-lap event. He has never raced at
Autodrome Chaudiere, though he and the Mulkern Racing
No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet team did get the
opportunity to test at the track earlier this month.
Sommerville enters the weekend third in the PASS North
standings, just 26 points off the lead through three
races.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Despite the fact that the race this weekend is being
held in Canada, Lonnie Sommerville is still a six and a
half hour drive from Vallee Jonction, Que. – meaning
he's closer to Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Maine than
to Autodrome Chaudiere.
- Mulkern Racing has never competed at Autodrome
Chaudiere.
- Lonnie Sommerville is one of only three drivers in the
entire PASS North Series with two Top-5 finishes this
season.
- Mulkern Racing will take the same car to Autodrome
Chaudiere that it took to Star Speedway and finished
fourth with earlier this season.
LONNIE on his impressions of Autodrome
Chaudiere: “It was a nice little place.
The surface is very smooth, with a lot of banking.
Reminded me of a White Mountain (Motorsports Park) kind
of deal. It's short, a little bullring. My guess is
there's probably going to be some tearing of some
fenders off the cars.
“We were in the low 12-second lap range (during
testing), so with 25 cars out there all going in the low
12-seconds, it's not going to be that easy to pass
there. We didn't have anything to compare to for what
the times were, but we know that the ACT (Late Model
Tour) cars were around 12.9 (seconds). We're assuming we
were pretty good and the car felt good. I'm thinking
we've got something we can unload there with and be
pretty good with.”
On rebounding from a 12th-place run at
Speedway 660: “I kind of expect, in
talking to Joey Doiron and testing there, I expect it to
be the type of deal where if you've got third place car
and you're thinking about whether to take that risk and
go for second, you might want to just take third. You've
got to be very careful now not to finish outside of
Top-5. That's going to be tough to do, but you can't
expect other guys to finish outside the Top-20. We've
got to go there trying to win the race here, but we've
also got to go and try and get the most points we can
and not take any chances.
“The key is to unload with a race car that's going to be
fast right off the trailer. (Points leader Johnny
Clark's) team has been the best at that the last few
years, and I think we've done that this year everywhere
we've been. When you have the resources and top people
that some of these teams have, when you go to a track
it's almost always similar to other places and you work
from that.”
On what it will take to get the team a win:
“A little luck. Realistically, we contended and could
have won the first few races. We didn't. But if we go
this weekend and we all do our jobs and work together as
a team – and I do my job as a driver – I don't see any
reason why we can't win. I'm sure 25 other guys all say
the same thing, so its not that easy. But we're on the
verge of winning some races, and hopefully once it
starts, we'll get on a roll.”
Sat., June 11 - 7 PM
Lonnie 12th at 660
GEARY, N.B. – Lonnie
fought back at his home track Saturday night to finish
12th in the PASS North Series PASS 200 at Speedway 660
in Geary, N.B. Sommerville lost a front wheel on Lap 47
of the event, not long after leading for several laps.
The failure ended the chances of winning for the
speedway's two-time Peterbilt 250 champion, but hard
work from the Mulkern Racing crew pit-side had
Sommerville racing with the leaders as he tried to get
back one of the three laps he lost.
FINISHED: 12th - LAPS LED: 1 time
NEXT RACE: June 25, Danny Lagace 150, Autodrome
Chaudiere, Vallee Jonction, Que. (.25-mile oval)
LONNIE, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WHEEL?
“We were leading and the caution came out. Coming to
green (Alex Gingras) was getting into me a little bit,
so I let him go and then I let Scott Chubbuck go. That
early in the night, I just wasn't going to take a
chance. I told the guys that the brake pedal was a
little spongy, and we figured we'd just ride it out and
try and get to halfway and get that fixed.
“But then I came down the to turn, and I had no brakes.
The wheel bearing ended up burning up and melted the
aluminum hub. I lost the wheel, and that was it. I
limped into the pits, and the guys did a hell of a job
changing it and getting back out there.”
IT'S A TOUGH NIGHT SO EARLY IN THE SEASON,
ISN'T IT?
“It is what it is. I said to the guys right after the
race, 'This was our mulligan.' Everybody's going to have
a bad race at some point. This is it. This is our bad
race. It's just tough to have that good of a car and end
up like we did.
“At the end of the race, we came across the line on
(winner Johnny Clark's) back bumper. Either way, we
would have had second at worst. I still feel we had a
car capable of winning the race, but it's not like we
lost all those points with one race to go and can't get
it back now.
“The spindle, the hub, the wheel – the guys changed that
whole thing under one caution. Hats off to them.”.
Lonnie
Sommerville: 660 Preview
Lonnie Sommerville of
Saint John, New Brunswick, heads home with the PASS
North Series for the PASS 200 at Speedway 660 in Geary,
N.B., on Saturday, June 11. Sommerville is from nearby
Saint John, and he's the only Canadian-born two-time
winner of the track's marquee event – the Peterbilt 250
– held each September. After finishing fourth in each of
the first two races to open the season, Sommerville has
his sights set on visiting PASS North Series victory
lane with Mulkern Racing for the first time in his
career this weekend at his home track.
BEST CAREER SPEEDWAY 660 FINISH: 1st
(2 times in Peterbilt 250, a non-PASS event)
LAST RACE AT SPEEDWAY 660: 3rd (June 2010)
CURRENT PASS NORTH POINTS POSITION: 3rd
DID YOU KNOW?
- Lonnie Sommerville is one of only two drivers to
finish in the Top-5 in each of the first two PASS North
Series races of the season.
- Mulkern Racing finished fifth in this event during the
2010 season.
- Lonnie finished second in the standings in each of the
two seasons he chased a track championship at Speedway
660.
- Lonnie spent the last two off weeks building race cars
for his Canadian-based Lonnie Sommerville Racing
customers.
LONNIE, on racing at his home track this
weekend: “I've talked to a couple people
this week about it. It's a little bittersweet. If I go
and win, everyone's going to say I should have won
there. It would be neat to win in front of that hometown
crowd, though. But it will be bittersweet either way,
because if we win the naysayers say we should win there
and if we don't they wonder why we didn't.
“It's awesome, though. To go there, it's where I started
racing pretty much. It's great people that own the
track, great fans there. It will be neat to go there.”
On whether or not he has any kind of home
track advantage at Speedway 660:
“I don't think so. We went to Star (Speedway) having
never been there before and we still ran up front. To be
able to go to a track you've never been, or go somewhere
that you've been before – it's still about going and
doing your job. You take guys like Johnny (Clark) and
Ben (Rowe) – they're guys that have good equipment and
have their stuff together. Guys like that are good
wherever we go.
“It is good for your confidence. You maybe have momentum
going there thinking, 'I've got a hometown crowd behind
me' and maybe you get up on the wheel a little more,
have that extra drive, top try and win in front of them.
It gets you a little more pumped and gives a little
extra motivation.”
On a timeline for how close this team is to
winning: “I think two races ago. I
honestly don't think that there's a race track we go to
this year that we're not capable of winning at. We
weren't the best car at Star, but we were as good as
anybody. We all know in racing, you don't have to be the
fastest car, you just have to put yourself in position.
Some weeks we're the best car, some weeks we're not. But
we definitely can go anywhere and be in contention for
the win.
“We were just a little free at this race last year (in
the second half). Two years ago, I dominated the race
and had a flat while we were leading. We can do that
again (dominate) at home.”
On racing at Speedway 660:
“It's just a driver's race track. You can really
manhandle the car and not get yourself in trouble. Star
kind of reminded me of 660. It's a two-groove race
track. The race could be won by the guy running the top.
It's definitely a two-groove race track in that way.
“You can really get up on the wheel. The harder you
drive it the faster you're going to go, where as a lot
of places, it's a lot more finesse. That's how I grew up
driving.”
The PASS 150
Sat., May 21 - 4 PM RAINED OUT! No new date announced
Lonnie
Sommerville: WMMP Preview
Lonnie looks to keep
his momentum rolling when the PASS North Series competes
in the PASS 150 at White Mountain Motorsports Park in
North Woodstock, N.H., on Saturday, May 21. Sommerville
is coming off a fourth-place finish at Star Speedway in
Epping, N.H, and the Mulkern Racing driver sits third in
the series points after the first two races of the
season. Sommerville has never competed at White
Mountain, though the team did test there last week..
CURRENT POINTS POSITION: 3rd
DID YOU KNOW?
- Lonnie Sommerville is one of only two drivers to
finish in the Top-5 in each of the first two PASS North
Series races of the season.
- Mulkern Racing finished fifth in each of the two PASS
races at White Mountain Motorsports Park in 2010 with
driver Ben Rowe.
- During the week, Lonnie Sommerville spends countless
hours operating Lonnie Sommerville Racing, a
chassis-building company that prepares race cars for
roughly a dozen Canada-based clients.
LONNIE - On heading from one quarter-mile at
Star Speedway last week to another this week at White
Mountain Motorsports Park: “I don't think
they're going to race the same. I think it's going to be
harder to pass (at White Mountain) because it's just so
fast for a tight little place. It's smoother, but with a
little more banking you're carrying more speed.
“It's good, though, to be able to have some momentum and
keep things going. That's huge, especially with a new
team. The better we run every week, the better we're
going to jell and get along and all that stuff.”
On starting the season with a pair of
fourth-place finishes: “Unless you win
every week, then you should always think you can do
better – otherwise, you're never going to be better. We
have the two fourths and we have some momentum on our
side. We've got to keep this going.
The worst thing that can happen is two or three bad runs
in a row and then having to dig yourselves out of a
hole. Sixteen races sounds like a long time, but three
bad races, it's pretty hard to get that back. You just
don't have enough time. We're running fourth and as good
as some of the other cars out there, and if we can
improve then we're going to be that much better.”
On the first two races with Mulkern Racing:
“In my opinion, I feel like with these guys it's like
we're 10 races in, not two. Everyone does get along
well, everyone's having fun. (Crew chief Seth Holbrook)
said this is the most fun he's had in North racing in a
long time. That means a lot to me.
“It's tough when you do this... We all have pressure on
us to succeed and to win, and your emotions run high
sometimes and you might say things you don't mean or get
hot with one another. The thing is being able to not let
those things affect you. I don't think we have any
issues on this team at all, and I don't think we will.”
SETH HOLBROOK, Crew Chief of the No. 48 A.E.
McKay Builders/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet, On racing
at White Mountain Motorsports Park: “It's
probably one of the raciest tracks we go to, for the
fans and for the racers to have fun racing on. It's all
about turning in the center (of the corners) and having
good forward drive off.
“You run pretty close to the same setup (as you do at
Star Speedway), but you have compensate for bumps more
at Star. White Mountain is really smooth, where Star is
way rougher.”
On how the team has performed through the
first two races of the season: “We're on
the verge of winning. I feel we're as good as anybody
right now. Between Gary (Crooks), myself, Tony (Ricci)
and the guys we have on this team, I wouldn't trade them
for anything.
“We'll be good at The Mountain. We were really happy
with the test there, it was really productive. The
biggest thing for us as a team is that once we get
Lonnie some laps in practice and get him comfortable on
the track, we'll be right there with anybody.”
The PASS 150
Sat., May 14 - 4 PM
Lonnie Sommerville: Star Race Report
EPPING, N.H. – Lonnie Sommerville of Saint John, New
Brunswick, finished fourth in the PASS North Series Star
150 at Star Speedway in Epping, N.H., on Saturday, May
14. It was Sommerville's second fourth-place finish in
as many starts this season. Sommerville started eighth
in the 22-car field, but an early domino-effect spin set
him back to shotgun on the field. He rallied back to the
Top-10 by Lap 100 and was sitting on the outside pole on
the first of several green-white-checkered restarts.
After a couple of leaders got together, he was forced to
settle for the fourth-place finish.
STARTED: 8th FINISHED: 4th LAPS
LED: 0 times for 0 laps
LONNIE, CAN YOU SUM UP A STRANGE NIGHT?
“It was just a wild night. We went from thinking we were
going to have a good night...and then when it was time
to go, on a restart we got bunched up, we got spun, and
we lost a lot of track position. It was just one of
those nights where nothing went right for us.
“You just scratch your head. Once again, like Beech
Ridge, we had a car that could have won the race. I
tried to save my tires so we had something left at the
end, and we did have something... Obviously,
circumstances at the end put us in position to win and
we couldn't take advantage of it.”
DO YOU TAKE ANY SOLACE AT ALL FROM FINISHING
IN THE TOP-5 FOR THE SECOND STRAIGHT RACE?
“You've got to finish Top-5 every week (to compete for
the championship). It's frustrating doing it this way,
but it is what it is. If these are our bad nights
finishing fourth, that's a good sign of things to come.
If you have a bad night finishing fourth, fifth, or
wherever we finished, then really that's not so bad.”
Lonnie
Sommerville: Star Speedway Preview
Lonnie Sommerville of
Saint John, New Brunswick, looks for a second straight
Top-5 finish to open the PASS North Series season in the
Star 150 at Star Speedway in Epping, N.H., on Saturday,
May 14. Sommerville, who has joined Mulkern Racing to
compete full-time in the series for the first time,
comes off a strong fourth-place effort in his debut at
Beech Ridge Motor Speedway two weeks ago. Sommerville
has never competed at Star Speedway, though his home
track of Speedway 660 in Geary, N.B., is very similar in
size and layout.
TEAM: Mulkern Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay
Builders/Community Pharmacies Chevrolet
CREW CHIEF: Gary Crooks, Mooresville, N.C
BEST CAREER STAR SPEEDWAY FINISH: N/A
LAST RACE AT STAR SPEEDWAY: N/A
CURRENT POINTS POSITION: 4th
DID YOU KNOW?
- Lonnie Sommerville is a two-time champion of the
Peterbilt 250 at Speedway 660 in Geary, New Brunswick –
the only driver in history to win the lucrative Labor
Day weekend race twice.
- Lonnie Sommerville and crew chief Gary Crooks have
worked together almost exclusively over the last two
seasons in Canada and for select Super Late Model races
in the United States.
- Mulkern Racing finished second in the final 2010 PASS
North Series standings with driver Ben Rowe.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
LONNIE - On heading to Star Speedway for the
first time in his career: “Star is a
little bit of an unknown because I haven't been there.
But the first time I went to Hickory, it was a place
obviously I'd never been, and I battled with Ben (Rowe)
for the win. We went to Gresham (Motorsports Park) last
year for the first time and finished third. I'm not
scared of going to places I've never been to, it's just
having the unknown of it.
“From what the guys have said, it's a lot like like
(Speedway) 660 up here, which is my home track. I'm
pretty anxious to go there. I'm glad we'll get to have
some practice on Friday. I'm looking forward to it.”
On starting the season on the right foot at
Beech Ridge: “We all know if we're going
to try and win a championship, we've got to finish Top-5
every week. The alternative to not winning, obviously,
is to get a Top-5. So from that standpoint, it was a
good day, we had a good car, and I'm pretty sure
everyone we raced with knows we had a good car. I think
people seriously see us as a contender.
“Not to sound arrogant, but everytime we've raced PASS
we've run up front. If you put that ingredient with
Mulkern Racing, it is a recipe for championships. I've
raced with Johnny (Clark) and Ben (Rowe) a bunch of
times, and they've beaten us and we've beaten them. I
think they're all taking us seriously, but the only
issue is going to tracks we've never been to now. Having
guys on the team like Tony (Ricci) and Seth (Holbrook)
who have been to these places and been good is big for
us.”
GARY - On the outlook for this weekend:
“Obviously, it's a race track Lonnie and I haven't even
seen before. Fortunately for us, (crew members Seth
Holbrook and Tony Ricci) both had some success there. I
don't really look at it like it's going to be a
challenge, but more like this is a tremendous
opportunity that Scott and Vickie Mulkern have given
us.”
On what the team learned in the season
opener at Beech Ridge: “I don't know if we
really 'learned' anything, but we definitely confirmed
some of our thoughts about the goals and expectations we
set for ourselves this season. We confirmed our belief
in what we have and what we're capable of as a team.”
On Lonnie Sommerville as a driver:
“Lonnie doesn't get the credit he deserves as a race car
driver. His commitment to win is amazing. I've seen him
do things in race cars that some people in the same
situation wouldn't do. I've just never seen him quit.”
PASS North Season Opener
The PASS 150 at Beech Ridge
Saturday - April 30th
Lonnie Sommerville: BRMS Race Report
SCARBOROUGH, Maine –
Lonnie Sommerville of Saint John, New Brunswick,
opened the 2011 PASS North Series season with a
4th-place finish in the PASS 150 at Beech Ridge
Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, on
Saturday, April 30. The Mulkern Racing driver
started mid-pack in the 31-car field but spent
the final 30 laps of the event battling hard for
third, fourth and fifth spots in a tight pack of
five cars. Sommerville's fourth-place run marked
his best career PASS North Series finish in his
first series race with Mulkern Racing.
STARTED: 16th - FINISHED: 4th - CURRENT
POINTS POSITION: 4th
LONNIE, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT
FINISHING FOURTH?
It's sad to say I'm disappointed in finishing
fourth. All in all I'm going for a points
championship, so that's what we have to look at.
It was a good points day for us. The guys we're
probably going to be racing are (Johnny Clark)
and (Ben Rowe) and they were right there in
front of us, so it was obviously a good points
day.
IT SEEMED LIKE TRAFFIC HELD YOU UP
TOWARD THE END OF THE RACE.
We had a stout car. I thought we had something
for (race winner Johnny Clark) but the 29 car
and the 4 car just held me up long enough to get
the tires hot. We were really good on the long
runs, but we just didn't have enough at the end.
We'll take fourth place and go on to next week.
AFTER NOT QUALIFYING AT NORTH
WILKESBORO, IT MUST FEEL GOOD TO HAVE A SOLID
DEBUT HERE ON THE PASS NORTH SERIES.
It's a brand new team, and obviously our first
day wasn't so good (after failing to qualify at
North Wilkesboro). So to come back with a fourth
place and build from that, it builds some
momentum for the rest of the season.
Now we just have to keep working on it.
TEAM OWNER SCOTT MULKERN FINISHED
15th.SCOTT, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE DAY FOR
MULKERN RACING?
I'm happy for Lonnie. That was a great run for
him. He had a good car. (Crew chief Gary Crooks)
set that all up for him. He wanted to do it for
me – next time we will.
Scott Mulkern:
BRMS Race Report
SCARBOROUGH, Maine – Scott
Mulkern of Falmouth, Maine, finished 15th in the
PASS North Series season-opening PASS 150 at
Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough,
Maine, on Saturday, April 30. In less than 20
laps, Mulkern had gone from 15th starting spot
all the way up to ninth. The car started to show
signs of ill-handling in the second half of the
race, though, and contact with another car in
the late stages of the event broke something in
the car's steering as he held on for his final
finishing position. The other Mulkern Racing
entry, the No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet
for Lonnie Sommerville, finished fourth in its
PASS North Series debut.
STARTED: 15th - FINISHED: 15th
SCOTT, TALK ABOUT YOUR DAY.
Oh boy. Where did we finish? 15Th? Yeah, that's
about right.
The car wasn't very good. It wasn't very good at
all the whole race, really. We've got to do
something different. I've tried this (setup) for
I don't know how many races here, and it just
never seems to give me what I want. We'll have
to do something different next time.
I think I've just got to go to putting a
completely different setup in the car.
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN YOU MADE CONTACT
WITH RICHIE DEARBORN?
I got tagged there and knocked sideways, and
then I was fighting to keep control all the way
down the frontstretch. I was doing everything I
could. I had the wheel cut all the way down, and
then when it finally hooked up I shot right into
(Richie Dearborn). I nailed him, and then I was
fighting it again.
It doesn't look too bad – the tires are all up –
but it was pushing really bad after that. Maybe
it knocked something loose under there, I don't
know. We'll see, but it wasn't any good anyway.
Scott
Mulkern: PASS North BRMS Preview
Scott Mulkern of Falmouth, Maine,
heads to his home track for the PASS North Series
season-opening PASS 150 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in
Scarborough, Maine, on Saturday, April 30. Mulkern,
races the three PASS races at Beech Ridge each season as
part of his part-time schedule and he has a best career
finish of third on several occasions at the facility in
PASS North competition. This season marks the 30th
anniversary of Mulkern Racing, as Mulkern began his
racing career at Beech Ridge in 1981 in the the Limited
Sportsman class.
TEAM: No. 84 Community Pharmacies/Southern Maine Motors
Chevrolet
CREW CHIEF: Tony Ricci, Westbrook, Maine
BEST CAREER BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY FINISH: 3rd
(multiple times)
LAST RACE AT BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY: 5th (September
2010)
DID YOU KNOW?
- Scott Mulkern will pull double-duty of sorts this
weekend, as a driver for his own No. 84 Community
Pharmacies/Southern Maine Motors Chevrolet and also as
owner and teammate to Lonnie Sommerville in the No. 48
A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet.
- Scott Mulkern won a track championship at Beech Ridge
in 1985 – the last year the track operated as a dirt
track.
- The next race Scott Mulkern is scheduled to compete in
is the PASS North Series race at Beech Ridge on July 9.
- Mulkern Racing finished second in the final PASS North
Series standings in 2010 with driver Ben Rowe in the No.
48 entry.
On racing at Beech Ridge: “You
need to be smooth and keep the tires under you there.
It's kind of my style. I kind of like that. I don't seem
to be right there at the end like I want to be, but it's
all about saving everything that you can for the end.
“The thing about the place is that whenever you go
there, the minute you drop the green for the feature,
you've got something different than you had in practice.
You could be fighting a loose problem all day in
practice, and then they start the feature and all of a
sudden you're pushing. After five times of that, you
realize that's kind othe way the place is. You just
really have to work to have a neutral (handling) car. If
you get tight, chances are it's the same for a lot of
guys.”
On the competing part-time now:
“In the big picture, if you look at my style and the way
I sometimes shoot myself in the foot, I don't care about
(points). Not at all. Guys like Ben (Rowe) – he likes
that. Johnny (Clark) likes that. That's the challenge
for those guys. They like that whole thing, their whole
team does, of points racing.
“I don't think they drive much different than if they
weren't racing for points – that's not necessarily the
way they are. But I personally don't care about the
championship. I want to win races more than that. If you
told me I could race all year and not win a race but win
the championship, or I could win four races and no
championship, I'd want to win four races. We're trying
to do that – but it just goes along with everything else
you're doing.”
On having Lonnie Sommerville in the No. 48
this season: “He's got a great
personality. (Crew chief Gary Crooks) has a lot of
confidence in Lonnie. Obviously, I've seen him race, and
as far as the Canadian drivers, he's one of the top
dogs. He's in that league – Scott Fraser, Patrick
Laperle, those guys – and I'd put Lonnie right there.”
Lonnie Sommerville:
PASS North BRMS Preview
ILonnie Sommerville of Saint John,
New Brunswick, kicks off his first full-time season of
PASS North Series competition with the PASS 150 at Beech
Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine, on Saturday,
April 30. Sommerville has competed several times as a
part-time fixture in PASS North with his own team, but
this season marks his move to Mulkern Racing to run the
entire slate. Sommerville has some experience at Beech
Ridge, most notably having led the PASS 300 at the track
for several laps last September.
TEAM: No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet
CREW CHIEF: Gary Crooks, Mooresville, N.C.
BEST CAREER BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY FINISH: 17th
(September 2010)
LAST RACE AT BEECH RIDGE MOTOR SPEEDWAY: 17th (September
2010)
DID YOU KNOW?
- Lonnie Sommerville will be reunited with Gary Crooks.
Crooks is a New Brunswick native who now operates Crooks
Racing in Mooresville, N.C.
-Crew chief Gary Crooks is running the development team
for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and 2010 NASCAR
Nationwide Series champion Brad Keselowski.
- It's a five-hour drive for Lonnie Sommerville just to
make it to the Mulkern Racing race shop each week before
even heading to the race track.
- Mulkern Racing finished second in the final PASS North
Series standings in 2010 with driver Ben Rowe in the No.
48 entry.
Lonnie's outlook for the 2011 season with
Mulkern Racing: “The team they've put
together, as far as I'm concerned, is as good or better
than any as we're going to run against. I don't feel a
lot of pressure, but having been given this opportnity,
I'm confident I can go and beat (five-time PASS
champion) Johnny Clark and those guys. Maybe not every
week, but as much as they're going to beat us – and
that's really exciting.
“This is the next level, the next step in my career.
There are racing goals you want to accomplish in life,
and in the the northeast, the PASS Tour has the best
teams and best drivers on it. Aside from winning a
CARQUEST championship, I've done everything I've wanted
to do so far. This is where I wanted to take my career.”
On racing at Beech Ridge: “The
biggest thing is just to keep grip in the car and to
keep car turning. You realize that you have to sacrifice
a little forward drive to get underneath people in the
corners and drive up under them.
“It's a lot like an Oxford (Plains Speedway) or some of
those tracks – you leave loving it one time and the next
time you leave hating it. It's definitely a chassis
track, not a horsepower track by any means. It's just a
beautiful facility.”
On his goals for the 2011 PASS North Series
season: “Obviously, in my mind I want to
win the championship. But I'm not going to finish sixth
when I could have won the race because I'm worrying just
about points. If you win races, points will take care of
themselves.
“But at the same time, you have to be smart about it –
but that's what makes good race car drivers.”
SCOTT MULKERN, Team owner and Driver of the
No. 84 Community Pharmacies /Southern Maine Motors
Chevrolet, on adding Lonnie Sommerville to the team:
“When we had the open ride (last fall), we were talking
with Gary about working with us even before we were
talking to Lonnie. Gary has a lot of confidence in
Lonnie. Obviously, I've seen him race, and as far as the
Canadian drivers, he's one of the top dogs. He's in that
league – Scott Fraser, Patrick Laperle, those guys – and
I'd put Lonnie right there.”
Mulkern, Sommerville Ready To Join
Forces In 2011
FALMOUTH, Maine – They
take two different approaches to their racing, but in
the end they have a common goal. Mulkern Racing's
drivers just want to win.
“Obviously, in my mind I want to win the championship,”
said the latest addition to the Mulkern Racing lineup,
Canadian driver Lonnie Sommerville. “But I'm not going
to finish sixth when I could have won the race because
I'm worrying just about points. If you win races, points
will take care of themselves.
“But at the same time, you have to be smart about it –
but that's what makes good race car drivers.”
Sommerville, from St. John, New Brunswick, will run the
entire 2011 PASS North Series season in the Mulkern
Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet – marking
his first full-time foray into PASS North competition
after several seasons of part-time efforts coupled with
a full-time run at the CARQUEST Tour north of the
border.
The team finished second in the final PASS North
standings last season with Ben Rowe behind the wheel of
the No. 48. This season, they've brough Sommerville into
the mix and added crew chief Gary Crooks of Crooks
Racing in Mooresville, N.C.
“When we had the open ride (last fall), we were talking
with Gary about working with us even before we were
talking to Lonnie,” said Scott Mulkern, team owner and
driver of the No. 84 Community Pharmacies/Southern Maine
Motors Chevrolet. “Gary has a lot of confidence in
Lonnie. Obviously, I've seen him race, and as far as the
Canadian drivers, he's one of the top dogs. He's in that
league – Scott Fraser, Patrick Laperle, those guys – and
I'd put Lonnie right there.”
Despite competing right down until the final event of
the 2010 season for the PASS championship, Mulkern said
that the team won't base success this season around the
title hunt.
“Lonnie and Gary – the whole team – I know they do want
to win it,” Mulkern said. “That's what they're shooting
for, and more power to them. But as far as any pressure
from me to win the championship, that's not going to
come from me. They're racers, and that's what it's about
to a lot of them, I know that. But for me, I just want
to show up every week and be right there trying to win.
“If you look at my style and the way I sometimes shoot
myself in the foot (in the race car), I don't care about
that championship stuff. Not at all. That's just the way
I am. But we also have seen what Lonnie can do. We know
what he can do. If he's got a good car, and things are
going his way, he can win any race.”
Sommerville said the opportunity to drive for Mulkern
Racing, and no longer have to maintain his own
equipment, made it the right time to make the jump to
PASS.
“This is the next level, the next step in my career,”
Sommerville said. “There are racing goals you want to
accomplish in life, and the the northeast, the PASS Tour
has the best teams and best drivers onit. Aside from
winning a CARQUEST championship, I've done everything
I've wanted to do so far. This is where I wanted to take
my career.”
And Sommerville believes that the pieces are in place to
accomplish both of the team's goals – winning races and
winning the PASS North Series title in 2011.
“The team they've put together, as far as I'm concerned,
is as good or better than any as we're going to run
against,” he said. “I don't feel a lot of pressure, but
having been given this opportnity, I'm confident I can
go and beat (five-time PASS champion) Johnny Clark and
those guys. Maybe not every week, but as much as they're
going to beat us – and that's really exciting.”
31st Place Finish & 294 Laps for
Scott A lap down at the mid point of the first 100 lap
section, a tangle on the back straight with a car going
into the water barrels at the pit entrance, general lack
of
grip - a tough race for the #84.
Scott time trialed 25th
with a 19.192. He finished
third in his heat and started the feature from 30th.
Lonnie time trialed
55th with a 19.374. He finished
fourth in his heat right behind Scott in the #84 and did not transfer to the feature. Lonnie did not win his
"Last Chance" race and does not have a provisional.
He did not start "THE RACE"
17th Place Finish & 299 Laps for
Mike Mike survived a couple of incidents and had moved
up
to 13th at the 200 lap mark. For the final caution-free
100 lap section, the #24 lost some speed and
faded back to 17th, one lap down.
Mike time trialed 48th
with a 19.331. He finished
third in his heat and started the feature from 28th.
Scott Mulkern
Mulkern Racing
Taking 3 Cars to “The Race”
Sommerville, Rowe join owner Scott
Mulkern at North Wilkesboro
FALMOUTH, Maine – There's really
only one reason that Mulkern Racing will field three
cars in this week's inaugural PASS-sanctioned “The Race”
at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The team wants a win.
“I don't really look at it any different from any other
race,” said team owner and driver of the No. 84
Community Pharmacies Dodge, Scott Mulkern. “Once you're
in the car, I'm in there to win whether it's for a
million dollars or one dollar. Don't get me wrong, I
certainly appreciate the purse, but we're going to try
to win.”
“The Race” – a PASS South Series 300-lap main event with
$75,000 promised to the winner – boasted more than 90
Super Late Models from around the nation entered earlier
this week. With the exception of a PASS South race there
last fall, North Wilkesboro Speedway has been largely
dormant since Jeff Gordon won the final NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series race there in 1995. Qualifying is slated for
Friday afternoon, April 8, with race night set for 6
p.m. on Saturday, April 9.
Joining Mulkern in his efforts are Lonnie Sommerville,
the New Brunswick, Canada, native who will drive
Mulkern's No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet full-time
in the PASS North Series in 2011, and Mike Rowe, a
three-time Oxford 250 winner and three-time PASS 300
champion at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway. Rowe, of Turner,
Maine, will drive the No. 24 Southern Maine Motors
Chevrolet.
Rowe said the chance to race at North Wilkesboro was a
deciding factor for him.
“Actually, it does mean something,” Rowe said. “It's why
I really wanted to go down. (Mulkern) had an extra car,
so we just hope we can get all three of them in the show
and try to win the thing.
“We tested two or three weeks ago. We've got to pick up
a little bit somewhere, but we definitely have good
stuff (with Mulkern Racing).”
“We're committed to Lonnie for the year and Mike was
looking for something to do, and he's helped me use his
stuff in the past when I needed a ride,” Mulkern said.
“So I felt like, 'Let's do it.' And who are you going to
get that's better than Mike Rowe to drive one of these
things?”
Mulkern has made a point not just of supporting teams
that have helped him in his racing career in the past,
but he's also made it a priority to support PASS and its
president, Tom Mayberry. It's one of the reasons he's
making sure he has three competitive cars on hand at
North Wilkesboro.
“If I sent one car, that probably would have been
enough,” Mulkern said with a laugh. “(Mayberry), he's
really got a good thing going down south. There's quite
a bit of chatter about the (PASS South Series) down
there... The cars seem to be making a comeback.
“These are the cars I like, so I want to support Tom. To
me, this is as far as you're going to go in a fiberglass
body car.”
Tony Ricci will serve as Mulkern's crew chief on the No.
84, while Seth Holbrook will lead Rowe's effort with the
No. 24 team. Gary Crooks, who is stationed out of his
own North Carolina race shop, will team with Sommerville
and the No. 48 – the first effort for the crew chief and
driver who will be paired together this season in the
PASS North Series.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back behind the
wheel of a race car and driving for Mulkern Racing here
in 2011,” Sommerville said. “It would have been nice to
run a race beforehand, but we did some testing together
so it’s not like we are all meeting each other for the
first time.
“The fact that myself and Gary have worked together
great for years now, we should be just fine.”
With so many cars expected to be on hand, the Mulkern
racing stable has been careful not to put the proverbial
cart before the horse. Qualifying – not racing – are
first and foremost on everyone's minds.
“If we can get into the show, I think we'll have just a
good as shot as anybody else,” Rowe said. “ The longer
the race, the better I like it. But with 90 cars, if you
have a bad time trial run and have to start at the rear
of your heat, you're going to have a long day.”
Long day or not, the team will have plenty of help on
hand in crew members Buster Bean, Kevin Sears, Steve and
Stephen Holbrook, Shawn Plowman and Scott MacMaster.
Some of the Crooks Racing staff out of Mooresville,
N.C., will also be at North Wilkesboro.
“We worked hard all winter gearing up for this race,”
Mulkern said. “I can't thank the guys enough for
everything they've done to get us to this point.”
New Beginnings
Set to Kick Off for Lonnie Sommerville At North
Wilkesboro
Saint John, NB, Canada 4/5/11-
After a long and cold Canadian off season Lonnie
Sommerville is ready to get back racing. While every
calendar year brings new beginnings to a race car
driver, the 2011 season will be by far the biggest
season of change in Sommerville’s successful racing
career. For his entire racing career Sommerville has
raced under his self owned moniker, but starting in 2011
Sommerville will pilot the #48 A. E. McKay
Builders/Community Pharmacies entry for Mulkern Racing
based in Falmouth , Maine . The tango will start their
relationship off with a bang as final preparations are
under way for “The Race” at North Wilkesboro set to roll
off Saturday night.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back behind the
wheel of a race car and driving for the Mulkern Racing
here in 2011. Obviously all of this wouldn’t be possible
if it wasn’t for A. E. McKay Builders along with all my
other sponsors who have supported me over the years,”
stated Sommerville. “I know with this weekend’s race
being our first race together and it being such a big
event.”
The biggest challenge for the duo may not be the ever
changing 5/8 mile facility nor the eighty plus expected
competitors to be on hand attempting to make the $75,000
to win show this weekend. The real test may come in the
form of team chemistry as the three day event will be
the first time the new owner-driver combination will be
put to the test. However, according to Sommerville,
while the team as a whole may be new a lot of familiar
faces are in place to make the transition to the #48
machine as smooth as possible.
“I don’t think there will be any issues about it being
our first race together as a team. It would have been
nice to run a race before hand, but we did some testing
together so it’s not like we are all meeting each other
for the first time. Plus there are guys from my team in
Canada that will be helping us out this weekend, and
then the fact that myself and Gary (Crooks) have worked
together great for years now we should be just fine.”
said Sommerville.
The 300 lap event deemed as “The Race” at North
Wilkesboro Speedway is set to kick off Thursday April
7th with practice beginning at 4pm. Action will heat up
in a hurry as time trials and heat races will set the
field starting at 5pm on Friday April 8th. The following
night, Saturday April 9th; the richest super late model
event in PASS history will take the green flag at 6pm.
Mooresville, NC 3/25/11- Over the
years Crooks Racing Incorporated, owned and operated by
short track icon Gary Crooks, has developed into one of
the go to companies in the industry to get short track
racers the edge over their competitors. Having worked
with up and coming drivers to NASCAR super stars, Crooks
Racing has excelled in both on and off track
performance.
The 2011 season kicks off for Crooks April 7-9th at the
“THE RACE” held at North Wilkesboro (NC) Speedway as he
will look to guide Mulkern Racing and driver Lonnie
Sommerville in to victory lane to take home the $75,000
check. In addition to his role as crew chief for
Sommerville, Crooks will act as a consultant for fellow
Mulkern Racing teammates Mike Rowe and Scott Mulkern.
“THE RACE” at North Wilkesboro will act as a warm up
event for the Crooks and Sommerville tandem as they will
compete for the sixteen race PASS North championship
this season.
“I know this year I’ll be a busy guy but I know that
between myself and my employees at Crooks Racing we are
setting ourselves up for a successful year I do
believe,” stated Crooks. “Chasing the PASS North
championship with Lonnie should be fun because it will
be some of the best competition to race against every
time you show up to the track. Anytime you can beat the
Rowe’s and Clark’s of the PASS North series you’re
beating the best.”
Lonnie Sommerville
Lonnie Sommerville will
be signing autographs
in the PASS booth at the EXPO on
Friday night from 6 to 8 PM and
Sunday mid-day from 11 AM to 1 PM.
PASS Autograph Schedule: Friday Jan. 7 - 6 PM to 8
PM - Johnny Clark, Ben
Rowe, Joey Doiron,
Scott McDaniel, and Lonnie
Sommerville
Saturday Jan. 8 - 1 PM to 3
PM - Jay Fogleman, and
6 PM to 8 PM - Johnny
Clark, Andy Shaw, Ben Rowe, Joey Doiron
Sunday Jan. 9 - 11 AM to 1
PM - Johnny Clark, Dan
McKeage,
and Lonnie Sommerville
Lonnie Sommerville in
the Mulkern #48
Three Mulkern Entries
for the "THE RACE"
Mulkern Racing, LLC is pleased to
announce that Canadian Lonnie Sommerville will drive the
#48 SLM in Pro All Stars Series North competition for
the 2011 season. The team will be lead by Gary Crooks
and Seth Holbrook who will join forces as we challenge
for the PASS North Championship.
We had close to 15 drivers inquire about our plans for
the 2011 season and thank everyone for their interest in
our program! We found this process both flattering and
overwhelming!
Lonnie brings talent, sportsmanship, and a thirst for
competition to the #48 team. He has enjoyed much success
in his homeland Canada and looks to add to his resume.
Owning his own race team, Lonnie has a respect for his
equipment and works hard. He has technical race
knowledge and understands what it takes to win.
Competitors will appreciate his friendly personality and
competitive desire. We are excited to welcome Lonnie to
Mulkern Racing!
Seth remains with Mulkern Racing as Crew Chief after
leading the #48 Team to two PASS North victories and a
second place in the points standings for the 2010
season. Seth loves to race! His hard work, determination
and expertise will be greatly complimented by the
addition of Gary Crooks.
Gary's unparalleled work ethic, expertise and leadership
will be contagious and bring Teamwork to a new level for
the #48! Gary will function as Team Consultant/Co-Crew
Chief. Both Seth and Gary know what it takes to win and
Lonnie will be in good hands!
We couldn't do this deal without the dedication or our
crew. Tony Ricci, Stephen Holbrook, Shawn Plowman, Kevin
Sears, and Steve Holbrook will be back with us for the
2011 season.
Scott Mulkern intends to enter 4 or 5 races for the 2011
season. He will be in the familiar #84 when "the mood
strikes him" and his schedule permits. Expect to see
Scott entered at his home track Beechridge, where he is
always competitive, and maybe a few other events
throughout the season.
We will begin our season
at THE RACE in North Wilkesboro, NC on
April 9, 2011. Mulkern Racing, LLC has THREE entires for
THE RACE! Scott is entered in the #84, Lonnie
Sommerville in the #48 and Veteran Mike Rowe will be in
an additional Mulkern Racing entry #24. Wow! What are we
thinking? We are excited about our chances and look
forward to this debut.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our
sponsors. Without their support, this wouldn't be
possible! BIG THANKS- Community Pharmacies, A.E. McKay
Builders, Southern Maine Motors - Chrysler*Dodge* Jeep,
and Portland Detailing!
Please stay tuned for additional releases in the coming
weeks and, as always, thank you for your support and
interest!
Gary
Bellefleur Memorial Fund . If you wish to make a donation,
please make checks payable to
The Gary Bellefleur Memorial
Fund and mail to: Mulkern Racing LLC
Attention: Bellefleur
Memorial Fund 58 Hadlock Road
Falmouth, ME 04105 .. Full Info & Story HERE
. Bub 1957-2010 Our Condolences to the
Bilodeau Family
