Cassius Clark and Hight Motorsports took an important first step toward winning an elusive Pro All Stars Series North championship with an impressive run last Saturday in North Woodstock, N.H.

Clark took the checkered flag in a 150-lap feature at White Mountain Motorsports Park.

“This is the first one for the Hight team,” Clark said. “So it’s exciting for those guys. They’ve been at it for a long time. We’re pretty excited.”

It was the 14th PASS North victory for Clark and first since 2009. Clark, of Farmington, is gunning for a points title this season after racing a limited schedule last season.

“We put a lot into it,” he said. “We have high hopes. We obviously want to win the championship. We’re neck and neck with Johnny (Clark) and I think we’ll race it to the end.”

Joey Doiron, of Berwick, leads PASS North with 646 points. Four-time defending champ Johnny Clark is fifth with 626. Cassius Clark, who has two top-five finishes in three races, is sixth with 625.

PASS North will race again Sunday at Riverside Speedway in Groveton, N.H. It will cap a busy weekend for Clark and his race team, who will also compete in the Maritime Pro Stock tour in Canada. He’s driving a car owned by Rollie MacDonald and will be in River Glade, New Brunswick on Saturday night for the Lucas Oil 100.

Clark finished second in the tour’s season opener May 20.

“We’ll go do that and then ride through the night to Groveton,” Clark said. “It’s going to be a busy weekend.”

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Brian Whitney earned two feature victories last weekend at Unity Raceway.

The Burnham driver won a 35-lap Late Model feature Saturday night and followed that up with an impressive showing Sunday in the Butch Burgess Memorial.

Butch Burgess died on Jan. 9, 2009. A second generation driver, he first raced at Unity in 1969. He won three track championships there — 1971, 1977 and 1988.

His son, Jeff Burgess, organized a 34-lap memorial race at Unity on Sunday.

“I really wanted to win that race,” Whitney said. “I knew Butch all my life, basically. We actually thought about using the feature on Saturday as a practice. But we were good and five laps in we decided we would go for the win. The car is working good. The crew and I have been over it with a fine-tooth comb, and it’s paying off dividends now. It was a good weekend.”

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Zack Emerson, 32, of Sabattus, is still trying to chase down what is proving to be an elusive Strictly Stock points title at Oxford Plains Speedway.

Emerson has raced the last 17 years at OPS, including the last seven in the Strictly series.

“We want it bad,” he said. “I’ve missed it a few times. We’ve finished second twice. We just can’t quite get it, and we want it real bad.”

Emerson is sixth in points after two races. He finished eighth in the feature last weekend and fourth the week before.

“We have a decent car,” he said. “We still have a few things we have to work on, but it’s running well. We’ll see how it goes.”

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Ajay Picard is back in a Late Model at Unity after running a light schedule last season.

Picard, 33, of Palmyra, finished fifth in the Saturday feature at Unity. He is third in points behind Whitney and frontrunner Jeff Burgess.

Picard, however, insists he isn’t running for points this season.

“If they come, they come,” he said. “We’re not really in it for the points. We’re going to miss the next two weeks but other than that we do plan on racing there full time.”

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Left turns: Nate Weston, of Madison, leads the Sportsman division at Speedway 95 with 100 points. … Spud Speedway had 13 Late Models show for its season opener last weekend. … Buckfield native Vanna Brackett, who is driving a Late Model owned by Winthrop natives Gene Hatch and Kevin Burgess, finished 21st out of 27 cars in a points race last weekend at Oxford Plains Speedway.

Bill Stewart — 621-5640

bstewart@centralmaine.com

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