Two-time Oxford 250 winner Ben Rowe of Turner buckles into his race car for Oxford 250 practice at Oxford Plains Speedway in 2016. Travis Barrett/Kennebec Journal file photo
WISCASSET — With a larger purse comes a larger level of interest.
Sunday’s Coastal 200 at Wiscasset Speedway boasts a confirmed entry list of 33 drivers for the $15,000-to-win race as of Wednesday, including former Coastal 200 winners, former Oxford 250 winners and multi-time track champions. On Monday, the track announced that both Johnny Clark and Ben Rowe have intentions to compete in the Coastal 200.
Clark, of Hallowell, will drive a car owned by Chad Dow of Pittsfield.
“Chad approached me this winter and said he wanted to get back into it, and he wanted to get a car to try and win this race,” Clark said of Dow, who took roughly half a decade away from racing to focus on his Nitro Trailers business. “We worked together on it, but with the idea of it being him behind the wheel.”
Dow, a former crew member for Clark’s Pro All Stars Series team, competed in the first two weekly Late Model Sportsman races at Wiscasset this season. He finished a season-best sixth in the most recent race on May 11.
“(Dow) feels our best chance collectively is with me behind the wheel and him spotting,” Clark said. “I don’t know if I can do a better job going fast, he’s capable of that. But I think he’s thinking about being able to keep a car under us for all 200 laps with my experience in these types of races.”
Though Clark has spent the last two decades focusing almost exclusively on touring series competition and special events with large purses, he does have roots at Wiscasset Speedway.
He won the Coastal 200 when it was a 150-lap race in 1997.
“It’s where I started,” Clark said. “I love it there. I always have.”
Rowe will drive a car owned by J.R. Robinson of Steuben, a car the two have split duties this season in on the American Canadian Tour. Rowe won the Coastal 200 in 2003 — the same year he won the first of his two consecutive Oxford 250s — when it was a Super Late Model race.
Defending Coastal 200 winner Mike Hopkins of Hermon is also entered. Hopkins is one of two drivers to win both of Wiscasset’s signature events, having also won the Boss Hogg 150.
Three-time Coastal 200 winner Ben Ashline is expected to make his season debut on Sunday. Ashline, originally from Pittston, won the Coastal in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
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The Pro All Stars Series second-winningest driver of all-time reached a career milestone last weekend.
Clark won the PASS 150 at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, New Hampshire, on Sunday, marking his 50th career victory with the sanctioning body. Clark, who owns seven of those 50 wins at WMMP — including four of the last six series races there — trails only Rowe in terms of career wins.
Rowe, of Turner, has 60 combined victories in PASS North, PASS South and PASS National Championship races.
“The number just happens to be 50,” said Clark, who has seven career PASS North championships, including his most recent one in 2021. “What it’s really about is the ride we’ve had as a team to get to this number.
“We’ve worked hard to get to this point as a team.”
After going winless in three consecutive seasons between 2017-2019, Clark has now won at least one race every year since.
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Notes: Wiscasset Speedway got a facelift in the days leading up to Sunday’s Coastal 200. The track has a re-designed and freshly paved infield pit road, which is expected to permit live pit stops trackside instead of having teams exit behind the wall to the sprawling pit area to make tire swaps and adjustments. Fans will now be able to watch those stops as they happen in the infield. … Oxford Plains Speedway, in response to recent rainouts, will have a doubleheader this weekend with the track’s regularly-scheduled Oxford Championship Series on Saturday night and then a return for the OCS as part of the originally scheduled Motor Mayhem date on Sunday. … PASS returns to action with a twinbill of 150-lap main events on June 9, including the rescheduled race that was rained out on April 28.
Travis Barrett
GWCNewEngland@gmail.com
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