Northern Teams Look Defend Mason-Dixon Meltdown Bragging Rights

Concord, NC — The Mason-Dixon Meltdown is a Super Late Model version of a racing civil war. Although it is a Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Model race, the event attracted scores of PASS North regulars when it was held at South Boston Speedway (VA) in 2006.

Maine‘s Cassius Clark led a charge to victory by his homestate’s contingent of Johnny Clark, Ben Rowe, Mike Rowe and others last season. But it wasn’t before a number of strong Southern racers, including Travis Kittleson and Jason Hogan, put up a good fight.

Now, for round two of Meltdown, which has moved to Concord Motorsport Park in Concord, North Carolina, the Northerners are hoping to earn bragging rights once again.

“It was pretty much a sweep with the Northern guys last year at the first Meltdown,” said 2007 PASS North Champion Ben Rowe, who finished sixth in last year’s event. “But it will be tough. There are a lot of Southern guys who are pretty good.”

“That was a fun race,” said two-time PASS North champion Johnny Clark. “It brings out the top dogs from the North and the South. I think that that it’s pretty cool that we have this Mason-Dixon race going. It’s kind of like in the past when we had some big PASS races with the Canadians and we had an American-Canadian rivalry. Now we have a North-South rivalry and that’s cool.”

Going to a new venue is something that the Northern teams are looking forward to.

“I think that it is neat to go to another track this year,” said 2006 Meltdown winner Cassius Clark. “They can mix it up every year and keep going to new tracks. I’m used to that. When I raced Legends cars and now with this [Super Late Model], I’ve never had a home track. I’ve watched a couple of races at Concord and tested a Legends car at the little track there at Concord, but never raced there. Johnny [Clark] has gone down a couple of times and it’s a neat track. We never went to South Boston before last year and we made out alright there, so hopefully we can do the same thing at Concord.”

If any Yankee has an advantage at Concord, it could be Johnny Clark, who raced at the track several times when the track hosted the now-defunct World Asphalt Championships for the old Big 10 Super Late Model Series.

“That is a fun place,” added Johnny Clark. “It’s an awfully fast track. I love the tracks where you can really get up on the wheel and go fast. As long as you come out of a race there without scraping the wall, you’ve done all right.

“We’ve had some good luck there. We lost a motor there the first time that we went and we were running fifth. The last time that we went there, we finished second to Freddie [Query]. Whenever you do that there, you are doing pretty good at Concord.”

Even those who haven’t been to the track yet are looking forward to it.

“I don’t really know anything about the track, but I have heard a lot about it,” said 2006 PASS North Rookie of the Year Alan Tardiff. “We’re really excited to go to a track of that caliber. There’s plenty of history there and there will be a lot of cars there. Hopefully, we’ll have a good showing. We’ll concentrate on getting it the show first and then we’ll race the race.”

And escaping the chilly confines of New England in the fall to head to the heart of stock car racing is always a good thing too.

“I think that the location this year is [even] better,” said Tardiff. “Recognition is hard to come by and the area that we’ll be racing in is the heart of racing. It’s going to be fun. We’re going down a week early to visit the shops and visit some friends. We’ll make a little vacation out of it, so we’re excited about that too.”

Other Northern drivers who have also sent in entries for the 2007 Mason-Dixon Meltdown include Joey Porciello, Trevor Sanborn, Richie Dearborn, Derek Ramstrom, Ryan Moore and DJ Shaw.

The second annual Mason-Dixon Meltdown will take place at Concord Motorsport Park (NC) on November 16th-17th.

For more information on the PASS North and South Series, please contact 51 Sports at (704) 788-2134 and for technical and rules information on all of the PASS tours, please contact Scott Reed at (207) 625-3230.

Also, be sure to visit the official PASS South website at www.racewithpass.com and the official website of PASS North, www.proallstarsseries.com.

Sources: Jeremy Trojano/PASS PR

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