1st time for everything

Ben Rowe thought this day would never come.

Four times the bridesmaid, four times finishing 2nd to someone else. On Saturday night, the 3-time PASS North Series champion finally broke through at Thompson International Speedway.

"I've finished second to everybody -- Ted Christopher, Rick Martin, a lot of people," Rowe said after winning the Pepsi Racing 75 ahead of rookie Trevor Sanborn and his father, Mike Rowe. "I didn't know what I'd have to do to get out of here with a win. It was always second-best. But this is one of my favorite tracks, so this means a lot."

Ben Rowe led the first 38 laps before Rick Martin took over on a restart. Six laps later, Rowe was back out front and long gone in the same car he will take to the IWK 250 at Riverside Speedway in Antigonish, N.S. next weekend.

"We went to Halifax with this car and finished second, so we're heading in the right direction," Rowe said. "This was not really even the car we wanted to bring here, but we think we found something with it."

Rowe padded his points lead with his 1st North Series win of the season. Johnny Clark entered the night 2nd in the standings, but he fell to 3rd after cutting a right front tire under speed and hitting the turn one wall hard. Clark ended up 16th, 18 laps down to the winner.

Richie Dearborn and Adam Bates rounded out the top five. Derek Ramstrom, who drove through the infield grass while running in the top-5 just 7 laps in, rallied back to finish 6th. Bill Penfold, Larry Gelinas, Les Rose Jr. and Gary Bellefleur ran 7th through 10th at the checkered flag.