In 2004, I was certain I'd seen the 2 best race car drivers nobody had ever heard of.That summer, in the DNK 250 at Unity Raceway, Johnny Clark and Ben Rowe raced side-by-side just inches apart for what seemed like 20 laps on a track that intimidates many drivers. These young guys from central Maine may have been household short-track names here at home (certainly Rowe was and Clark was well on his way to establishing himself in Super Late Model racing), but in other parts of the country, they may well have been John Doe and Joe Smiley.
Rowe never got closer to NASCAR's big stage than a few Busch North Series starts. Clark got invited to the Jack Roush tryout affectionately known as "The Gong Show" in 2006, but it was little more than a farce of a television reality show.
I'm thinking there's another "best guy nobody's ever heard of" out there now. His name is Patrick Laperle.
Surely, the NASCAR powers know little of the French-Canadian driver with an accent so thick you'd swear he was the backup netminder for the old Sherbrooke Canadiens of the American Hockey League, circa 1985. But Laperle's resume in these parts is amazing.
On Sunday, he won his 2nd Milk Bowl in 3 years at Thunder Road. He's also won the aforementioned DNK 250 at Unity, and he's won in a Super Late Model at Oxford Plains. He's the ACT "Canadian" champion for this year, and anywhere he goes, he's in that class of "immediate threat to win."
When Mike Rowe couldn't get back from Nova Scotia in time for the TD Banknorth 250 this July, car owner Mike Lux hand-picked Laperle to replace his driver. Laperle didn't qualify the car, but he went out 2 weeks later and finished sixth in a 100-lap event in Lux's ride at Seekonk Speedway.
On Sunday, Laperle was the only driver to finish in the top-10 in all 3 of the Milk Bowl's 50-lap segments. For that, he got the honor of kissing a cow in victory lane.
By a 9-point margin, Laperle was the Milk Bowl champion. Who did he beat?
Oh, some guy you may have heard of by the name of Ben Rowe.
2 comments:
Good job to Patrick! The Milk Bowl is tough. I love it though - i've gone to many as a kid and would love for someday to make it back there for another. It's a tough race and Patrick is one of my favorite competitors having dealt with him on and off the track.
He really had it going on. He raced with patience in the second segment and that segment was key to his win. He started that segment almost dead last. He was dead last about 10-15 laps into it. Ben Rowe was slowly picking them off and probably leading the overall standings at that point. Then they had a few cautions followed by a fairly long green and he just went to work at picking them off on the high side about one car per every other lap or so. By the end of that segment he was about 6 spots ahead of Ben and there wasnt any real drama in the third segment.
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