Mulkern Racing: PASS North Series
Star Speedway Race Preview
THE STORY
FALMOUTH, Maine – Lonnie Sommerville of Saint John, New Brunswick, will try and keep momentum rolling when the PASS North Series heads to the Star 150 at Star Speedway in Epping, N.H., on Saturday, May 12. Sommerville is locked in a tie for the PASS North Series points lead after one event, and he finished fourth in this event last season in the Mulkern Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet. Sommerville heads into the race after finishing second in the season opener at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway last weekend.
WHO: Lonnie Sommerville, Saint John, New Brunswick
TEAM: Mulkern Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet
CREW CHIEF: Gary Crooks, Mooresville, N.C.
BEST CAREER STAR SPEEDWAY FINISH: 4th (May 2011)
LAST RACE AT STAR SPEEDWAY: 4th (May 2011)
WHAT: PASS North Series Star 150
WHERE: Star Speedway, Epping, N.H. (.25-mile oval)
WHEN: Practice, 4 p.m., Friday, May 11; 1:30 p.m., Saturday, May 12; Qualifying, 4:30 p.m., Saturday, May 12; Race, 7 p.m., Saturday, May 12.
PASS North Series
LAST RACE: May 5, SouthernMaineMotors.com 150, Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Maine (2nd)
NEXT RACE: May 26, PASS 150, White Mountain Motorsports Park, N. Woodstock, N.H. (.25-mile banked oval)
CURRENT POINTS POSITION: T-1st
DID YOU KNOW?
This is the first time Lonnie Sommerville has had even a share of the PASS North Series points lead.
After finishing second last weekend, Lonnie Sommerville hast posted an average finishing position of 2.7 in his last four starts at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.
Lonnie Sommerville had one win and 10 Top-5 finishes in 14 starts last season, en route to a second-place finish in the final PASS North Series standings and co-Rookie of the Year honors.
Mulkern Racing will return to a one-car effort this weekend, after entering both Lonnie Sommerville and Scott Mulkern in the season opener at Beech Ridge.
Lonnie Sommerville finished fourth in the Star 150 last season, his first career visit to the track.
Lonnie Sommerville builds race cars for his own Lonnie Sommerville Racing organization in New Brunswick.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
LONNIE SOMMERVILLE, Driver of the Mulkern Racing No. 48 A.E. McKay Builders Chevrolet, On his solid start to the season with a runner-up finish last weekend at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway: “The first six, seven, eight races you’ve just got to keep par and try and not lose ground (in the standings). The first eight races aren’t as important as the last eight or so – but it is important to come out of there not digging yourself out of a hole.
“We still have 15 races to go, so it is what it is – but I am disappointed in (second last week). It’s neat we can be disappointed we finished second in a race, but it’s disappointing in a way because we know we were unhappy with how our car was. That’s a good thing.”
On what his impressions of Star Speedway: “Every race track is unique and has its unique characteristics. At Star, there’s a bump going into turn one, and it’s bumpy down the backstretch. We can’t do what we’d do at some other tracks with bump stops and that stuff.
“Every track has things you have to work around. I try to play all these tracks back in my head now that I’ve been to all of them, and for me, when I think of Star it’s how rough the surface is. We can’t do some of the things we do at other places because of that.”
On how Star Speedway compares to other quarter-mile tracks, including his home track of Speedway 660 in Geary, New Brunswick: “It’s a little faster than what 660 would be, but you still drive it the same way. You can move around a little bit and try different places. It’s not like a Beech Ridge or Oxford, where you have to be really careful not to burn your tires off it.
“You can get up on the wheel and get after it. Even as well as I did at Beech Ridge, I’d rather run the way you have to run at a place like this. I would rather run hard. It’s not like you want to go as hard as you can every single lap, but I feel like driver can make a difference at a place like this.”
UP NEXT
The PASS North Series heads to its second straight quarter-mile for the PASS 150 at White Mountain Motorsports Park in N. Woodstock, N.H., on Saturday, May 26… Lonnie Sommerville finished fifth in the event a year ago. It was his first career visit to WMMP.
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