{"id":18441,"date":"2015-04-03T11:07:20","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T15:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=18441"},"modified":"2015-04-03T04:22:29","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T08:22:29","slug":"ben-rowe-carries-momentum-to-hickory-for-10th-annual-easter-bunny-150","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/ben-rowe-carries-momentum-to-hickory-for-10th-annual-easter-bunny-150\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Rowe Carries Momentum To Hickory For 10th Annual Easter Bunny 150"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Motorsports<\/a>CHARLOTTE, NC (April 2) \u2013 For the first time in a long time, 3-time Pro All Stars Series National Champion, Ben Rowe, has things going his way as he looks forward to this weekend\u2019s 10th Annual Easter Bunny 150 at Hickory Motor Speedway. In addition to his national championships, Rowe is a 4-time PASS AIM Recycling Super Late Model champion, he has won more races than any other driver in series history, and even captured the PASS South Super Late Model title in 2009. Rowe has struggled in recent years, however, going winless in the North for the last two seasons and not scoring any top five finishes in 2014. But, there was a glimmer of hope late last year as the Turner, ME veteran finished in the top five in both of the final PASS National Championship races of the year at Caraway Speedway and Southern National Motorsports Park. And Rowe was able to put the final piece in the puzzle with a win in the Peach Blossom Special at Anderson Motor Speedway two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe built all new cars last year with Dean Clattenburg and brought them back home to Maine and struggled with them,\u201d said Rowe, after ending a winless streak that lasted over a year. \u201cDean has actually taken over as crew chief and really turned us around. The chassis is good, it drives good, we have speed back in the car, and that\u2019s what you need. They\u2019ve been able to get the car where I can drive it and be there at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Easter Bunny 150 is certainly a race that suits Rowe\u2019s driving style. Rowe has been a contender each time he has raced at Hickory Motor Speedway, winning the Easter Bunny 150 in 2009 and charging from outside the top 20 to win the Over The Mountain 150 in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of good cars will be showing up to qualify for that race so getting a good qualifying spot so you can ride and have a lot of patience, that\u2019s the name of the game at Hickory,\u201d said Rowe. \u201cIt\u2019s a track that\u2019s pretty slick, you bounce around a lot and don\u2019t have much grip. It\u2019s a fun racetrack. Once you get started and get into the race, it\u2019s more of a head game than who has the fastest car.\u201d<\/p>\n

One driver Ben Rowe will have to contend with is one that he has known his entire life, his dad, Mike. The former 3-time AIM Recycling Oxford 250 presented by Kenny U-Pull winner returns to competition at Hickory for the first time in a number of years. Back in 2006, Mike Rowe won the inaugural Easter Bunny 150 en route to claiming the PASS South Super Late Model title. Ben knows his dad will definitely be one of the drivers to beat on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to run the 7 car for Petit Motorsports that finished right behind me at Caraway and it\u2019s a good car for sure,\u201d said Ben Rowe. \u201cHe\u2019s asked me a lot of questions and we know it will be a lot of fun. I always try to keep one up on him because he\u2019s about a hundred up on me everywhere else so I want to try and get my second Easter Bunny win before he gets his second.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rowes will have a strong field of challengers for this weekend\u2019s Easter Bunny 150 led by PASS South Super Late Model points leader, Zane Smith, along with fellow championship contenders Jody Measamer, Jimmy Doyle, and Tate Fogleman. In addition to Fogleman, Woodman Racing will also be fielding entries for Joey Doiron and Steve Halpin. Trevor Sanborn and Eric St. Gelais will be making the trek down south to Hickory. Former two-time Easter Bunny 150 winner, Preston Peltier, returns behind the wheel of Robert Hamke\u2019s Dodge, along with 2008 Hickory winner, Heath Hindman. PASS veterans Trevor Noles, Jeff Batten, Trey Jarrell, Lucas Jones, and Walker Yates will each be seeking their first Easter Bunny 150 wins, while Texas native Derek Scott, Jr. will be hoping to make his first career PASS start.<\/p>\n

The Easter Bunny 150 weekend will expand to two days, beginning on Friday afternoon, April 3 with practice for the PASS Super Late Models, Must See Racing Sprint Cars and support divisions and will be followed by twin 25 lap qualifying races for the Must See Racing Sprint Cars and features for the PASS Pro Late Models and Legends cars. Then, on Saturday, April 4, the PASS Super Late Models will compete in the 10th Annual Easter Bunny 150 along with the 40 lap \u201cSouthern Showdown\u201d for the Must See Racing Xtreme Sprint Cars and features for the USAC HPD Eastern Midgets, PASS Pro Late Models, and Legends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTE, NC (April 2) \u2013 For the first time in a long time, 3-time Pro All Stars Series National Champion, Ben Rowe, has things going his way as he looks forward to this weekend\u2019s 10th Annual Easter Bunny 150 at Hickory Motor Speedway. In addition to his national championships, Rowe is a 4-time PASS AIM […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[15604],"class_list":["post-18441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pass","tag-hickory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18443,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18441\/revisions\/18443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}