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SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Never in his wildest dreams did Ben Tinker think he’d find success so quickly.
The PASS Modified rookie took the lead shortly following a lap eight restart and never looked back, cruising to his first career victory in the division Saturday afternoon at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway.
Tinker, of New Gloucester, Maine, said it was just like driving 40 laps in his former Sport Series ride at his home track.
“I felt very comfortable coming here. We knew where to be on the race track,” Tinker said. “These other guys are so good at this — you don’t go anywhere and race anybody else’s division and think you’re going to go out and beat them right off. If you’ve got a chance, you’d better go.”
Tinker did just that, holding off a pair of PASS Modified champions in Ryan Robbins and Andy Shaw to win the 40-lap event after starting sixth in the 13-car field.
“We’d used it up getting up through. We got the car way too free for the feature,” Robbins said. “What we had at the end was what we had. Ben was really good, especially on the long haul. His car didn’t give up much.”
The race’s only restart came on lap eight, when Tinker restarted on the outside of the front row and drove around polesitter Mike Carigan. Once he was clear, Tinker was never challenged again.
“I could see (Shaw) coming before the restart, and I knew I needed to get to the outside,” said Tinker, who finished fifth in the season opener at Oxford Plains Speedway, his first career Modified start. “Then on the restart, I felt like if I could hold (Carigan) down I could get gone, and that’s really what happened.”
Still, only moments removed from taking the checkered flag, Tinker admitted that he’s off to a better start to the season then he ever could have imagined.
“I really didn’t. You want think you can do it, and this car’s a good car,” Tinker said. “We didn’t really have to do much to make it go fast. The driver just has to do his job.”
Carigan and Dana Reed rounded out the top five finishers in the event.
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