Thompson Speedway Notes: Derek Ramstrom Comes Home For PASS North Series Win

THOMPSON – Having the fastest car isn’t always the best avenue to victory lane on the track.

Derek Ramstrom

Sometimes a little intuition can make up perfectly for a lack of horsepower.

Derek Ramstrom may not have had the fastest car Thursday at Thompson International Speedway but his feeling that things were going to go bad in front of him was spot on.

Ramstrom inherited the lead on lap 62 and then held off the late charges of D.J. Shaw to win the 75-lap Pro All Stars Series North feature Thursday at Thompson International Speedway.

It was the first PASS North victory of the season for Ramstrom, of West Boylston, Mass. and his second in a PASS car at Thompson Speedway, his home track. Ramstrom is a two-time Super Late Model division champion at Thompson.

“Tonight was good,” Ramstrom said. “I was just patient. I knew I had a good car the whole race. I was just waiting for everything to fan out and see what was going to happen.”

D.J. Shaw of Center Conway, N.H. was second and Travis Benjamin of Morrill, Me. third.

With Larry Gelinas leading, Ramstrom was in third and putting the pressure hard on second place Ted Christopher. Ramstrom said he decided the time was right to back off a little and see what Christopher would do with a slowing Gelinas.

“I figured that they were going to wreck,” Ramstrom said. “I was waiting for it.”

On lap 62 Ramstrom’s prediction came true as contact from Christopher sent Gelinas spinning off of turn four. Christopher was sent to the rear of the field, handing Ramstrom the lead.

“I knew if I was pressuring Teddy too much that he was going to get impatient with the [Gelinas] and maybe move him out of the way,” Ramstrom said. “I was just in the right place at the right time.”

Christopher, of Plainville, said he barely made contact with Gelinas.

“I don’t even think I touched him,” Christopher said. “It was like, we came off [the corner] and I definitely didn’t hit him, I maybe nudged him. He was all over. He was pushing, he’s loose, he’s this, he’s that. He was really blocking. He wasn’t going to win the race with 15 laps to go. I had to go because here comes Ramstrom, and the only reason he’s catching us is because [Gelinas] is backing us up. I had a really good car, it’s just unfortunate.”

Gelinas, of Buxton, Me., admitted he was trying to keep the field at bay while saving tires that were going away.

“I was doing what I had to do to save the tires,” Gelinas said. “I was spinning them and trying to take it easy coming off [the corners]. I didn’t think there was anything wrong there. That’s how he drives and he wants to win the race and I was just trying to hold on as much as I could.”

On the ensuing restart Ramstrom briefly lost the lead in turn one to Shaw, but was back out in front coming off turn two.

Scott Sundeen passed Tom Shea for the lead on lap 17 and drove away to victory in the 20-lap Limited Sportsman feature.
Art Moran III of Preston was second and Shea, of New London, third.

Troy Talman of Oxford, Mass. held off Cam McDermott of Scituate, R.I. to win the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature. Nikki Ouellette of East Granby was third.

John Lowinski-Loh Jr. of Milford, Mass. drove away in the closing laps to win his sixth consecutive race in the 20-lap Thompson Modified feature. It was the seventh victory overall in 2012 for Lowinski-Loh. Chad LaBastie of Uxbridge, Mass was second and Ryan Morgan of Mystic third.

Dave Trudeau of Mansfield won the 15-lap Mini Stock feature. Eric Bourgeois of East Haddam was second and Steve Violette of Canterbury third.

Tom O’Sullivan of Springfield, Mass. won the 25-lap Late Model feature.

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