PITTSTON — Ben Ashline went from watching records unfold as a toddler at Wiscasset Speedway to becoming part of the tune’s records in May. On Sunday, he’ll try to make history.
Ashline, who won his 2nd straight Coastal 2 hundred in a Late Model at Wiscasset in May, will enter Sunday’s Boss Hogg a hundred and fifty on the track. Should he win the Pro Stock/Super Late Model open, he would emerge as the first driver ever to win each of the speedway’s signature annual occasions.
“Now that I’m stewing on it, to doubtlessly be one in every of one to ever do this, it’s interesting,” the Pittston motive force stated of a potential season sweep. “It’s intriguing.”
In May, Ashline became the first motive force ever to win returned-to-back Coastal 200s, for the second one instantly 12 months driving his very own Late Model to victory. On Sunday, he’ll drive for vehicle owner Ajay Picard of Palmyra, a close friend who is out of the seat himself this season with neck harm.
Last Sunday, the team entered the forty-sixth annual Oxford 250. Making simply their 2d begin together, Ashline finished seventh in Picard’s No. 99. It turned into an eye fixed-opening overall performance against a number of the pleasant Super Late Model groups in New England, in an occasion which drew nearly 60 vehicles attempting to qualify for the race.
Ashline received his 2nd-round heat race to improve to the principle event.
Even with such a strong displaying for the small group without quite a few on-tune records together, Ashline was upset.
“I thought we had a legitimate shot at winning the Oxford 250,” Ashline stated after riding with the leaders halfway through the race and having just one four-tire pit stop left to make. “I had our best set of tires left, but I didn’t scuff them. They can also have modified a touch — the stagger tightened up three-quarters of an inch. The automobile simply was given manner too tight.
“I’m very tough on myself. At the give up of the day, I didn’t take the time to scuff that set and I experience love it price us.”
Still, the group is energized heading to Wiscasset this weekend.
Picard has raced their often over the past couple of seasons, even making his final start of the season inside the speedway’s season opener in early May. And Ashline’s Late Model achievement on the song in which he grew up watching his father race from the grandstands gives the team self-belief that there might be more history inside the making on Sunday.
“It’s now not the 250, however it’s still a huge race,” said Ashline, who works at Distance Racing in Fairfield, constructing race motors alongside proprietor Jeff Taylor, a nine-time Oxford Plains Speedway champion. “I’ve taken a bit grief over the Coastal two hundred stuff, that I brought the nice of everything over there or something. It’s just a remember of having the wheels lined up and the car balanced, and that’s what I try to get higher at each day is that side of it.”
The first Boss Hogg 150 become contested in 1991. The race is named after longtime song proprietor Dave “Boss Hogg” St. Clair of Liberty, a member of Wiscasset Speedway’s inaugural Hall of Fame magnificence this summer season. It has been each a hundred-lap and one hundred fifty-lap events for the duration of its incarnation.
Winning both the Coastal 200 and the Boss Hogg a hundred and fifty in his profession — within the equal season, no less — appeals to the 28-year-old who has made only a handful of starts over a previous couple of seasons.
“To win in two separate cars with two separate divisions (at Wiscasset), that’s a new challenge,” Ashline said. “I’m not seeking to be higher than all of us, I’m simply looking to be higher than I become the previous day. I always attempt to mission myself. The accurate element is that in racing, it’s clean to find a task like that.”
