Derek Griffith Charges to PASS Win at White Mountain

Derek Griffith charged to his second Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Model victory of 2024 on Saturday, passing Johnny Clark in the closing laps to win at White Mountain Motorsports Park.

After starting in the 14th position, Griffith fell back as far as 20th in the opening laps before beginning his march through the field. Griffith took the lead from Clark on lap 116 of the 150-lap Super Late Model feature, but Clark stayed within shouting distance the remainder of the way.

In the end, Griffith held on for the victory, perhaps even a bit surprised he was able to hold off Clark to the finish.

“I have no idea,” said Griffith in victory lane. “He was breathing on me that whole time. I really don’t think we had the best car today. We just managed, stayed calm, tried to bide our way up through the field.

“I hadn’t been here in about four years, so this is awesome. I love this place. Look at the fans. It’s so awesome. Thanks for coming out, guys, this place is killer.”

Clark had his own drive through the field, starting in the 15th position. Clark took the lead from Jimmy Hebert on lap 94 before losing the top spot to Griffith.

Clark admitted his undoing may have come from frustrations during earlier restarts.

“I got pretty wound up in the car early on in the race when there were some serious games going on on restarts,” said Clark. “I was screaming on the radio. I come here fighting for one team, it’s the 54.

“I’m not teammates with four of these guys. Boy, was there some serious games going on at the beginning of the race. I think it made me burn it up here with 20 to go.

“We drove really hard. We didn’t need that caution. We were off a little bit today. We were right there on speed, but it just didn’t feel right. Just a little bit, it was so, so close. It would have been a very cool victory if we could have gotten that last one. It was fun running with Derek there the last 30 laps.”

2020 American-Canadian Tour champion Jimmy Hebert finished third. He acknowledged that his team are still going through the learning curve on the PASS Super Late Model, but the podium finish gives them a boost of confidence.

“We’ve been trying to figure this thing out on our own, since that’s what we enjoy doing. It’s made for a long learning curve. We definitely made some big steps today, tried something new and definitely had a rocking car there in the first half. After the red flag, it got a little snug and it just built up from there and I got it too hot on the outside.

“This is just what we needed. It’s been a rough couple of months for us. I was hoping we could win the thing, but to bring home a top three is pretty good when we’re still basically rookies in this thing.”

D.J. Shaw finished fourth, with Joey Doiron rounding out the top five.

Ryan Green walked away from a spectacular incident on lap 35, which saw his car climb the backstretch wall and lose most of its bodywork. The incident occurred while Green battled for position with Kyle Salemi and Cole Robie.

The next stop for the PASS Super Late Models is Vermont’s Thunder Road Speedbowl on Saturday, October 5. That kicks off a busy October to close out the season, which also includes the Sunoco World Series at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park and PASS 400 weekend at Oxford Plains Speedway.

-Photo credit: Connor Sullivan

PASS 150 at White Mountain Motorsports Park
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