HALIFAX, NS – Nineteen-year-old Dylan Blenkhorn beat three of the best stock car racers on the eastern seaboard to win the 15th edition of the Atlantic Cat 250 at Scotia Speedworld Saturday night. The win comes in Blenkhorn’s sophomore season on the Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour (PST) and is his third trip to Victory Circle in 2014 – the most for any driver with the series. Race Results Blenkhorn battled door-handle-to-door-handle with multi-time PASS North SLM champion Ben Rowe from Maine for the last 40 laps of the contest and the two traded the top spot several times before Blenkhorn took the point for good with less than 10 to go, and successfully held off the Maine hotshoe on a restart with just three laps to go. Four-time PST champion John Flemming finished third and three-time PST champion Shawn Tucker finished fourth. Greg Proude rounded out the top five. Both Flemming and Rowe are former winners of the Atlantic Cat 250. Blenkhorn led a race high 119 laps of the 250 lap contest and will take home more than $13,000 for the first win premiere event win of his young career; in so doing he becomes the youngest winner ever of the Atlantic Cat 250 and to have his name etched on the treasured Scott Fraser Memorial Cup – the perpetual trophy that goes with the event. Besides Blenkhorn and Rowe, Flemming was the only other driver to lead the event that saw 13 lead changes. The race took approx. two hours 45 minutes to complete and saw 19 cautions, none for major incidents. Twenty-three drivers started the race and 11 finished on the lead lap. Cassius Clark, another Maine hotshoe in the event, set fast time in time trials driving the King Racing ’08’ Scott Fraser tribute car. Craig Slaunwhite, the 2013 winner of the Atlantic Cat 250, won the Dash for the eight fastest cars and the pole for the event. In so doing he earned the option to accept the Pole Challenge which offered bonus winnings to forfeit his front row starting spot for one at the rear – he accepted the challenge and ran as high as fourth before falling back to finish 11th. Pro stock heat races were won by Cole Butcher and Dean Clattenburg, another U.S.-based (Dartmouth native) special appearance driver in the event. Prior to the start of the Atlantic Cat 250 a ceremony was held to officially retire car numbers 00 and 12, made famous in regional racing circles by Scott Fraser and Scott Kelly, respectively. Both passed away during the prime of their racing careers, Fraser in a snowmobile accident at 33, and Kelly from cancer at just 27. A large crowd was on hand to witness the event. The Atlantic Cat 250 Class of 2014 Scotia Speedworld is back in action Sunday afternoon for the Dartmouth Dodge 100 event postponed from Friday evening. Post time today is 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the gate. The Parts for Trucks Pro Stock Tour will do a rare Friday night show next week (August 15) at Riverside International Speedway for the Ron MacGillivray 150, the first half of a double header at the speedway next weekend that sees the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series on hand for the Wilson Equipment 300 Saturday August 16. Advacne tickets are now available for both events at www.riversidespeedway.ca. source – CTW.com
