Throughout Sunday’s Pro All Stars Series showdown at White Mountain Motorsports Park, the lead seemed like the last place anyone wanted to be.
Fortunately for Trevor Sanborn, he was the last driver to get there.
Sanborn held off Johnny Clark in a two-lap shootout to pick up his first PASS North win of the season in the headline event of the HK Powersports PASS Spring Spectacular.
The third race of the Maine-based series’ season was the first of three planned outings to the North Woodstock, N.H. quarter-mile. For Clark, who skipped the season opener and made an early exit in the second race of the season, the track where he had won six times since 2022 represented an opportunity for an early-season reset.
Clark led the opening circuits before Joey Doiron, winless at WMMP since 2020, took the top spot on lap 18. The seven-time PASS North champion’s hopes took a darker turn just before the one-third mark, when contact with Alexendre Tardif and Cole Robie sent him spinning from the top five on lap 48.
Robie, who had stacked up the field on a prior restart, was caught up in further fireworks with D.J. Shaw a few laps later, also collecting Gabe Brown. Doiron had since settled into second behind Easter Bunny 200 winner Jimmy Renfrew, Jr., while Sanborn had climbed to third after a pair of early pit stops.
Doiron was the next of the leaders to find calamity, as the lapped car of former WMMP track champ Pat Corbett pinched him into the frontstretch wall on lap 84. Corbett’s ultimate spin brought out the yellow, with Sanborn slipping past Doiron and into second.
For the second half of the race, Renfrew had the field covered, even with early leader Clark driving back into podium contention. With 18 laps to go, Doiron’s number was up again as he slowed from third with a flat tire. A yellow flag spared him from being altogether eliminated, but Clark and a resurgent Angelo Belsito ascended to the third-place battle for the restart.
Renfrew easily kept Sanborn at an arm’s length in the final laps, looking to be en route to his second PASS-sanctioned win of the year. But with only a handful of circuits remaining, Garrett Hall dropped fluid on the track. Renfrew found it with two to go, spinning from the lead off turn two and bringing out the yellow flag one last time.
With Renfrew restarting in the rear, Sanborn assumed the lead with Clark in second. Clark gave chase on the restart, but had his hands full with Belsito in a battle for second.
That was all Sanborn needed to pull away for a 0.631-second advantage as he took his sixth career PASS North checkered flag.
Clark’s redemption bid came up just short as he finished second. Belsito, who spent his own time in the spin cycle early on, powered back for his best career PASS finish in third.
Early leader Doiron recovered for fourth after his flat tire, with defending champion Shaw soldiering on for fifth.
Renfrew was relegated to sixth after his spin, with Robie, Kate Re, Kaiden Fisher and Michael Scorzelli rounding out the top ten.
Following finishes of 10th and 12th to open the season, Sanborn sits fourth in the early standings with Shaw leading the charge. Robie, the reigning Granite State Pro Stock Series titlist, holds the runner-up slot with Quebecer Tardif in third.
Sanborn’s win was his first at WMMP, but his third on one of the Northeast’s high-banked bullrings, with previous victories at Riverside Speedway and Thunder Road International Speedbowl. Sunday’s win was Sanborn’s fourth for Richard Moody Racing since reuniting with the team in 2023, and the team’s first win since last year’s season opener at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. Since winning the first race of their third stint together, Sanborn has won in each year of their partnership.
Quarter-mile ovals loom large on the schedule ahead, with a return to Riverside Speedway, the site of Sanborn’s first PASS North win over a decade ago, and stops at Star Speedway in Epping, N.H. coming up on the calendar.
More wins for Sanborn might loom large, too.
Unofficial Results
PASS North | HK Powersports PASS Spring Spectacular
White Mountain Motorsports Park, North Woodstock, N.H.
1. (44) Trevor Sanborn
2. (54) Johnny Clark
3. (8) Angelo Belsito
4. (73D) Joey Doiron
5. (60) D.J. Shaw
6. (00) Jimmy Renfrew, Jr.
7. (29) Cole Robie
8. (10) Kate Re
9. (18VT) Kaiden Fisher
10. (18) Michael Scorzelli
11. (94) Garrett Hall
12. (21QC) Alexendre Tardif
13. (5VT) Pat Corbett
14. (09R) Sylas Ripley
15. (47) Gabe Brown
16. (09D) Jeremy Davis
17. (72) Ryan Kuhn
18. (07) Mark Patten
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