Mulkern Wins Octoberfest 100
by Norm Desjardins - PASS PR

Falmouth Maine’s Scott Mulkern powered his Community Pharmacies Dodge past Ben Rowe to take the lead on lap 36 of Saturday’s Pro All Stars Octoberfest 100 at Thompson (CT) International Speedway and kept Rowe in the rear view mirror to score his first Pro All Stars Series feature win.

Rowe gave the “Kernel” all he could handle in the final two-thirds of the race but Mulkern was up to the challenge, beating Rowe to the line by just .209 seconds. Mulkern is the tenth different PASS feature winner of 2004 and joins Richie Dearborn and Ted Christopher on the list of first time PASS race winners this season.

Defending Octoberfest winner Mike Rowe crossed the line in third on his son’s back bumper and Cassius Clark raced home fourth for his 3rd top five finish in his last four starts. Tracy Gordon rounded out the top five, with Larry Gelinas sixth, Travis Benjamin seventh, Gege Gravel eighth and 2004 Pro All Stars Series Champion Johnny Clark ninth. Travis Kheil completed the top ten.

Mulkern was fastest in Sunoco Race Fuel Time Trials, recording a lap of 19.509 seconds around Thompson’s high banks to beat out Ben Rowe (19.642) seconds for the honors. Ted Christopher (19.644), Gordon (19.695), Gelinas (19.741) Richie Dearborn (19.747), Rick Martin (19.760), Johnny Clark (19.763) Cassius Clark (19.802) and Benjamin (19.816) were the fast ten that advanced to the Pole Dash. It was Martin over Christopher in the dash, setting up a rare all southern New England front row for the feature with Ben Rowe third, Cassius Clark lining up fourth, Mulkern inside row three and Richie Dearborn to his outside. Gelinas, Johnny Clark, Gordon and Benjamin completed the first five rows for the feature.

At the green Christopher won a drag race with Rick Martin to grab the race lead and Ben Rowe quickly dispatched Martin to claim second spot. Early on it looked like Christopher might repeat his winning July performance, but Rowe made a move on the bottom stick and took over the point on lap nineteen. Meanwhile, Mulkern had worked his way up to third and was chasing down the front pair. Mulkern took second away from Chrsitopher on lap twenty six and was eating away at Rowe’s ten car length lead. One of the evenings three cautions flew on lap thirty-five for Gary Smith’s day-ending spin, setting up the deciding restart for Rowe and Mulkern. When the green flew Mulkern made what was to be the race winning move on Rowe to claim the victory. Christopher fell victim to a flat right rear tire while running third and came home twenty-sixth at the finish.