Story & Photos by: Chris Owens

Dillon, SC (March 13th, 2010) - After last year's 2nd place finish to PASS North's Ben Rowe, Ryan Blaney came back to Dillon Motor Speedway Saturday night hungry for his first PASS South win. Blaney would do that Saturday night, not only winning the race, but dominating just about every practice session, qualifying and the 150 lap South Carolina Clash for the PASS South Super Late Model Series.

In qualifying, Blaney was over a tenth faster than the outside pole sitter and fellow teenager Dylan Presnell. During the PASS South Pit Party the Top 10 from qualifying redraw for their starting positions in the feature event. Justin Wakefield who normally a fast qualifier would draw the pole for the feature. Local favorite and a Dillon Motor Speedway track champion Hal Goodson would draw the outside pole. Presnell would draw 7th while Blaney drew 8th.

With over 28 cars entered for the Clash, the Consolation race would be needed. 9 drivers would need to find a way to fill the 6 remaining spots for the feature event. On the start, Kenzie Ruston would get turned going into turn 1 collecting Shannon Mines and rookie Chris Bohlman. Bohlman would be the only one to continue on. Duane Linville would take the Consi race and transfer to the feature. Cooper Fainson, Tayla Orleans, Joe Heigl, Dana White and Bohlman would also transfer. Getting the PASS licensed provisional would be Ruston and David Quackenbush.

The 150 lap South Carolina Clash would be contested under the lights for the first time in several years. Getting the jump on the start would be Goodson. He would take the lead over Wakefield and pull away. Blaney who started 8th worked his way up throw the field and quickly found himself riding inside the top 5. After the restart for Cooper Faison and Tayla Orleans, the field find themselves restarting the race for the first time of the night.

As the field restarted somebody would get into the back of somebody and caused a huge pileup in turn 1. Involved and done for the night would be Alex Fleming.. Jay Fogleman was also involved and would ruin his night. Fogleman in turn used the rest of the race as a test session for upcoming PASS races.

Back under the green flag, Wakefield would get the jump on Goodson and complete the pass on the outside off 2. Andy Loden and Ryan Blaney would battle for 6 or 7 laps over the 5th spot. Eventually Blaney would win the battle and continue his march towards the front. Hal Goodson would slowly fade as Devin Jones would take the 2nd spot.

The 3rd caution of the night would be brought out on lap 27 as ARCA standout Joey Coulter would stop up in turn 4. Under the caution, Devin Jones would lose a motor and end his night as he stopped in turn 1. This moved Blaney up to 2nd. On the restart Wakefield would clear Blaney but that would be void as Wellers and Tim Nooner would make heavy contact in turn 3. This would end Wellers night with heavy front end damage.

On the lap 36 restart Blaney would jump the restart and get by Wakefield. Luckly for Wakefield the caution for Duane Linville who lost a tire would allow the PASS officials to penalize Blaney for jumping the restart. Blaney would be moved back to 2nd and warned for jumping. Blaney wouldn't jump the next restart as Wakefield beat him down to turn 1 to hold the lead. RACE22.com client Andy Loden would get around Hal Goodson for 3rd. Loden would eventually fade with brake problems.

Justin Wakefield would have problems while leading and pull into the pits on lap 48. Wakefield would park due to engine problems. This would give Ryan Blaney the top spot and he would never look back. Leading the rest of the way.

Preston Peltier would make a hard charge up through the field getting all the way up to second but never could close the straightaway gap between him and the leader.

Ryan Blaney would take the South Carolina Clash his first PASS South victory. There was some confusion for Peltier who on the white flag lap slowed on the frontstrech and never took the checkered flag until he had fallen back to 4th. Hal Goodson would come home second and Steve Legendre; the only Northern driver would come home third.

The PASS South Series moves on to the Hickory Motor Speedway Easter weekend for the Easter Bunny 150. This is the 2nd of 5 PASS National races and promises to bring the best of the best in Super Late Models to the show.

South Carolina Clash Results
1. #10 Ryan Blaney
2. #16G Hal Goodson
3. #20 Steven Legendre
4. #26 Preston Peltier
5. #5 Spencer Wauters
6. #10s George Gorham
7. #48 John Batten
8. #11 Cooper Fassen
9. #93 Tayla Orleans
10. #67 Duane Linville
11. #91 Heath Hindman
12. #39 Kenzie Ruston
13. #47 Trey Mitchell
14. #15H Joe Heigl
15. #4 Jayt Fogleman
16. #29 Andy Loden
17. #7 Dana White
18. #98 Justin Wakefield
19. #23 Jimmy Weller
20. #35 Devin Jones
21. #02 Tim Nooner
22. #16 Joey Coulter
23. #83 Dylan Presnell
24. #05 Alex Fleming
25. #79 Chris Bowers
26. #15 Clay Jones
27. #19 Chris Bohlman
28. #91 David Quackenbush *DNS*