"The last couple of years, we’ve been going really good there (at Wiscasset), so that’s just another feather in the cap," said Benjamin, of Morrill, who earned his first career PASS victory at Scotia Speedworld last weekend. "Now we’re coming off the win, too, so we’ve got momentum.

"And momentum and confidence are just so huge in this sport."

Not only was Benjamin’s win his first, but it also happened to come in an identical 250-lap race. Joining Benjamin in the confidence department is two-time PASS North champion Johnny Clark of Hallowell, who has won four of his last six starts at Wiscasset dating back to last season.

Clark knows about confidence, particularly at a track where he’s seen more laps contested from the grandstands than from behind the wheel of his own race car.

"I honestly feel like the track was built for me, kind of in the same way I feel that about Unity (Raceway)," Clark said. "It’s where I grew up. My father raced there, and we went there all the time and just watched so many races. I’ve gotten to see so many good racers over the years and how they’ve done things that I think I’ve been able to apply a lot of that."

In everything from a Street Stock to a Super Late Model, Clark has found success at the facility. He launched his career with a win as teenager in the Coastal 200 – now the track’s premier Late Model event – over the legendary Stan Meserve in 1997, and he’s registered a total of nearly two dozen victories there.

He’s as comfortable at Wiscasset as he is sitting on his living room couch, it would seem.

"I always feel like if I get myself to a point on the track I shouldn’t, I know how to get myself to where I want to be," Clark said. "I don’t really know what it is, but I’ve always just gone good there."

Clark won a 125-lap PASS North Series event at Wiscasset in May, but he struggled in the return trip a month later – eventually determining that his car had a rear-end mechanical problem that sent them to an uncharacteristically bad finish outside the top-10. Benjamin, on the other hand, finished second to Clark in May and charged from 25^th starting spot in June to the top-5 before rain ended that race after just 98 laps.

Unlike Clark, Benjamin doesn’t have extensive experience at Wiscasset, despite considering it his home track.

"We never ran there weekly, or more than four or five times," Benjamin said, noting that disqualifications in the technical inspection line have clouded some of those few visits. "But it’s a fun track to race on. It is fast, but you can pass on it, too. You can get up on the outside of guys and run there.

"It’s not that I agree with everything (track owner Doug White and marketing director John Crawford) have done there, because I don’t. But I like going there because they love racing, and they’re working hard to bring the buzz back there."

Benjamin got off to a fast start this season in PASS North competition, threatening for the win in each of the first three events on the schedule before hitting a slump in the middle portion of the season. He said the team got too far off base while experimenting with different setups and has since returned to what was working early in the year.

He also found that the team’s preparation, and it’s ability to adjust on the fly in terms of pit strategy, made the biggest difference last weekend. As fleeting as it can be in this sport, momentum is on his side.

"I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say that before," said Benjamin, a former Camping World East Series driver before making the full-time switch to PASS.

A $30,000-to-win race only provides added incentive for both Benjamin and Clark.

"It definitely is exciting," Benjamin said.

Clark, who has been careful to protect his points position in the past – particularly when he’s within shot of a championship – said the fact that this is technically a PASS North Series points race has no bearing on his effort. He’s bringing a brand new car, one he tried unsuccessfully to debut in June at Wiscasset before a blown engine in practice put an end to that plan.

He’s coming with the simple, yet honorable, goal of winning.

"I’m not even concerned with it as a points race at all," Clark said. "I don’t even look at it as a PASS race, to be honest. I’m looking at it as there’s $30,000 on the line and it’s a place where we’ve run exceptionally well over the years. I just hope that things continue to flow for us the way they have been there."

Posted at 11:05 p.m. by TBarrett