Story by Chris Roy

It has been along winter and the fans drivers can’t wait to hear the roar of the engines, as the PASS North season opened at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, is only a month away. One of the fan favorites Travis Benjamin, driver of the number 17, will once again take on the drivers of the Pro All Star Series to win his first PASS Championship.

RPM. What have you been doing in the off season?
Travis. We have been working really hard on our cars to make sure they are both ready to go for the season. I personally have been playing a lot of Basketball and just picked up playing Floor Hockey. Trying to stay busy cause its been a really long winter.


RPM. What are your plans for the 2011 race Season?
Travis. Our number one plan for the 2011 season is to run strong in the PASS north and we will start with the National Championship and See how we do. If we run well at Hickory we will go to Motor Mile.

RPM. Are you all set for the PASS season opener at Beech Ridge?
Travis. Our two cars are just about finished. We need to go through the truck and trailer and get that stuff cleaned up. Other than that we are ready.

RPM. What do you think of the 2011 PASS Schedule, and Oxford being added and Unity & Speedway 95 dropped this season?
Travis. Its a really good schedule. I think we will have a lot of cars because the schedule is more friendly to the people in southern Maine and NH. There are a lot more cars down that way now then there are in central and northern Maine. I hate loosing Unity. That is my home track and we usually are in the hunt for a win. I’m sure a lot of other people are really happy not to have those 2 races on the schedule.

RPM. Will you be running the full schedule?
Travis. That is the plan.

RPM. What’s your favorite track to race at?
Travis. Unity would have to be my favorite track to race at but the track that is my favorite on the schedule would have to be White Mountains. Its also probably my most frustrating track. I feel we should have won 2 of the last 3 races there but haven’t!

RPM. Will you be running any other races this season?
Travis. We will run Hickory and if we finish well we will run for the National Championship. Also we will run the Auto Value 250. That is always a fun race.

RPM. If you could do one thing to improve the safety of the drivers what would it be?
Travis. If I was going to do anything to make drivers safer it would have to be add the safer barrier to the tracks. We dont go as fast but the tracks we run on we don’t have much time to slow down either so I think if we could get the tracks to do that it would make our sport a lot safer.