BARRE – Starting off the 62nd Vermont Milk Bowl weekend in style, Qualifying Day set the tone for the annual end-of-season extravaganza at Barre’s Thunder Road. Forty-seven American-Canadian Tour -Late Models took on the highbanks in the once-a-year single car time trials with Kaiden Fisher and Derek Gluchacki taking fast time before technical inspection stripped them of their efforts with tread width deemed too wide by officials. ACT point leader Gabe Brown and Championship Night winner Darrell Morin inherited the front row prior to the start of the Triple 50s qualifying heat races.
Piloting a throwback paint scheme to Quinny Welch’s 2007 White Mountain championship car, Center Conway, N.H.’s Gabe Brown was awarded the Pole Award for Sunday’s Vermont Milk Bowl after apparent front row starters Kaiden Fisher and Derek Gluchacki were disqualified in post-race technical inspection.
Marcel Gravel, Chris Pelkey and Jimmy Hebert took claim to the three Triple 50 heat race wins, each pocketing $1,000 for their triumphs as part of the special $4,300 purse available to the top-ten finishers in each of the three qualifiers. Among those forced into Sunday’s show-starting Last Chance Race, four-time Milk Bowl champion Nick Sweet, Thunder Road Rookie of the Year Jesse Laquerre, former Flying Tiger champion Joel Hodgdon, former Serie ACT Quebec champion Jonathan Bouvrette and more expected to make one final push to join the Vermont Milk Bowl.
Following group time trials, the Flying Tigers saw a battle between Brandon Gray and Logan Powers, each sporting fan-favorite throwback schemes for their Mini Milk Bowl. The two swapped the lead over ten times in just the first twenty-one laps before the first caution flag flew on lap 27 as Mike MacAskill came to a slow-rolling stop on the back-stretch. Back under green, Gray had a handful of car while facing off with Brendan Moodie over the final thirteen circuits but ultimately prevailed to the Segment 1 win. Gray, Moodie, Powers, Shawn Fleury and Jason Pelkey were to be among those at the tail of Sunday’s Segment 2 looking to march to the front and collect the coveted Mini Milk Bowl prize.
The Stocks also completed their first segment on Qualifying Day. Following group time trial qualifying, White Mountain Motorsports Park Rookie of the Year Connor Rueda blew the field away to take the pole position at the head of the pack. Rueda kept his #17 CDR Concrete Mustang out front with a mirror full of returning hard-charger Kyler Davis and Road Warrior phenom Nate Brien breaking ranks and moving up the ladder. Things began to turn ugly on lap 17 with the first caution seeing Gary Mullen, Justin Blakely and Travis Gay block turn four with turned-around rigs.
Heartbreak took Rueda out of competition with a torn throttle cable on the restart ahead of a series of restart yellows that thinned-out the middle of the pack. Kyler Davis motored on to take the Segment 1 victory over Derek Farnham and Brien with Todd Raymo and White Mountain track champion Patrick Switser rounding out the top-five.
Making the haul from across the region, the New England Supermodified Series returned for their second visit of the 2024 season just before wrapping up their championship next weekend at Thompson Speedway. The lightning-fast feature event saw Rob Summers take his first win of the season for the inaugural division champion with point leader Bobby Timmons and rookie Jim Storace joining the podium.
The PASS Modifieds also joined the show with one of the night’s most spectacular wrecks as fans sat stunned with Zach Bowie climbing the widowmaker frontstretch wall before coming to rest on his roof atop turn one. After a lengthy clean-up effort, Dan Brown buried his foot in the firewall to take on the highbanks and earn the win on Qualifying Day followed by Tom Oliver and Ryan Ripley in victory lane.
The Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Model 150 rounded out the evenings racing activities on the big track. 2024 King of the Road Kaiden Fisher jumped aboard a PASS Super Late Model for the night and started off with a dominant performance at the front of the pack. Racing hard with former ACT champion Jimmy Hebert, Fisher really felt the pressure just before the halfway point as DJ Shaw’s machine began to make hay as the two battled side-by-side for the lead. After the lap 97 caution for Pat Corbett’s spin in turn one, the battle resumed in earnest between Fisher and Shaw.
Pro All Stars Series (PASS) Super Late Model victory lane included (from left) Rusty Poland (3rd), winner Jimmy Hebert and Alex Quarterly (2nd).
While that battle fizzled out, Jimmy Hebert began the chief adversary to Shaw with Hebert nabbing the lead following the lap 140 caution. Stalking just inches from his rear bumper, Shaw dove back underneath to lead with five laps remaining as the two got physical. An oil spill on the track saw Johnny Clark, Kasey Beattie and Trevor Sanborn pile into the turn-one retaining wall to end their days on a low note with two laps remaining. Jimmy Hebert easily took the green-white-checkers victory, his first PASS Super Late Model victory right here at his hometrack with Alex Quarterly taking second and Rusty Poland rounding out the top three.
Already locked in through Saturday’s qualifying, Gabe Brown, Marcel Gravel, Alexendre ‘Fireball’ Tardif, Brian Hoar, Patrick Laperle and a host of others are set to battle hard for the $12,000 grand prize, the career defining moment of a Vermont Milk Bowl victory and, of course, the once-in-a-lifetime chance to kiss a genuine Vermont dairy cow.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (local competitors)
American-Canadian Tour, Irving Late Models
3. 86VT Marcel J. Gravel Wolcott, VT
25. 01VT Stephen Martin Craftsbury Common, VT
26. Winner of Sunday’s B-Feature
B-Feature Starting Line-Up
1. 36VT Joel Hodgdon Craftsbury Common, VT
4. 92VT Jaden Perry Hardwick, VT
Flying Tigers – Segment #1 Finish – (40 Laps)
2. 15NH Brendan Moodie Wolcott, VT
6. 01VT Michael Martin Craftsbury, Common, VT
14. 77VT Issac Spaulding Wolcott, VT
16. 5VT Tyler Austin East Calais, VT
17. 92VT Jamon Perry Hardwick, VT
18. 5RI #Kyle Gravel Wolcott, VT
Street Stocks – Segment #1 Finish – (25 Laps)
21. 32 #Kylee Potter Marshfield, VT
26. 18 #Walker Fitch Marshfield, VT
DNS 50 Adam Murray E. Calais, VT
