BARRE – The night kicked off racing for the month of August and set the tone for what is to come in the dog days of summer ahead.
photo by Alan Ward
The Late Models saw Barre’s-own Scott Coburn lead the way as Graniteville’s Stephen Donahue tracked him down to overtake the lead on lap 37. Donahue kept it lean and green in the caution free 50-lap trophy dash to take his first win of the season in an emotional tribute to longtime car-owner and longtime Thunder Road campaigner Norm Andrews who passed over the winter. Scott Coburn took down second place, his best run in eleven seasons on the Barre highbanks and Darrell Morin stole third.
Barre young-gun Connor Rueda led the Street Stocks from the drop of the green flag as the mighty four-cylinder division looked to crown their Triple Crown champion. The lone caution flew on lap 21 for Paige Whittemore after a hard lick with the Widowmaker front stretch wall as her right front wheel vacated the vehicle. The restart found Rueda and Tommy Smith side-by-side where they remained until the bitter end, a scoring recheck of the finish was too close to call with electronic scoring awarding the win to Smith over Rueda by 0.002-seconds. Curtis Franks took a strong third place run while Dean Switser Jr. wrapped up the Triple Crown.
photo by Alan Ward
After starting the night with Kevin Streeter’s dominant win in the rain-delayed feature event, the Flying Tigers returned later on for their 40-lap trophy dash with Barre’s Logan Farrell launching into a strong early lead. Everything changed at the halfway caution for a front stretch dust-up between Matt Ballard and Adam Maynard as Jason Woodard powered around Farrell on the restart and never looked back. Jason Woodard returned to Thunder Road victory lane followed by Logan Powers and Kevin Streeter making his second visit in third.
photo by Alan Ward
The Road Warriors entered the arena for their 50-lap Challenge to round out the program on Thursday. Just one caution ended the day early for hopeful victor Neal Foster as he careened into the turn one tire barrier after contact with lap car John Pecor. Back under green it was all Derrick Mann as he led the final forty-six laps en route to win the annual Challenge over Mike Slingerland and Eddie Thompson at the line.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
(local competetors)
Road Warriors – Annual Challenge (50 Laps)
19. 17, Cayden Green, Marshfield
21. 34, John Pecor III, Cabot
Street Stocks – Triple Crown No. 3 (25 Laps)
13. 32, Kylee Potter, Marshfield
21. 34, Patrick Tibbetts, Plainfield
24. 18x, Walker Fitch, Marshfield
Late Models – Squier Cup Championship 100
11. 86VT, Marcel J. Gravel, Wolcott
18. 01VT, Stephen Martin, Craftsbury Common
Flying Tigers – (40 Laps)
9. 5NH, Brendan Moodie, Wolcott
20. 22VT, Travis Patnoe, Wolcott
Rain Postponed Feature Originally Set on Thursday, July 17 – (40 Laps)
5. 5NH, Brendan Moodie, Wolcott
23. 22VT, Travis Patnoe, Wolcott
