BARRE – In a night filled with Thunder Road favorite events, none could beat the annual Port-a-Potty Grand Prix. A Ken Squier Original, the three point leaders and a chosen Road Warrior crew lined up for the annual test of man, crew and endurance. While Kyler Davis took home the Golden Plunger for the best appearing potty, Sam Caron took home the Golden Throne toilet seat prize as first across the two-ply finish line.
photo by Alan Ward
The Late Models entered the Thunder Road Speedbowl set to crown their first champion of the 2025 season in the Squier Cup Triple Crown. Rookie Kyle Streeter led the field to green and kept pace at the head of the pack until Kaiden Fisher took over on lap eight. Before long Fisher’s rearview mirror was full of Taylor Hoar and Chris Pelkey just as Bryan Wall Jr. spun mid-pack on the front straightaway on lap-21. Back under a long green flag run, Fisher was class of the field but Hoar never fell out of place, even taking over the lead just prior to the lap-74 caution for Cody Blake’s turn one crash.
Back under green, Fisher fell back with a blistered right rear tire while Hoar gave way to a hard-charging duo in Pelkey and Marcel Gravel. The two fought door-to-door around the Barre highbanks with Pelkey earning the Squier Cup Championship 100 win over Gravel and Hoar at the line.
photo by Alan Ward
In the final tally, Barre’s Jason Corliss conquered the Squier Cup Triple Crown by just six points over Pelkey.
photo by Alan Ward
The Street Stocks got Portable Toilets Night off to a rip-roaring start with a pair of smash-bang calamities. On lap six, championship hopeful Fred Fleury piled into a backstretch wreck involving rookies Hayden Morris and Tyler Wheatley with Wheatley nearly rolling upside down. Another mid-pack traffic jam saw thirteen cars pile into each other in turn four on lap twenty including point leader Kyler Davis, Nate Brien and rookie point leaders Hayden Bushey and Keegan Tabor. With five laps remaining it was a fight to the finish between Dean Switser Jr. and Kyle MacAskill after passing race leader Kylee Potter in the final restart with Switser besting the two for the win in the opening round of the AOT Triple Crown.
Rookie Karsen Murphy brought the Flying Tigers to green Thursday night and kept his foot to the firewall to lead the 26-car field around the Barre quarter-mile. Slowed only by the stalled Jason Woodard on lap sixteen, the Northfield kid kept his nose clean until tragedy struck with seven laps remaining as he slowed on the backstretch, lost the lead and pitted for the evening. Adam Maynard took over and went to war with point leader Sam Caron, with Caron taking over with four laps remaining to take the win. Rich Lowery rounded out the podium.
The Road Warriors finished Thursday’s racing action with their 20 lap trophy dash. Nick Copping looked poised to take it all, but a wheel-hop turned sour for Cayden Green with a hard lick into the Widowmaker frontstretch wall to make a five-lap shootout to the checkers. Mike Slingerland powered around the outside on the restart to take the win over Copping with Brandon Premont rounding out the podium.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
local competitors
Late Models – Squier Cup Championship 100
2. 86VT, Marcel J. Gravel, Wolcott
11. 36VT, Joel Hodgdon, Craftsbury Common
24. 01VT, Stephen Martin, Craftsbury Common
Flying Tigers – (40 Laps)
12. 15NH, Brendan Moodie, Wolcott
15. 22VT, Travis Patnoe, Wolcott
Street Stocks –Triple Crown #1 (25 Laps)
3. 32, Kylee Potter, Marshfield
5. 34, Patrick Tibbetts, Plainfield
26. 18x, Walker Fitch, Marshfield
