BARRE – Perfect weather greeted race fans and the over 120 teams on hand Sunday afternoon for the Labor Day Classic. An incredible 37 of those teams were American-Canadian Tour teams, ready to dig deep all day long for a shot at just thirty starting positions.
Thunder Road stars Christopher Pelkey and Jason Corliss, along with current ACT point leader Raphael Lessard and former champion Jimmy Hebert all earned one of four heat race victories to kick off Sunday’s afternoon showcase. Returning for two more qualifying rounds, former winner D.J. Shaw and defending Milk Bowl victor Marcel Gravel split the two consolation events while Stephen Donahue ran away with the B-Feature win.
Nick Sweet’s surprise return to the high banks netted him a plus-five to earn the pole position and he quickly went to war with Marcel Gravel in the opening laps. By lap 17, current Late Model point leader Jason Corliss was leading the show from his fifth-place starting spot. Corliss went on to dominate the remaining circuits, through two lone caution periods to claim his second career Labor Day Classic win for the packed holiday crowd.
Kaiden Fisher, looking to go back-to-back in American-Canadian Tour competition at The Road this season had to settle for second while D.J. Shaw took third as the highest finishing Touring driver of the night.
The Flying Tigers took a turn on Labor Day Sunday with Cam Gadue and rookie Karsen Murphy bringing the field to green. Gadue got the early jump but quickly fell under attack from Williamstown’s Matt Ballard. Ballard pulled up on the low-side to lead lap nine and never looked back, almost catching the back of the pack twice before the caution flag came out. Ballard nailed down the win over Kevin Streeter and Logan Powers but the story is on point leader Sam Caron after a busted hub relegated him to a 24th-place finish and unofficially cost him the point lead with just two races remaining.
The New England Pro-4 Modifieds returned to Thunder Road Sunday for a 25-lap trophy dash. Mechanical failure was the name of the game for two leaders on Sunday, first with “Fast Eddie” Petruskevivius going from hero to zero after leading the first seven laps. Steve Gill had similar trouble after driving up through the field to collect a three-second lead on the field before he pulled into the infield with an expired powerplant under the hood. Rob Richardi Jr. took the win over Brandon LaVoie and Doug Meservey Jr. in the end.
The Street Stocks quickly saw a dogfight between veterans Patrick Tibbetts and Dean Switser Jr. at the head of their 25-lap showdown. It wasn’t long after they’d taken the top spots that last week’s winner, second-generation driver Hayden Morris had shown up in their rearview mirrors. Morris outsmarted the veterans, using the lap car of T.J. Haggett to steal the lead on lap 16 and he never looked back to go back-to-back in Street Stock victory lane over Tibbetts and Kyle MacAskill at the line.
The Road Warriors acted as the nightcap on the Labor Day classic with a green-to-checkers feature that saw Taylor Sayers come up through from ninth on the starting grid to take the win over Zach Garvey and Brandon Premont to end the night in style.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
(local competitors)
American-Canadian Tour – Labor Day Classic 200
4. 86VT, Marcel J. Gravel, Wolcott
20. 92VT, Jaden Perry, Hardwick
23. 45NH, Stephen Martin, Craftsbury Common
Flying Tigers – (40 Laps)
6. 15NH, Brendan Moodie, Wolcott
11. 22VT, Travis Patnoe, Wolcott
18. 23NC, Chandler Potter, Plainfield
Street Stocks – (25 Laps)
2. 34, Patrick Tibbetts, Plainfield
13. 18x, Walker Fitch, Marshfield
20. 32, Kylee Potter, Marshfield
Road Warriors – (20 Laps)
15. 18, Cayden Green, Marshfield
