Special To The Eagle Times
Barre, Vt. — With a quick turnaround following SRX’s cancellation, racing returned to Barre’s Thunder Road Speedbowl on Thursday for First Responders Appreciation Night. The night included four new winners in the 2023 season.
The Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers started the night with fender-banging action at the front of the pack. After just one lap, contact between Matt Ballard and Phil Potvin started a chain reaction pile-up in turn three that ended the day for Cooper French with a blown radiator.
On the restart, Logan Powers got the quick lead over top rookie Tyler Pepin as the field stretched out behind him. A spectacular side-by-side battle from the sixth through 12th laps saw Mike MacAskill using the outside groove to his advantage with top runners Jason Pelkey, Rich Lowrey and Sam Caron in tow.
As the field stayed green, Pelkey began to work on third-place runner Chris LaForest as Jason Woodard dug deep and pulled up to leader Powers’ bumper under the two-to-go flag. Coming off turn two, Woodard pulled alongside Powers on the outside before moving up to lead the white flag lap and taking his first Thunder Road win since July 2021. Logan Powers would take second after leading the majority of the feature with Jason Pelkey rounding out the podium in third.
The Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors put on the show of the evening in their 20-lap dash. Milton’s Easton Garvey got the jump under the green flag while the field stacked up behind him but kept it green. Chaos would ensue up and down the 20-car field as drivers did the best. Tyler Wheatley took over the lead just three laps in with David Wilder taking the Mystery Machine into second-position as he bobbed and weaved through several rolling roadblocks. Brookfield Volunteer Firefighter Tyler Wheatley would use his lead to take his first Thunder Road win on First Responders Appreciation Night with David Wilder and Frank Putney in the Unofficial Thunder Road pace car rounding out the podium.
The rk Miles Street Stocks stormed the field with longtime veterans Mike Gay and Scott Weston at the helm. Barre rookie Logan Farrell was getting a lesson behind the leaders before Weston started dropping back and Farrell took a charge to the outside. For the first fifteen laps, Farrell looked like a seasoned pilot out beside Gay, but smoke started to pour from underneath his Ford Mustang. The caution on lap 19 for a spinning Kyle Gravel on the backstretch confirmed the worst and Farrell was sent from his second-place position to the pits with oil gushing from underneath his car.
Gay would edge out Chris Davis on the restart, but a huge hit into the frontstretch wall for Gravel and Jaime Davis brought out the final caution to stack the field once again. One final showdown between Gay and Haidyn Pearce would see the No. 3 head for the front and lead the field under the checkered flags. An ecstatic Mike Gay returned to Thunder Road victory lane followed by Chris Davis, bouncing back from a hard heat race wreck on Midseason Championships night, and Pearce to round out the top-three.
The Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models were on hand to wrap up the night’s racing action with their 50-lap feature. Lead to green by Cooper Bouchard and Justin Prescott, Bouchard would stretch out his lead quickly as the battle for fifth became the hot ticket. After working each other for more than 20 laps, Brandon Lanphear finally took the position from Chris Roberts before defending champion Chris Pelkey used the outside to overtake Lanphear. The first, and only, caution came with the spinning Jean-Paul Cyr blocking off turn four.
On the restart, Bouchard punched the gas to power away from outside starter Tyler Cahoon as desperation set in for the rest of the pack behind them. As laps wound down, Nick Sweet dove under Bobby Therrien and Marcel Gravel in turn three while Cody Blake would use the same move on Scott Dragon and Stephen Donahue just two laps later. While the top champion chasers worked it out behind him, Cooper Bouchard would take his first win of the season followed by Darrell Morin and Cahoon.
Thunder Road returns to action Thursday. For more information, call 802-244-6963 or visit www.thunderroadvt.com.
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