BARRE, Vt. — The night all Vermont race fans look forward to at Barre’s Thunder Road began with a bang in a pair of rain-delayed Times Argus Midseason Championship features. The Maplefield/Irving Late Models took to the highbanks to start the night with their 75-lap, double-points affair. A rough and tumble beginning saw Cody Blake set sail early with a mirror full of Stephen Martin. While Blake won the battle, young Kaiden Fisher won the war, maintaining the point lead and driving up from 15th on the grid to a third-place finish behind second-place runner Stephen Martin. The Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors showed up the Late Models with a green-to-checkers extra-distance run that saw Dan Garrett take his first feature win with Brodie Frazier and Burt Duffy on the podium.
The WDEV/Calkins Portable Toilets program began with the World Famous Port-a-Potty Grand Prix following qualifying action. In a near photo finish, the Road Warrior entry piloted by ‘the Frickin Chicken’ Brodie Frazier narrowly edged out point leaders Brandon Gray, Kaiden Fisher and Dean Switser Jr. to claim the coveted Golden Toilet Seat.
The rk Miles Street Stocks took the field for the first of four WDEV Radio/Calkins Portable Toilets trophy dashes on Thursday. Led to point by Derek Farnham and Paige Whittemore, fifth-place starter Paul Rocheleau quickly cut his way underneath Whittemore and set his sights on Farnham. By lap six Rocheleau led by a bumper-cover over Farnham before the lone caution with Tyler Whittemore, Scott Weston and Ryan Foster sliding across the racing lane in turn four. Back under green, Rocheleau would continue his dominance at the front of the pack, all the way to his first career win in the rk Miles Street Stocks to kick off the division’s three-in-a-row Triple Crown. Paige Whittemore would hold on for second with Kasey Collins coming home third.
Next up the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers took on the highbanks with last week’s hard luck man Kyle Streeter leading the pack to green. Also caught in last week’s opening qualifier melee, Sam Caron pounced to stalk Streeter from behind. As the two most recent division champions kept pace at the head of the field, Mike Billado and Luke Peters held a side-by-side battle that held back the rest of the field. Just after the halfway point, Streeter and Caron made contact with the back of the pack, making lap traffic a factor in their fight to the end. Easily the event of the evening, Kyle Streeter would take the win after he and second-place finisher Sam Caron lapped the field back to 13th place in green-to-checkers competition with Luke Peters edging out Mike MacAskill a half-a-track back for his first podium finish at The Road.
Back for more, the Maplefield/Irving Late Models returned to action under the leadership of Keegan Lamson and Phil Scott at the head of the field. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott took off with the lead as Lamson and Chris Roberts battled for second. Thunder Road’s winningest Late Model pilot would lead the event through lap 32 until Stephen Donahue snuck underneath him and the first caution flag flew for a multi-car mix-up on the backstretch. Another backstretch melee saw Scott, Jesse Laquerre and others spin as they motored into turn four and the final caution. Brandon Lanphear re-racked under Donahue with Donahue pulling away with the lead followed closely by Marcel Gravel. Another hard-luck pair at the head of the pack on WDEV/Calkins Night saw Stephen Donahue win his first event of the season with Gravel bouncing back from multiple weeks of mechanical woes to finish second and Brandon Lanphear rounding out the podium in third.
The Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors finished out the night under the command of returning veteran Rodney Campbell and Zach Garvey. The 20-lap feature got off to a lightning start as Garvey quickly stunned in the outside groove around Campbell. Meanwhile, Neal Foster put on a show through the back-to-front run, inside and outside of his competition lap after lap. In the end, Zach Garvey would take his first ever win in the Road Warrior division followed by Derrick Mann and Foster in the top three.
Next up for Barre’s Thunder Road is The People’s Race, the 40th annual Bolduc Metal Recycling Enduro 200 this Sunday, Aug. 4. Alongside the annual 50-lap special for the rk Miles Street Stocks, the Bolduc Metal Recycling Enduro 200 will see nearly 100 junkyard beasts make the trek to Quarry Hill for a chance at immortality and the $3,000 grand prize. Sunday’s Rain or Shine event will begin at 6 p.m. with Adult General Admission will be on sale for $18, kids 12-6 for $5 with children 5 and under free. The Family Four Pack (two adults, two kids) is also available for $40.
For more information, contact the Thunder Road offices at 802-244-6963, [email protected] or visit thunderroadvt.com.
