Eagle Times Staff
BARRE, Vt. — While rains greeted race teams on Sunday afternoon, the skies slowly cleared out allowing Thunder Road officials to successfully complete the Community College of Vermont program postponed by Mother Nature from their originally scheduled date on Aug. 8.
Youngster Kylee Potter faced-off against two-time division champion Jamie Davis to head the rk Miles Street Stock Triple Crown finale on CCV Night. The two remained side-by-side throughout the early circuits until Davis began to back-peddle slightly on the outside groove. Meanwhile deep in the pack, rk Miles Triple Crown championship hopefuls Paige Whittemore, Trevor Jaques and Zach Audet found themselves mired in heavy side-by-side traffic. They fought tooth and nail for the overall crown, gaining and losing inches in traffic as the laps rolled away in the green-to-checkers feature. Young Kylee Potter would take down a dominant second win of the season, standing as just the second female driver to have multiple rk Miles Street Stock victories with Haidyn Pearce and Patrick Tibbetts rounding out the podium.
By virtue of a seventh-place run, Graniteville’s Paige Whittemore would take the overall rk Miles Street Stock Triple Crown by six points over Milton’s Trevor Jaques. Whittemore joins 2000 Queen of the Road Late Model track champion Tracie Bellerose as the only female champions of The Road.
The Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers charged onto the Barre highbanks with Travis Patnoe and Mike Billado at the helm of the ship. Billado would charge ahead while a spinning Patnoe would bring out the first caution on lap seven. Billado maintained the lead under the return to green flag racing as Sam Caron and Mike MacAskill fought it out for second. With MacAskill fighting an ill-handling car, Caron peeked to the outside of Billado with two laps remaining, but Mike Billado would take the victory to join Shawn Fleury in fourth on the all-time wins list. Sam Caron would take second and Robert Gordon came home third on the night.
An interesting starting row in the Maplefield/Irving Late Models saw all-time wins leader Phil Scott face off with longtime competitor Scott Coburn and rookies Taylor Hoar and Jesse Laquerre in row two. Scott quickly jumped to the lead in the outside lane with Laquerre following close behind. Laquerre jumped to the outside before moving back inside Scott to lead lap 17, immediately putting the hammer down to gain breathing room ahead of the pack. Lap 21 saw Brandon Lanphear brush the widow maker front stretch wall, collecting Scott Dragon to bring out the caution with multiple teams jumping pit-side for adjustments.
Laquerre would maintain the lead on the restart but a rear-view mirror full of Nick Sweet was quick to cause alarm before the lap 25 caution for fluid coming from a sprung power-steering hose on the Chris Pelkey machine. Sweet powered around Laquerre on the restart and led the final sprint to take the Community College of Vermont trophy dash with rookie Jesse Laquerre earning his first Late Model podium finish in second and Stephen Donahue rounding out the top three.
The Community College of Vermont Challenge for the Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors rounded out Sunday’s show with Brett Wood and Jed Whitcomb leading the field to green. Whitcomb got antsy early to create a turn three pile-up on the first lap with Jed getting the worst of it. Wood continued the struggle at the front with Zach Garvey and Derrick Mann bearing down on him from behind. The team cars of Steven Corbett and Brayden Murphy combined to bring out the lap 23 caution in turn four leaving Wood at the mercy of Garvey, Mann and Tyler Wheatley. Wheatley took the lead on lap 28 before the lap 30 caution saw Garvey blow a right front after contact with Mann and slammed into the widowmaker front-stretch wall. Tyler Wheatley would maintain the lead all the way to the checkered flags with Brett Wood holding on for second and Neal Foster beating Brodie Frazier to third by just 0.021-seconds.
Thunder Road returns to regularly scheduled racing action this Thursday, Aug. 22 with Cody Chevrolet-Cadillac Night headlined by the 100-lap championship event for the Myers Container Service Triple Crown Series. The Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers are once again the star of the show with Thursday’s 100-lapper also counting as Round No. 2 in the ACT Tri-State Flying Tiger Series. The Maplefield/Irving Late Models, rk Miles Street Stocks and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors also return on Thursday with a 7 p.m. post time.
For more information, contact the Thunder Road offices at 802-244-6963, [email protected] or visit thunderroadvt.com.
