2020 Vermont Milk Bowl Preview: By the Numbers

It’s almost time for the 58th Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank! With 57 previous editions, the event is rich in history — but some things stand out more than others. Here are the numbers you need to know as we get ready for Booth Bros./H.P. Hood Qualifying Day on Saturday, October 3 and the Milk Bowl on Sunday, October 4!

1 — The Milk Bowl has been shortened to two segments only once in its 57-event history. The third segment was rained out in 1979.

3 — While no driver has won three consecutive Milk Bowls, three drivers have won thrice in four years: Russ Ingerson (1965, 1966, 1968); Patrick Laperle (2005, 2007, 2008); and Nick Sweet (2013, 2015, 2016). Jason Corliss will try to become the fourth this year.

4 — Robbie Crouch is still the only driver to win four Milk Bowls. Five other drivers have three wins: Brian Hoar, Russ Ingerson, Patrick Laperle, Kevin Lepage, and Nick Sweet.

5 — Number of drivers who have won their first Milk Bowl start. The last driver to do so was Butch Lindley in 1977.

7 — Bobby Therrien is trying to become the seventh driver to win back-to-back Milk Bowls.

8 — The last two Milk Bowl winners, Jason Corliss and Bobby Therrien, each had a final score of eight points. Before 2018, the last time a driver had won with a single-digit score was when Brian Hoar had 4 points in 1998.

8 — Eight of the last nine Milk Bowl winners (since 2011) were from the state of Vermont. The only out-of-stater to win during that time is Rowley, MA’s Eddie MacDonald in 2014.

10 — Number of consecutive Milk Bowl starts for Brooks Clark, the longest active streak.

12 — The number of times the Milk Bowl has been won from the pole. In 2019, Bobby Therrien became the first driver to do so since Dave Pembroke in 2012. As a footnote, Pembroke was the only one of those drivers who did not win a segment that day.

12 — Dave Dion had 12 Milk Bowl segment wins, the most of any driver. Nick Sweet’s four segment wins are the most among active drivers.

12.236 — The Thunder Road track record, in seconds, set by Marcel J. Gravel in 2017.

14.4 — The average winning Milk Bowl score since 1996 when the ACT Late Models took over the event.

16 — The overall Milk Bowl winner has also won the final segment 16 times. Three of those years were the three times the winner pulled a “clean sweep” (Larry Demar in 1967, Dave Dion in 1975, and Robbie Crouch in 1986).

16 — Current Thunder Road co-owner Cris Michaud won the 2004 Milk Bowl from the 16th starting position. It is the farthest back any Milk Bowl winner has ever started.

20 — The number of times a driver has won the Milk Bowl in a Ford, the most of any manufacturer. Chevrolet is just one win behind with 19.

20, 4 — Twenty of the 57 previous Milk Bowls were won by drivers who didn’t win a segment that day. Four of them — Dan Bridges, Dwayne Lanphear, Eric Williams, and Cris Michaud — have a particularly interesting accomplishment: all four have a Milk Bowl win but never won a segment in their careers.

23 — The highest score ever to win the Milk Bowl (Dave Pembroke in 2002).

50 — The number of laps in each segment. Except for a three-year span (2010-2012) where the second and third segments were 75 laps, the race distance has remained the same since 1962 regardless of the division. (The 50-lap distance now equates to a weekly Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model feature.)

58 — This is the 58th year the Milk Bowl has been run. Since the 2020 Memorial Day Classic was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Milk Bowl now is the oldest event at Thunder Road in terms of total events.

83 — The number of different drivers who have at least one segment win in the Milk Bowl’s previous 57 editions.

660 — Total number of feature laps scheduled to be run this weekend among the nine divisions competing on the high banks. This does not include time trials and other qualifying.

1962 — The year of the first Milk Bowl. The late Harold “Hard Luck” Hannaford won the overall after taking the first two segments and finishing second in the third segment.

1981 — The only year the Milk Bowl has not been held since its inception. Thunder Road did not run any events that year due to a legal battle. (The Milk Bowl was held at Milton, VT’s Catamount Stadium in 1978 and 1980.)

2004 — No driver has won the Milk Bowl and the Thunder Road “King of the Road” title in the same year since Cris Michaud did so in 2004. It’s only happened seven times in the event’s history.

$10,000 — The winner of the 58th Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank will receive a minimum of $10,000. This number could rise much higher thanks to the Booth Bros./H.P. Hood Pole Awards and lap leader money.