Offseason Spotlight: Lanphear Wins Tiger Triple Crown in Stellar Season on the High Banks

Barre, VT – For five years now — literally from his first season in a stock car at Thunder Road — Brandon Lanphear has been a threat to win a championship. In 2020, the soon-to-be 26-year-old finally did so, taking the Myers Container Service Triple Crown Series title as part of a stellar year in the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tiger ranks.

Lanphear was already coming off an excellent first two Flying Tiger seasons at the “Nation’s Site of Excitement”. He finished third in points and won Rookie of the Year in his 2018 freshman campaign, then did even better in 2019 with a runner-up in the final standings. Add in his two Street Stock seasons, and Lanphear has never finished worse than sixth in any season-long points. As such, Lanphear thought his team was capable of winning either the weekly or Triple Crown championships in 2020.

“Considering the way the two years before went, I would say a championship was on my mind,” Lanphear said. “But you just take it one week at a time, and whatever happens, happens. You try not to think about it too much. Obviously that was our goal, but not getting it wouldn’t have meant it was a bad season by any means.”

Like everyone at Thunder Road, Lanphear had to wait an extra six weeks to take a green flag. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting health and safety requirements, began a waiting game that ultimately lasted until mid-June.

“I was still doing stuff last-minute like always,” Lanphear laughed. “But we weren’t really sure if we were going to race, or when we were going to race. Nobody really knew anything. It was exciting to finally know that we were going to go race and be able to do it over the summer. But preparation was about the same as far as getting everything ready to go — we were just kind of waiting around once everything was ready.”

“Even with the pandemic, we had people coming in throughout the year to watch,” Lanphear added later. “That was so good to see them supporting us. Without people watching, there’s really no point in us doing it.”

The season started a little slow by Lanphear’s standards, with finishes of 9th, 13th, and 6th in the first three events. However, the 75-lap Triple Crown opener on July 9 turned things around.

If you just read the results and saw that Lanphear started on the outside pole and led every lap, you might think it was a boring race. But in fact, it was an early frontrunner for the race of the year. Lanphear spent nearly the entire event duking it out with fellow young guns Jaden Perry, Kasey Beattie, and Logan Powers, holding them all off in an event that showcased the future of Vermont stock car racing.

“That was probably one of the better races I’ve been a part of,” Lanphear said. “It would have been fun for me to watch it, because it was fun to drive in it. It was really cool. To be able to lead every single lap in one of those races is pretty cool. It’s fun to race with Jaden. He started a little bit before me, but we kind of came up through together with the Street Stocks. It was definitely one I won’t forget.”

The win was the third of Lanphear’s Flying Tiger career — two of which have come in long-distance races. Add his newfound championship, and it’s clear Lanphear takes things to another level when the spotlight is on.

“I don’t know if it’s just coincidence, or luck, or whatever it is,” Lanphear said. “But it’s a little bit different mindset compared to any other weekly show. It’s almost double the distance — that’s a big factor in it. You can be a little more patient than normal. But you also have to be aggressive, because you’ve gotta pass cars if you’re not starting on the front row. In some ways, it’s just another race, but it’s also a little more prestigious, so you’re definitely thinking about that as you’re going around the track.”

Lanphear was solid but unspectacular for the next month, adding two more top-10 finishes to his season total. When the second round of the Triple Crown rolled around at Cody Chevrolet-Cadillac Night on August 6, he shined once again as part of another four-way battle for the win. This time, it was Lanphear coming in fourth behind a photo finish between Mike Martin and Sam Caron.

“That was a heck of a race,” Lanphear recalled. “I remember the outside being the preferred line. There was a bunch of crazy restarts and just good hard racing. Not really beating and banging, but good racing sometimes involves a little door-slamming, if you ask me. There’s a little bit of contact, but nothing dirty about it — that’s just hard racing.”

While Lanphear was unable to get to the top spot in that race, it still set him up well in both championship drives. He held a four-point lead over Martin in the Triple Crown standings with one more event left. Lanphear also sat fourth in weekly points following the event and had a very real chance at both titles. To even have a shot at one title in a division that averaged 30+ cars an event throughout the season was no small feat.

“Half the battle is that there’s just so many cars,” Lanphear said. “It’s kind of unprecedented in this age that a small quarter-mile track sometimes has to actually send cars home. I’m sure that’s not something the track wants to do, but it’s a really good thing, because it means there are a lot of people that are really into that division — or into racing period.”

“It’s just crazy every week,” Lanphear added. “There’s probably 10 or 12 cars that can win on a given night. It’s kind of cool to see. The last five years, it’s really taken off.”

Lanphear continued to hang in the season-long title chase throughout August and into September. The Barre Granite Association Championship Night event would be the finale for both Tiger titles. Going into the feature, Lanphear was tied with Cameron Ouellette for third in weekly points and still had a mathematical shot at the championship to go with his Triple Crown lead.

To add to the intensity, the event would be 100 laps and $1,000-to-win, making it the biggest Flying Tiger race in years. Lanphear navigated every obstacle in his path, finishing sixth to take the Triple Crown title and place fourth in the overall. His three best finishes of the year came in the three Triple Crown features.

“Mostly, my goal going into the last race was to win the Triple Crown,” Lanphear said. “I had the best shot to do that — some other people had to have really bad days for me to win the track championship. More than anything, it was about trying to survive. One hundred laps felt like they just went on forever. It was ridiculous. Some of the people out there, I don’t know if the 100 laps and money went to their heads or not, but it was a hectic race. Mike (Martin) actually finished right behind me — it came right down to the final laps, and every spot matters. Instead of finishing fifth one week, you finish fourth, and maybe that ends up making the difference at the end of the year.”

“It’s something that I wanted to do,” Lanphear said of the title. “It’s one of those things where it’s nice to set a goal and then be able to check that off the list. I was very excited and very happy to do it.”

Following the completion of the point-counting season, Lanphear turned things up a few horsepower. In mid-September, an opportunity came up for Lanphear to run a Late Model at the 58th Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank. After a frantic stretch to get ready — which included putting a new body on the car, spending a testing day at the track, and assistance from three-time Milk Bowl winner Nick Sweet with the setup — Lanphear rolled in for Booth Bros./H.P. Hood Qualifying Day.

Lanphear, whose father Dwayne won the 2001 Milk Bowl, ultimately qualified for the main event by winning the B-Feature. He then completed every lap of his first Milk Bowl on the way to a 16th-place finish. For a driver who only had one previous Milk Bowl start (a 2019 event in a Marcel J. Gravel team car), it was a fine way to end another impressive season.

“That was a crazy weekend of racing,” Lanphear said. “I ended up making it in, and that felt good. About the only goal was to make the show, because of what the race is. I had a good time. We didn’t really know what we were doing — we kind of threw a crew together, and we had a lot of help from some people setting up the car and getting it ready. There was a lot of stuff that went into it, because it really only came together about two weeks before the event. It was a busy couple of weeks getting ready, but we did.”

While Lanphear fully intends to be racing again in 2021, he is remaining tight-lipped about his plans at this time, saying only that he hopes to make an announcement in a few weeks once things are finalized. Thunder Road fans will be keeping their eyes and ears out for when the young star reveals what’s next for his already-successful racing career.