Warriors Ready for Annual Challenge at NCFCU Night

Alan Ward photo

Barre, VT — The Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors take their annual star turn at Thunder Road’s NorthCountry Federal Credit Union Night this Thursday, August 12. The 3rd Annual Road Warrior Challenge pits the track’s four-cylinder division in a 50-lap, $500-to-win showdown that can be seen live worldwide on FloRacing.

The Road Warriors have been enjoying another strong season on the Barre high banks. Running at nearly every event, they have consistently drawn strong fields and made every feature worth watching. Last week, the division even put together a full field despite being added to the program the day before the event. The Road Warrior Challenge is their chance to shine with driver introductions and the rest of what goes into a big show.

“I always look forward to the big races,” Northfield’s Josh Vilbrin said. “They separate the men and the women from the rest of the pack. I’m really hoping for a nice, clean, good race where we can have some fun. Win or lose, we always try to have fun.”

Since the Warrior division returned in 2017, it’s become a place for racers of all ages and experience levels to have fun at the track. The winner’s roll for 2021 bears this out. There are Road Warrior veterans like Nate “Tater” Brien, Josh Vilbrin, and Frank Putney — in his Scooby Doo “Mystery Machine” look-alike — who help guide the younger drivers. Four of the events have seen first-time winners, with Paige Whittemore, Bert Duffy, Mark Bealieu, and “Flyin’” Fred Fleury getting a taste of victory.

These racers and many more are expected for the 50-lap Challenge. Dan Garrett Jr., Jamie York, Matt Ballard, and Jason Kirby are some more of the racers looking for their first Warrior win. Racers like Rodney Campbell, Nick Copping, Jamie Buick, and Bill O’Connor are making stride every week. Then there’s unofficial division mayor Sean “Chubby Rambo” McCarthy, who puts on a show whenever and wherever he shows up.

The race itself will be different than any other event at Thunder Road. The 50-lap feature will be divided into two 25-lap segments, but without an inversion between segments. Instead, the Warriors get a “halfway break” while the Late Model and Flying Tiger divisions run their consis. This gives Warrior teams 5-10 minutes to cool the tires and make changes to their cars. They’ll then restart the race in the same order as they were after 25 laps.

“I’d love to run the whole 50 straight-up, but there would probably only be about six cars left if we did that,” Vilbrin remarked. “Personally, I don’t really change anything. I just make sure the tires aren’t eaten away and go full send for the last 25.”

NorthCountry Federal Credit Union Night also has a full card of championship action for the Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models, Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, and RK Miles Street Stocks. The battle to be the Late Model “King of the Road” is shaping up as a two-man dance between Graniteville’s Christopher Pelkey and Barre’s Jason Corliss. Pelkey is still riding the wave of his Midseason Championship win with a 17-point advantage.

Since Corliss crashed out of the Midseason Championships, he has captured the Midsummer Classic 250 at White Mountain Motorsports Park and his fourth win of the year at Thunder Road. If Corliss wins any of the five remaining regular season events, he will set a track record for most point-counting Late Model wins in a season. A driver has won four point-counting Late Model events 10 different times, but no one has ever gotten five.

Behind the front two, it’s a cattle-call for the rest of the top-10. Just 43 points separate third-place Tyler Cahoon from 10th-place Brandon Lanphear. In between, you have racers such as Trampas Demers, Brendan Moodie, Stephen Donahue, and Kyle Pembroke who can win on any given night. Should Pelkey and Corliss stumble again, it would set up a Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model title chase for the ages.

The Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers still have a father-son tandem at the top. Although Craftsbury Common’s Stephen Martin captured the Myers Container Service Triple Crown championship last Thursday, he still trails dad Michael by 15 points in the overall standings. Although Michael only has three top-fives to Stephen’s six, the father’s superior qualifying performance — including four heat-race wins — have given him the edge.

Waterbury Center’s Kelsea Woodard is up to third in the Flying Tiger standings, 48 points behind Mike Martin. The same margin separates her from 10th-place Logan Powers. Cameron Ouellette, Bryan Wall Jr., Derrick Calkins, and Robert Gordon are other drivers who could enter the title picture over the final six point-counting events.

The closest championship battle of all can be found in the RK Miles Street Stocks. All-time winningest driver Tommy “Thunder” Smith of Williamstown is just three points ahead of 13-year-old Kaiden “Tropical Storm” Fisher of Shelburne. The combination has created a monsoon of action as they try to get to the front first.

The Street Stocks still have seven point-counting events left after the Bolduc Metal Recycling Street Stock Special was postponed a second time. That means Kyler Davis, Dean Switser Jr., Justin Blakely, Jeffrey Martin, and others can still get into the hunt. The 50-lap special is now Thursday, August 19 with double features at the Labor Day Classic.

Thunder Road continues the summer action with NorthCountry Federal Credit Union Night this Thursday, August 12 at 7:00pm. The Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors go 50 laps in the 3rd Annual Road Warrior Challenge. They’re joined by the Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models, Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, and RK Miles Street Stocks.

Admission to NCFCU Night is $15 for adults, $5 for kids ages 6-12, and $30 for a family of four (2 adults, 2 kids). Advance tickets are available at www.happsnow.com/event/Thunder-Road-Speedbowl. All Thunder Road events are also live-streamed on FloRacing for those with a paid subscription.  

For more information, contact the Thunder Road offices at (802) 244-6963, media@thunderroadvt.com, or visit www.thunderroadvt.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @ThunderRoadVT. For more information about FloRacing, visit www.FloRacing.com.