Packed Thunder Road Thursday Ahead at Vermont Tire & Service Night

Alan Ward photo

Street Stock Special, Double-Purse Features Among Highlights

Barre, VT — Barre’s Thunder Road is bringing out all the stops this Thursday, August 19 for Vermont Tire & Service Night. With a full card of racing, extra money on the line, and the return of the Kid’s Poster Contest, a fun night for the whole family is ahead both at the track and live on FloRacing.

The RK Miles Street Stocks get the spotlight with the annual Bolduc Metal Recycling Street Stock Special. The 50-lap event, which finally gets on the high banks after two weather postponements, gives the storied four-cylinder division their chance to headline the Thunder Road program. Drivers like Tommy “Thunder” Smith, Kaiden “Tropical Storm” Fisher, Kyler Davis, Josh Lovely, and Jamie Davis will go at it for extra laps and extra cash.

Meanwhile, the Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models, Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors are racing for twice their normal prize money. As part of Thunder Road’s multi-year live streaming deal with FloRacing, Vermont Tire & Service Night is the second of two “Double Purse Nights” on the calendar.

With the Street Stock Special being rescheduled for this Thursday, that division will run their designated double-purse event as part of the Optical Expressions Berlin Labor Day Classic on September 5.

Thunder Road has also brought back the Kid’s Poster Contest. The event is a chance for youngsters to show off art skills while celebrating their favorite drivers and tracks. Finally, the night includes a ceremony for the Junior Champ Kart program that races on Tuesday nights, letting youth racers go out on “the big track”.

Buzz Fisher/Creative Outbursts photo

The jam-packed card comes at a pivotal moment in the Thunder Road season. Just two Thursday night races remain, with between four and six point-counting events for the track’s championship divisions. Every move now matters from the first lap of qualifying to the final lap of the main event.

The Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model “King of the Road” chase gets tighter with every passing week. Following Sunday’s NorthCountry Federal Credit Union twilight show, Christopher Pelkey’s lead over two-time defending champion Jason Corliss is down to 10 points. Both spent most of Sunday’s feature stuck in traffic but managed to wrangle top-10 finishes.

Graniteville’s Pelkey, the Times Argus Midseason Championship winner, is trying to hold on for his first season-long title in any stock car racing division. Barre’s Corliss, a four-time winner already this year, is gunning for a rare “three-peat”. Only two drivers — Chuck Beede from 1992-94 and Derrick O’Donnell from 2013-15 — have previously won three straight track championships.

With four weekly events left on the Late Model schedule, the rest of the field is running out of time to get back in the hunt. Danville’s Tyler Cahoon and Shelburne’s Trampas Demers have been models of consistency but need wins to gain ground. Wolcott’s Marcel J. Gravel is making a second-half charge in his backup car. Another Wolcott racer, Brendan Moodie, suffered a major blow with an ill-handling car and spin on Sunday. Kyle Pembroke, rookie Brandon Lanphear, Phil Scott, and Chip Grenier are all trying to end the season with a surge.

The Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers continue to be a family affair. Craftsbury Common’s Michael Martin now leads son Stephen, the newly crowned Myers Container Service Triple Crown champion, by 21 points in the season-long standings. Mike Martin showed he’s the driver to beat on Sunday by coming from 16th to 4th without the benefit of a caution flag to help him gain ground.

The rest of the field continues to be a streak of Tigers leaping and bounding for spots. From 3rd-place Cameron Ouellette to 10th-place Logan Powers, it’s a gap of just 43 points. Milton’s Sam Caron has been lightning-fast in recent week, rising from as low as 13th in points to now sit 4th. He’ll be one to watch in the last five events along with Kelsea Woodard, Bryan Wall Jr., Jason Pelkey, and others.

The closest championship battle of all is in the RK Miles Street Stocks. Entering Thursday’s 50-lapper, 51-year-old Tommy Smith leads 13-year-old Kaiden Fisher by only seven points. The two have been within inches of each other on the track for most of the season with no end in sight.

Six point-counting events are left for the Street Stocks, which includes double features with separate qualifying at the Labor Day Classic. That means there’s still time for third-place Kyler Davis and fourth-place Dean Switser Jr. — who sit 51 and 65 points behind Smith, respectively — to get back in the conversation. Former champion Jeffrey Martin has been on fire of late, climbing to fifth in the standings after being 21st at one point. Although Martin is a distant 122 points behind first, don’t count him out down the stretch.

The Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors return for another 20-lap showdown coming off their annual Road Warrior Challenge. Jamie York grabbed the year’s biggest win, erasing a season’s worth of bad luck. To remain the duke of the division, he’ll have to fight off Nate “Tater” Brien, Matt Ballard, Josh Vilbrin, Paige Whittemore, and the rest of the racers who make the Warriors fun for everyone.

Thunder Road goes full throttle this Thursday, August 19 at 7:00pm with Vermont Tire & Service Night. The card includes the Bolduc Metal Recycling Street Stock Special plus double-purse features for the Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models, Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors courtesy of FloRacing. The night also marks the return of the Kid’s Poster Contest. The pits open at 3:30pm and the grandstands open at 5:15pm.

General admission to Vermont Tire & Service 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.