Tough Choice; Top Five Events in ‘25

Barre, VT — Even as the snowflakes fall, Thunder Road officials are hard at work on the upcoming season at the Nation’s Site of Excitement and noted out our five most anticipated events of the upcoming year. With every event at Thunder Road sure to bring plenty of thrills, we’re looking forward to all twenty-one race dates in 2025 but our top five just have a little extra magic in the air!

May 3 & 4, 2025 – Opening Weekend Car Show & 27th annual Community Bank, N.A. 150

What better place to start than the Community Bank opening weekend?! The start of the 2025 season begins with the annual car show at Thunder Road on Saturday, May 3. Absolutely free to the public from 9:00am to 12-noon, race fans get up close and personal with their favorite drivers and cars while getting to visit the Barre highbanks in person around the racetrack! Fans can also stay and enjoy open practice in the grandstands as teams get their cars fine-tuned and ready to rip on Sunday.

Sunday, May 4 brings the 27th annual Community Bank 150 for the American-Canadian Tour beginning with class day festivities and the final celebration of the 2024 track champions! Then comes all the excitement of opening day with the ACT Tour joined by the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, rk Miles Street Stocks and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors for a fantastic start to the 2025 season!

May 25, 2025 – 62nd Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic

Just three weeks later comes the first Monument Race of the season, the 62nd Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic! The Sunday special will once again kick-off the Squier Cup Triple Crown and the King of the Road track championship season for the Maplefields/Irving Late Models with the winner of the 125-laps affair earning their name on one of Thunder Road’s granite monuments! Sunday will also feature the 4th annual Granite City 100 for the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series as New England’s greatest open wheeled masters take on the Barre highbanks on Memorial Day weekend! Three different winners so far have spelled the great competition brought by the mighty Modifieds at Thunder Road and we expect 2025 will be no different!

Alan Ward photo

June 26, 2025 – Community College of Vermont presents the 2nd annual Superstars of Thunder Road Double Features Night

With the full support of Community College of Vermont, Thunder Road officials brought back the Superstars of Thunder Road Double Features Night for the second consecutive season. The heroes of Thunder Road will surely put it all on the line with two chances at a coveted feature win at the Nation’s Site of Excitement while the fans get the biggest bang for their buck with eight feature events on an iconic Thursday night in June! Last year three racers earned their first Thunder Road checkered flags, will the trend continue this year? Be there to find out!

July 31, 2025 – WDEV Radio / Calkins Portable Toilets Night

Mark A. Cote photo

WDEV Radio and Calkins Portable Toilets team up once again but what can certainly be labeled as a Vermont holiday is getting some added intensity this season. WDEV/Calkins Portable Toilets Night will feature the grand finale, 100-lap round of the Squier Cup Late Model Triple Crown, named in honor of legendary Thunder Road founder and lifetime WDEV Radio Vermont owner Ken Squier. Second generation driver, Milton, Vermont’s Scott Dragon earned the inaugural Squier Cup last season, a sight that no doubt would have made Squier proud and 2025 looks to have the same nail biting competition!

October 4 & 5, 2025 – 63rd Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank

History will be made once again on the weekend of October 4 and 5 with the 63rd running of the Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank. It all starts Saturday, October 4 with Booth Bros./Hood Milk Qualifying Day as the local Maplefields/Irving Late Model heroes take on the invading American-Canadian Tour stars in the hunt for the fastest timed lap and the $1,000 Booth Bros./Hood Milk fast time award! Saturday will also feature the ‘Triple 50s’ heat race qualifiers for Sunday’s Vermont Milk Bowl, each heat posting its own $4,300 purse, plus the lightning-fast New England Supermodified Series (NESS) and the first segment in Mini Milk Bowl action for the Flying Tigers and Street Stocks.

Sunday begins with the Last Chance B-Feature qualifier before all the pomp and circumstance that comes with the iconic Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank. The Toughest Short Track Stock Car Race in North America will happen high atop Quarry Hill with one winner emerging at the end of three extremely tough and equally exciting segments! Marcel Gravel became the fifth different first-time winner in the last eight years and with 48 entries last October, year 63 is expected to be even bigger!

Alan Ward photo

Get the full 2025 Thunder Road Speedbowl schedule online at www.thunderroadvt.com and order your 2025 Season Passes and Official Apparel on the Thunder Road online store https://thunderroadvt.square.site/.

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, Twitter, and Instagram at @ThunderRoadVT.