The New England Auto Racers (NEAR) brought their cars of the past to the Nation’s Site of Excitement on Thursday at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, VT. Opting to run all the old-time machines together for one fifteen-lap feature, former Flying Tiger pilot Mike Rollins took the Sportsman checkers with his #29 Dave Dion machine while Palmer, Massachusetts-native Dennis Desantels took the top Modified honors.
The rk Miles Street Stocks kicked off feature racing for the evening with Patrick Tibbetts and Donat Premont leading the show. A series of on-track mishaps for the Crunch Bunch slowed things down enough for Kyle MacAskill and Nate Brien to assume the front row by lap 11. Miraculously the remainder of the 30-lap event went green to the very end, even as top-five point chaser Hayden Bushey did two bouts of agricultural racing through the infield turns! Kyle MacAskill took down his first win of the season on Casella Waste Systems night followed across the line by Nate ‘Tater’ Brien and Patrick Tibbetts.
Next generation drivers Brandon Lanphear and Stephen Donahue brought the Maplefields/Irving Late Models to the green flag for their 65-lap Casella Waste feature. The two battled doorhandle-to-doorhandle throughout the opening laps before Justin Prescott made some moves on lap 22 to bring out a pile-up caution in turn three, ending the night for several cars. Back under green, Chris Pelkey brought his #64VT Casella Waste machine to the front and put on a spirited battle with Marcel Gravel to the very end. Pelkey took the Casella Night checkers by 0.205-seconds over Gravel with Stephen Martin taking third.
Eric Chase and Travis Patnoe started the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers with a spirited run at the front as Mike MacAskill sat hungry for more in third. A turn three dust-up on lap eight proved to be the lone wreck of the night with Chase and MacAskill fighting side-by-side throughout the entire event. Sophomore racer Karsen Murphy made his way to the floor and made it a three-way dance out front, eventually shooting under the pair of them and running away with career win number one on the Barre highbanks. Robert Gordon used Chase’s backslide to his advantage to capture second while Jason Pelkey followed the leader to third.
Attrition in the rk Miles Street Stock main whittled twelve eligible drivers down to just four starters for the Marvin Johnson Memorial Non-Winners Race. Paige Whittemore and Jefferson Garvey made it an entertaining run with the two side-by-side throughout the event. Owen Dupuis made it a spirited three-way battle but ultimately Jefferson Garvey took down win number one.
Thunder Road returns for a doubleheader week starting with Five Star Roofing Night on Thursday, June 18 headlined by the start of the Myers Container Service Triple Crown for the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers! The Maplefields/Irving Late Models, rk Miles Street Stocks and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors also return on Thursday, June 18 before the whole gang returns on Sunday, June 21 for the rain-postponed Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic!
The event results from Thursday, June 11, 2026.
