Quenneville Conquers Northeast Crate Nationals 100 at Devil’s Bowl
WEST HAVEN, Vt. – Vince Quenneville may not have much left to prove in his stock car racing career, but apparently the three-time Devil’s Bowl Speedway champion wants more. On Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, the Brandon, Vt., driver ended a four-year win drought and scored one of the most popular victories in the track’s history, using a late-race surge to secure the Northeast Crate Nationals 100 and its $5,000 payday – one of the region’s top Sportsman Modified purses.
Other drivers who took wins at the big event included Matt Tanner, Austin Comes, Chris Murray, Ray Hanson, and first-time winner T.J. Knight. First-round qualifying was held on Saturday, but rain on Sunday postponed second-round qualifying and the feature events to Memorial Day.
Late Models Begin Two Championship Battles At Memorial Day Classic
More Than a Dozen Racers Aiming for “King of the Road” and Challenge Cup Titles
Barre, VT — The 58th Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic goes green at Barre’s Thunder Road this Sunday, May 30. For many Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model racers, the 125-lap battle on FloRacing is the opening round of two championship campaigns that will captivate regional stock car racing fans all summer long.
Sunday’s Memorial Day Classic, the first since 2019, begins the 2021 “King of the Road” battle. Fourteen point-counting events lie ahead, concluding with Efficiency Vermont Championship Night on September 17. With the weekly field expected to increase in size this year, the competition will be frenetic each time out as teams aim to reach the top.
A second title will be on the line for two-time defending track champion Jason Corliss, 2017 champion Bobby Therrien, multi-time Late Model winner Matt White, and 10 others. All 14 events also are eligible for the American-Canadian Tour (ACT) New England Late Model Challenge Cup, a new regional championship that lets top weekly racers go head-to-head.
Memorial Day Classic Finally Returns to High Banks on May 30
Barre, VT — The high banks of Barre’s Thunder Road roar back to life on Sunday, May 30 with the 58th Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic. After a one-year hiatus due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the historic event returns for a full afternoon of holiday action that can be seen live worldwide on FloRacing.
The Memorial Day Classic at Thunder Road goes back to 1961, the second year of the track’s existence. The 2020 cancellation marked the first time since 1981 the event wasn’t held. Now, with the country moving back towards normal, modern Thunder Road heroes such as Trampas Demers, Jason Corliss, Brooks Clark, Bobby Therrien, and Scott Dragon will battle for a spot on the event’s granite monument.
“The history of Thunder Road is very important as far as the track itself,” Shelburne’s Demers said. “The Memorial Day Classic gets you on the granite, and that’s what ultimately matters, because you’re etched in stone at that point. It’s an important race for everybody. It kicks off the season for Thunder Road weekly racing, so it’s also an important event from that standpoint — because as we know, the weekly competition is super-competitive.”
DIRTcar East Series event two for the Sportsman Modifeds winner Jason Gray Kevin LaForest recorded as official winner in the Peanuts Auto LLC Four Cylinders
Bear Ridge Speedway
Feature winners in the Sabil & Sons DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds hosted DIRTcar East Series event Jason Gray; Josh Harrington in the Wells River Chevrolet DIRTcar Sportsman Coupes; Tyler Tremblay in the C.A. Miller Limited Late Models; Lucas Wheeler in the LaValley Building Supply Dirt Stocks, and Kevin LaForest in the Peanuts Auto LLC Four Cylinders.
The DIRTcar East Series event number two is officially in the record books. The Sabil & Sons DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds welcomed in several outsides for the event and together they put on a whale of a show for the fans. The Series offers a bit of a different format with qualifying races set by time trials. Fast time of the night would be recorded by a competitor who has been around the Ridge a time or two in the past at 14.804 seconds recorded by Kevin Chaffee. After the qualifying races the top four in each event were brought out to victory lane for a redraw to set the front of the field for the 42 lap main event. The fans and drivers were afforded a couple of historic surprises, the first being the DIRTcar World Racing Group Chief Starter Dave Farney appearing on the flag stand to shepherd the field thru their event. The second was a FOUR WIDE parade lap around the ¼ mile clay oval. This historic event has been a long time coming, and April May and Butch could not be more humbled or proud to be a part of the DIRTcar World Racing Group, and to have had the opportunity to host it. For April May it was almost better than Christmas! Our home track drivers put on a whale of a show and we are very proud of all of them and send out a huge thank you to all the drivers who came across the green mountain range to join us. The event had a bit of a rough start, but after the final caution on lap eight the event went green to checkers for the remaining 34 laps. When the Farney double checkers waved on the field our own hometown 2020 track champion Jason Gray was the one leading the field across the line. Coming home in second was David Boisclair out of Latham NY, home tracks Malta and Airbourne, and Jordan Fornwalt in third. Kevin Chaffee came home in fourth with visiting Andrew Buff out of Latham NY, home tracks Malta and Glen Ridge coming home in fifth.
PRACTICE NOTES: Massive Field Turns Out for Thunder Road Practice Day
Barre, VT — A huge field of cars filed through the pits for the Thunder Road Car Show and Practice Day on Saturday, May 1. When all was said and done, 119 drivers across 4 divisions took to the track in preparation for the Community Bank N.A. 150 on FloRacing this Sunday, May 2. The speeds were as big as the fields with racers storming out of the gates after a long, cold Vermont winter.
The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) and Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models saw 32 drivers on-hand. For many, it was their first session on the new Hoosier Racing tire. Whether it was the tire, the track conditions, or the eagerness to go racing again, the Late Models set a blistering pace. Times were noticeably quicker than last year with several drivers setting marks in the sub-12.3 second bracket.
Triple Crown Entries Pouring in for White Mountain & Thunder Road
Triple Crown Event Highlights White Mountain Season Opener on May 8
N. Woodstock, NH & Barre, VT — The Flying Tigers are about to take center stage for the first of half a dozen times in what’s shaping up as a tremendous 2021 for the class. Entries have been pouring in for both the Myers Container Service Triple Crown Series at Barre, VT’s Thunder Road and the J.P. Sicard Triple Crown Series at North Woodstock, NH’s White Mountain Motorsports Park as the racers of “North America’s Best Support Division” get ready for their time in the sun.
The White Mountain Motorsports Park season opener this Saturday, May 8 is also the first round in the J.P. Sicard Triple Crown. On Sunday, May 30, the Myers Triple Crown gets underway as part of the 58th Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic. Racers such as Jason Woodard, Jaden Perry, Joel Hodgdon, Colin Cornell, Russell Clark, and Brandon Gray will do battle in long-distance races that are never short on thrills.
“It’s just so competitive,” East Burke, VT’s Colin Cornell, a Triple Crown winner at both Thunder Road and White Mountain, said. “The plus-minus qualifying is a lot of fun for me, because it gives me that much more motivation to qualify well and pass more cars. Other than that, I love having more laps, and it’s very competitive as result — you get the best of the best.”
“I like that it’s at both tracks,” Cornell added. “White Mountain was my home track where I started out racing in the Kids Trucks. Then I brought (the team) over to Thunder Road, but I can still go back to White Mountain for these Triple Crown shows.”
