{"id":25035,"date":"2019-05-05T09:04:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T13:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=25035"},"modified":"2019-05-05T09:04:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-05T13:04:18","slug":"pit-notes-community-bank-n-a-150-practice-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2019\/05\/pit-notes-community-bank-n-a-150-practice-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Pit Notes: Community Bank N.A. 150 Practice Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pit Notes: Community Bank N.A. 150 Practice Day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barre, VT<\/em> \u2013 The pits were bustling at Barre\u2019s Thunder Road on Saturday, May 4 as teams from throughout the Northeastern U.S. and Canada converged for Community Bank N.A. 150 Practice Day. A total of 113 cars across four divisions took to the high banks with 98 of them also appearing at the morning\u2019s Thunder Road Car Show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) and Maplewood\/Irving Oil Late Models had 37 cars on hand in preparation for Sunday\u2019s 150-lap event. Times steadily picked up throughout the days as drivers shook the winter rust off and got accustomed to the new outside retaining wall. When it was all said and done, Fayton, VT\u2019s Brooks Clark stood atop the charts. The multi-time Thunder Road winner ran a lap of 12.560 seconds in the day\u2019s final session, which was just 0.015 seconds ahead of Barre, VT\u2019s Cody Blake in the same time frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many drivers who have historically been fast at Thunder Road lived up to those expectations. Reigning \u201cKing of the Road\u201d Scott Dragon of Milton, VT was near the top of the charts in multiple practice sessions as was Barre, VT\u2019s Nick Sweet. Montpelier, VT\u2019s Kyle Pembroke topped the second session and maintained that speed throughout the day. Marcel J. Gravel, Jason Corliss, Matte White, Jimmy Hebert, and Tyler Cahoon also showed good pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were a few pleasant surprises as well. Lebanon, NH\u2019s Rich Dubeau has yet to record a top-five finish at Thunder Road, but was in the top-five for each of the final three sessions. Multi-time Devil\u2019s Bowl Speedway Champion Josh Masterson of Bristol, VT and 2017 Seri\u00e9 ACT Champion Jonathan Bouvrette of Blainville, QC also looked like potential threats on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Lenny\u2019s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, 32 drivers took time during practice. In the end, the top dog was a former contender picking right back up where he left off. Hardwick, VT\u2019s Jaden Perry, the 2017 Rookie of the Year, took the year 2018 off from racing. But he rolled into the pits on Saturday and set the fast time of the day during the second session at 14.189 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essex, VT\u2019s Mike Billado led the first practice session while Marshfield, VT\u2019s Matt Potter was tops in the final stanza. When it came to consistent speed, two-time Flying Tiger Champion Jason Woodard of Waterbury Ctr., VT was one to watch, as he ranked in the top-three on the charts every time. Former Flying Tiger winners Jason Pelkey, Tyler Austin, Cooper Bouchard, Joe Steffen were also impressive in their first 2019 look at the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Allen Lumber Street Stocks also had a solid field on hand for Practice Day. As one might expect, they saw a mix of young stars and veterans setting the pace. Speeds got faster and faster throughout the afternoon, and when the final session ended, sophomore Tyler Pepin of Barre was the one-lap leader at 14.917 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three-time 2018 winner Jeffrey Martin of Barre, VT was the only other driver to break the 15-second barrier when he ran 14.990 seconds in the second session. St. Johnsbury, VT\u2019s Kasey Beattie, who became the youngest winner in Thunder Road history in 2018, was fastest out of the gate in the first session.  Teammate Dean Switser Jr., Tim Hunt, J.T. Blanchard, and rookie Hunter Garduno were quick in one-lap spurts and will try to be fast for 25 laps on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lovable Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors rounded out the day of practice. Berlin, VT\u2019s Eric \u201cPork\u201d Chase and Chris Davis were neck-and-neck at the top of the charts as well, separated by just 0.001 seconds. Brad Kelley, Brian Putney, Josh Vilbrin, and Nate Brien were just some of the other drivers who hauled out their four-cylinder rides to get ready for the season ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A handful of on-track incidents were scattered throughout the day. Early in the second ACT Late Model practice, Duxbury, VT\u2019s Peyton Lanphear got into Graniteville, VT\u2019s Chip Grenier while the latter was heading to pit road. Later in the session, St-Georges, QC\u2019s Michael Lavoie looped his car in turn four and was clipped by Craftsbury Common, VT\u2019s Joel Hodgdon. All four were able to make repairs and get back out by the next session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trouble struck for Milton, VT\u2019s Robert Gordon in the Flying Tigers when his car\u2019s transmission broke during practice. Meanwhile, Road Warrior newcomer Trevor Jacques found out in the second session that, while the front stretch wall isn\u2019t new, it still doesn\u2019t move when you hit it. Several other solo spins occurred across all division, but none of those drivers suffered any notable damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Pit Stop Competition during the Car Show, the #37VT of Scott Payea and RPM Racing won the battle of 2018 Thunder Road and ACT Champions. The Payea team completed their pit stop in just over 25 seconds, a full two seconds ahead of reigning Allen Lumber Street Stock Champion Stephen Martin and his team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best of the ACT Late Model Tour and Thunder Road will open the track\u2019s 60th<\/sup> season of racing on Sunday, 5 at 1:30pm. The 21st<\/sup> Community Bank N.A. 150 pits the top ACT and Maplewood\/Irving Oil Late Model competitors against each other for 150 green-flag laps. They\u2019ll be joined by the Lenny\u2019s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, Allen Lumber Street Stocks, and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General admission for the Community Bank N.A. 150 is $25 for adults and free for kids ages 12 and under. The pits open at 8:00am and the front gates open at 1:30pm. Class Day Ceremonies and the Car Show winner announcements begin at 12:55pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, contact the ACT or Thunder Road offices at (802) 244-6963, media@acttour.com<\/a>, or media@thunderroadvt.com<\/a>. You can also visit www.acttour.com<\/a> orwww.thunderroadvt.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pit Notes: Community Bank N.A. 150 Practice Day Barre, VT \u2013 The pits were bustling at Barre\u2019s Thunder Road on Saturday, May 4 as teams from throughout the Northeastern U.S. and Canada converged for Community Bank N.A. 150 Practice Day. A total of 113 cars across four divisions took to the high banks with 98 of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thunder-road","category-vermont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25036,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25035\/revisions\/25036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}