{"id":25520,"date":"2019-07-16T13:11:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T17:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=25520"},"modified":"2019-07-15T21:12:33","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T01:12:33","slug":"locals-prepared-to-defend-governors-cup-against-nascars-bell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2019\/07\/locals-prepared-to-defend-governors-cup-against-nascars-bell\/","title":{"rendered":"Locals Prepared to Defend Governor’s Cup Against NASCAR’s Bell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Locals Prepared to Defend Governor’s Cup Against NASCAR’s Bell<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Barre, VT<\/em> \u2013 Barre\u2019s Thunder Road is just days away from roaring to the grid with the the 40th<\/sup> VP Racing Fuels Vermont Governor\u2019s Cup 150. The big story leading up to the Thursday, July 18 event has been the scheduled appearance of NASCAR and dirt racing standout Christopher Bell. However, the Maplewood\/Irving Oil Late Model heroes are more than ready to give their all and keep the trophy in Vermont.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The 24-year-old Bell is one of the biggest young stars in North American motorsports. His accomplishments already include 12 NASCAR Xfinity Series wins, a NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series championship, and three Chili Bowl wins, along with countless other victories in everything from the ARCA Racing Series to the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Sprint Cars. But while Thunder Road\u2019s weekly regulars are looking forward to racing against Bell, they\u2019re not shying away from going full-throttle in their biggest event of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know Christopher Bell is a big name for sure,\u201d Milton\u2019s Scott Dragon said. \u2018Over the years, I\u2019ve had a lot of opportunities to race with different national guys at different places. There\u2019s Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch \u2013 the list is pretty long, believe it or not. I guess in 24 years of racing, you\u2019re going to get a chance to race against quite a few different people. But we\u2019re just going to come in here and do what we normally do. We have some pretty hot runners that run up here every week, so we\u2019ll see how Christopher Bell fares against the locals here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell is attempting to succeed where many others from the national auto racing scene have come up short. Drivers such as Stewart, Busch, Ken Schrader, and Clint Bower, all with numerous wins in NASCAR\u2019s top-three series, have trekked to the top of Quarry Hill in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None managed to stand in Victory Lane at night\u2019s end. In fact, Schrader\u2019s sixth-place finish in the 2006 Vermont Governor\u2019s Cup remains the high-water mark for NASCAR invaders over the past 15 years. As such, the locals know from experience that they are more than capable of holding their own against the regulars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dragon will undoubtedly be one of the drivers to beat. The defending \u201cKing of the Road\u201d is also the defending Vermont Governor\u2019s Cup winner and captured the event in 2016, too. Last Friday, Dragon earned his third Late Model win in the last five events, a streak that has him up to third in the point standings. He is brimming with confidence heading into Thursday knowing that long-distance races are usually his strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just try to set a nice, steady pace from lap one and try to maintain that pace the whole way,\u201d Dragon said of his success in longer races. \u201cI try not to burn it early. I used to tour, so the longer races are something I got more used to running. These 50-lap races are actually tougher for me than the longer races! But I\u2019m definitely feeling better about the Governor\u2019s Cup than I was last week, because the car is really good now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several other names jump to the top of the list as clear threats to win on Thursday. Current point leader Trampas Demers of South Burlington won the 2017 Governor\u2019s Cup and has been the most consistent Late Model driver at Thunder Road this season. Barre\u2019s Jason Corliss has turned into a big-race behemoth in the last two years, with victories in the Vermont Milk Bowl, Community Bank N.A. 150, Labor Day Classic, and Memorial Day Classic. Demers, Corliss, and Dragon are separated by just eight points atop the standings, adding even more intensity and intrigue to the night\u2019s action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cody Blake, another hometown racer, won the Governor\u2019s Cup in 2014 and is trying to bounce back from a hard wreck at Friday\u2019s event. Multi-time ACT Late Model Tour winner Jimmy Hebert of Williamstown, who grew up racing at Thunder Road, will make an appearance to show off his own long-distance prowess. Vermont Governor Phil Scott has had a strong year on the track, and other locals such as Tyler Cahoon, Marcel J. Gravel, and Matt White are all legitimate threats to win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event also features a full card of racing for the Lenny\u2019s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers and Allen Lumber Street Stocks. Rookie Stephen Martin of Craftsbury continues to be the top cat in the Flying Tigers with a 37-point advantage over two-time champion Jason Woodard of Waterbury Center. Kelsea Woodard, Tyler Austin, and Mike MacAskill round out the top-five while Colin Cornell has bounded up to sixth overall after back-to-back wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barre\u2019s Jeffrey Martin remains the pace-setter in the Street Stocks after scoring his fourth top-two finish of the year last Friday. Like his Flying Tiger counterpart, Martin is being chased by a former division champion, with Williamstown\u2019s Tommy \u201cThunder\u201d Smith 35 points behind. Tim Hunt, Tyler Pepin, and Kasey Collins complete the top-five in the standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 40th<\/sup> VP Fuels Vermont Governor\u2019s Cup goes to post at 6:30pm on Thursday, July 18. NASCAR star Christopher Bell joins the Maplewood\/Irving Oil Late Models for 150 green-flag laps of action plus the Lenny\u2019s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers and Allen Lumber Street Stocks. Bell will also be holding an autograph session from 5:30-6:00pm. The pits open at 2:30pm and the front gates open at 3:30pm. Admission is $20 for adults and free for kids ages 12 and under.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Locals Prepared to Defend Governor’s Cup Against NASCAR’s Bell Barre, VT \u2013 Barre\u2019s Thunder Road is just days away from roaring to the grid with the the 40th VP Racing Fuels Vermont Governor\u2019s Cup 150. The big story leading up to the Thursday, July 18 event has been the scheduled appearance of NASCAR and dirt racing standout […]<\/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-25520","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\/25520","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=25520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25521,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25520\/revisions\/25521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}