{"id":28025,"date":"2021-05-28T08:55:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T12:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=28025"},"modified":"2021-05-28T08:55:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T12:55:59","slug":"late-models-begin-two-championship-battles-at-memorial-day-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2021\/05\/late-models-begin-two-championship-battles-at-memorial-day-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"Late Models Begin Two Championship Battles At Memorial Day Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Late Models Begin Two Championship Battles At Memorial Day Classic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More Than a Dozen Racers Aiming for \u201cKing of the Road\u201d and Challenge Cup Titles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Barre, VT <\/em>\u2014 The 58th<\/sup> Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic goes green at Barre\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s Memorial Day Classic, the first since 2019, begins the 2021 \u201cKing of the Road\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Thunder Road is one of nine tracks participating in the inaugural Challenge Cup. Registered drivers can earn points at any of these track\u2019s weekly Late Model events based on finishing position, field size, and cars passed. A driver\u2019s 10 best results count towards their overall total, and the Challenge Cup champion receives a $5,000 bonus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a driver were to capture both the Thunder Road track championship and the Challenge Cup, they would take home $12,500 in total point fund money. At year\u2019s end, ACT also will raffle off a new chassis from Port City Racecars\/Crazy Horse Racing plus $500 product certificates from ARBodies and Five Star Race Car Bodies among eligible Challenge Cup competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for some of these local teams that don\u2019t necessarily have the time or budget to do some Tour racing, but still want to race for additional money and an additional prize,\u201d Barre\u2019s Jason Corliss said. \u201cI know we\u2019re excited about it on our team. We don\u2019t necessarily have much of a schedule set as far as attending other weekly tracks yet, but that\u2019s the beauty of this program. You can get partway into a season, be heavily involved in the points chase for the Challenge Cup, and decide on an off-weekend, \u2018let\u2019s go to White Mountain or some of these other race tracks\u2019 and try to win that Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the other eight tracks have started their weekly racing seasons, Thunder Road racers need not fret. Even if they never venture beyond the high banks, they\u2019ll have plenty of chances to accumulate Challenge Cup points in the \u201cPick 10\u201d format. Two drivers, Danville\u2019s Tyler Cahoon and Wolcott\u2019s Marcel J. Gravel, have gotten a head start with trips to New Hampshire\u2019s White Mountain Motorsports Park. Cahoon currently sits seventh in Challenge Cup points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the other 11 drivers who declared Thunder Road their Challenge Cup \u201chome track\u201d, Sunday is round number one in their regional title hopes. The aforementioned racers are joined by Montpelier\u2019s Kyle Pembroke, Barre\u2019s Christopher Pelkey, Milton\u2019s Eric Chase, Wolcott\u2019s Brendan Moodie, Barre\u2019s Jim \u201cBoomer\u201d Morris, Waterford\u2019s Andy Hill, Morrisville\u2019s Brandon Lanphear, and Hinesburg\u2019s Cooper Bouchard. Fans can follow along with the New England Late Model Challenge Cup all season at www.acttour.com\/nelmcc<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Challenge Cup and the start of the \u201cKing of the Road\u201d fight are part of a full Memorial Day Sunday at the \u201cNation\u2019s Site of Excitement\u201d. The 125-lap Memorial Day Classic is joined by a 100-lap showdown for the Myers Container Service Triple Crown Series. A huge field of Lenny\u2019s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers are expected to try and qualify for their biggest race of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entry list includes former Thunder Road Triple Crown champions Jason Woodard, Joel Hodgdon, and Mike Martin plus 2020 White Mountain Triple Crown champion Jaden Perry. They\u2019ll be joined by Matt Potter, Colin Cornell, Sam Caron, Brandon Gray, Kelsea Woodard, and others who have had success in long-distance racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RK Miles Street Stocks & Burnett Scrap Metals Warriors bookend the 8-cylinder shows with some 4-cylinder flash. More than 30 Street Stocks were on hand Opening Day, pointing to a great year for the division. Veterans Jeffrey Martin, Tommy \u201cThunder\u201d Smith, Jamie Davis, and Dean Switser Jr. will have their hands full as up-and-comers Kaiden Fisher, Luke Peters, Trevor Jaques, Haidyn Pearce continue to gain experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors, the only guarantee is that they\u2019ll have more fun per dollar than anyone else at Thunder Road. The Warriors continue to thrive thanks in large part to the old guard of Sean \u201cChubby Rambo\u201d McCarthy, \u201cFlyin\u2019\u201d Fred Fleury, Josh Vilbrin, Dan Garrett Jr., and Frank Putney, who teach each new generation the ropes even as they try to beat them on the racetrack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 58th<\/sup> Mekklesen RV Memorial Day Classic comes to Barre\u2019s Thunder Road this Sunday, May 30 at 1:30pm. The Maplewood\/Irving Oil Late Models go 125 laps in the \u201cKing of the Road\u201d opener while the Lenny\u2019s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers have 100 laps for the Myers Container Service Triple Crown Series. The RK Miles Street Stocks and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors round out the card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admission is $20 for adults, $5 for kids ages 6-12, and $40 for a family of four (2 adults, 2 kids). All Thunder Road events are also broadcast live on FloRacing for those with a monthly or yearly subscription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, contact the Thunder Road offices at (802) 244-6963, media@thunderroadvt.com<\/a>, or visit www.thunderroadvt.com<\/a>. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @ThunderRoadVT. For more information about FloRacing, visit www.FloRacing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Late Models Begin Two Championship Battles At Memorial Day Classic More Than a Dozen Racers Aiming for \u201cKing of the Road\u201d and Challenge Cup Titles Barre, VT \u2014 The 58th Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic goes green at Barre\u2019s Thunder Road this Sunday, May 30. For many Maplewood\/Irving Oil Late Model racers, the 125-lap battle on FloRacing […]<\/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-28025","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\/28025","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=28025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28026,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28025\/revisions\/28026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}