{"id":28883,"date":"2023-05-25T17:27:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T21:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=28883"},"modified":"2023-05-25T17:27:46","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T21:27:46","slug":"60th-mekkelsen-rv-memorial-day-classic-125-starts-king-of-the-road-championship-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2023\/05\/60th-mekkelsen-rv-memorial-day-classic-125-starts-king-of-the-road-championship-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"60th\u00a0Mekkelsen\u00a0RV Memorial Day Classic 125 Starts King of the Road Championship Hunt\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>60th&nbsp;Mekkelsen&nbsp;RV Memorial Day Classic 125 Starts King of the Road Championship Hunt<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/FxAQV05WwAMSvFL?format=jpg&amp;name=900x900\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Barre, VT\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 Since 1961, following Thunder Road\u2019s popular inaugural season, the Memorial Day Classic has been a staple event on the calendar of many Vermont and New England racing fans. Such\u00a0bonafide\u00a0Northeast legends as Jean-Paul Cabana, Joey Kourafas, Ralph Nason, Robbie\u00a0Crouch\u00a0and Dave Dion have stood in Memorial Day Classic victory lane. For the 27th-consecutive event, the folks at\u00a0Mekkelsen\u00a0RV Sales &amp; Service once again present the season opening showdown for the Maplewood\/Irving Late Models to kick-start the annual King of the Road track championship season and the first of three Monument Races, with the winner\u2019s name etched forever in Barre, Vermont granite.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the last decade, the&nbsp;Mekkelsen&nbsp;RV Memorial Day Classic has given many of Thunder Road\u2019s current top stars their first opportunity to reach immortality. Former King of the Road track champions Nick Sweet, Derrick O\u2019Donnell, Jason&nbsp;Corliss&nbsp;and Bobby Therrien scored big on Memorial Day weekend to help launch their championship seasons while perennial fan-favorites Tyler Cahoon, Cody Blake and Stephen Donahue have taken career-defining wins.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Sunday jump-starts the King of the Road Late Model campaign, both the Lenny\u2019s Shoe &amp; Apparel Flying Tigers and&nbsp;rk&nbsp;Miles Street Stocks are already in the thick of their championship runs. After spending most of his 2022 season at White Mountain Motorsports Park last season, Waterbury Center\u2019s Kyle Streeter has come home to Thunder Road and started his 2023 campaign in earnest. The younger Streeter made a big statement on opening day by winning both his heat race and the 40-lap feature to lead the early standings.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Similarly, Northfield\u2019s James Dopp&nbsp;dominated in&nbsp;the&nbsp;rk&nbsp;Miles Street Stocks by winning his heat and driving up through the top-10 to take the season-opening win for the popular 4-cylinder class. Speaking of 4-cylinders, the Burnett Scrap Metal Road Warriors are also back in action with everyone chasing&nbsp;Flyin\u2019 Fred Fleury.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also in town will be the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series for the Tour-type Modifieds. Such high ranking open-wheeled masters including \u2018Big Money\u2019 Matt Hirschman, Doug Coby, Ronnie Silk, Mike Christopher Jr., Woody&nbsp;Pitkat&nbsp;and inaugural Granite City 100 winner Chase Dowling will be hunting for the $10,000 grand prize as the popular Northeast Series begins their 10th anniversary season of competition!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thunder Road roars back to life with the 60th&nbsp;Mekkelsen&nbsp;RV Memorial Day Classic on Sunday, May 28th. The 125-lap Memorial Day Classic for the Maplewood\/Irving Oil Late Models kicks off their 2023 King of the Road track championship season with the winner earning their right to have their name etched in stone alongside legends. The ground-pounding Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series also returns for the 2nd annual Granite City 100 for the Tour-type Modifieds plus the Lenny\u2019s Shoe &amp; Apparel Flying Tigers,&nbsp;rk&nbsp;Miles Street Stocks and Burnett Scrap Metal Road Warriors also join the line-up for the fan-favorite event on Memorial Day weekend.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>60th&nbsp;Mekkelsen&nbsp;RV Memorial Day Classic 125 Starts King of the Road Championship Hunt&nbsp; Barre, VT\u00a0\u2014 Since 1961, following Thunder Road\u2019s popular inaugural season, the Memorial Day Classic has been a staple event on the calendar of many Vermont and New England racing fans. Such\u00a0bonafide\u00a0Northeast legends as Jean-Paul Cabana, Joey Kourafas, Ralph Nason, Robbie\u00a0Crouch\u00a0and Dave Dion have [&hellip;]<\/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-28883","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\/28883","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=28883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28884,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28883\/revisions\/28884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}