By Phil Whipple
Staff Writer
After a season-long battle with fellow Vermont native John Donahue, Montpelier’s David Pembroke has a 38-point advantage over “Irish” Johnny going into this Thursday night’s Aubuchon Hardware/Benjamin Moore Paints Champion’s Night at the famed Thunder Road International Speedbowl.
As an end-of-the-season bonus for fans, ACT/T-Road president Tom Curley has extended the Late Model feature to100 laps, giving all drivers one final extra-distance opportunity at salvaging their seasons. It’s sure to produce a memorable night of racing as the 2011 campaign draws to a close.
All Pembroke needs to do to lock up the 2011 “King of the Road” crown is start his Heat race and finish 11th or better in the feature. While that might sound fairly easy, we all know nothing is guaranteed in short track stock car racing.
Donahue may have to settle for second this year, but he won’t go down without a fight. You can rest assured that the No. 26 National Guard Ford Fusion pilot will be “up on the wheel” this Thursday night, as he has been all summer. The Graniteville driver was red-hot last spring, but faded as summer’s heat started to build while Pembroke went on a hot streak.
Pembroke claimed the King of the Road title back in 2007 with a stellar season, and has his sights set squarely on a securing a second crown this week. Last Thursday evening, Brooks Clark of Fayston, Vermont picked up his first career T-Road Late Model victory. Clark runs the No. 68 machine, well known back in the 1990s when Groton’s Jim Cilley made that number quite famous.
The 2011 season has delivered plenty of great racing atop the hill, and this Thursday’s final points race is sure to top all shows. In the talent-laiden Tiger Sportsman division, Derrick O’Donnell holds a commanding 50-point lead over Shawn Fleury, while Eric Badore sits just 14 markers behind Fleury in third. In the Street Stock division, Greg Adams holds a slim 10-point advantage over Nick Pilotte with just one race remaining.
Post time for Aubuchon Hardware Champions Night is 6:30 p.m. The famed Thunder Road International Speedbowl is located atop Quarry Hill in Barre, Vermont. For over 50 years, race fans from across the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada have converged on Barre for side-by-side short track excitement.
Following this Thursday’s Champion Night, only the 33rd annual Labor Day Classic 200 (ACT) on September 4 and 49th annual Peoples United Bank Milk Bowl (Oct. 2) are left to run in 2011.
Despite this slow-to-rebound economy, the little track on the hill has held its own very nicely in 2011.