BARRE, Vt. – Brent Dragon fought a tight-handling race car in the final segment and finished 14 in the 49th annual People’s United Bank Milk Bowl at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vt., on Sunday, October 9.
Dragon put the finishing touches on the ACT Late Model Tour season on Saturday, finishing 20th in the Rent-A-Wreck Fall Foliage 200 after being caught up in an accident in his heat race and having to battle back from that.
“It all pretty much started (Saturday),” Dragon said. “We had probably the best car we had all year, and we got wrecked and then it just went downhill from there. We had flat tires in the race, and we still had a decent car, but we worked all night to get it fixed (for the Milk Bowl).”
Dragon felt the bad luck from Saturday put the No. 55 BeverageMart/Charlesbois Freightliner/Furniture World of VT Chevrolet team behind the proverbial eight-ball on Sunday at Thunder Road.
“We didn’t have the time to put the setup in it like the guys that have these other cars ready to go,” Dragon said. “We were lucky to qualify with that many cars. That was pretty much it.”
Dragon posted the 11th-fastest time of the day during time trials for the Milk Bowl and was able to secure the 14th starting spot for the first segment of the three-segment race. The car was competitive, but it called for a slight adjustment prior to the final 75-lap segment.
“That last segment hurt us,” Dragon said. “We were fighting it being loose all day, and we tightened it up a lot. But it got so tight you couldn’t even turn it. We just went too far with it. I’m just glad it’s over.”
Dragon finished seventh in the final ACT standings with three Top-5 finishes on the season.
“It was a tough year,” he said. “I think we had a Top-5 car pretty much everywhere. We just had some tough times. We’ll have to do some thinking and see what we can do for next year. That’s really it – it’s just time to go do some hunting.”