{"id":10330,"date":"2012-07-20T11:48:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T15:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=10330"},"modified":"2012-07-20T06:50:06","modified_gmt":"2012-07-20T10:50:06","slug":"nick-sweet-defends-points-lead-shines-at-midseason-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/nick-sweet-defends-points-lead-shines-at-midseason-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Sweet Defends Points Lead, Shines at Midseason Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ACT<\/a>Sweet Defends Points Lead, Shines at Midseason Championships
\nFormer Champs Fleury, Mullen Take Feature Victories<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hometown sensation Nick Sweet sent a dagger into his competitor\u2019s championship hopes, claiming the victory and extending his point lead at The Times Argus Midseason Championships on Thursday, July 19. Sweet was followed to the line by Jeffersonville\u2019s Joey Becker and Essex Junction\u2019s Dave Whitcomb. Former K&N Pro Series Champion Jamie Aube took home fourth, and 3-time Thunder Road Champion Phil Scott rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n

Becker dominated the early part of the 75 lap event, stretching his lead while top three point drivers David Pembroke and Cody Blake were caught in early trouble. After a lap 23 caution, Whitcomb and Becker broke into a tireless duel side by side for the lead, with point leader Nick Sweet waiting in the whims. When Whitcomb finally inched by Becker using the high lane, Sweet took full advantage soaring to the lead with over 30 laps to go in the event, and never looked back. Mad River Valley\u2019s Brooks Clark brought home sixth place and South Burlington\u2019s Trampas Demers was seventh. Pembroke recovered from early damage to salvage eighth place, and Eric Chase and Scott Payea rounded out the top ten.
\n <\/p>\n

Sweet was grateful to be in victory lane for the fourth time this season. \u201cMan, that was just fun to drive,\u201d he said grinning. \u201cThe car was just so good. This is great for the team,\u201d he finished emphatically.<\/p>\n

Two-time Bond Auto Tiger Sportsmen Champion Shawn Fleury, of Middlesex, endured a 50-lap slugfest to take home his first checkered flag of 2012. Fleury was hounded by Milton\u2019s Eric Badore and Wolcott\u2019s Brendan Moodie, Jr., who came home second and third respectively. The race, which featured four cautions in the first four laps, treated fans to a budding rivalry when Henniker, NH\u2019s Dylan Payea and Barre\u2019s own David Finck traded paint towards the midway point. The pair started on the front row of a mid-race caution, and beat and bashed each other for the win, only to be interrupted by Fleury\u2019s hard charge to the front. Fleury left the pair to battle behind him. A last lap skirmish relegated Payea to fourth following a penalty for a pump and run. Barre\u2019s Jason Corliss finished fifth, and top two point men Josh Demers and Jason Allen recovered from early trouble to come home sixth and seventh respectively. Mike Martin, Bobby Therrien, and John Lambert rounded out the top ten.<\/p>\n

Fleury was happy to survive for the win. \u201cWe just had to stay patient, we knew it was a 50 lap race, so we just tried to pick \u2018em off,\u201d said Fleury. \u201cI just kept telling myself to stay smooth and keep my head on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Champion Gary \u201cThe Farmer\u201d Mullen, of Tunbridge, grabbed his first checkers of 2012 in the Allen Lumber Street Stock division, fighting off a hard charge from last week\u2019s (July 12) winner Dave Whitcomb of Elmore and Morrisville\u2019s Jamie Davis.<\/p>\n

Hineburg\u2019s Keith Fortier led the early part of the race in a tight battle with Roxbury\u2019s Amanda Habel. On lap 13 however, the pair slipped up at the front leaving a three wide opportunity for Mullen to slide underneath them and run to the victory with Davis and Whitcomb side by side on his rear bumper. Lincoln\u2019s Garry Bashaw came home fourth, and point leader Nick Pilotte protected his point lead rounding out the top five.<\/p>\n

The stars and cars of Thunder Road will be in action again next Thursday night (July 26) for the We Dig Barre event featuring the Bond Auto Tiger Heritage 100 lap special. Post time is 6:30pm.<\/p>\n

Several of Thunder Road\u2019s Late Model stars will head to Oxford Plains Speedway this weekend for the running of the Oxford 250 this Sunday (July 22).<\/p>\n

Times Argus Midseason Championships
\nThunder Road \u2013 Barre, VT
\nThursday, July 19, 2012<\/p>\n

Late Model Unofficial Results
\nPos. Driver (Car#) Hometown
\n1. Nick Sweet (88VT) Barre, VT
\n2. Joey Becker (16VT) Jeffersonville, VT
\n3. Dave Whitcomb (25VT) Essex Jct., VT
\n4. Jamie Aube (41VT) No. Ferrisburg, VT
\n5. Phil Scott (14VT) Berlin, VT
\n6. Brooks Clark (68VT) Fayston, VT
\n7. Trampas Demers (85VT) S. Burlington, VT
\n8. Dave Pembroke (44VT) Middlesex, VT
\n9. Eric Chase (40VT) Milton, VT
\n10. Scott Payea (89VT) Milton, VT
\n11. Jamie Fisher (18VT) Shelburne, VT
\n12. #Lance Allen (17VT) Barre, VT
\n13. Jim Morris (13VT) Barre, VT
\n14. Chip Grenier (9VT) Graniteville, VT
\n15. Mike Bailey (00VT) South Barre, VT
\n16. Cody Blake (99VT) Barre, VT
\n17. Jay Laquerre (50VT) Barre, VT
\n18. Jerry Lesage (74VT) Winooski, VT
\n19. Brett Wheeler (1VT) Waterbury, VT
\n20. Cris Michaud (6VT) E. Montpelier, VT
\n21. Ricky Roberts (3VT) Washington, VT
\n22. Marcel Gravel (5VT) Wolcott, VT<\/p>\n

Bond Auto Tiger Sportsmen Unofficial Results
\nPos. Driver (Car #) Hometown
\n1. Shawn Fleury (31) Middlesex, VT
\n2. Eric Badore (04) Milton, VT
\n3. Brendan Moodie (94) Wolcott, VT
\n4. Dylan Payea (07) Henniker, NH
\n5. Jason Corliss (61) Barre, VT
\n6. Josh Demers (10) Middlesex, VT
\n7. Jason Allen (29) Barre, VT
\n8. Mike Martin (01) Craftsbury Comm., VT
\n9. Bobby Therrien (4) Hinesburg, VT
\n10. John Lambert (2) Northfield, VT
\n11. David Finck (90) Barre, VT
\n12. Kyle Pembroke (27) Montpelier, VT
\n13. #Jason Woodard (68) Waterbury Ctr., VT
\n14. Randy Gonyaw (22) S. Barre, VT
\n15. Mike Ziter (26) Williamstown, VT
\n16. #Chris Roberts (9) Washington, VT
\n17. Scott Coburn (1) Barre, VT
\n18. Joe Steffen (00) Grand Isle, VT
\n19. Joel Hodgdon (36) Craftsbury, VT
\n20. Mark Barnier (0) Essex Jct., VT
\n21. Alex Ferno (33) E. Montpelier, VT
\n22. Brian Bushey (51) Fairfax, VT
\n23. Tucker Williams (11) Hyde Park, VT
\n24. Shannon Tomasovich (71) Colchester, VT
\n25. Mike Pelkey (85) S. Barre, VT
\n26. Ty Gagne (17) Fairfax, VT
\n27. Christopher Pelkey (64) S. Barre, VT<\/p>\n

Allen Lumber Street Stocks Unofficial Results
\nPos. Driver (Car#) Hometown
\n1. Gary Mullen (29) Tunbridge, VT
\n2. Dave Whitcomb (77) Elmore, VT
\n3. Jamie Davis (43) Wolcott, VT
\n4. Garry Bashaw (92) Lincoln, VT
\n5. Nick Pilotte (11) Jefferson, NH
\n6. #Dean Switser Jr. (16) Lyndonville, VT
\n7. Donny Yates (05) N. Montpelier, VT
\n8. Cameron Ouellette (90) Barre, VT
\n9. Emily Packard (98) E. Montpelier, VT
\n10. Tommy Smith (50) Williamstown, VT
\n11. Ken Christman (4) Cabot, VT
\n12. William Hennequin (47) Morrisville, VT
\n13. Bunker Hodgdon (83) Hardwick, VT
\n14. #Kevin Wheatley (33) Brookfield, VT
\n15. Bob Eldred (31) Waterbury, VT
\n16. Troy Kingsbury (39) Waitsfield, VT
\n17. #Kevin Dodge (8) Barre, VT
\n18. Amanda Habel (09) Roxbury, VT
\n19. #Daniel Brassard (32) E. Randolph, VT
\n20. Keith Lord (2) Groton, VT
\n21. Jennifer Getty (25) Cambridge, VT
\n22. Marvin Johnson (24) Essex Jct., VT
\n23. Joe Fecteau (75) Hardwick, VT
\n24. George Sanders (38) Northfield, VT
\n25. #Paul Grant (46) E. Calais, VT
\n26. Daniel Lathrop (6) Morrisville, VT
\n27. Keith Fortier (35) Hinesburg, VT
\n28. Nate Brien (1) E. Randolph, VT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sweet Defends Points Lead, Shines at Midseason Championships Former Champs Fleury, Mullen Take Feature Victories Hometown sensation Nick Sweet sent a dagger into his competitor\u2019s championship hopes, claiming the victory and extending his point lead at The Times Argus Midseason Championships on Thursday, July 19. Sweet was followed to the line by Jeffersonville\u2019s Joey Becker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55,126,14972],"tags":[4717],"class_list":["post-10330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-act","category-new-england","category-touring-series-news","tag-nick-sweet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10330\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}