{"id":10556,"date":"2012-08-16T11:45:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T15:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=10556"},"modified":"2012-08-15T21:48:42","modified_gmt":"2012-08-16T01:48:42","slug":"thunder-road-prepares-for-vp-fuel-night-homestretch-for-late-model-champ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/thunder-road-prepares-for-vp-fuel-night-homestretch-for-late-model-champ\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder Road Prepares for VP Fuel Night &#8211; Homestretch for Late Model Champ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/category\/vermont\/thunder-road\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/thunder.jpg\" alt=\"Thunder Road\" class='ngg-singlepic ngg-left'><\/a><strong>Late Model Championship Coming to a Close<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As drivers prepare for weekly championship action this Thursday night (August 16), division titles are nearing the homestretch at the \u201cNation\u2019s Site of Excitement\u201d Barre\u2019s Thunder Road. Only a handful of events remain for the Bond Auto Tiger Sportsmen, who are currently locked in one of the closest point battles in recent memory, as well as the Allen Lumber Street Stocks. For Late Models, the championship is just around the corner.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday will mark the beginning of the end for championship hopes in the Late Model division, as in a stretch of seven days they will run their final three point counting events. A rainout event last Thursday has moved the Make-A-Wish\/Bond night to Sunday, August 19th, creating a weeklong dash to crown the Late Model \u201cKing of the Road.\u201d<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The championship has remained point-leader Nick Sweet\u2019s to lose, as he currently leads defending Champion David Pembroke by 96 points. Three-time Champion Phil Scott rides third only 13 points out of second, while South Burlington\u2019s Trampas Demers and the Mad River Valley\u2019s Brooks Clark round out the top five. Sweet is attempting to claim his second \u201cKing of the Road\u201d title in three years at Thunder Road, a feat only eight drivers in Thunder Road history have ever accomplished.<\/p>\n<p>In the Bond Auto Tiger Sportsmen division, just six points at the top of the list separate five drivers, leaving the championship completely up for grabs. Craftsbury Common\u2019s Mike Martin leads Barre\u2019s Jason Allen, Milton\u2019s Eric Badore, and a tie between two-time Champion Shawn Fleury and Brendan Moodie, Jr for the top spot. With only five events left to settle the title, every lap becomes even more crucial.<\/p>\n<p>Jefferson, NH\u2019s Nick Pilotte continues to lead the Allen Lumber Street Stock division, holding off rookie sensation Dean Switser, Jr. who has cut the lead down to just 17 points. The pair has broken out into a two-horse race that may very well come down to a last lap pass as it did in 2011. Garry Bashaw, Cameron Ouellette, and Tommy \u201cThunder\u201d round out the top five contenders.<\/p>\n<p>Championship battles continue this Thursday, August 16 for VP Race Fuel night at Thunder Road. Post time is 6:30pm. Sunday, August 19 will also be the rainout event for Make-A-Wish\/Bond night, which will feature the annual Run-What-U-Brung and Tough Truck Tug O\u2019 War. Post time for the rainout event is 4:30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Late Model Championship Coming to a Close As drivers prepare for weekly championship action this Thursday night (August 16), division titles are nearing the homestretch at the \u201cNation\u2019s Site of Excitement\u201d Barre\u2019s Thunder Road. Only a handful of events remain for the Bond Auto Tiger Sportsmen, who are currently locked in one of the closest [&hellip;]<\/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":[26,200],"tags":[62],"class_list":["post-10556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thunder-road","category-vermont","tag-late-model"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10556","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=10556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}