By Phil Whipple
\nStaff Writer<\/p>\n
BARRE, Vt. \u2014 The season-long battle for supremacy between Thunder Road mainstays John Donahue and David Pembroke gets intense this Thursday, as the two central Vermont drivers sit tied atop the standings with just three points races remaining. <\/p>\n
Donahue, of Graniteville (who didn\u2019t even start racing until he was 26, hence his car number), got his 2011 season off to a great start back in May with a victory in the Memorial Day Classic. He carried that momentum into summer with a victory in the prestigious Vermont Governor\u2019s Cup in June, then added a 50-lap weekly feature win on July 21.
\n
\nPembroke, of Montpelier, is campaigning a new Ford Fusion this season and has made the transition quickly and with great success. The 2007 \u201cKing of the Road\u201d reeled off back-to-back wins in July, vaulting into point contention while Donahue\u2019s luck began to fade. With four straight finishes outside the top 10, \u201cIrish Johnny\u201d started to get a little nervous. <\/p>\n
Weather forecasts for tomorrow night in central Vermont call for partly cloudy skies, temps in the upper 70’s and just the slight chance for a stray shower (not very likely). With that said, time to pack the cooler and make plans now to attend as these two Green Mountain State warriors suit up for battle once again. <\/p>\n
Safelite Auto Glass will present a full card of racing which will include Late Models, Tiger Sportsman, Street Stock and the mighty Junkyard Warriors. Post time is 6:30 p.m. <\/p>\n
Also on tap for tomorrow night at The Road is the annual appearance by the New England Antique Racers (NEAR) group. When Lloyd Hutchins, Cho Lee and their cronies haul out those old flathead Coupes, it\u2019s time to reflect on the sport\u2019s rich history – especially at Thunder Road. <\/p>\n
The Thunder Road International Speedbowl is located atop Quarry Hill in what is known as \u201cthe Granite Capitol of the World,\u201d Barre, Vermont. The track first opened back in 1960. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Phil Whipple Staff Writer BARRE, Vt. \u2014 The season-long battle for supremacy between Thunder Road mainstays John Donahue and David Pembroke gets intense this Thursday, as the two central Vermont drivers sit tied atop the standings with just three points races remaining. Donahue, of Graniteville (who didn\u2019t even start racing until he was 26, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[126,26,200],"tags":[15771],"class_list":["post-6584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-england","category-thunder-road","category-vermont","tag-thunder-road"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6584","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}