BARRE, Vt. — Trevor Sanborn broke a decade-plus winless streak on the Pro All Stars Series by soaring to victory in the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel 150 at Barre’s Thunder Road on Friday.
Sanborn took the lead from Jeremy Davis just past halfway and kept five-time PASS Super Late Model champion D.J. Shaw at bay to win.
It was Sanborn’s first PASS North win since 2010 and his first PASS National victory since 2008. To top things off, it came in Sanborn’s first start on the Barre high banks.
Davis started on the pole and led the first eight laps before former “King of the Road” Bobby Therrien of Hinesburg took over. Therrien pulled away at first, but came back to the field, with Davis retaking the top spot at lap 21. Ben Rowe, Sanborn, Jake Matheson, and others followed Davis past Therrien as the handling went further and further south on the Fast One Motorsports car.
The lone caution on lap 27, which came after Rowland Robinson Jr.’s engine exploded in a fireball on the backstretch, bunched things up again. Davis darted away, though, as the pack duked it out behind him. Rowe faded on the restart as former champions Shaw, Johnny Clark, and Derek Griffith tried to fight out of the back. However, Sanborn and Matheson were able to hold them off.
As the race neared halfway, Davis’s lead began to shrink. Sanborn slowly but steadily closed the gap, and after sizing Davis up, he went around the outside to take the lead on lap 78.
Shaw moved into the second spot not too long after as Davis began to backslide. But by then, Sanborn had already built up a straightaway lead. Shaw slowly inched towards Sanborn and was able to get within a few car lengths multiple times.
But every time he did, Sanborn turned up the wick, expertly navigating through the lapped traffic. With no caution flag to let Shaw draw alongside, he could only watch through his windshield as Sanborn rolled to a convincing win.
Matheson, an 18-year-old in his first season with PASS, had the best run of his career by taking third. Griffith got around Davis late and finished fourth. Davis, Scott McDaniel, Kate Re, Dan Winter, Josh King and Clark rounded out the top-10.
Max Cookson came on like a shot in the final laps to get his fifth PASS Modified win of the season.
Kyle Streeter, a Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tiger veteran, scored one for the hometown crowd in the Honey Badger Bar & Grill Street Stock Series.
Matt Sonnhalter drove his four-cylinder pickup truck to victory in the 50-lap North East Mini Stock Tour feature.