BARRE, Vt. — The night all Vermont race fans look forward to at Barre’s Thunder Road began with a bang in a pair of rain-delayed Times Argus Midseason Championship features.
The Maplefield/Irving Late Models took to the high banks to start the night with their 75-lap, double points affair.
A rough and tumble beginning saw Cody Blake set sail early with a mirror full of Stephen Martin. While Blake won the battle, young Kaiden Fisher won the war, maintaining the point lead and driving up from 15th on the grid to a third-place finish behind second-place runner Stephen Martin.
Back for more, the Maplefield/Irving Late Models returned to action under the leadership of Keegan Lamson and Phil Scott at the head of the field.
Vermont Governor Phil Scott took off with the lead as Lamson and Chris Roberts battled for second. Thunder Road’s winningest late model pilot would lead the event through lap 32 until Stephen Donahue snuck underneath him and the first caution flag flew for a multi-car mix-up on the backstretch.
Another backstretch melee saw Scott, Jesse Laquerre and others spin as they motored into turn four and the final caution. Brandon Lanphear re-racked under Donahue with Donahue pulling away with the lead followed closely by Marcel Gravel.
Another hard-luck pair at the head of the pack on WDEV/Calkins Night saw Stephen Donahue win his first event of the season with Gravel bouncing back from multiple weeks of mechanical woes to finish second and Brandon Lanphear rounding out the podium in third.
The Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors showed up the Late Models with a green-to-checkers extra-distance run that saw Dan Garrett take his first feature win with Brodie Frazier and Burt Duffy on the podium.
The WDEV/Calkins Portable Toilets program began with the World Famous Port-a-Potty Grand Prix following qualifying action. In a near photo finish, the Road Warrior entry piloted by ‘the Frickin Chicken’ Brodie Frazier narrowly edged out point leaders Brandon Gray, Kaiden Fisher and Dean Switser Jr. to claim the coveted Golden Toilet Seat!
The Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors finished out the night under the command of returning veteran Rodney Campbell and Zach Garvey. The 20-lap feature got off to a lightning start as Garvey quickly stunned in the outside groove around Campbell.
Meanwhile, Neal Foster put on a show through the back-to-front run, inside and outside of his competition lap after lap. In the end, Zach Garvey would take his first ever win in the Road Warrior division followed by Derrick Mann and Foster in the top three.
Paul Rocheleau topped the 25-lap street stock main event and Kyle Streeter won the Flying Tiger feature.