BARRE, VT – Stock car drivers Phil Scott and Joey Becker are currently chasing a trio of tightly-grouped championship point leaders at Barre’s Thunder Road entering Thursday’s 50-lap Kinney Drugs trophy dash, the final Thursday night event on the Thunder Road schedule. Veteran racer Scott is a three-time American-Canadian Tour (ACT) Late Model “King of the Road” while Becker is a young up-and-comer, having won the Rookie of the Year title in 2003.
“We’re still in this thing,” said Scott. “We’ve been on a roll lately, and we’re really building
momentum.” The Middlesex driver picked up his first victory of the season in last week’s Vermont ACE Hardware Dealers feature and now trails leader Jamie Fisher by 57 points. “We had a tough early season, but we can chase the leaders down, it’s been done before. The good part is that there’s no pressure from where my team sits; the top three are fighting tooth-and-nail, and my job right now is to sneak into it.”
Fisher, a Shelburne native, leads Dave Pembroke of Montpelier and Williamstown’s Cris Michaud by a total spread of just seven points, the closest three-way battle in Thunder Road’s 48-year history. Scott paces Becker by two points. In terms of sheer mathematics, fifteen drivers are still within the championship window with two races remaining. The final point-counting race for the Late Model division is at next Tuesday’s Fisher/Federated Auto Parts event.
“We’re not giving up,” said Becker of Jeffersonville. “Realistically, the top three guys would have to
have some bad luck, but anything is possible at Thunder Road. I’ve finished second in points seven different times since my days in the Tigers and Street Stocks, so it’ll be hard for me to get caught up in the championship hype until I win one. We try our hardest every week, and it is what it is… but it would be nice to win a championship at Thunder Road!”
The ACT Late Models, along the weekly NAPA Tiger Sportsman, Allen Lumber Street Stock, and Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior divisions, will be in action at Thunder Road on Thursday beginning at 6:30pm. Fisher, Nick Sweet, Lloyd Blakely, and Bunker Hodgdon lead the divisions, respectively. Kinney Drugs will host the final Thursday night racing program of the season, along with the annual Kids Poster Contest. Awards will be given to Thunder Road’s youthful racing artists in three age groups: 6 & under, 7-9, and 10-12. Gates open at 4:30pm. General admission is only $9 for adults, $3 for kids (6-12, kids under 6 get in free), and just $18 for a family ticket for any two adults and two children. For more information, call (802) 244-6963 or visit www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com.