BARRE, VT – Stock car racing fans will get a chance to drive a race car at Barre, VT’s Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl this season as the result of an innovative new partnership with the Vermont Governor’s Highway Safety Program’s “Click It Or Ticket” campaign and Bond Auto Parts. Fans who sign up at their local Bond Auto store will be randomly selected to compete in a Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior division car, beginning with the Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic doubleheader on Sunday, May 25.
The race car, a 1996 Chevrolet Cavalier, will debut at Thunder Road’s 10th Annual Merchants Bank 150 season opener on Sunday, May 4 with a surprise celebrity guest driver. It will carry signage from Click It Or Ticket and Bond Auto throughout the year, in an effort to raise awareness of the dangers of not wearing safety belts on public roads.
The new program will include Click It Or Ticket presentations at three Vermont high schools in hopes of educating highway drivers young and old. The first presentation will be Tuesday, May 6 at North Country Union High School in Newport, VT. Two-time Thunder Road Champion Reno Gervais of Island Pond, VT will be on hand, along
with a video presentation featuring crash footage from past Thunder Road events, and will be speaking about the
similarities between race track and highway safety.
“The Junkyard Warrior division at Thunder Road is pretty rough-and-tumble,” said Thunder Road Promoter Tom Curley. “Buckling up is imperative on the race track, and we’re hoping that the experiences our fans will have while racing the Warrior car will remind them to buckle up on Vermont’s highways as well.”
Bond Auto Parts will pass out Click It Or Ticket flyers and bumper stickers at its 24 Vermont locations, and will also hold a free raffle to win car care products, tickets to the American-Canadian Tour/True Value Modified Racing Series Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic event on May 25 at Thunder Road, and entry blanks for the chance to be the first “fan driver” of the Thunder Road/Bond Auto Junkyard Warrior featuring the Click It Or Ticket message. By placing a Click It Or Ticket sticker on their automobiles, race fans automatically enter themselves into the random selection to become the driver of the Junkyard Warrior car throughout the Thunder Road
season.
Thunder Road’s 49th season of stock car racing opens this weekend with the ACT Late Model Tour’s 10th Annual Merchants Bank 150 on Sat./Sun., May 3/4. A car show, pit stop contest, and parade will be held in Downtown Barre City on Saturday, May 3 beginning at 9:00 am, with opening ceremonies and racing action set to begin at 1:00 pm on Sunday, May 4. General admission is $17 for adults, $5 for children (6-12), and only $35 for a family of any two adults and two kids. For more information, call (802) 244-6963, or visit www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com.