BARRE, VT – Stock car driver Travis Hull of Graniteville won the 2008 Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior division track championship at Barre’s Thunder Road on Saturday afternoon. Hull finished third in the division’s 15-lap Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl finale on Booth Bros./H.P. Hood Qualifying Day, enough to secure the season crown over Wolcott’s Jamie Davis by 28 points, 1416-1388.
Mike “Biffer” Gay of South Burlington grabbed his second feature win of the year after a last-lap pass of leader Jeff Martin, Jr. Martin, of Moretown beat Hull to the finish line for second place. Mark LaFleche of Graniteville finished fourth over Davis. Josh Vilbrin, Del Jarvis, Fred Schroeder, Kevin Dodge, and Donny Yates completed the unofficial top ten finish in order.
Nineteen year-old American-Canadian Tour (ACT) Late Model driver Joey “Pole” Polewraczyk, Jr. of Hudson, NH earned the $1,000 Booth Bros./H.P. Hood Pole Award for Sunday’s 45th Annual Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl with best single-lap time of 13.165 seconds around the Thunder Road 1/4-mile. Polewarczyk will start Segment 1 of the Milk Bowl on the front row alongside Jean-Paul
Cyr of Milton. Craig Bushey of Cambridge, Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, NH, and Brian Hoar of Williston complete the top five starters for the Milk Bowl.
Pete Fecteau, Gene Welch, Jr., and Justin Gay all walked away uninjured from rollover crashes on Saturday. Fecteau, of Morrisville, rolled his Late Model over after spinning off Turn 2 on his time trial qualifying lap. Welch crashed hard in NAPA Tiger Sportsman qualifying, while Gay set an unofficial Thunder Road record by flipping two different cars in the Allen Lumber Street Stock and Power Shift Warrior classes less than ten minutes apart.
The Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl is a three-segment, cumulatively scored race that awards points in each 50-lap segment – 1 for first, 2 for second, etc. The finish of each segment is inverted to begin the next, and the driver with the lowest three-round total score is the overall winner. Top prize is $10,000 and a kiss of the beauty queen – a Vermont dairy cow! The Milk Bowl is 12th and final round of the American-Canadian Tour Championship; Payea leads Laperle by just 19 points for the title.
Thunder Road’s Sportsman and Street Stock championships will also be decided on Sunday. Bushey leads the Sportsman standings, while Lloyd Blakely leads the Street Stocks.
General admission is $25 for adults and $5 for children 6-12. Gates open at 10:00am, with the last-chance “B” Feature qualifying race set to begin at 1:00pm, followed by pre-race ceremonies for the 45th Annual Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl. For more information, call (802) 244-6963 or visit www.acttour.com or www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com.
Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl starting lineup (first 22 of 28 starting positions)
Row Pos # Driver/Hometown Sponsor/Car
1 1 97NH Joey Polewarczyk, Jr./Hudson, NH Pole’s Automotive/NHPrecision.com Chevrolet
2 32 Jean-Paul Cyr/Milton, VT Ehler’s RV/RPM Racing Engines Chevrolet
2 3 05 Craig Bushey/Cambridge, VT Vermont Life Safety Dodge
4 55NH Brad Leighton/Center Harbor, NH Irving Oil/Subway Ford
3 5 45 Brian Hoar/Williston, VT Burnett Scrap Metals/Goss Dodge Dodge
6 78 Ryan Nolin/Georgia, VT Mountain Air Systems/Champ 101.3 Chevrolet
4 7 91 Patrick Laperle/St-Denis, QC Systemes Interieurs Descoste Chevrolet
8 89 Scott Payea/Milton, VT Ouellette Plumbing & Heating/Leahy Press Ford
5 9 55VT Brent Dragon/Milton, VT Beverage Mart/Furniture World of VT Chevrolet
10 85VT Trampas Demers/S. Burlington, VT Jiffy Mart Chevrolet
6 11 6 Cris Michaud/Northfield, VT Merchants Bank/Burrell Roofing Ford
12 26 John Donahue/Graniteville, VT National Guard Ford
7 13 48VT Robbie Crouch/Tampa, FL Shearer Chevrolet/Pete’s RV Chevrolet
14 86 Dennis Demers/Shelburne, VT Shelburne Limestone Corp. Chevrolet
8 15 22VT Gary Caron/Colchester, VT VT Wholesale Lumber Chevrolet
16 15VT Joey Laquerre/E. Montpelier, VT Domino’s Pizza/Laquerre’s Marine Pontiac
9 17 9VT Chip Grenier/Graniteville, VT Douglas for Governor/Streeter Concrete Ford
18 02NH Randy Potter/Groveton, NH P&R Excavating/Caron’s Stove Shop Chevrolet
10 19 25 Dave Whitcomb/Essex Jct., VT Ferguson Waterworks/SunRay Security Chevrolet
20 7VT Eric Williams/Hyde Park, VT Unicel/Ward’s Systems Chevrolet
11 21 1VT Tony Andrews/Middlebury, VT E.A. Grandfield/Hallstrom Excavating Chevrolet
22 76 Quinny Welch/Lancaster, NH Mulleavey Electric Dodge
Positions 23-24 and will be the top-two finishers of the last-chance “B” Feature on Sunday. Two ACT Late Model Tour provisionals will be awarded, along with one Thunder Road provisional and one Serie ACT-Castrol provisional—28 total starters.