BERLIN, VT – Annie Burke of Harvest Hills Farm in Berlin, VT reports that her lovely Ayrshire cow,
Dickens, has won the annual Milk Bowl Beauty Pageant for a record fourth time. Dickens will be standing in Victory Lane at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre on Sunday, Sept. 30 as the winner of the 44th Annual Chittenden Milk Bowl stock car race is presented to her for the traditional winning kiss. Dickens adds the Milk Bowl contest win to her lengthy list of achievements in 2007, which include first-place award ribbons at Vermont fairs in Barton, Rutland, Tunbridge, and Essex.
“Dickens won the ribbon at Essex for production – she produced 20,000 pounds of milk over a period of 305 days,” said Burke. “That’s a high-performance cow. Who else would you want among high-performance racing machines at Thunder Road?”
The 2007 Chittenden Milk Bowl will be Dickens’ fourth tenure as beauty queen for the race. She unseats Ferry Queen, last year’s winner. Dickens has previously received victory smooches from American-Canadian Tour (ACT) competitors Patrick Laperle of Montreal in 2005, Hyde Park, VT native Eric Williams in 2003, and Morrisville’s Dwayne Lanphear in 2001. Lanphear, a dairy farmer himself, planted upon Dickens’ lips the most enthusiastic kiss in Milk Bowl history. Photographs of the scene, scandalous as they were, were sent along the Associated Press wire and appeared throughout major newspapers in cities including Detroit, Toronto, and Los Angeles.
Lanphear, Williams, and Laperle will be among the former Chittenden Milk Bowl Champions looking to earn the $10,000 ACTion Super Series victory this weekend at Thunder Road. The three-segment, cumulatively scored Milk Bowl was voted by American race promoters and National Speed Sport News as the “Outstanding Annual Short Track Event” in 2006, the highest honor for a stock car race in the country, and boasts a total purse topping $60,000.
Qualifying begins at 1:00pm on Saturday for the ACT Late Model Tour and Thunder Road’s NAPA Tiger Sportsman, Allen Lumber Street Stock, and Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior competitors. ACT drivers will try to earn the $1,000 Booth Bros./H.P. Hood Milk Bowl Pole Award in time trials, followed by “Triple 50” qualifying races. The Warrior division will crown its champion on Saturday following the final feature event of the season. Hardwick driver Bunker Hodgdon leads the division’s point standings entering the weekend.
The last-chance ACT “B” Feature begins at 1:00pm on Sunday, followed by pre-race ceremonies and Segment I of the Chittenden Milk Bowl. The driver with the lowest three-segment total score (one point for first place in a segment, two points for second place, etc.) will earn the overall victory. In addition to the Milk Bowl, hometown racer Nick Sweet will try to sew up his first Sportsman title on Sunday, while Hinesburg rookie Bobby Therrien attempts to fend off Lloyd Blakely of Barre for the Street Stock crown.
Adult general admission for the 44th Annual Chittenden Milk Bowl is $10 on Saturday or $25 for a weekend pass. Children under 12 will be admitted for free on Saturday and for just $5 on Sunday. For more information, call (802) 244-6963 or visit www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com or www.acttour.com.