{"id":1169,"date":"2008-05-25T19:26:16","date_gmt":"2008-05-25T19:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maineracer.com\/wp\/?p=1169"},"modified":"2008-05-25T19:26:16","modified_gmt":"2008-05-25T19:26:16","slug":"donahue-wins-fastest-act-race-in-history-at-thunder-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/2008\/05\/donahue-wins-fastest-act-race-in-history-at-thunder-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Donahue Wins Fastest ACT Race in History at Thunder Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;BARRE, VT &ndash; American-Canadian Tour Late Model Championship stock car driver John Donahue of Graniteville, VT won the fastest race in series history at Barre, VT&rsquo;s Thunder Road Int&rsquo;l Speedbowl on Sunday, taking the 46th Annual Mekkelsen RV Memorial<br \/>Day Classic in 28 minutes and 16 seconds. &nbsp;Donahue&rsquo;s #26 National Guard Ford Fusion started fourth on the 30-car grid and came to life just before the halfway point. &nbsp;Donahue grabbed the lead after an outside pass of polesitter Eric Williams on lap 47, then survived the race&rsquo;s lone restart on lap 70 to earn the win.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;I owe this one to my crew and Jeff Laquerre,&rdquo; said Donahue in victory lane. &nbsp;&ldquo;They made this car perfect today.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ACT Late Model Tour point leader Scott Payea of Milton, VT earned his fourth top-five finish in five races with a runner-up effort. &nbsp;Payea waged a 30-lap side-by-side battle with Williams following the lap 70 restart, and took the position by a fender at the finish line. &nbsp;Williams, of Hyde Park, VT, finished third over Montreal&rsquo;s Patrick Laperle and Montpelier, VT driver Phil<br \/>Scott.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rookie Nick Sweet of Barre, VT earned his second-straight top-ten with a sixth-place finish. &nbsp;Three-time Thunder Road Champion Cris Michaud of Northfield, VT finished seventh. &nbsp;Pete Potvin, III, of Graniteville, VT and Northfield, VT rookie Matt<br \/>White each posted career-best finishes in eighth and ninth, respectively. &nbsp;Another rookie, Ricky Wolf, Jr. of Northwood, NH, rounded out the unofficial top ten.<br \/>&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The ACT Late Model Tour is back in action at Waterford Speedbowl on the Connecticut shoreline, Saturday, June 7. &nbsp;For more information, call (802) 244-6963 or visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.acttour.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" onclick=\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"><u>www.acttour.com<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>UNOFFICIAL FINISH &ndash; 46th Annual Mekkelsen RV Memorial Day Classic<br \/>ACT Late Model Tour &ndash; Thunder Road Int&rsquo;l Speedbowl &ndash; Barre, VT<br \/>Sunday, May 25, 2008<\/p>\n<p>(# &#8211; denotes rookie)<\/p>\n<p>Pos.-Driver-Hometown<br \/>1. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;John Donahue, Graniteville, VT<br \/>2. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Scott Payea, Milton, VT<br \/>3. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Eric Williams, Hyde Park, VT<br \/>4. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Patrick Laperle, St-Denis-sur-Richelieu, QC<br \/>5. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Phil Scott, Montpelier, VT<br \/>6. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;# Nick Sweet, Barre, VT<br \/>7. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Cris Michaud, Northfield, VT<br \/>8. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Pete Potvin, III, Graniteville, VT<br \/>9. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;# Matt White, Northfield, VT<br \/>10. &nbsp; &nbsp; # Ricky Wolf, Jr., Northwood, NH<br \/>11. &nbsp; &nbsp; Donald Theetge, Boischatel, QC<br \/>12. &nbsp; &nbsp; Shawn Fleury, Middlesex, VT<br \/>13. &nbsp; &nbsp; Jean-Paul Cyr, Milton, VT<br \/>14. &nbsp; &nbsp; Joe Becker, Jeffersonville, VT<br \/>15. &nbsp; &nbsp; Robbie Crouch, Tampa, FL<br \/>16. &nbsp; &nbsp; Chip Grenier, Graniteville, VT<br \/>17. &nbsp; &nbsp; Glen Luce, Turner, ME<br \/>18. &nbsp; &nbsp; Brent Dragon, Milton, VT<br \/>19. &nbsp; &nbsp; Dave Pembroke, Middlesex, VT<br \/>20. &nbsp; &nbsp; Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., Hudson, NH<br \/>21. &nbsp; &nbsp; Randy Potter, Groveton, NH<br \/>22. &nbsp; &nbsp; # Jonathan Urlin, London, ON<br \/>23. &nbsp; &nbsp; Trampas Demers, South Burlington, VT<br \/>24. &nbsp; &nbsp; Scott Dragon, Milton, VT<br \/>25. &nbsp; &nbsp; Eric Chase, Milton, VT<br \/>26. &nbsp; &nbsp; Joey Laquerre, East Montpelier, VT<br \/>27. &nbsp; &nbsp; Jamie Fisher, Shelburne, VT<br \/>28. &nbsp; &nbsp; Ryan Nolin, Georgia, VT<br \/>29. &nbsp; &nbsp; Roger Brown, II, Lancaster, NH<br \/>30. &nbsp; &nbsp; Bobby Dragon, Milton, VT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;BARRE, VT &ndash; American-Canadian Tour Late Model Championship stock car driver John Donahue of Graniteville, VT won the fastest race in series history at Barre, VT&rsquo;s Thunder Road Int&rsquo;l Speedbowl on Sunday, taking the 46th Annual Mekkelsen RV MemorialDay Classic in 28 minutes and 16 seconds. &nbsp;Donahue&rsquo;s #26 National Guard Ford Fusion started fourth on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-canadian-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}