{"id":975,"date":"2007-05-07T09:52:44","date_gmt":"2007-05-07T09:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maineracer.com\/wp\/?p=975"},"modified":"2007-05-07T09:52:44","modified_gmt":"2007-05-07T09:52:44","slug":"payea-henry-break-through-in-merchants-bank-150","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/2007\/05\/payea-henry-break-through-in-merchants-bank-150\/","title":{"rendered":"PAYEA, HENRY BREAK THROUGH IN MERCHANTS BANK 150"},"content":{"rendered":"
BARRE, VT – For young stock car racer Scott Payea and veteran underdog campaigner Ron Henry, the
outcome of the Merchants Bank 150 at Thunder Road International Speedway in Barre, VT could not have been
sweeter. The second round of the international American-Canadian Tour (ACT) championship series was a
breakthrough event for the two drivers, as each scored their best career result by finishing first and
second, respectively. <\/span><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Payea, who started seventh, had previously finished second on two occasions, including last year’s
Merchants Bank 150. The Milton, VT racer passed perennial Tour champion Jean-Paul Cyr to take the lead,
and survived a restart with less than 20 laps remaining to earn his first ACT win. Payea very nearly
crashed while challenging Cyr for the lead near the halfway mark, breaking his Metropolitan Pipe
Co.\/Wendell’s Furniture Ford Fusion loose in the outside lane. The 2005 ACT Late Model Tour Rookie of the
Year quickly regained control, but not before falling to fourth place.
From there, Payea marched forward and passed Pete Fecteau and early leader Trampas Demers before
chasing Cyr down. A lap 92 mistake by Cyr allowed Payea to slip past in Turn 4, and Payea was uncontested
for the win for the remainder of the event.
Henry, a veteran from New Gloucester, ME earned the best finish of his ACT career with a solid runner-up
performance. Driving a 26 year-old chassis refurbished by Maine car builder Jeff Taylor, Henry
methodically worked his way from 15th at the start to enter the top five on lap 68. He went to work on
Fecteau, Demers, and Cyr over the next 65 laps and closed Payea’s lead to five car lengths, but ran out of
time to mount a serious challenge. Henry’s previous best finish was a fourth-place run in 2004.
Cyr, Payea’s cross-town neighbor in Milton, VT, fought a loose race car to finish in third place. Cyr
finished second at Oxford Plains (ME) Speedway in the ACT season opener one week ago, and was the defending
champion of the Merchants Bank 150 at Thunder Road. Demers, of South Burlington, VT, finished fourth after
leading much of the first one-third of the event. Five-time ACT Late Model Tour champion Brian Hoar of
Williston, VT finished fifth.
Brent Dragon of Milton, VT rebounded with a sixth-place finish after failing to qualify at Oxford. Cris
Michaud scored his second top-ten finish in a row with a seventh-place effort. David Avery, Fecteau, and
Scott Dragon rounded out the top ten in order.
The Merchants Bank 150 was slowed by five cautions, running in one hour and ten minutes. Qualifying heat
winners were Chip Grenier, Payea, Avery, and Fecteau. Consolation winners Jamie Aube, Dwayne Lanphear, and
Brent Dragon. Scott Dragon won the last-chance “B” feature.
The ACT Late Model Tour gears up for the 33rd annual Furniture World of VT Spring Green at Airborne
Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY on Saturday, May 12. Green flag qualifying action begins at 4:00pm. For
schedules and more information, visit the official ACT website at www.acttour.com,<\/a> or call (802) 244-6963. <\/p>\n

UNOFFICIAL FINISH: Merchants Bank 150
ACT Late Model Tour – Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl – Barre, VT
5\/06\/07 <\/p>\n

Pos.-Start-Driver-Hometown-Laps Completed
1. (7) Scott Payea, Milton, VT, 150
2. (15) Ron Henry, New Gloucester, ME, 150
3. (5) Jean-Paul Cyr, Milton, VT, 150
4. (1) Trampas Demers, S. Burlington, VT, 150
5. (11) Brian Hoar, Williston, VT, 150
6. (19) Brent Dragon, Milton, VT, 150
7. (22) Cris Michaud, Williamstown, VT, 150
8. (8) David Avery, Lincoln, NH, 150
9. (9) Pete Fecteau, Morrisville, VT, 150
10. (26) Scott Dragon, Milton, VT, 150
11. (3) Marcel Gravel, Wolcott, VT, 150
12. (24) Dennis Demers, Shelburne, VT, 150
13. (21) Dave Pembroke, Montpelier, VT, 150
14. (18) Dwayne Lanphear, Morrisville, VT, 150
15. (16) Dave Whitcomb, Essex Jct., VT, 150
16. (4) Joey Becker, Jeffersonville, VT, 149
17. (2) Marc Curtis, Jr., Worcester, MA, 149
18. (30) Donald Theetge, Boischatel, QC, 149
19. (31) Randy Potter, Groveton, NH, 149
20. (23) Shawn Fleury, Middlesex, VT, 149
21. (29) Ryan Nolin, Georgia, VT, 149
22. (13) Eric Williams, Hyde Park, VT, 148
23. (10) Roger Brown, Lancaster, NH, 148
24. (12) Phil Scott, Middlesex, VT, 147
25. (32) Claude Leclerc, Montreal, QC, 147
26. (25) Tracie Bellerose, Gorham, NH, 142
27. (20) Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., Hudson, NH, 142
28. (6) Chip Grenier, Northfield, VT, 138
29. (28) Jamie Fisher, Shelburne, VT, 138
30. (14) Mike Bailey, S. Barre, VT, 137
31. (17) Jamie Aube, Bow, NH, 126
32. (27) Jay Laquerre, East Montpelier, VT, 50<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BARRE, VT – For young stock car racer Scott Payea and veteran underdog campaigner Ron Henry, the outcome of the Merchants Bank 150 at Thunder Road International Speedway in Barre, VT could not have been sweeter. The second round of the international American-Canadian Tour (ACT) championship series was a breakthrough event for the two drivers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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-975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-canadian-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}