The Juice: We Need the Little Guys

-by Justin St. Louis
VMM Editor

Not having Eric Williams to watch on the track at the Merchants Bank 150 this weekend is a dose of reality. As the defending winner of the race, the Hyde Park driver certainly would have been considered a contender against the invading American-Canadian Tour teams, and as a controversial driver with a controversial fan base, Williams' character will surely be missed.

Williams' biggest issue in not being able to race this weekend was a lack of time while running the family business and building a Tiger Sportsman car for his son, Tucker, largely in part because he is struggling to find funding for his team and could not afford to take time off work to build his own race car. He realizes he's not the only one, too.

"I'd say that probably 75 percent of the guys running Late Models are going to find a bit of a struggle this year in terms of money," Williams said. "You've got your [Brian] Hoar teams and your other big teams that have enough money to have whatever they need, but the little guys -- and there's a lot of little guys -- are gonna have a hard time this year."

Tunbridge racer Doug Murphy, who stole his own share of headlines last year by running up front with likely the smallest Late Model budget under the ACT umbrella, said his pre-season practice session on April 13 may have been his only appearance of the year.

"I've got old tires and no money," Murphy said, leaning on the only open trailer left in the division. "I lost almost all of my sponsorship over the winter. The only way I was able to show up last year was by picking up my paycheck before I bought my pit pass and using that money to buy gas and two tires."

Murphy's thoroughly battered ride was among the fastest cars at the test two weeks ago, but he says that speed won't matter if there's no sponsorship: "If it comes down to making the choice between putting food on the table for my family and going to Thunder Road, well, there's not much of a choice to make there."

Middlesex veteran Dave Pembroke, who trounced the ACT teams to win both the Memorial Day Classic and Labor Day Classic events at Thunder Road last year, showed up with blank quarterpanels at the April practice and said he doesn't have any sponsorship names to put on them.

Even Milton's Jean-Paul Cyr has admitted that while he hopes to contend for his eighth ACT Late Model Tour championship this year, his schedule will depend solely on cash. "We'd like to run the whole schedule, but it all comes down to money and how we're doing [on the track]," Cyr said. "If we're doing well then we'll figure out how to keep going, but [money] will be tight all year."

A recent Thunder Road press release indicated that "over fifty" Late Model teams are expected to attempt the Merchants Bank 150 on Sunday. Given the anticipation of the season's first race, a growing interest in the touring concept from teams in both the U.S. and Canada, and the enthusiasm of the locally-based regular Thunder Road teams, it's a safe bet that around 50 teams will in fact put on what should be a very competitive event. The official ACT/Thunder Road roster is larger this year than in recent years, and sponsorship appears to be solid across the board, but the stories of local racers like Williams, Murphy, and Pembroke do cause legitimate concern.

A bump from 13 ACT races last year to 14 this doesn't sound like much, but increased travel that includes an extra trip south to Waterford, Conn., a new drive southwest to Albany, N.Y., and the long hike north to Ste-Croix, Qué., could be all that some teams can handle. Thunder Road's weekly Late Model program was stronger last year than in recent seasons, averaging 24 to 26 cars each week, but if the smaller teams begin to start falling off the map then the whole program will be in trouble.

It's great for any series to have marquee drivers like Hoar, Cyr, Joey Polewarczyk, or Brad Leighton, but when racers like Pembroke at Thunder Road, Jeff White at Oxford, or Guy Caron at Twin State begin to worry about money -- the strong local racers that hold their own when ACT is in town -- that's when we all lose.

Keep an eye on the "little guys" this year. We need them now more than ever.

***

Monday I was walking the dog in shorts and a t-shirt. Wednesday morning I shoveled a foot of snow off my porch. By Friday I'll be back in shorts, and by Sunday night I'll be treating the second- and third-degree burns on my neck because I was too dumb to bring sunscreen to the track. Ah, racing season.

Despite the snow and wetness right now, Thunder Road officials have told VMM that they "don't expect to be roping anything off" in the parking lots this weekend due to mud and standing water.

Joey Polewarczyk might have said it best: "One thing I know about Thunder Road from all my years of going there is that I don't care if the forecast is for 100 percent chance of rain. We're all going to stand there under our umbrellas all day, but we're going to get that race in. Tom Curley and Ken Squier will make sure we get to race. They'll find a way to get it in, even if it takes all day and night."

Temperatures are expected to reach the high 70s and low 80s by this weekend aided by wind and sun, so everything should be good to go for race time.

But still, wouldn't it be kinda neat to see a Junkyard Warrior slide off the top of Turn 1 and into a snowbank?

***

I'm sorry, were you expecting the Capitals to sweep it in four games? #GoHabsGo

***

Looking briefly at the national levels, Québec native Derek White, who competed with the Série ACT-Castrol last year, will be racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Kansas Speedway this weekend, while Shelburne's Kevin Lepage will head to Richmond Int'l Raceway with the Nationwide Series.

David Stremme and Vermont's Latitude 43 Motorsports finished 27th in the Sprint Cup Series event at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend despite a mid-race crash, and will look to break back into the top-35 in owner points at Richmond. Stremme's average qualifying position in seven starts at Richmond is a solid 20.6. Latitude 43 ranks 37th in owner points, 162 markers behind 35th-place Front Row Motorsports' #38 car.

***

We're headed to Barre on Saturday morning for the annual Thunder Road car show and parade, then up to the track for practice. After that, we're taking a trip across the lake to Airborne Speedway for its season opener. Sunday morning, it's back to Thunder Road for the Merchants Bank 150. We're hoping to see y'all there, but make sure to keep an eye on the VMM blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook and YouTube pages for updates throughout the weekend!

***

THIS WEEK:

Friday, April 30
Twin State Speedway, Claremont, N.H. -- 7:30pm (Season Opener)

Saturday, May 1
Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre -- 9:00am (Car Show -- Downtown Barre, practice at track at 1:00pm)
Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, N.Y. -- 5:00pm (Season Opener -- Modified 50-lap Syracuse qualifier)
Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, N.Y. -- 1:00pm (Open Practice)
Canaan Dirt Speedway, Canaan, N.H. -- 10:00am (Car Show/Open Practice)
Canaan Fair Speedway, Canaan, N.H. -- 10:00am (Car Show/Open Practice)
Monadnock Speedway, Winchester, N.H. -- 6:00pm (Season Opener/Modified Racing Series)
Riverside Speedway, Groveton, N.H. -- 2:00pm (Open Practice)

Sunday, May 2
Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre -- 1:00pm (Car Show -- Downtown Barre, practice at track at 1:00pm)
Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, N.Y. -- 1:00pm (ISMA SuperModifieds)
Big Daddy's Speedbowl, Rumney, N.H. -- 12:00pm (Open Practice)

TOURING SERIES:

ACT Late Model Tour: Sun., May 2 -- Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre, Vt. (1:00pm)
ISMA SuperModifieds: Sun., May 2 -- Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, N.Y. (1:00pm)
Modified Racing Series: Sat., May 1 -- Monadnock Speedway, Winchester, N.H. (6:00pm)
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: Sun., May 2 -- Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, Kan. (12:30pm)
NASCAR Nationwide Series: Fri., April 30 -- Richmond Int'l Raceway, Richmond, Va. (7:00pm)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Sat., May 1 -- Richmond Int'l Raceway, Richmond, Va. (7:30pm)
Pro All Stars Series: Sat., May 1 -- Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough, Me. (3:00pm)

THE LOVE OF THE GAME

Junior Johnson was famous for saying, "If you want to make a small fortune in racing, start with a big one." There's only one reason we sacrifice our time, energy, money, and at times even our family lives, to stay in racing.

The love of the game.

***

"The choice was to stay at home in the cold and snow in Vermont, or come to Florida and race, so what the hell?" --Peter Jarvis at New Smyrna Speedway

"For me it's a learning-charge-your-battery-focus-on-Thunder-Road-race-the-Baja-and-not-get-killed-type of year." --Jean-Paul Cyr, looking forward to his 2009 season

"I don't race to prove things, I race because I like to race." --Eric Williams

"It was a long haul, but I got to skip school so it was worth it." --17 year-old Joey Doiron on testing on a Wednesday afternoon at Thunder Road

"It's all about wins, because it won't be long that I won't be doing this anymore." --Brad Leighton

"Who's Quinny?" --Eddie MacDonald, after an entertaining battle with Quinny Welch at Lee USA Speedway

"As long as everybody's having a good time, it's all good." --Modified Racing Series founder Jack Bateman

"We come down here every year to the first big race, we pull in with our little hauler and trailer. Some of these rigs I could park my hauler and truck inside their rig and still have a picnic underneath it, you know? And you stand there and you look around and you almost say, 'Man, what am I doing? This is crazy.' " --Eric Williams on operating a winning ACT race team with a shoestring budget

"When I was paving it, I threw some money on the track before the roller came through so I can say I've got a couple dollars in it." --Airborne Speedway champion Bucko Branham, who was on the construction team that gave the track a $300,000 facelift in April

"Not many people would give a kid a dirt Modified and say, 'Here, have at it.' " --Jason Gray

"We thought we were headed to Waterford, and we ended up winning at Ste-Croix." --Brent Dragon

"I'm gonna have to fly like the wind. Literally." --Eric Chase, on catching a flight from Concord, N.H., to Berlin, Vt., after qualifying a NASCAR Camping World Series East car at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Thursday afternoon and getting to Thunder Road in time to race that evening

"Dale kept telling me, 'Slow down, slow down, slow down, save your tires,' and I said, 'How slow do you want me to go? I'm not even driving hard enough to use my brakes!' " --John Donahue after blistering an ACT field at White Mountain Motorsports Park

"ACT called asking me to run Beech Ridge, and I called them back and I said, 'You know something, I have a hard time pulling a dime out of my pocket to race on Thursday nights.' " --Doug Murphy

"If there wasn't no Saturday night racing, there wouldn't be no Sunday racing." --Seven-time NASCAR champion "King" Richard Petty on the importance of short track racing as it relates to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

"We were at the shop, heck, I was going home before them and I usually don't do that. I'm usually one of the last guys there, and I was like, 'Guys, I gotta go to work in the morning,' and they would just stay down there." --Nick Sweet on the dedication of his crew

"I've got a Formula 1 game for my PlayStation, but that's it. I drove around the track in a street car for the first time, and that track is so narrow the Formula 1 guys that raced there must be crazy." --Patrick Laperle on making his road course debut in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

"This is just for fun." --Chris Donnelly

"We're a family-run team and that's what makes it fun. We stay close as a family, and it's even fun sometimes when you're fighting. It's like a woman, you've got to fight 'em every once in a while. It wouldn't be real if you weren't fighting, right?" --Nick Sweet

"He along with his whole team always represented to me exactly why I have stayed in this business for so long. If I could have 30 Mark Lambertons on the road each week, I would keep doing this until I either dropped dead or became so senile that they threw me out." --ACT president Tom Curley, upon the news that Mark Lamberton would return to regular competition

"I'm hoping they'll think I'm Jeff Taylor and they'll cheer for me." --Nick Sweet at Oxford Plains Speedway, referencing the paint scheme on his car honoring nine-time OPS champion Taylor

"Honest to God, if I could run with those guys every week, I'd come up here and run every single week." --Wayne Helliwell, Jr. on racing against Quinny Welch and Randy Potter

"You get butterflies when you turn off the road here into New Hampshire and come through the tunnel." --Scott Payea on racing at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

"You couldn't ask for a better guy." --Crew chief Jeff Laquerre on his driver, Jean-Paul Cyr

"I couldn't be more pleased with the way Scott races people. He's very smart and doesn't abuse his equipment. Some guys, like Brad Leighton and Patrick Laperle, those guys will risk it all to win. He's not that type of driver." --Brian Hoar on Scott Payea

"The reality is that the chemistry with me and this team is there. I've had more fun racing this year than ever before, and that's whether we're at the track, or in the trailer on the way to a race, or on Tuesday nights when we're all in the shop together working on the car. I actually look forward to Tuesday nights more than anything." --Brain Hoar on his RPM Motorsports team

"I'm 38 years old and I still get all excited when I see these (NASCAR) guys race at this track. And in about an hour I get to be one of the guys racing here." --Dave Pembroke at NHMS

"I appreciate short track racing and haven't forgotten where I learned the sport from the grassroots up." --NHMS vice president Jerry Gappens

Murphy Making Something Out Of Nothing

Doug Murphy never dreamed he would be out front.

The ultimate low-buck underdog of the Thunder Road Late Model division is the only full-time racer in the class that tows his car -- a well-used, ex-Jamie Fisher chassis -- behind a pickup truck on an open trailer. The members of his crew that aren't his father, Adrian, or mother, Gloria, are strictly at the track on a volunteer basis. The Yipes! Auto Accessories sponsorship on the #4 car is well-displayed, but the monetary value of the partnership, or that of Diversified Landscape Maintenance or Majestic Auto Body, is minimal at best.

But the combination works, and the Tunbridge driver is now officially a contender. At last week's double-points Times Argus Mid-Season Championship, Murphy shocked the Thunder Road crowd by leading twice for 34 laps and scoring a career-best third-place finish behind champions Jean-Paul Cyr and Dave Pembroke. On Thursday night, Murphy one-upped himself by leading the first 45 laps of the Casella Waste Management feature and finishing second to three-time track champion Cris Michaud after getting pinned behind a lapped car late in the race. The back-to-back performances have vaulted Murphy into the top-15 in points, just 51 points out of the top-ten.

"We're just running good. All of a sudden we're just clicking," Murphy said Thursday. "Unfortunately, the right-rear tire gave up at about lap 35. It really loosened up on me and I backed up to Cris. I kept looking up in my mirror when the car was good, and he was there but he wasn't gaining leaps and bounds on me."

That feeling alone must have been gratifying for Murphy. Eric Williams, the 2008 Thunder Road champion, has long been heralded as the low-buck racer making it big against the well-funded teams of the northeast. Murphy's budget, though, makes Williams' small potatoes look like a five-course dinner.

"ACT called [asking] me to run Beech Ridge, and I called them back [Wednesday] and I said, 'You know something, I have a hard time pulling a dime out of my pocket to race on Thursday nights.' explained Murphy.

"And that's where we're at. We have one spare shock in the race car trailer, and that's the only spare part we have with us other than our wheels and tires. We have no spare springs, the setup in the car is what we run every week. When I watch these guys beside us that are just throwing shocks and springs at their cars to make them go better, it's like, man, why do they do all that? We can do it with just what we have."

Murphy began racing twenty years ago in an eight-cylinder Street Stock at Thunder Road in Barre. After a few so-so seasons, he moved up to the Flying Tiger/Sportsman class. The first win came in 1994, followed over the years by victories at Thunder Road, Riverside Speedway in New Hampshire, and Airborne Speedway in New York, and several championship-contending runs. Murphy purchased the Late Model in 2007, running 11 times and finishing inside the top-15 just twice. He earned a single top-ten finish last year, but was limited by his budget to just eight races and often ran near the back. It's different this season.

"It was just a matter of time," says Michaud. "Doug's a good driver. He was good in the Tigers and stuff, and I think it was just a matter of time with him. He's underfunded and he doesn't have the help that other people do, but his dad is smart, and Doug is smart. He had a good car tonight, and quite honestly, if there wasn't that lapped car I don't know if I would have gotten by him. I think we could have gotten to the outside of him, but I don't know if we could have gotten by him."

Murphy knows that if he had pushed the issue, he likely could have held Michaud off with a three-wide move around Kyle Caron's lapped car on lap 46 of the Casella race, and might have carried his first Late Model checkered flag.

"Looking back on it, should I have tried it? Yeah, probably," he said. "My spotter didn't say anything to me and I said, 'Well, maybe he just wants me to hold my ground.' He didn't say 'go high' or whatever. You know, I was looking for a little coaching at the same time and I didn't get it, so I said, 'Well, I'm gonna sit here and hopefully the 22 (Caron) will either move down and get out of the way that way, or..."

Murphy suddenly interrupts himself, perhaps realizing his accomplishment. "I'm very happy with second," he said. "You know, two weeks ago I would never have dreamed that I'd be in this position and get one top-three, let alone back-to-back top-threes. It's rewarding to get top-threes against the competition with all the money they have. We have nothing, I can't emphasize that enough. I mean, we really shouldn't be here. And we're here and we're running good.

"Being a Tiger driver for a long as I was, I always dreamed of running a Late Model, and I'm getting to live my dream. I've been running good to boot, and that just ups that a little bit further."

Murphy looks over at his open trailer and smiles. It's not hard to figure out what he's thinking.

"Now I've just got one more trophy to add to the case and it'll be complete."



(PHOTOS: 1. Doug Murphy (#4) leads Heat 3 on Thursday night over Tony Andrews (#1), 2009 feature winner Grant Folsom (#81), and former Thunder Road champions Jamie Fisher (#18) and Dave Whitcomb (#25); 2. Murphy (left) on the podium a week ago with Jean-Paul Cyr (center) and Dave Pembroke; 3. Cris Michaud (#6) said Murphy successes were "just a matter of time." Photos 1 and 3 by Leif Tillotson; Photo 2 by Dave Heath/courtesy Thunder Road)

Classic Drive By Cyr Nets Mid-Season Win at Thunder Road

BARRE -- Seven-time American-Canadian Tour champion Jean-Paul Cyr made it known on a soggy Thursday night that he was serious. The Milton racer quit racing regularly with the tour that he dominated for so many years to focus on two goals in 2009: the first, to complete a solo motorcycle run in the Baja 500 desert race; the second, to become the "King of the Road". With the first goal completed in June, Cyr took one big step closer to that second check mark on the list Thursday, winning the double-points Times Argus Mid-Season Championship race at Barre's Thunder Road.

Cyr started 13th in the 24-car field, and by the time the first caution flag flew on lap 9, he was in eighth place. Twelve laps later, he was fourth. By lap 25, he was battling for second place, and when he finally took the lead from Doug Murphy on lap 37, he never looked back. And not only did Cyr take his first win of the season, he moved to within seven points of leader Dave Pembroke, unofficially.

"It's been an uphill battle this season," said Cyr, who is driving a newly constructed car owned by driver Joey Laquerre and tuned by Laquerre's accomplished crew chief son, Jeff. "But Jeff's timing is impeccable with this being Times Argus night with double points. We needed this win." While figuring out a new car and team combination during the season's first half, Cyr has endured some bad luck along with the growing pains: he slumped to a 27th-place finish at the CARQUEST Vermont Governor's Cup 150 last month, and had just one finish better than seventh prior to the win.

Murphy, of Tunbridge, looked like a potential spoiler for the third-straight Late Model event at Thunder Road, leading the first 36 laps from the pole position and holding his own against the likes of Cyr, Craig Bushey, and eventual runner-up Pembroke. After Cyr methodically worked his way around the outside lane and into the lead, Murphy had his hands full of competition. Pembroke was only able to get by Murphy for second place on the final circuit of the 50-lap race.
"It's been since 2006 that I've been here [in victory lane]," said Murphy, whose last podium finish was in 2006 in a Tiger Sportsman car. "To be honest, I never really thought I would get a top-three in a Late Model. We race week-to-week, just trying not to tear it up. I owe this one to the crew."

Pembroke, of Middlesex, was elated with his runner-up finish behind the driver that is now his closest rival for the championship. "This is great," he said. "We did just what we needed to do tonight."

Bushey finished fourth behind Cyr, Pembroke, and Murphy, with Phil Scott fifth. Nick Sweet finished sixth, with the balance of the unofficial top ten completed by Dave Whitcomb, Steve Fisher, Joey Becker, and Rich Lowrey.

Kris Grout of Waterbury won a crash-filled 35-lap Tiger Sportsman feature, breaking a winless drought that lasted four years to the date of his last victory, July 16, 2005. Grout took the lead from polesitter Mike Billado on lap 3 and cruised to the win. A massive pileup on lap 6 included the cars of Shawn Fleury, Josh Demers, Joey Laquerre, and no less than seven others, and was followed by a four-car wreck on lap 10 and a five-car wreck on lap 18.

A final restart was needed on lap 21, but the racing was clean and close for the remainder of the race. Behind leader Grout, drivers Joey Roberts, Matt Potter, and Pete Ainsworth, Jr. constantly swapped the second, third, and fourth positions. Potter made a final charge on the outside over the final eight laps to steal the runner-up position, and both he and Roberts finished the race sideways as they leaned on each other. Ainsworth and Brendan Moodie completed the top-five.

Gary Mullen of Tunbridge earned his first Street Stock win of the season over rookie Travis Hull and Mike Martin. Josh Erwin of Waterbury was named the Junkyard Warrior winner after apparent first-place finisher Bryan Nykiel was disqualified for illegal wheel camber. Kevin Dodge was second with Donny Yates third. The Street Stock and Warrior divisions ran seperate features for the second week in a row.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS -- Times Argus Mid-Season Championships
Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre, Vt.
Thursday, July 16, 2009

(Pos.-Driver-Hometown; # - denotes rookie)

ACT Late Model
1. Jean-Paul Cyr, Milton
2. Dave Pembroke, Middlesex
3. Doug Murphy, Tunbridge
4. Craig Bushey, Cambridge
5. Phil Scott, Montpelier
6. Nick Sweet, Barre
7. Dave Whitcomb, Essex Jct.
8. Steve Fisher, Shelburne
9. Joey Becker, Jeffersonville
10. Rich Lowrey, Charlotte

NAPA Tiger Sportsman
1. Kris Grout, Waterbury
2. Matt Potter, Plainfield
3. Joey Roberts, Georgia
4. Pete Ainsworth, Jr., Middlesex
5. Brendan Moodie, North Wolcott
6. Jimmy Hebert, Williamstown
7. Bobby Therrien, Hinesburg
8. Lance Allen, Barre
9. #Erik Steel, Barre
10. Joe Steffen, Essex Jct.

Allen Lumber Street Stock
1. Gary Mullen, Tunbridge
2. #Travis Hull, Graniteville
3. Mike Martin, Craftsbury Common
4. Garry Bashaw, Lincoln
5. Michael Moore, East Haven

Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior
1. Josh Erwin, Waterbury
2. Kevin Dodge, Barre
3. Donny Yates, North Montpelier
4. Lance Donald, Williamstown
5. Keith Fortier, Hinesburg

(Cyr photo by Justin St. Louis/VMM)