Donahue Joins ACT Ford Blue Oval Cup Program

WATERBURY -- The American-Canadian Tour announced on Monday that Graniteville driver John Donahue has become the latest driver to join the new Ford Blue Oval Cup Challenge, a contingency program designed to reward teams using the newly introduced Ford Racing S347JR crate engine.

Donahue was very strong in 2009, finishing third in ACT Late Model Tour points. He scored a dominant win at White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, N.H., in June and finished the championship season with five-straight top-four finishes. He was also fifth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September and picked up a win at the Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl at Barre's Thunder Road in October.

"I have always been a Ford man, and it was driving me crazy hearing about all the good teams that have gone to a Ford motor program for the coming season," said team owner Kendall Roberts in an ACT press release. "I just had to get on the bandwagon. We plan to give Ford and our National Guard Ford Fusion the ACT title."

Donahue becomes the tenth driver in the Ford Blue Oval Cup program, joining ACT drivers Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., Joey Laquerre, Glen Luce, and rookie Austin Theriault, Oxford Plains (Me.) Speedway driver Jeff Taylor, Lee USA (N.H.) Speedway racers Wayne Helliwell, Jr., and Mike Johnson, and Wiscasset (Me.) Raceway driver Jerry Williams.

YEAR OF THE DRAGON: Brent Dragon Sets Sights on First ACT Championship

(From team press release)

MILTON, Vt. -- The goal is simple for a driver who carries a surname synonymous with stock car racing in the region. Brent Dragon wants to win the ACT Late Model Tour championship in 2010.

"It's been that way for the last 25 years it seems," Dragon said recently.

This year, though, there is even more optimism coming from the Dragon race shop than in offseasons past. For starters, Dragon finished the 2009 season as one of the hottest Late Model drivers in New England, winning three times after June 1 and finishing fifth in the final ACT standings.

Dragon, who has been on the tour since its inception 18 years ago, has three times been the ACT bridesmaid. He's started more ACT races than any driver in history and owns nine career victories on tour. The son of Beaver Dragon and nephew of Bobby Dragon, Brent believes that last year's strong finish could lead to this year finally being his year.

"This will be the first year in about six years that we haven't started with a new car," Dragon said. "We were really good from about midseason on last year, and we have our notes to go back to this year."

Those notes should translate into a stout race car. With a chance to win both the Oxford 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway and the prestigious Milk Bowl at Thunder Road International Speedbowl, as well as being one of the first invitees to the inaugural ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September, Dragon was among Late Model racing's elite performers a year ago.

To help his No. 55 team clear the hurdle and finish the job with more wins and that elusive championship, Dragon's employed the help of noted northeast crew member Buster Bean. Though it's not full-time help at the shop, Dragon believes delegating responsibility to crew members other than just himself will pay off.

"We already have a good tire guy in Steve More, too, so Steve's moved into the crew chief role for us now," Dragon said. "Buster's going to work with us and help us on that end if we have questions.

"I used to do everything myself, but it's just gotten to a point where it's harder to do that. It started to work better with Steve taking over some of that responsibility last year. We're looking forward to having Buster now and Steve as the crew chief and then all of the same guys back again on the crew."

Dragon plans to run the complete 14-race ACT schedule, as well as open Late Model events like the Oxford 250 and the Milk Bowl, as well as the Showdown at Chaudiere (Que.) 200 and the ACT Invitational at NHMS. Toss in select ACT Castrol Series races north of the border, and Dragon expects a busy summer to top out with 22-24 races.

But the most important of the races on such a tight schedule are the first ones. The ACT Late Model Tour features five races in less than a month's time from April 18-May 16.

"You've absolutely got to start the year off right," said Dragon, a three-time Late Model champion at the old Airborne Speedway. "We always seem to start off slow, and it always seemed to be because we were starting off the year with a new car -- and you've really got to start off those first two or three races really good.

"I haven't. I haven't done that for years. We always seem to get going later in the year -- but hopefully because we finished so strong last year and we're bringing back the same car with all those notes to work from, we should be pretty close (to a winning setup) when we get to the track."

Get off on the right foot, and Dragon could finally hoist that ACT championship trophy high overhead.

(Photo by Leif Tillotson)

VIDEO: Scott Payea 2010 Season Preview

A look inside the garage with American-Canadian Tour driver Scott Payea and crew chief Chris Companion, as Payea talks about his team's goals for the 2010 season. Video produced by Justin St. Louis/Vermont Motorsports Magazine, © 2010.

World Series: Crate Late Model Finale Rained Out, Laperle 2nd Overall Again

Delaney finishes third overall

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- It seems only fitting that the 44th Annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing would end for the Crate Late Model division as it began -- soaking wet. Heavy rains on Friday have forced the cancellation of Night 8 on the nine-night championship at New Smyrna Speedway, which was scheduled to be the final night of racing for the division. Inclement weather also cancelled racing on opening night of the World Series last Friday (Feb. 5) and again on Tuesday.

As a result of the cancellations, former American-Canadian Tour champion and Milk Bowl winner Patrick Laperle of St-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Qué., has clinched second place in the Crate Late Model point standings for the second-straight year, with former CVRA and Devil's Bowl Speedway racer Dustin Delaney of Mayfield, N.Y., third overall.

Laperle posted a victory -- the fourth of his career at New Smyrna Speedway -- on Wednesday night after a drive from 15th starting position, and also turned in a pair of third-place finishes and an 18th-place effort in his four starts during the World Series. Delaney's best result was a runner-up finish on Monday night, followed by a third-place showing on the night of Laperle's win. Delaney was fifth on Saturday and eighth in Thursday's 50-lap feature.

Sean Bass of Orlando, Fla., found himself in the right place at the right time on Thursday night, winning the 50-lapper and taking the point lead away from 14 year-old Stephen Nasse. Nasse wrecked out of a top-five position with five laps remaining, eventually limping home in 16th place and dropping from first to fourth in the standings. Brandon Johnson finished fifth overall in the division.

Northeast noteables include Stayner, Ont., teenager Brandon Watson, who finished in a three-way tie for ninth place in the Crate Late Model division, and Shaun McWhirter of Mt. Forest, Ont., and Wayne Smith of Timberlea, Nova Scotia, who were among a six-way tie for 13th overall.

In other action at the World Series, B.J. McLeod leads St. John, New Brunswick's Lonnie Sommerville entering the Super Late Model division's Pete Orr Memorial 100 finale on Saturday, and Ted Christopher of Plainville, Conn., holds a slim three-point lead over Chuck Hossfeld of Ransomville, N.Y. entering Saturday's Richie Evans Memorial 100 in the Tour-type Modifieds. Ronnie Silk of Norwalk, Conn., leads the SK Modified division, Todd Allen leads the Limited Late Model class, and T.J. Duke leads the Pro-Trucks. James Tucker defeated second-generation driver Travis Eddy for the Florida/IMCA-type Modified championship.

FINAL POINT STANDINGS
44th Annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing
New Smyrna Speedway -- New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Crate Late Models, after Night 7, Thu., Feb. 11, 2010

Pos.-Driver-Hometown-Points

1. Sean Bass, Orlando, Fla. -- 178
2. Patrick Laperle, St-Denis, Qué. -- 158
3. Dustin Delaney, Mayfield, N.Y. -- 154
4. Stephen Nasse, Pinellas Park, Fla. -- 150
5. Brandon Johnson, Tampa, Fla. -- 146
6. David Wagner, Akron, Oh. -- 102
7. Austin Kirkpatrick, Ocala, Fla. -- 98
-- Jerick Johnson, Mooresville, N.C. -- 98
9. Thor Anderson, Bondurant, Ia. -- 90
-- Brandon Watson, Stayner, Ont. -- 90
-- Erik Jones, Byron, Mich. -- 90

World Series: Laperle Wins at New Smyrna, Delaney 2nd in Points

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Patrick Laperle of St-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Qué., drove from 15th starting position to win the Crate Late Model feature at New Smyrna Speedway's World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing on Wednesday night. Laperle, a former American-Canadian Tour champion and three-time winner of the Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl at Barre's Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, now sits fifth in points after four events have been completed in the series.

Dustin Delaney of Mayfield, N.Y., a former Modified racer at Devil's Bowl Speedway in West Haven, finished third in the Wednesday night feature, and is tied for second in points with Tampa, Fla., driver Brandon Johnson, just markers behind young Stephen Nasse of Pinellas Park, Fla. Part-time ACT competitor Brandon Watson of Stayner, Ont., is ninth in points after a disqualification for illegal fuel earlier in the week.

Only three of five scheduled Crate Late Model events have been completed; rain cancelled racing on Friday, Feb. 5, and heavy fog wiped out racing on Tuesday, Feb. 9. The Crate Late Models are slated to race again tonight, with a final 50-lap feature on Friday. Fourteen year-old Nasse won on Saturday and Monday to open the series, but finished seventh last night. Delaney has three top-five finishes to his credit.

For additional coverage of the 44th Annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway, visit Marc Patrick Roy's "Oval-Racing" website.

UNOFFICIAL POINT STANDINGS
44th Annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing
New Smyrna Speedway -- New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Crate Late Models, after Night 6, Wed., Feb. 10, 2010

Pos.-Driver-Hometown-Points

1. Stephen Nasse, Pinellas Park, Fla. -- 146
2. Dustin Delaney, Mayfield, N.Y. -- 142
-- Brandon Johnson, Tampa, Fla. -- 142
4. Sean Bass, Auburndale, Fla. -- 138
5. Patrick Laperle, St-Denis, Qué. -- 126
6. David Wagner, Akron, Oh. -- 98
7. Jerick Johnson, Mooresville, N.C. -- 94
8. Thor Anderson, Bondurant, Ia. -- 82
9. Brandon Watson, Stayner, Ont. -- 74
10. Erik Jones, Byron, Mich. -- 70

(PHOTO: Patrick Laperle at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway; Photo by Marc Patrick Roy)

WINNING

Some do it in their first try, for some it can take decades. Some do it once, some do it once a week, some never get the chance at all. But for everyone, it's all they want to do.

Just win.

***

"I'm typically not that patient." --Brad Leighton

"To race with him here is pretty impressive for us." --Quinny Welch on keeping up with hometown hero Eddie MacDonald at Lee USA Speedway

"It was interesting out there." --Rob Goodenough, Modified Racing Series winner at Monadnock Speedway, after leader Kirk Alexander crashed out with 10 laps remaining

"It's not really hard, you go as fast as you can and turn left." --Tucker Williams

"We're just small-town people up in the hills around Hyde Park, and this is a big deal for us. I'm just proud as can be of my boy." --Eric Williams, after he and son Tucker swept their feature events on opening day at Thunder Road

"I guess I was prepared to finish second. I was not looking forward to having to ask him for a ticket to Loudon." --Dave Pembroke after winning the Memorial Day Classic at Thunder Road and a qualifying berth for the ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway; Joey Polewarczyk dominated the race but spun out of the lead on lap 82

"Last year I had some bad situations I was in and things didn't turn out like I wanted them to, but this year it's just been one hell of a year." --Steve Masse after winning his first Modified Racing Series feature at Thunder Road

"I'm getting lucky this year." --Josh Harrington after his third-straight victory to open the season at Bear Ridge Speedway

"It was a lot of fun, but it wasn't pretty, I know that." --Bobby Dragon, after winning a match race at Bear Ridge Speedway over his brother, Beaver, and nephew, Brent

"They think it's kind of a facade I'm putting on, but it's really fun and I seem to do pretty well at it. I think they just hate it that I can beat them at their own kind of game." --Amanda Gray on beating the boys

"There's nothing easy about races here. Starting first is a bonus, but it's still hard. I was driving as hard as I could." --Dave Pembroke after winning the Thursday night opener at Thunder Road

"You don't want to win like that." --Daniel Laperle on his brother, Patrick, winning a wreck-filled race at New Smyrna Speedway, shortened from 25 laps to 11.

"Chris Donnelly is probably the best driver we've got in this class, and for me as an 18 year-old kid to come out and race with these guys, it's awesome." --Jason Gray

"I guess it was worth the trip." --June Dragon, wife of Brent Dragon, after winning a Série ACT-Castrol race at Riverside Speedway in Ste-Croix, Qué., on June 20; the ACT Late Model Tour event at Waterford, Conn., that the Dragons planned on running was rained out earlier that day

"Pretty friggin' good." --Joey Polewarczyk's answer to the question, "How does it feel to finally win at Thunder Road?"

"I bent my steering shaft down punching the steering wheel I was so excited. I couldn't hardly turn doing the burnout." --Jimmy Hebert after his first Tiger Sportsman win

"My God, I've been waiting for that. My car's always junk, you know what I mean?" --Grant Folsom after his first win at Thunder Road

"We unload and nine out of ten times it's fast." --Jon McKennedy

"I came here probably 15 or 18 years ago with my father to watch the 250 and just watch these guys. I never thought I'd be able to come here and win the thing." --Eddie MacDonald after winning the TD Bank 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway

"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." --Doug Murphy

"Overall the night rates about an 8 [out of 10]. It could be a little better, but I've got to spend the money I won fixing the car." --Bucko Branham after taking an Airborne Speedway win despite his car missing half of its bodywork due to crashes

"At the front was the place to be tonight as far as I can tell. I mean, we came around and one car was upside down." --Ryan Avery after taking his first Sportsman Modified win at Bear Ridge Speedway

"I was almost in tears. I said, 'There it goes.' I knew it was going to happen here." --Shawn Duquette's mid-race thoughts after crashing in the ACT Tiger Sportsman Series finale at Thunder Road; he clinched the championship after a tie-breaker with Jason Bonnett

"We lose as a team, we win as a team, and you really find out who your real friends are when you're down. I mean, look at us, we were down tonight. This is what happens in racing. You're at your lowest point in the season, you don't think it can get any worse, all of sudden you're like, 'I'm so sick of it, I can't wait for it to be over,' and then you win a race. And look at us now, I've got a grin on my face, I'm on the ninth cloud, and we're going to come back tomorrow." --Nick Sweet after his first Late Model win

"It's really fun to race here when people actually give you some room." --Jamie Fisher

"It was easy tonight." --Martin Roy after his fifth Airborne Speedway win

"It was probably the best race I've been in, I don't know, probably my whole career." --Quinny Welch, after battling Wayne Helliwell, Jr. and Randy Potter in the Clash of the Titans 150 at Riverside (N.H.) Speedway and finishing second

"They said that we were pretty fast, but sometimes I wonder if he's not showing it all." --Todd Stone on championship rival Kenny Tremont, Jr., after Stone won the penultimate race at Devil's Bowl Speedway

"This is cool. This is what I wanted." --Jean-Paul Cyr while watching fireworks, moments after winning the Thunder Road championship

"No, no, no. The winner is on the last lap of the last race." --Martin Roy on being able to relax after gaining a season-high 12-point lead over Patrick Dupree entering the final event at Airborne Speedway

"This is our first win in the States this year, so I guess I can be a U.S. citizen again. Everybody's been beating on me about being a Canadian all year." --Brent Dragon in ACT victory lane at Twin State Speedway; Dragon had previously won at Riverside Speedway and Autodrome Chaudière, both in Québec

"You always think about the bad times instead of the good times, like when we won in '05 at Drummond. But tonight nothing bad happened. It's a happy time." --Martin Roy after clinching the Airborne Speedway Modified championship

"We went up this morning after the drivers meeting, Tom (Curley) took all the Late Models up to the three stones up there in the grandstands. My name was on two of them at the beginning of the day. Now it's on all three." --Dave Pembroke after winning the Labor Day Classic 200 at Thunder Road; granite monuments at the track honor past winners of the Labor Day Classic, Memorial Day Classic, and Vermont Milk Bowl events

"It's not that easy. I'll bet it looks easy though." --Chris Donnelly, after his sixth win of the season at Bear Ridge Speedway

"I've won titles and I've lost some really close battles, but at the end of the day I've still got five championships. I'm not going to lose sleep if I don't win another one this year. Don't get me wrong, I want nothing more than to win my sixth ACT championship, but do I think the pressure to perform is greater on him? Yes, I do." --Brian Hoar on ACT title rival Scott Payea

"Thank God for Nick spinning out." --Lonnie Rivers, after clinching the Airborne Speedway Renegade championship when point leader Nick Heywood went off the track in the season finale

"It wasn't until last night after we got done at Donnie Avery's race shop, I was laying underneath the car changing gears, that it sunk in -- I'm going to Loudon." --Stacy Cahoon, who won the White Mountain Motorsports Park track championship late Friday night, changed his car's setup in track promoter Avery's garage, and was at New Hampshire Motor Speedway by 7:30 on Saturday morning

"Yes it was." --Oxford Plains Speedway champion Travis Adams' interjection to our offering, "Sorry your Loudon experience wasn't what you wanted." Adams finished 32nd in the ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway but was so happy to be racing at the track that he cared little about his finish

"We're not idiots in this business, and I know a lot of you think we are, but we're not." --ACT president Tom Curley

"A month ago Tom (Curley) brought us all up there, and I'm looking on down through and I'm on two of them, and I said, 'Boy, I'd really like to be on that Milk Bowl one, that way my name is on all three of them.' I've been thinking about it since then." --John Donahue, moments after winning the Milk Bowl at Thunder Road and realizing his name would be on each granite monument at the track

"It's ten times better than I ever thought it would be. Ever since I was little, I dreamed of this. I never thought I would race at 16, say nothing about winning a championship at 18." --Thunder Road Tiger Sportsman champion Jimmy Hebert

"Yes." --Mike Rollins' straight-faced answer to the question, "Did you expect to win?" after winning the Hart 100 at Bucktona Int'l Speedway

"I'd see how quickly I pulled away and I figured, as long I didn't do anything mentally challenged I'll be just fine." --Eric Williams after beating Joey Polewarczyk to win the ACT Late Model Tour finale at Oxford Plains Speedway

"I celebrated for about ten minutes when we signed the deal, but then I put my head down in the ditch and got to work." --Bill Jenkins, after purchasing the #26 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team from Roush-Fenway Racing

"The irony behind it all is that probably if you hadn't decided to go with them, I might not have the opportunity to be where I'm standing right now." --Brian Hoar addressing Jean-Paul Cyr during his ACT championship speech; Cyr left the RPM Motorsports team after 2008 to form a new team with Joey and Jeff Laquerre at Thunder Road, and Hoar filled the RPM seat on the ACT Late Model Tour. The switch resulted in both Hoar and Cyr winning their respective championships in 2009

Gappens says ACT-NHMS Partnership is "Win-Win"

SOUTH BURLINGTON -- Jerry Gappens is a believer, in the American-Canadian Tour and in its fiery figurehead, Tom Curley.

The New Hampshire Motor Speedway Executive Vice President was presented with ACT's prestigious Don MacTavish Award on Saturday night at the annual Banquet of Champions, but his affinity for the series has roots much deeper than just being given a trophy.

Gappens took a chance on Curley's series at a meeting in 2008, agreeing to host the first-ever ACT Invitational on Sylvania 300 weekend in Septmeber 2009 -- the kickoff event of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase for the Cup -- and seems happy to have done so; grandstand attendance for the Saturday program at NHMS was around 40,000, up significantly from prior years, thanks in part to the Invitational. But his affinity for ACT is even deeper than just increased ticket sales.

In fact, Gappens is a short tracker. Growing up in Indiana, he raced dirt track Sprint Cars in high school and attended local races with his father as a boy. Gappens may be in charge of a high-profile superspeedway in the national spotlight, but he still takes time to appreciate where he came from. He's been to Thunder Road to watch the Milk Bowl, he's been to Lee USA Speedway, a weekly Friday-night track not far from NHMS, and he keeps tabs on who's doing what in the local circuits. In the middle of the interview for this story on Saturday night, he went out of his way to introduce himself to one of ACT's young stars, and called him by name.

Gappens knows how vital ACT and its band of grassroots racers have become to the success of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and he knows that's a two-way street.

"I think it's very important. We saw in September that our attendance was up over the previous three or four years by having ACT there, and I give them all the credit for increasing the crowd," he said. "The economy has been down, ticket sales have been down, but that [Invitational] gave us the shot in the arm to help us have a great crowd on Saturday."

A strategic promotional move by Curley and Gappens was to make each ACT race in the U.S. and Canada in 2009 an ACT Invitational qualifying event, thereby making the September weekend at New Hampshire the focal point of every race from April to mid-September.

"One of the reasons we wanted to do the partnership with ACT was that they're out there racing every weekend throughout New England, up into Canada, and that Invitational format gave us a chance to promote New Hampshire Motor Speedway and our September weekend at all the ACT events," said Gappens. "It was really beneficial for both of us. It gave the participants of ACT a venue for really a Super Bowl-type atmosphere, a chance to run in front of NASCAR car owners and drivers, and it helped us promote our event. It was a win-win situation for both parties."

New Hampshire Motor Speedway has invited Curley and ACT back for another go in September 2010. "It's still going to be an invitational, [but] I think there will be a day you'll see it be an actual points race on the calendar," Gappens said. "Right now Tom says let's do another year as an invitational, and I think that's good, I trust his guidance on what's best for the tour."

The 50-lap, 36-car ACT Invitational race, which featured several lead changes and competitive side-by-side racing, immediately followed a decidely lackluster 200-lap NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event as the sun began to set on September 19. Gappens says that he jokingly thanked NASCAR President Mike Helton in the pressbox that day for putting on the "lead-up event" to the ACT race, which proved to be the best show of the day. As it turned out, Helton and NASCAR were paying attention.

"[ACT is] definitely coming back," Gappens is quick to say. "We're working with NASCAR, and one of the things I'm talking about is shortening the truck race from 200 laps to 150 laps, just to make sure that we have more time for the ACT race on Saturday afternoon. They're actually pretty receptive to it, so I think we'll get that accomplished."

Curley had a dream to bring his series of local short track racers to the biggest stage in the northeast, and Gappens took a chance on it. And so far, it seems, everybody is a winner.

(PHOTO: Tom Curley (left) and Jerry Gappens are working together to benefit both ACT and NHMS. Leif Tillotson photo)

Waterford Speedbowl to Close 2010 ACT Schedule

Thunder Road's Milk Bowl becomes stand-alone event

WATERFORD, Conn. -- The American-Canadian Tour has tweaked its previously released partial ACT Late Model Tour 2010 schedule, deleting the Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl at Barre's Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl from the championship slate and picking up a pair of events at Waterford Speedbowl on the Connecticut shoreline.

The racy 3/8-mile oval will host a 100-lap ACT Late Model Tour event on August 21, and will also close the series' schedule -- which now stands at 14 races -- in a Late Model/SK Modified twinbill event on October 9/10. ACT will become part of Waterford's annual SK Modified Nationals event, with each division running 150 laps; the Nationals event has traditionally been the track's season opener in April, but will close the Waterford and ACT schedules for the first time.

With the addition of the Waterford race, the Milk Bowl has once again become a non-championship, stand-alone event, but will still be run on its originally released date of October 2/3. ACT Late Model Tour champion Brian Hoar of Williston won a controversial event at Waterford in August after a late-race crash eliminated leader Brad Leighton. Other ACT winners at Waterford Speedbowl include Scott Payea (2008), Roger Brown (2004), and Brent Dragon (2003).

ACT LATE MODEL TOUR 2010 SCHEDULE (as of Nov. 30, 2009)

#-Day-Date-Track-Location-Laps

1. Sun., April 18 -- Lee USA Speedway, Lee, N.H. -- 150
2. Sun., April 25 -- Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Malta, N.Y. -- 100
3. Sun., May 2 -- Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre -- 150
4. Sat., May 8 -- Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, N.Y. -- 100
5. Sun., May 16 -- Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me. -- 150
6. Sat., June 19 -- Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me. -- 150
7. Sat., June 26 -- White Mountain Motorsports Park, North Woodstock, N.H. -- 150
-- Sun., July 18 -- Oxford Plains Speedway, Oxford, Me. -- 250 (non-points)
8. Sat., July 24 -- Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, Scarborough (Portland), Me. -- 150
9. Fri., July 30 -- Twin State Speedway, Claremont, N.H. -- 100
10. Sat., Aug. 14 -- Riverside Speedway, Ste-Croix, Qué. -- 200 (Tour/Castrol combo)
11. Sat., Aug. 21 -- Waterford Speedbowl, Waterford, Conn. -- 100
-- Sat., Aug. 28 -- Autodrome Chaudière, Vallée-Jonction, Qué. -- 200 (non-points)
12. Sun., Sept. 5 -- Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre -- 200
13. Sun., Sept. 12 -- Airborne Speedway, Plattsburgh, N.Y. -- 300
-- Sat., Sept. 18 -- New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, N.H. -- TBA (non-points)
-- Sat./Sun., Oct. 2/3 -- Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre -- 150 (non-points)
14. Sat./Sun., Oct. 9/10 -- Waterford Speedbowl, Waterford, Conn. -- 150

The Juice -- At What Point Did John Donahue Become a Star?

-by Justin St. Louis

Don't look now, but there's a new kid in town. Actually, there's nothing new about him at all, really, or kid-like. He's a hard worker with strong, dirty hands, hints of an old-time "ayuh" accent, and has been around this game for the better part of 20 years.

But all of a sudden, for the first time, John Donahue is a headline driver.

There's no telling the exact moment when he became one. Sunday, after winning the Milk Bowl? It might have been the crown jewel of his career, but it certainly wasn't his first win, or even his first important win. But in writing the post-race wrap-up of the Milk Bowl on Sunday and Monday, I found myself surprised, thinking something to the effect of, "Holy cow, Donahue's racked up quite the résumé. When did that happen?" In reality, it began a lot longer ago than I realized, maybe longer than anyone did.

A farmer by trade, the woodchuck-through-and-through Donahue rolled out of the rural Graniteville hills with a block-long Chevrolet for the "Killer B" class at Barre's Thunder Road in 1994. He recalled thinking that his car -- a larger, heavier, less powerful version of the era's Flying Tigers -- was "too slow" to have any fun in, so he moved up to the Tigers to race against his older brother, Bill, who had followed in their father Paul's footsteps as a multi-time winner and championship contender in the division.

And it turned out that "Irish John" was a chip off the ol' block, finishing third in points as a rookie. During the five seasons that followed, he would earn a pair of Thunder Road championships, a Triple Crown title at New Hampshire's Riverside Speedway, a "Tiger 50 Series" title, well over two dozen feature races at Thunder Road, Riverside, and Airborne Speedway in New York, and three Strictly Stock features at Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine.

In 2002, Donahue was hired to drive an American-Canadian Tour Late Model for Lee Delphia, winning top rookie honors at Thunder Road and finishing second on the Tour to the well-financed Ryan Moore, while also taking a Limited Sportsman win at Oxford. But a split from Delphia as the season ended left Donahue without a full-time ride for 2003, and the funding for his Maine-based team dried up as well. Donahue was on the outside looking in before another car owner, Mike Thompson, put Donahue in his Late Model for 2004.

Although comparatively underfunded, the team notched a win in the 2005 regular season finale at Thunder Road, a second win in mid-2006, and was constantly a top-five threat. A few on-track tussles brought some fanfare, including a couple involving Eric Williams, one of Thunder Road's all-time great villains. Add to that the fact that T-Road impresario Ken Squier loved to say the words "Irish John Donahue" (as he still does), and the name was becoming a water cooler topic in the offices of Central Vermont each Friday morning after the races, but still rarely appeared in print, radio, or television.

A windfall ride from new car owner Kendall Roberts -- complete with flashy, high-profile sponsorship from the National Guard, a pair of brand new cars with technical support from chassis builder Dale Shaw, and the occasional performance boost in crew chief Jeff Laquerre, at least in the first season -- appeared at Donahue's door in 2007, and, as far as my best guess goes, anyway, that's probably when things really began to click. Donahue knocked off a 100-lap open win at Oxford in June and took his first ACT victory in Thunder Road's 200-lap Labor Day Classic in September. The next season, he won back-to-back races at Thunder Road, on Mother's Day and in the ACT race on Memorial Day, then finished in the top-five in points with both the weekly Thunder Road chase and the ACT Late Model Tour. But still, he was never much for the headlines.

Now, this year, Donahue scored a dominating ACT win at White Mountain Motorsports Park, has three ACT runner-up finishes, pulled down a third-place effort in the Oxford 250 after leading some laps, took fifth in the ACT Invitational at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, won last week's Milk Bowl, and is about to again finish among the top five in ACT points. And we're finally talking about him. You'll notice that Donahue has won some races, big ones at that, but like was said earlier, he's been winning from the very start. So what's made him a star now? I think the answer might be John Donahue himself.

It's easy to tell that when speaking with the media, Donahue's still not always comfortable being in the spotlight. But he's certainly come a long way from the days of his Tiger championships; Donahue won the Milk Bowl season finale in 2001 to clinch both the track and Tiger 50 titles, and he got out of the car with big smile and a two-fisted "Rocky" salute to the crowd. All well and good for photos, but his victory lane speech -- and I still remember hearing it -- was pretty much void of the content or emotion a race fan might expect to hear from a driver going through so much excitement.

Last Sunday at the Milk Bowl, though, Donahue played it up for the crowd, for the media, for Squier, for the Governor, for everybody. He performed a series of smoky, spinning burnouts while carrying the checkered flag. He dumped Booth Bros. milk down his frontside as he drank from the bowl trophy. He lifted the farm-style milk can above his head as though it was the Stanley Cup. He kissed the cow in victory lane -- on the lips -- twice. He celebrated with his family and team. As a couple of television cameras and a crowd of a half-dozen reporters stuck their microphones in Donahue's face, he flashed a confident smile, answered on-the-spot questions, and even cracked a joke or two. He never backed down from a question, gave honest answers, and even spit a little bit of fire when confronted with another driver's ruffled feathers. At White Mountain in June, his victory lane and post-race radio interviews were well-spoken and entertaining. His confidence with being a publicly prominent sports figure in the region seems to grow after every top-five finish (and he's on a streak of six straight right now).

Travis Barrett of Green-White-Checker asked Donahue on Sunday if he has felt overlooked as a top driver. I asked him a similar question after the Fall Foliage 300 at Airborne last month, speaking in terms of the ACT championship battle. And it seemed as though Donahue didn't really care if he was forgotten or not. "I'm sort of out of the picture," Donahue said at Airborne. "That's okay, make 'em think." And then he rambled on -- yes, rambled -- about how good his car and his team are, and gave this writer more than enough to fill a blog post's worth of space.

If anyone on the track, in the media, or anywhere else -- myself included -- forgot to think about John Donahue in the past, well, we won't now.

He's not the new kid in town. But he's definitely in town.

***

Three words: Bucktona International Speedway. If you don't know, ask someone who does.

***

Interesting stuff from the Milk Bowl pit meeting:

--ACT president Tom Curley said that there is "no question" that his series will be invited back to New Hampshire Motor Speedway next year. Ken Squier said the same thing.

--Curley said that the 2010 ACT Late Model Tour schedule is expected to be completed and published by the end of October. The Tour will not return to Kawartha Speedway in Ontario, but will visit "one or two new tracks".

--ACT's announcement that it will continue to sanction the Castrol Series in Canada comes this early, in part, to dispell rumors that the recent Patrick Laperle scandal drove Curley's group away. In fact, Curley said he's going back to Canada in 2010 because he's "pissed off" about the Autodrome St-Eustache incident and wants to continue holding fair races for the teams that have supported him.

--Okay, this wasn't at the pit meeting, but we overheard Curley telling third-place finisher Eric Williams that he is exploring the idea of expanding the Milk Bowl's three segments from 50 laps each to 75 laps, as early as next year. Curley thinks that another 25 laps would help bring back the possibility of the single-digit Milk Bowl win and bring back more excitement to the race. The fact that John Donahue's winning score was 17 points, and other recent winning scores have been as high as 23 points -- a far cry from Brian Hoar's 4-point win in 1998 -- means to Curley that the segments are just too short to produce the kind of racing the Milk Bowl became famous for. With the current ACT rules package, the cars are too equal to allow for three back-to-front drives through traffic. Robbie Crouch was the last driver to win every segment and score a perfect three points... in 1986. And it was a distant nine years ago that Phil Scott and Tracie Bellerose each scored eight points in the race, the most recent single-digit scores.

***

Speaking of Bellerose, she will be back in competition at Riverside Speedway on Saturday behind the wheel of a Late Model owned by Jane LeBlanc. Bellerose has been out of competition since a 10th-place ACT Late Model Tour finish at Oxford Plains Speedway in October 2007.

***

And speaking of Oxford, we'll be there on Sunday for the New England Dodge Dealers Fall Spectacular 150 and the ACT Late Model Tour season finale, welcoming a new supporter to Vermont Motorsports Magazine in Burnett Scrap Metals of Williston, Vt. Burnett has been involved in local racing for many years, and fielded a pair of race cars -- Neal Foster's Tiger Sportsman and Keith Fortier's Junkyard Warrior -- at Thunder Road in 2009.

Brian Hoar will try to fend off Scott Payea at Oxford for his sixth ACT championship, and first since 2000. Payea, of course, is looking for his first title, but will have to break his streak of not-so-good luck at Oxford. In ten career ACT starts at Oxford, Payea's got an average finish of just 12th, with a pair of sixth-place runs as his best finishes. He also has two 17ths, a 19th in May of this year, and a 22nd. Payea readily admits that Oxford is his achilles heel, and has been rumored to be building a second chassis for the 2010 season strictly to help improve his Oxford program. It'll be fun to watch, either way.

***

Rookie Jacob Dore of Sanford, Me. celebrated his first True Value Modified Racing Series win... a day after the race. Dore finished second across the finish line at Twin State Speedway on Sunday, but was named the winner of the Ricky Miller Memorial 112 on Monday after Matt Hirschman was disqualified. Dore, 20, was informed of the ruling as he was doing homework in his dorm room at the University of New Hampshire. Dwight Jarvis of Ascutney was fourth, and his nephew, Joey, finished 19th in a car normally driven by his father, Peter. The TVMRS cars now head to Seekonk Speedway in Massachusetts on Saturday and Sunday for the annual D. Anthony Venditti Memorial Fall Classic event.

Donahue Spars With Dragon at Milk Bowl

Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl coverage presented by RPM Racing Engines


John Donahue and Patrick Laperle weren't racing for the win at Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl's Labor Day Classic last month, but they were definitely the show to watch all day. At Sunday's Milk Bowl at the Barre track, Donahue found a new boxing partner in Brent Dragon. But the stakes were much higher this time.

Donahue and Dragon were head-and-shoulders above the rest of the Milk Bowl field on Sunday, and entered the third and final 50-lap segment racing each other for the overall victory in Vermont's biggest annual race and a $10,000 top prize. Dragon, the 2006 Milk Bowl winner, held a razor-thin, one-point advantage over Donahue, and the two raced each other exactly as if that was the case.

By virtue of their ninth- and tenth-place finishes in the second leg of the race and the traditional full-field inversion between segments, they found themselves starting the final round in the 21st and 22nd positions and needing to move forward quickly. Making daring moves in traffic -- including a four-lap stretch where either Donahue, Dragon, or both was racing three-wide on Thunder Road's narrow surface -- eventually push came to shove.

And both drivers shoved. Dragon put his nose under Donahue and Glen Luce on lap 17 to complete a three-wide pass, one that Donahue wasn't fond of.

"I don't like being put three-wide, but this is the third segment, this is the Milk Bowl," Donahue said. "I said, 'Alright, my car is good enough, I can put you three-wide.' So I did."

And he did. On the next lap, with Dragon now on the outside lane, Donahue stuck his nose in an opening in the middle lane. Dragon, as a result, was briefly knocked off the track, and, he says, out of contention for the win.

"When I got ran off the backstretch there, it knocked the rear end out and instantly I knew it, I could feel it," Dragon said. "It just made the car so loose, and I was done. I was along for the ride at that point." Dragon acknowledged that his driving style at the Milk Bowl was out of character for the usually smooth, calculated racer. "We wanted it bad. We wanted to win it and that's what you've got to do in the Milk Bowl. That's just part of the deal. I wanted to win."

Dragon said he was surprised by Donahue's move, and although he understood that the lure of a Milk Bowl win fuels drivers to race harder, losing the race that way was hard to take.

"Yeah, a little bit. I didn't expect John to run me like that," he said. "I mean, I probably do in the Milk Bowl, [but] I had him pinned behind a car on the backstretch and I was in good shape, I would have gained a couple spots right there, and he just ran me off the backstretch. I can't believe I didn't crash, I got that far out into the dirt. That's the worst part of it."

Donahue saw the move as an eye-for-an-eye situation. "He says I cut him off. Whatever," said Donahue. "He put me three-wide. You know, what comes around, goes around. He might be mad.

"I mean, this is the Milk Bowl, this happens once a year. I don't know how else to put it. I wanted it more than he did. I got rough. I usually don't drive like that, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime deal."

While winning that first Milk Bowl may be something a driver only gets to do once, Dragon said experiencing Donahue's tactics was not. And it's not something he'll likely forget as the American-Canadian Tour season comes to a close at Oxford Plains Speedway next Sunday.

"No, it's the second time it's happened this year [with Donahue]," Dragon said. "I'll be good with it, and I'll keep it in my memory bank. That's part of the deal.

"We'll see what happens next week."

(PHOTOS: 1. Brent Dragon (#55) gets underneath John Donahue (#26) and Glen Luce (#7); 2. Donahue repays the favor with Dragon outside and Eric Chase (#40) and Joey Becker (#16) down low. Photos by Leif Tillotson)

Donahue in Good Company with Milk Bowl Win

Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl coverage presented by RPM Racing Engines

BARRE -- Three years ago, John Donahue's name was often little more than a footnote in American-Canadian Tour race finishes or year-end point standings. And three short years later, the Graniteville driver has firmly established himself as a driver that will be remembered long after his final lap.

With a win in the 47th running of the Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl at Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Donahue became just the tenth driver in history to win each of the track's "big three" events -- he won the Memorial Day Classic in 2008, the Labor Day Classic, the site of his first ACT Late Model Tour win, in 2007, and now Sunday's Milk Bowl. The victory means his name will be now etched in all three granite monuments at the Barre track honoring past winners of the events, alongside pioneers Larry Demar and Russell Ingerson, Hall of Famers Jean-Paul Cabana, Bobby Dragon, Dave Dion, and Robbie Crouch, and modern-day heroes Jean-Paul Cyr, Dave Pembroke, and Brent Dragon.

It's something Donahue spent a lot of time thinking about, too.

"This'll put the third one on there now," Donahue said after his Milk Bowl victory. "[It means] a lot. A month ago, Tom (Curley, ACT president) brought us all up there, the drivers, and I'm looking on down through and I'm on two of [the monuments], and I said, 'Boy, I'd really like to be on that Milk Bowl one, that way my name is on all three of them.' I've been thinking about it since then."

And perhaps appropriately, it was one of those names already carved into each piece of the rock -- Milton's Brent Dragon -- that Donahue had to outduel to win the Milk Bowl.

Dragon won the opening 50-lap round of the three-segment, cumulatively scored race, with Donahue third. Donahue finished ninth in the middle leg, one spot better than Dragon, and trailed Dragon by one point entering the final 50 laps. And that's when Donahue turned up the wick.

Both drivers raced three-wide through traffic, along with Scott Payea, Brian Hoar, and Brad Leighton, who each would be within striking distance under the right circumstances, near the one-third mark of the final segment. Dragon and Donahue traded jabs on the track, knowing their mid-pack battle was almost certainly for the overall victory.

Dragon pushed three-wide under Donahue and Glen Luce on lap 17, then swapped lanes on the next lap. Donahue seized the opportunity, returning the three-wide favor. In the intense action, Dragon's car was shoved momentarily off the backstretch, while Donahue was able to squeeze by. Two laps later, Payea spun off the track with Dave Whitcomb and Eric Chase to bring out the caution flag.

Donahue and Dragon realigned in 13th and 14th for the restart on lap 20, which proved to be the decisive moment of the race. Traffic in Donahue's inside lane moved faster than Dragon's high side group, and Donahue picked his way through the field to finish fifth in the segment. But Dragon, his car knocked out of alignment from the contact on lap 18, was only able to muster a tenth-place finish in segment. With the final tally added up, Donahue's 17 segment points secured him his first Milk Bowl win, four points better than Dragon's 21, and nine better than Eric Williams of Hyde Park.

Donahue began his career as a Flying Tiger/Sportsman racer at Thunder Road in the mid-nineties, winning more than his share of races and championships, but had little in the way of headline-grabbing success in the top-tier Late Model class -- and certainly with the touring ACT division -- until recently. His Milk Bowl victory and planting the traditional kiss on a "trophy queen" cow, he says, is the crowning achievement of his racing career.

"It's right at the top. I've had a lot of good races, I won a [Labor Day] 200 here, but this is different," he said. "You've got three different segments, you stop, you have to think about it, re-do your car. This is one I've been wanting for a long time. I'm just going to soak this one in and be happy."

Williams' third-place finish went virtually unnoticed, overshadowed by the Donahue-Dragon saga, but his segment finishes of seventh, fifteenth, and fourth were good enough for the podium spot. Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. of Hudson, N.H. (28 points) and Brian Hoar of Williston (29 points) finished fourth and fifth overall. The top-ten was completed by Dave Pembroke, Jamie Fisher, Nick Sweet, Joey Laquerre, and Chip Grenier. Track champion Jean-Paul Cyr, who won the third segment finished 11th overall, while second-segment winner Wayne Helliwell, Jr. finished 18th overall in his first start at Thunder Road.

***

Eighteen year-old Jimmy Hebert of Williamstown became the youngest driver in history to win a championship in Thunder Road's famed Tiger Sportsman division on Sunday, taking a four-point victory over Tony Rossi of Barre. Hebert overcame a tense moment on lap 17 of the 50-lap finale when hard contact with Mark Barnier cut Hebert's left-rear tire, sending him into a spin down the frontstretch. After pitting under the caution period, Hebert recovered for a 13th-place finish.

"It's ten times better that I ever thought it would be," said Hebert. "Ever since I was little, I dreamed of this. I never thought I would race at 16, say nothing about winning a championship at 18. The first year we really struggled and everybody seemed discouraged, but last year we put together some good runs. This year we worked on consistency and it really paid off for us."

Shawn Fleury of Middlesex took the lead from upstart Jason Corliss on lap 28, then cruised to his second win of the season. Mike Ziter followed Fleury past Corliss, but was penalized with under ten laps remaining for spinning a lapped car off the backstretch. Ziter was placed last in the 28-car field. Danville driver Corliss, the 2008 Street Stock champion making only his fourth appearance in the Tiger Sportsman division, finished second officially, with Bradford's Derrick O'Donnell third, Rossi fourth, and Bobby Therrien of Hinesburg in fifth.

Pete Ainsworth, who entered the final weekend with an eight-point lead in the division, failed to qualify for the main event. He slumped to a fourth-place championship finish behind Hebert, Rossi, and Brendan Moodie.

Tommy "Thunder" Smith of Williamstown moved into sole possession of first-place all-time in the Street Stock division with his 20th career win, his third of the season. Mike Martin of Craftsbury Common was the runner-up, with rookie Danny Doyle of Hancock third, Garry Bashaw of Lincoln fourth, and Randolph's Markus Farnham fifth. Veteran driver Gary Mullen of Tunbridge captured his first championship with a ninth-place finish, beating Martin for the title by 26 points.

Like Ainsworth, Junkyard Warrior point leader Donny Yates of North Montpelier failed to qualify for the Milk Bowl finale, but was still able to clinch his division's championship on the strength of six wins during the season. Ken Christman of Cabot took his third victory, over Keith Fortier of Hinesburg, Kevin Streeter of Waitsfield, Northfield's John Prentice, and Tommy Elwood of Morrisville.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS -- 47th Annual Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl
Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre, Vt.
Sunday, October 4, 2009

Pos.-Driver-Hometown-(Segment Finishes/Total Score)
1. John Donahue, Graniteville (3+9+5=17)
2. Brent Dragon, Milton (1+10+10=21)
3. Eric Williams, Hyde Park (7+15+4=26)
4. Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., Hudson, N.H. (4+22+2=28)
5. Brian Hoar, Williston (16+4+9=29)
6. Dave Pembroke, Middlesex (5+19+7=31)
7. Jamie Fisher, Shelburne (10+13+8=31)
8. Nick Sweet, Barre (2+17+12=31)
9. Joey Laquerre, East Montpelier (11+8+15=34)
10. Chip Grenier, Graniteville (9+25+3=37)
11. Jean-Paul Cyr, Milton (8+29+1=38)
12. Phil Scott, Montpelier (6+27+6=39)
13. Scott Payea, Milton (12+5+23=40)
14. Brad Leighton, Center Harbor, N.H. (13+6+22=41)
15. Tyler Cahoon, St. Johnsbury (22+2+20=44)
16. Glen Luce, Turner, Me. (18+16+11=45)
17. Tony Andrews, Northfield (24+3+18=45)
18. Wayne Helliwell, Jr., Dracut, Mass. (27+1+19=47)
19. Joey Doiron, Berwick, Me. (14+7+26=47)
20. Quinny Welch, Lancaster, N.H. (21+12+17=50)
21. Matt White, Northfield (15+28+16=59)
22. Chad Wheeler, Waterbury Center (19+30+13=62)
23. Mark Hayward, Unity, N.H. (25+11+27=63)
24. Mike Olsen, North Haverhill, N.H. (17+18+28=63)
25. Eric Chase, Milton (20+14+29=63)
26. Joey Becker, Jeffersonville (23+21+21=65)
27. Pete Potvin, III, Graniteville (28+24+14=66)
28. Rich Lowrey, Charlotte (26+20+25=71)
29. Mike Bailey, South Barre (30+23+24=77)
30. Dave Whitcomb, Essex Junction (29+26+30=85)

NAPA Tiger Sportsman (# - denotes rookie)
1. Shawn Fleury, Middlesex
2. #Jason Corliss, Danville
3. Derrick O'Donnell, Bradford
4. Tony Rossi, Barre
5. Bobby Therrien, Hinesburg
6. Ray Stearns, East Corinth
7. Brendan Moodie, North Wolcott
8. Tommy Therrien, Hinesburg
9. Josh Demers, Middlesex
10. Lance Allen, Barre

Allen Lumber Street Stock/Power Shift Online Junkyard Warrior (# - denotes rookie)
Pos.-Driver-Hometown (# - denotes rookie)
1. Tommy Smith, Williamstown (SS)
2. Mike Martin, Craftsbury Common (SS)
3. #Danny Doyle, Hancock (SS)
4. Garry Bashaw, Lincoln (SS)
5. Markus Farnham, Randolph (SS)

20. Ken Christman, Cabot (JW)
21. Keith Fortier, Hinesburg (JW)
22. Kevin Streeter, Waitsfield (JW)
23. John Prentice, Northfield (JW)
24. Tommy Elwood, Morrisville (JW)

(PHOTOS: 1. John Donahue hoists the Milk Bowl trophy after his first win in the classic event; 2. Donahue smooches Larolupine, the Milk Bowl trophy queen, as Governor Jim Douglas looks on; 3. Tiger Sportsman champion Jimmy Hebert; 4. Street Stock champion Gary Mullen. Photos by Justin St. Louis/VMM)

Congratulations to John Donahue and team!

"Irish" John Donahue captured the Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl at Barre's Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl on Sunday afternoon, earning the $10,000 top prize and a piece of local short track racing lore. Our congratulations to Donahue, crew chief Dale Shaw, car owner Kendall Roberts, and the entire #26 National Guard team. VMM will have a recap of the event soon, presented by RPM Racing Engines.

(Photos by Justin St. Louis/VMM)

Michaud out, Wheeler in at Milk Bowl

Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl coverage presented by RPM Racing Engines

BARRE -- Former Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl champion Chad Wheeler of Waterbury Center will return to the track on Sunday at the second attempt at running the 47th Annual Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl.

Northfield's Cris Michaud, who qualified 14th for the race last Saturday before rains postponed the main event the next day, was injured in a work accident this week and has asked Wheeler to compete in his place.

Wheeler ended Michaud's bid for three consecutive Thunder Road track championships in 2006, taking the title despite going winless on the season; after wrapping up the "King of the Road" crown, Wheeler retired on the spot and has not driven a race since.

"I had a great time racing against Cris for a lot of years and beating him for the title in 2006 got me to thinking that there really wasn’t much more for me in the sport at this time in my life," said Wheeler in a Thunder Road press release. "I wanted to spend a lot of time with my young boys, but now maybe there is one more thing I could accomplish with racing. It sure will be fun to try. I am looking forward to it, and I appreciate the confidence Cris has in putting me in his car.”

"What better guy to take over my ride in the Milk Bowl than Chad?" said Michaud.

Michaud won the 2004 Milk Bowl en route to his second of three Thunder Road championships. Wheeler won the second leg of the three-segment event in 1999; his best overall efforts in the race were fifth-place finishes in 1999 and 2005.

Nick Sweet and Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. will start from the front row of the Milk Bowl on Sunday at 1:00pm.

Milk Bowl Postponed by Rain

Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl coverage presented by RPM Racing Engines

The 47th annual Milk Bowl at Barre's Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl has been postponed by rain to Sunday, October 4 at 1:00pm.

Qualifying was completed on Saturday, with hometown driver Nick Sweet earning his first career Milk Bowl pole position with a time trial lap of 13.110 seconds. Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. of Hudson, N.H. will start on the outside of the front row after posting a time of 13.164 seconds; Polewarczyk had won the Milk Bowl pole in each of the previous three years.

Dave Pembroke, John Donahue, and Joey Laquerre won the "Triple 50" qualifying heats.

Milk Bowl Starting Lineup

Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl coverage presented by RPM Racing Engines

Official Starting Lineup for 47th Milk Bowl, Sunday, Sept. 27
Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl, Barre, Vt.


Pos.-Driver-Hometown
1. Nick Sweet, Barre
2. Joey Polewarczyk, Jr., Hudson, N.H.
3. Brent Dragon, Milton
4. Dave Pembroke, Middlesex
5. John Donahue, Graniteville
6. Joey Laquerre, East Montpelier
7. Eric Williams, Hyde Park
8. Jamie Fisher, Shelburne
9. Chip Grenier, Graniteville
10. Joey Doiron, Berwick, Me.
11. Phil Scott, Montpelier
12. Scott Payea, Milton
13. Cris Michaud, Northfield
14. Jean-Paul Cyr, Milton
15. Brad Leighton, Center Harbor, N.H.
16. Tyler Cahoon, St. Johnsbury
17. Rich Lowrey, Charlotte
18. Mike Bailey, South Barre
19. Brian Hoar, Williston
20. Glen Luce, Turner, Me.
21. Pete Potvin, III, Graniteville
22. Matt White, Northfield
23. Mike Olsen, North Haverhill, N.H.
24. Tony Andrews, Northfield
25. Quinny Welch, Lancaster, N.H.
26. Wayne Helliwell, Jr., Dracut, Mass.
27. Dave Whitcomb, Essex Junction
28. Mark Hayward, Unity, N.H.
29. Joey Becker, Jeffersonville
30. Eric Chase, Milton

Stay tuned Sunday morning for notice of postponement due to inclement weather. Official announcement expected at 8:00am.

Milk Bowl Time Trial Results

Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl coverage presented by RPM Racing Engines

Best single lap time shown



88 Nick Sweet - 13.110
97 Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. - 13.164
55vt Brent Dragon - 13.192
44 Dave Pembroke - 13.204
37 Brian Hoar - 13.218
15vt Joey Laquerre - 13.228
9vt Chip Grenier - 13.258
26vt John Donahue - 13.265
7me Glen Luce - 13.272
41 Pete Potvin, III - 13.276
42 Matt White - 13.278
18 Jamie Fisher - 13.279
32 Mike Olsen - 13.292
6 Cris Michaud - 13.306
8vt Rich Lowrey - 13.309
89 Scott Payea - 13.310
1 Tony Andrews - 13.327
11vt Jean-Paul Cyr - 13.333
55nh Brad Leighton - 13.370
16 Joey Becker - 13.373
14vt Phil Scott - 13.392
85 Trampas Demers - 13.400
7vt Eric Williams - 13.414
77nh Mark Hayward - 13.435
00 Mike Bailey - 13.436
24 Steve Fisher - 13.439
82 Bobby Baillargeon - 13.440
22vt Kyle Caron - 13.453
73me Joey Doiron - 13.454
05 Craig Bushey - 13.461
68 Brooks Clark - 13.464
27nh Wayne Helliwell, Jr. - 13.477
4 Doug Murphy - 13.485
25 Dave Whitcomb - 13.488
78nh Quinny Welch - 13.505
66 A.J. Begin - 13.509
5vt Bob Ailes, Sr. - 13.509
38vt Tyler Cahoon - 13.512
10nh Jeff Taylor - 13.529
31on Spencer MacPherson - 13.552
42ma Jeff Zuidema - 13.552
81 Grant Folsom - 13.542
7pq Daniel Bergeron - 13.558
75 Pete Fecteau - 13.568
71 Bobby Dragon - 13.571
76 Travis Fadden - 13.577
72 Dave Paya - 13.627
8nh Rick Thompson, Jr. - 13.627
34 Dylan Smith - 13.640
51me Ricky Rolfe - 13.743
3 Bernie Lantagne - 13.773
29 Ricky Roberts - 13.795
40 Eric Chase - 13.863
84 Matt Sanborn - 13.895

Looking to Turn Year Around, Polewarczyk Wants Milk Bowl Win

Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl coverage presented by RPM Racing Engines

BARRE -- Joey Polewarczyk began the 2009 season with high expactations and a lot of pressure on his young shoulders. At age 20, the Hudson, N.H. racer has often been touted as the "next big thing" to come out of the bullrings of the northeast. NASCAR champions Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick have spoken well of him, and his talents are praised often by the various car owners he has driven for.

But this season has been a miserable one for Polewarczyk, at least on the race track. Sure, he won an ACT Late Model Tour event at Oxford Plains Speedway in May, finally got his first victory at Barre's Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl in June, and has raced twice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this year. But between events in ACT, PASS, and NASCAR competition, he has been involved in no less than five incidents that took him out of contention for a victory in the 2009 calendar year. And although he ranks in the top-five, he is not a contender for the ACT championship this season.

A victory in this weekend's Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl at Thunder Road, Polewarczyk says, would erase all of the bad stuff.

"I want this one bad," he said on Friday. "Last night I stayed up and watched the last three years' Milk Bowls on DVDs that we have. I watched every part of them. I'm the most focused I've ever been for any race this year. Next to the Oxford 250, this is the biggest race we have, it's huge. We've had a horrible second-half of the season, and a win in this race could change everything."

While he has a chance to tie Brian Hoar's record of four consecutive pole positions in the race, Polewarczyk has bigger designs on just getting the checkered flag at the end of the day.

"I definitely want another pole. Brian Hoar won four in a row and it would be pretty cool to tie his record, but our main focus is to win the race," Polewarczyk said. "We always qualify well and do well in the first segment, then we seem to have back luck or get in someone else's mess in the second segment. It's all about the second segment." In 2007, a dismal 27th-place effort in the middle 50-lap segment of the race left Polewarczyk 19th overall. He won the first round and finished third overall in 2006, but a 14th-place second-segment finish left him unable to catch winner Brent Dragon or runner-up Cris Michaud.

"The Milk Bowl is all about patience, but then again, you can't say that, either," Polewarczyk said of the race, which inverts the finish of each segment to begin the next and awards the driver with the lowest three-segment point tally (one point to win a segment, two point for second, etc.) the overall win. "You can't look at it like a regular 150-lap race, it's 50 laps that you have do three times. You have to make your moves at the right time and be quick, but you have to save your [equipment], too, and then do it two more times. You have to get to the front fast, but you have to race with the sense in your head that, 'Okay, there's another leg right after this one, so don't wreck.'"

Polewarczyk earned his first win at Thunder Road in June at the Vermont Governor's Cup 150, but said the win does little to ease his nerves at the tough quarter-mile. "We ran good at Thunder Road for a long time before the win," he said. "The win gives us confidence and it got the monkey off our back, but you can't ever go to Thunder Road thinking you're going to win there. It's such a tough place, and it'll bite you at any second. You can come out of Turn 4 and think you're just going to brush the wall a little bit, and the next thing you know you're upside down. You have to respect it, because something will always go wrong that will bring you back to reality."

But the temptation to race hard and try to win the Milk Bowl, and to turn his frustrating year around for his team means Polewarczyk isn't holding anything back.

"You have to take some chances, but you have to be smart," he said. "And a win in that race would just... I can't even tell you how much it would mean."



(PHOTO: Joey Polewarczyk says he's "more focused" than he's ever been entering this weekend's Milk Bowl at Thunder Road. Photo by Justin St. Louis/VMM)

Laperle to Make Road Course Debut at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

MONTRÉAL, Qué. -- Patrick Laperle will make his road racing debut on the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series AUTOPRO 100 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montréal on Sun., August 30. Laperle, of nearby St-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Qué., will drive a car owned by Harvey Ambrose and normally piloted by Derek Lynch of Warkworth, Ont.

Laperle is a three-time winner of the Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl at Barre's Thunder Road Int'l Speedbowl and is the defending champion of the ACT Late Model Tour. He is the current point leader on the Québec/Ontario-based Série ACT-Castrol.

"I've got a Formula 1 game for my PlayStation, but that's it," laughed Laperle, noting his limited road course experience. "I drove around the track [Thursday] in a street car for the first time, and that track is so narrow the Formula 1 guys that raced there must be crazy. I'm excited for the race, that's for sure."

Laperle will have a busy weekend beginning Friday, Aug. 28 with inspection and his first practice laps at the track in the race car. Saturday will be a day of practice and qualifying for the event, followed that night by the Coors Light Showdown of Champions ACT all-star race at Autodrome Chaudière some 160 miles northeast of Montréal. The pit area opens at 6:00am on Sunday morning at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the day of the AUTOPRO 100.

Laperle has taken delivery of the car already, and is hoping to get practice laps prior to the event at another road course.

"We're going to try to get some practice at St-Eustache or Sanair before the race," Laperle said. "The biggest thing to learn is downshifting in the turns. It will be a lot of work, but a lot of fun."

Laperle's effort in the AUTOPRO 100 will be sponsored by the Québec Dodge Dealers Association, who is also a presenting sponsor of the NAPA Auto Parts 200 for the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve that weekend. The deal was put together by Stock-Car Montréal, the promotional group owned by International Speedway Corp. that is holding the event.

"We are now able to fulfill a wish that has been brought up many times by a great number of Québec stock car fans," said event promoter François Dumontier in an official press release. "Evidently, Patrick has a lot of admirers, and we quickly realized that it would be proper to give him the opportunity to showcase his racing skills in the biggest race event of the summer."

"We responded to the proposal from Stock-Car Montréal, and decided to sponsor Patrick Laperle because we believe in his ability, and because he is a fan favorite across Québec," said David Dumont, president of the Québec Dodge Dealers Association. "The Dodge Dealers of Québec and their employees are also stock car fans, and you can rest assured that they will follow with enthusiasm the performances of Patrick in the Dodge Avenger at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve."

(Photo by Marc Patrick Roy)