BARRE, Vt. — While certainly a contender, the fans who packed the stands at Thunder Road Sunday afternoon may not have had Gabe Brown as their top choice for the Vermont Milk Bowl win.
Those that did celebrated alongside the team, those that didn’t may have been awe-struck, but everyone present had front row seats to one of the most thrilling Northfield Savings Bank Vermont Milk Bowls in recent memory.
Following the annual pomp and circumstance of driver introductions for the once-a-year-extravaganza, the opening 50-lap segment was stalled by two early cautions for the spinning Mike Rubalcaba on lap 2 and Keegan Lamson’s turn two dust-up three laps later. The remainder of the first segment was a dogfight between front-row starters Kaiden Fisher and Jason Corliss with Fisher taking the opening round.
The second segment, typically the most feared of the three with the full-field invert, went caution-free with former Oxford Plains Speedway champion Trevor Sanborn leading all fifty laps to pocket $2,500 in lap money and take the win in his first Milk Bowl start with Jimmy Hebert coming out with the lead in the overall with fourteen points.
Gabe Brown and Brandon Gray both sat two points behind, tied with 16 points apiece ahead of the tied Fisher and Corliss who each earned 17, respectively.
It all came down to the final 50-lap segment in the Northfield Savings Bank Vermont Milk Bowl. Teammates Jesse Switser and Colin Cornell went toe-to-toe at the front of the pack until Switser took over with Gray, and brother/sister Justin Prescott and Taylor Hoar all under a blanket. It all reached a breaking point on lap 36 with Gray and Prescott making contact to call out the lap 36 caution that found both on the rear and cost Gray the Milk Bowl. With fourteen laps remaining, Brown and Fisher sat among the top-five and the two Factory 47 teammates left all caution to the wind in their tooth-and-nail fight to the end.
Brown came sideways across the nose of Fisher under the checkered flag earning the 64th Northfield Savings Bank Vermont Milk Bowl win and a $15,680 check to match! With the win, Brown became the first out-of-towner to take the Green Mountain State classic since Eddie MacDonald’s win in 2014 after twelve years of Vermont winners. Fisher took second-place in his career-best Milk Bowl finish with Jimmy Hebert’s third-place run a strong showing in just his second ACT Late Model start of the year.
The Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers were no less drama-filled in the second, and final, 40-lap segment of their Mini Milk Bowl. One of the top runners was washed away early with Cameron Ouellette suffering a flat right-rear tire to end his day, and a run at Mini Milk Bowl win number two, on lap one. From then on it was a caution-free affair that saw Logan Powers drive up through the pack from a 17th-place starting spot to claim both the segment win and the Mini Milk Bowl overall in his Dick McCabe-inspired #0ME machine.
The rk Miles Street Stocks saw a first-time Mini Milk Bowl winner on Northfield Savings Bank Sunday. It was all going Hayden Morris’ way after winning Segment #1 before it all went sideways in Segment #2 with the overall leader spinning into the infield on lap 23 to end his day and leaving it all up to a hard-charging Erik Steel. Steel took second the day before, battling up from starting 17th on the grid to take the second-segment win over polesitter Mike ‘The Biffer’ Gay and claim the overall win with just three points.
Apparent Burnett Scrap Metal Road Warrior Mini Milk Bowl victor Mike ‘Slingshot’ Slingerland was stripped of his win in post-race technical inspection for having too much camber, gifting the two-segment, low-point win to Taylor Sayers of Barre. The Dads 4 By Tool & Supply Kids Division also didn’t disappoint with top-running Gracen Gorham facing mechanical woes and Evan Folsom’s late-race spin taking both out of contention. Northfield’s Chloe Doyle took a runner-up finish in the final to lock down the overall win in the Kids class.
