BARRE, Vt. — Trampas Demers made a big move in the 2019 “King of the Road” title chase by earning his second Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model win of the year on Thursday at Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl.
Demers took the lead from Darrell Morin early in the 50-lap feature and held off a late charge from Northfield’s Matt White for the win at Jet Service Envelope/Accura Printing Night.
Demers started the main event fifth after a cold stretch of finish in recent weeks and quickly went to work making up lost ground. The race was slowed early on lap four after Graniteville’s Christopher Pelkey spun and Wolcott’s Marcel J. Gravel got crunched up in the aftermath. On the restart, Demers darted around Phil Scott for third.
He then got underneath Brendan Moodie for second following another restart on lap eight for Tyler Cahoon’s spin. A few laps later, Demers went to the outside of Morin, putting a nose up for the lead on lap 16 and clearing him soon thereafter.
White, who was gunning for back-to-back wins, got around Morin for second just before the halfway mark. He then chased down Demers with 15 laps remaining. White looked to the high groove several times in the closing laps, but Demers held him at bay to score the win.
Morin held off Barre’s Boomer Morris for third. Scott Dragon finished fifth followed by point leader Jason Corliss.
Corliss retains the Late Model point lead with just one point-counting event remaining for the division. Demers jumped to second overall, 15 points behind Corliss.
Cooper Bouchard broke out of a season-long sophomore slump with his first win of the year in the 40-lap feature for the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers.
Bouchard came from eighth on the starting grid and was running second to Danny Doyle when the caution flew on lap 23 for a multi-car tangle in turn four. Following a lengthy clean-up, plus an aborted restart attempt due to a water leak from another car, Bouchard swiped the lead away on the restart.
Bouchard had to fend off the field one more time after a caution with four laps to go for an incident involving Adam Maynard and Micheal MacAskill. But the youngster was up to the task as Doyle went sliding backwards on the high side.
Jason Pelkey finished second while Jason Woodard came from 16th to take third.
Scott Weston held off all challengers to score his first Allen Lumber Street Stock win since 2010. Weston started on the pole in the 25-lap feature and handled early charges from Kyle MacAskill and J.T. Blanchard.
Point leader Jeffrey Martin had sliced his way through the field in the caution-filled event and was on Weston’s bumper with 10 laps to go. However, after Eric MacLaughlin flipped on the front stretch the following lap, Martin was forced to pit during the caution with a tire problem.
Cooper French inherited the second spot, but when the fifth caution flew again a lap later after MacAskill and Justin Blakely tangled fighting for third, French suddenly headed for the pits, too. Weston then withstood several attempts by Bryan P. Wall – who had been involved in the event’s first caution on lap three – down the stretch for the win.
Wall took second while Blanchard held off Jamie Davis for third.
Justin Lawrence triumphed in the eight-cylinder division of the “Run What U Brung” spectator races.