BARRE, Vt. – Bobby Therrien will lead the field to the green flag in the 57th Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank on Sunday.
Therrien posted a fast lap of 12.379 seconds around Thunder Road Int’l Spedway’s high banks to bag the $1,000 Pole Award on Booth Bros./H.P. Hood Qualifying Day Saturday afternoon.
The 2017 King of the Road was actually initially the second-fastest driver on the track for the Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models. However, provisional polesitter Trampas Demer’s time was disallowed after his car was found to be too wide in post-time trial technical inspection. The disqualification also moved Matthew Smith onto the outside pole after a surprising effort of 12.389 seconds.
Brooks Clark and Kyle Pembroke will start in the second row after taking victories in the 50-lap qualifying races. Clark inherited the lead on lap 26 of the first 50-lap qualifier after Therrien fulfilled his race requirements and pitted. The defending Vermont Governor’s Cup winner then held off late charges by Tyler Cahoon and Patrick Laperle for the win.
Dylan Payea qualified for his first Milk Bowl with a fourth-place finish while Chip Grenier came in fifth. Rich Dubeau, Stephen Donahue and Scott Dragon earned the final transfer spots.
Pembroke grabbed the lead from Smith right off the start of the second 50-lap qualifier. After a caution on the second lap for a brief rain shower, Pembroke pulled away in the middle stages before holding off Marcel J. Gravel’s belated charge for tine victory.
Two-time American-Canadian Tour champion Scott Payea finished third. Joey Polewarczyk, Nick Sweet, Matt White, Jason Corliss, and Joel Hodgdon also transferred into the Milk Bowl. Lance Allen, Jimmy Hebert, Darrell Morin and Eric Chase fell back on their time trial speeds for Milk Bowl starting positions 19-22. Allen will give up his seat to Christopher Pelkey on Sunday and Pelkey will start last in segment one due to the driver change.
Georgia Bubba Pollard came up one spot short in his qualifying race and will start on the outside pole of Sunday’s Last Chance feature alongside Tom Carey III. Demers, Brent Dragon, Jonathan Bouvrette and Mason Mitchell are among the other notable drivers who are not yet qualified for the Milk Bowl.
Sweet found greater success in the Pro All Stars Series super late model Prelude to the Milk Bowl 150 as he dominated the event. Sweet took the lead from Gabe Brown shortly following the first caution on lap 27 and ran away from the field for his second straight PASS victory on Vermont Milk Bowl Weekend.
PASS North point leader D.J. Shaw finished a distant second. Northfield’s Even Hallstrom took a popular third place. Derek Griffith and Brown rounded out the top five.
Jason Woodard took the first two notches of the weekend in the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers. The newly crowned champion earned the pole for segment one of the Flying Tiger Mini Milk Bowl and went wire-to-wire for the win. Woodard held off multiple charges by Cooper Bouchard, including one for a three-lap sprint to the checkered flag following the race’s third caution, for the victory. He will thus start last in segment two on Sunday.
Kelsea Woodard came home in the third spot. Jason Pelkey, Mike Martin, Kyle Streeter, Stephen Martin, Danny Doyle, Tyler Austin, and Mike Billado completed the top-10.
Eric Chase made his move late to claim the win in segment one of the Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warrior Mini Milk Bowl. Polesitter Paige Whittemore led most of the event until she bobbled in lapped traffic coming to the two-to-go signal. Chase saw his opportunity and dove low to take the segment one win.
Whittemore settled for second. She was followed to the line by Brian Putney, Fred Fleury, Luke Marcheski, Todd Raymo, Jason Kirby, Frank Putney, and Tyler Whittemore.
Segment one of the Allen Lumber Street Stock Mini Milk Bowl was halted after three laps when rain moved back into the area. Polesitter Brandon Gray was the leader at the time. The remainder of Street Stock segment one and segment two of the Road Warrior Mini Milk Bowl will be added to the Sunday schedule of events.