BARRE, Vt. — The 61 Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank once again proved itself to be the Toughest Short Track Race in North America on Sunday, and not just for the American-Canadian Tour and Maplewood/Irving Late Models.
The Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, rk Miles Street Stocks and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors joined their headlining brethren in providing some of the hardest racing of the season with everyone looking to make their mark on an iconic Northeast tradition.
The Late Models started off the show in grand fashion. Outside polesitter Stephen Donahue led lap one and gained each lap afterward over polesitter Derek Gluchacki. Cody Blake made it a three-car race with Nick Sweet quickly joining the fun just behind Donahue. Following Shawn Swallow’s spin in turn four, Donahue and Sweet battled hard on the restart before Sweet settled in and Pelkey followed for a three-car train out front and continued to the Segment One checkered flag.
Segment Two had Brooks Clark at the helm but third-place Erick Sands quickly led the charge under Clark. While the back half of the first segment led the way in the second, Sweet and Donahue made gains methodically through the field before Brendan Moodie’s spin off turn two slowed their advance under caution. ACT Tour regular Sands faced-off against Thunder Road hotshoe Kyle Pembroke on the restart but quickly slowed for Patrick Laperle’s dust-up with the turn one tire wall. Two more cautions quickly let loose starting with Bobby Therrien’s hit into the turn four wall before Laperle reunited with the turn one tires on the restart.
Now up against ACT point leader Gabe Brown, Sands couldn’t hold up to Brown’s outside lane advantage as the duo chased lap money up front. Deeper in the pack, Donahue kept it rolling through traffic until a three-wide move between Sweet, Scott Dragon and Brandon Lanphear saw ‘Lil Irish’ slam the binders with Chris Pelkey also getting a slight advantage before the checkers in segment two flew.
Both Moodie and Therrien returned to lead the third and final segment of the 61st Vermont Milk Bowl presented by Northfield Savings Bank while Donahue and Pelkey started the segment tied in the overall lead with seven points each. Moodie, Therrien and then Laperle kept their rigs up front and took advantage of lap money after the hard-day all three had faced on the Barre highbanks. While the back three-quarters of the field ran side-by-side, eventually Donahue got a break and put the pedal down with Pelkey mired in traffic way out back.
Brian Hoar’s brush-up with the Widowmaker frontstretch wall, and subsequent spin into turn one, brought out the caution just after the halfway point. Several tense moments followed for Donahue as he side-swiped the Widowmaker not just once, but twice in heavy traffic, each one putting a possible curse on his Milk Bowl goal. Coming down to the wire, with five laps remaining and a windshield full of Nick Sweet and a rear-view mirror full of Chris Pelkey, Donahue kept his head down and took the 61st Vermont Milk Bowl. In victory lane, he shared his achievement with fellow Milk Bowl champion, and father, John Donahue, car-owner Bill Donahue and family patriarch Paul Donahue, each taking a big swig of Booth Bros. milk from the trophy bowl.
Rich Lowrey won the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers Mini Milk Bowl feature, while the rk Miles Street Stocks Mini Milk Bowl event was won by Josh Lovely.Â
The Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors Mini Milk Bowl went to Nate Brien.