BARRE, Vt. — A strong showcase of true Thunder Road tradition awaited spectators and teams alike on Saturday, as over 100 cars joined the annual car show and joined the celebration of the late, great Ken Squier.
What followed was also nothing short of tradition, with the competition brimming with talent and the fantastic showmanship that helped Squier name his palace on Quarry Hill the Nation’s Site of Excitement.
A series of former Thunder Road track champions kept the invaders busy in the American-Canadian Tour Community Bank, N.A. 150. Former Flying Tiger champion Jimmy Hebert paced the field throughout the majority of the event while multi-time champions Jason Corliss, Derrick O’Donnell and Scott Dragon kept on his back bumper.
The thrilling side-by-side action came to a head on lap 144 when Hebert, O’Donnell and Marcel Gravel careened into the turn four wall for a red flag with fire under the hood of O’Donnell. Quickly extinguished by Speedway Safety Services and following clean-up, the race was back to red hot and rolling.
With the final restart, Chris Pelkey, who had been in the top-five mix-up throughout the race, made his play against ACT Tour star Gabe Brown and kept his foot mashed in the firewall. Pelkey, the 2022 King of the Road, kept the pressure on and won his first career American-Canadian Tour point-counting event at his home track with the 26th annual Community Bank 150.
Fellow Thunder Road hot-shoe Chip Grenier took home second with Brown taking third.
The rk Miles Street Stocks started the feature action with 2023 Rookie of the Year Ryan Foster leading the field to green on Community Bank opening day. Before too long, Trevor Jaques made his way to the front of the pack with Tyler Whittemore looking underneath for some racing room.
As if toying with his closest competitor, Jaques surged ahead with three laps remaining and diced through lap traffic with just enough to take the opening day win.
Longtime pilot Chris LaForest led the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers under the green flag in their 40-lap feature event. The Barre-native looked to have a career day but trouble brewed behind him. Dicing his way from through the top ten, 2023 championship hopeful Brandon Gray made his way to the front and used the crossover move in turn two to steal the lead away from LaForest on lap 21. By lap 30 Gray, LaForest and Sam Caron began to criss-cross through lapped traffic with Gray getting all the breaks and pulling away at the front.
Brandon Gray would pour on for the opening day victory followed by LaForest and Caron to round off the podium.
Kendall Zeno and Benjamin Bushey brought out the Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors to wrap up the day’s activities. The wacky racers put on a show at the front with veterans Neal Foster, Bert Duffy and Tyler Wheatley quickly joining the early leaders at the front.
All was well until coming out of turn four on lap 18, Bushey kept turning right and landing both himself and Foster into the widow-maker for a roll-over to make opening day complete. Kendall Zeno kept pace on the restart to take his first victory with Tyler Wheatley and Bert Duffy rounding out the podium.