BARRE, Vt. — Nick Sweet reigned in the Pro All Star Series Super Late Models for the third straight year on Vermont Milk Bowl Weekend as part of Mekkelsen RV Milk Bowl Friday night at Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl.
Sweet snatched the lead from point leader D.J. Shaw with 29 laps remaining and pulled away late to win the Prelude to the Milk Bowl 150 at Barre’s Thunder Road.
After starting 11th in the 21-car field, Sweet was content to run mid-pack in the early going. Polesitter Travis Benjamin set the early pace but surrendered the lead to Shaw following the first caution at lap 18 for Allan Wilson’s turn-one spin.
Bobby Therrien then moved to the front, taking the top spot from Shaw on lap 27 after another restart. When the field went green following a lap-39 caution, though, Therrien’s driveshaft failed. Therrien got turned around as he slowed and eventually retired for the night as Shaw re-inherited the lead.
Sweet then made his first big run of the race, moving into the third spot on lap 49. Shaw, Evan Hallstrom, Sweet and Ben Ashline then rolled away from the field, with Shaw gapping the other three on multiple occasions only for another yellow to close them up once again.
As the race began to wind down, the cards fell into Sweet’s hands. He got around Hallstrom for the second spot just before caution number eight on lap 119 for an incident involving Jason Corliss and Kate Re. Although Shaw led the first lap following the restart, Sweet put the power down and shot around the outside of him. The veteran then survived back-to-back yellows on laps 128 and 129 before saying goodnight for his fifth win of the season.
Shaw went back-and-forth with Hallstrom in the final circuits before securing second. Hallstrom held off Ashline for third.
Jeremy Davis, Ryan Kuhn, Kyle Desouza, Benjamin, Ben Rowe, and Anthony Consantino rounded out the top 10.
Tyler King moved ever closer to the PASS Modified championship by taking his fifth victory of the season. King started 12th on the grid but quickly cut through the field.
Bill Dixon followed up his win two weeks ago with a second-place finish. Morse, Bobby Nadeau, Jake Madore, Spencer Vaughn, Colby Benjamin, Zach Bowie, Chanler Harrison, and Shawn Night completed the top 10.
Mike Martin successfully defended his home track in the Honey Badger Bar & Grill Street Stock Series feature.
Former North East Mini Stock Tour champion Cody Leblanc bested the field in the 50-lap NEMST feature.
The finish:
Nick Sweet, D.J. Shaw, Evan Hallstrom, Ben Ashline, Jeremy Davis, Ryan Kuhn, Kyle Desouza, Travis Benjamin, Ben Rowe, Anthony Consantino, Jason Corliss, Gabe Brown, Dan Winter, Scott McDaniel, Johnny Clark, Kate Re, Bobby Therrien, Allan Wilson, Logan Melcher, Jerry Gomarlo.