BARRE, Vt. — On a hot and sticky night high atop Quarry Hill, the Thunder Road faithful returned for another stellar night of side-by-side stock car racing on Cody Chevrolet-Cadillac Night.
In the end, Sam Caron grabbed his first Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tiger win of the season but it wasn’t enough to stop Derrick Calkins from taking the Myers Container Service Triple Crown Championship.
After rain, track drying and quick practice sessions for all four divisions, the excitement started just ten-minutes later than advertised for the giddy crowd on hand. Cody Chevrolet-Cadillac Night was all about the Flying Tigers with a 100-lap finale for the Myers Container Service Triple Crown Series.
Led to green by defending Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tiger track champion Mike Martin and Milton’s Sam Caron, the veterans were off and running at the start. Caron made it look like child’s play as he steadily gained a five-car-length lead over Martin by lap 20 as the champ battled hard with Williston’s Justin Prescott for second.
The lead pack started catching up to lap traffic by 40-laps-in as Caron’s green to checker dreams were dashed as Ty Delphia’s flat right front tire sent him into the bright orange Chevrolet of Cam Ouellette on lap 74.
On the restart Caron chose the outside groove and took off from Martin, but caution again flew as Ouellette also blew a right front tire, sending him hard into the turn two retaining wall and ending his night. The repeat restart gave the advantage to Martin with a little more power this time around on the inside with Caron keeping a half-a-fender lead back at the line.
Caron continued to build onto his lead steadily until the end taking the victory, followed by Mike Martin and Rich Lowrey.Â
After patiently biding his time in traffic and using late-race moves to move up into the top five, Calkins made his own luck. By virtue of his fourth-place finish, Calkins won the Myers Container Service Triple Crown Championship by just two points over Caron. Calkins is now the sixth different Myers Triple Crown Champion in as many years.Â
Marcel Gravel used a late-race outside pass to win the Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model’s feature, rk Miles Street Stock rookie Zach Audet took his first point-counting win and local-boy Chris ‘Creature’ Couture took his first Burnett Scrap Metal Road Warrior win.