BARRE, Vt. — Scott Dragon was the man of the hour Thursday night at Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl.
Dragon captured the 45th Vermont Governor’s Cup for late models. The event was postponed by rain earlier this year. With his victory, Dragon also earned the inaugural Squier Cup Late Model Triple Crown.
With Governor Phil Scott at the helm in Montpelier, Bobby Therrien filled in for the night and quickly took off from polesitter Scott Dragon to lead the first thirteen circuits.
With heat in the tires, Dragon worked back around Therrien to lead lap 14 with Squier Cup point leader Jimmy Hebert in hot pursuit on the low groove.
Hebert’s pursuit continued lap after lap, as both he and Dragon rounded slower lap traffic, both high and low with Dragon maintaining a dominant six-car-length lead for over eighty continuous laps until the first caution flag flew on lap 93.
The two leaders ran door-to-door on the restart with Dragon nabbing the lead as Hebert back-slid with mounting pressure from Nick Sweet and Jason Corliss.
Coming up on lap traffic, Sweet pulling up to Dragon’s rear bumper set up a final 25-lap battle of nerves between the two former track champions.
With 10 laps remaining, Sweet looked to the inside line for a final smudge of speed against Dragon as laps quickly faded. Scott Dragon earned his fourth-career Vermont Governor’s Cup and secured the inaugural Squier Cup Triple Crown championship to become the first name on Thunder Road’s newest granite monument.
Nick Sweet and Jason Corliss were able to hang on to round out the podium trio.
Brandon Gray won the Flying Tiger feature and Patrick Tibbetts topped the street stock event.
The finish:
Scott Dragon, Nick Sweet, Jason Corliss, Jimmy Hebert, Kaiden Fisher, Christopher Pelkey, Stephen Martin, Chip Grenier, Brandon Lanphear, Kyle Pembroke, Bobby Therrien, Stephen Donahue, Cole Custer, Justin Prescott, Marcel Gravel, Jesse Laquerre, Taylor Hoar, Darrell Morin, Keegan Lamson, Cooper Bouchard, Chris Robets.