BARRE, Vt. — The annual Thursday night opener at Thunder Road presented by Casella Waste Management brought fans to the edge of their seats with hard-nosed racing already becoming the definition of the 2023 season.
Side-by-side battles were commonplace across the board as the season-long points chase came to the forefront of every driver’s mind with fans getting to experience old and new all together in year 64 high atop Quarry Hill. One particular driver got to step in both worlds with success in each outing.
The Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models closed out the night with their first 50-lap main event of the Thursday night season. All-time wins leader Phil Scott led Tyler Cahoon and the rest of the field to green with Scott Dragon and Chris Roberts hot on his tail.
Dragon would take the lead on lap 10 while defending champion Chris Pelkey powered along the outside groove as he moved through the top-10 leaving point leader Cody Blake mired in traffic. The only yellow flag would wave on lap 27 with the No. 27VT of Kyle Pembroke and Cooper Bouchard going in the spin-cycle off turn two.
Dragon would lead the restart over Roberts with Marcel Gravel attempting to bonsai his way into second to no avail. In the final circuits it came down to a bitter side-by-side battle between Gravel and Pelkey with a last-second dash at the line deciding their fate.
Dragon would take a dominant win on Casella Waste Management night to claim his first of the season followed by Roberts and Gravel by just 0.040-seconds over Pelkey to join the podium.
Dragon joined the Sportsman field earlier in the evening, behind the wheel of a throwback Bobby Dragon masterpiece, bringing his father’s number back into the winner’s circle with a third-place finish.
The New England Antique Racers (NEAR) kicked off the Casella Night activities with the first of twin-15 lap feature events. Starting with the Sportsman class it was all ‘Dynamite’ Dave Manning in the Dave Dion-inspired No. 29 machine. A former Jim Cilley ride, Manning made it look like child’s play, a trait Dion once also had on the Thunder Road highbanks.
In the NEAR Modifieds, Art Merchant also took off from the pole but the real race was coming from the back with Bruce ‘Gomer’ Taylor. Gomer cross cutted the field again and again on his way up from a ninth-place starting position in an old Len Bochler Modified but it wasn’t enough in the end. Merchant would take the win on Casella Night to round out the NEAR nostalgia program.
The rk Miles Street Stock feature was won by Cam Powers.
The Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers were next to take the field with Rich Lowrey victorious.