BARRE, Vt. — Kyle Pembroke beat the competition, the fireworks and the rain at the Preston’s Kia Holiday Spectacular at Barre’s Thunder Road Speedbowl on Thursday night.
Pembroke went pole-to-pole in dominating fashion to capturing the Firecracker 54 for the Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Models live on FloRacing.
On a night where everyone was trying to stay one step ahead of the weather, Pembroke and his Kinney Drugs Chevy found the perfect prescription to do so: go fast and turn left. The result was Pembroke’s ninth career late model victory and second of the season.
The second-generation racer started on the pole after a hot-and-cold month of June. A mere six laps into the feature, Pembroke already had a straightaway lead over Eric Chase with Chris Roberts, Matthew Smith, and Marcel J. Gravel in tow.
Two quick cautions on laps 12 and 13 — one when Darrell Morin and Brendan Moodie tangled racing in turn four for the seventh spot, and another when Chase spun into the turn one tire barrier — were the only way the field could catch Pembroke.
Gravel moved into the second spot following the lap-13 restart and kept with Pembroke for a little while. The leader was just too strong, though, cruising through traffic like he was on a Sunday drive to the drug store en route to victory Gravel ended up posting his second runner-up finish of the young season.
Behind the front duo, the action throughout the rest of the top-10 rivaled the Northstar Fireworks display that ended the night. Scott Dragon appeared to have come out on top of a multi-way battle for the third spot.
However, Dragon was disqualified in postrace technical inspection for a wheelbase violation. That gave the final podium position to Graniteville’s Stephen Donahue, who got underneath Roberts with just few laps to go. Trampas Demers, Jason Corliss, Christopher Pelkey, Brandon Lanphear, Smith and Phill Scott finished fifth through 10th.
Rich Lowery held off a late bid from Sam Caron to win the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tiger Firecracker 44. Lowrey started fourth and got below Micheal MacAskill for the lead on lap 12 with rookie Justin Prescott in tow. The pair broke away in the caution-free feature as Brandon Gray, Bryan Wall Jr., Caron, and other tried to fight their way through.
Caron was the first of the top point drivers to bust out of the pack, running down Prescott with nine laps to go. He then got to the rear bumper of Lowrey and looked inside with three circuits remaining. But Lowrey was able to use a trio of lapped cars as a pick to hang on by the skin of his teeth for the win.
Caron — whose uncle Gary won the Late Model Firecracker 100 back in 1995 — came up just short of a family double. Prescott had the best finish of his Flying Tiger career in third.
Kaiden Fisher whipped up a little precipitation of his own to win the Firecracker 29 for the RK Miles Street Stocks. The 13-year-old had already come from 15th to challenge Milton’s Trevor Jaques for third with 17 laps complete when leader Kasey Collins shut down in turn one. That handed the lead to Justin Blakely with Jaques and Fisher in tow.
Fisher then got his nose in front of Jaques for second just before Jared Rouleau Sr. brought out a caution flag the following circuit with mechanical troubles. That put Fisher on the outside of Blakely for a restart. After battling side-by-side for six laps, Fisher finally got clear of Blakely, then outgunned him again on another restart with three laps to go for his fourth career victory.
Both point leader Tommy “Thunder” Smith and Jaques got past Blakely on the final sprint, with the rookie Jaques edging Bakely by a paint job for the third spot.
Mark Beaulieu followed up a second-place effort the week before with his first career Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors win.