Martin scores Tiger Sportsman overall win; Gravel claims Street Stock feature win

–by T.J. Ingerson (@TJIngerson)
VMM Editor

BARRE – Fireworks provide excitement in the sky on the Fourth of July and Nick Sweet provided his own excitement on the track on Sunday night at Thunder Road for the Aubuchon Hardware July 4th Holiday Spectacular event.

The hometown fan favorite made a thrilling third-to-first pass in turns three and four to go by leader rookie Marcel Gravel and second place Jason Allen on lap 45 to claim the win from the 15th place starting spot.

The win for Sweet was the 20th of his Thunder Road career, which ties him for second on the all-time career Late Model wins list with current race director Cris Michaud and multi-time champion Dave Pembroke.

“I hope it was exciting,” Sweet said. “It was a power pass, definitely. I had a good set in turn three and it rotated good in the center. And heck, by turn four, we were wheel-to-wheel with (Gravel). And at exit, we had almost cleared him.

“We just came on at the end and won the race.”

Gravel had led from the drop of the green flag and on lap 40, had a straightaway advantage over the second place car of Allen and third place Phil Scott, who battled side-by-side for the second spot. Sweet rode in fourth behind the two and looked for a miracle way by.

“No…no,” Sweet said when asked if he thought he had a chance to win with ten laps to go. “It broke (right) and we had a fast race car tonight. We fought them on the bottom. It was a lot of fun to come and win a race.”

For Sweet, his race winning pass come on the inside lane, which was left vacant by both Gravel and Allen.

“I love it when they take the outside,” Sweet said. “It makes it easy for me and they don’t try and protect. Heck, I’ll take it. We’re setup to go in either lane.

“I think we were good enough and traffic broke enough that we could win this thing.”

Point leader Scott Dragon of Milton made some late race heroics to jump from sixth with ten laps to go to finish second. Sweet’s teammate and boss, Milton’s Eric Chase, finished third, barely edging out Barre’s Allen. Scott, of Middlesex, completed the top-five finishers.

Thursday night’s winner John Donahue, rookie Christopher Pelkey, Trampas Demers, Memorial Day Classic winner Tyler Cahoon, and Jason Corliss finished sixth through tenth, unofficially.

Gravel reportedly had a power steering issue that saw his straightaway lead with ten laps to go evaporate in just a few laps and fell outside of the top-ten after he got loose of turn two and went off the backstretch briefly.

Mike Martin won the two-segment Bond Auto Tiger Sportsman overall feature event.

The Craftsbury driver started eighth in the first 25-lap segment and moved his way into the top spot by lap 16. Martin was then forced to hold onto the top spot through a trio of restarts, which he did successfully.

Martin then started 13th in the second 25-lap segment and was able to navigate his way to a fifth place finish when the checkered flag flew to finish with the low overall total of six points.

“That was a lot of fun tonight,” Martin said in victory lane. “We’ve been really struggling. It feels good to get the car to react to what I want it to do.”

Graniteville’s Stephen Donahue finished second overall with finishes of fifth and second, respectively, for an overall score of seven points. Last week’s overall winner Cameron Ouellette of Barre finished third overall with nine points and earned the tiebreaker over Mark Barnier of Essex Junction. Segment two winner Jason Woodard of Waterbury Center finished fifth overall with ten points.

Brendan Moodie, Doug Crowningshield, Eri Johnson, Mike Billado, and rookie Kevin Dodge completed the top-ten overall finishers.

Richard Gravel of Wolcott held off Jamon Perry on a late race restart to claim his fifth career Allen Lumber Street Stock feature win in their 25-lap event.

“We have a hard time going on the inside,” Gravel said in victory lane. “The car likes to go on the outside. On the restart, starting from first, it was actually more difficult for us.”

Perry, of Hardwick finished second while rookie driver Brandon Lanphear of Morrisville finished third. Jaden Perry of Hardwick and Will Hennequin of Morrisville finished fourth and fifth, while defending champion Jamie Davis, Thomas Merchant, Bunker Hodgdon, Gary Mullen, and Kevin Streeter completed the top-ten finishers.

Thunder Road continues its 2016 season on Thursday, July 7 with CVMC ExpressCARE Night. Post time is set for 7:00pm.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS – Aubuchon Hardware Holiday Spectacular
Thunder Road Speedbowl, Barre, Vt.
Sunday, July 3, 2016

Pos.-Driver-Hometown
(# — denotes rookie)

ACT Late Models (50 laps)
1. Nick Sweet, Barre
2. Scott Dragon, Milton
3. Eric Chase, Milton
4. Jason Allen, Barre
5. Phil Scott, Middlesex
6. John Donahue, Graniteville
7. Christopher Pelkey, South Barre
8. Trampas Demers, South Burlington
9. Tyler Cahoon, St. Johnsbury
10. Jason Corliss, Barre

Bond Auto Tiger Sportsman (2 x 25 laps)
1. Mike Martin, Craftsbury – 6 pts
2. Stephen Donahue, Graniteville – 7 pts
3. Cameron Ouellette, Barre – 9 pts
4. Mark Barnier, Essex Junction – 9 pts
5. Jason Woodard, Waterbury Center – 10 pts
6. Brendan Moodie, Wolcott – 11 pts
7. Doug Crowningshield, Barre – 11 pts
8. Eric Johnson, Randolph Center – 15 pts
9. Mike Billado, Essex – 17 pts
10. # Kevin Dodge, Barre – 18 pts

Allen Lumber Street Stocks (25 laps)
1. Richard Gravel, Wolcott
2. Jamon Perry, Hardwick
3. # Brandon Lanphear, Morrisville
4. Jaden Perry, Hardwick
5. Will Hennequin, Morrisville
6. Jamie Davis, Wolcott
7. Thomas Merchant, Eden Mills
8. Bunker Hodgdon, Hardwick
9. Gary Mullen, Tunbridge
10. Kevin Streeter, Waitsfield

PHOTO: Nick Sweet celebrates hit Thunder Road Late Model win during the Fourth of July holiday weekend on Sunday night. (T.J. Ingerson/VMM photo)