Lanphear back in Thunder Road winner’s circle; Therrien, Woodard, and Davis claim championships 

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

BARRE — Boomer Morris wasn’t sure he was going be able to compete in Sunday’s Community College of Vermont Championship Finale at Thunder Road, but he’s now sure glad he did.

The hometown driver dominated the season finale 65-lap Late Model feature to claim his second win of the season.

“It’s been an interesting summer,” Morris said. “Three weeks ago when we wrecked, we weren’t going to come back. This is our old car that we have run the last few years and it always has been pretty good to us.

“(We) worked on it the last three weeks and got it back together.”

The win for Morris came after he suffered his third hard incident of the year that forced his team to scrap another race car.

“Since the Milk Bowl last year, we’ve been through four clips and three wrecked cars that were totalled,” Morris said.” We actually took all three cars and built one.

“We finished this car (on Saturday) at 3:30. We would have never made it Friday night.”

Morris took the lead from Mike Bailey following a lap one restart and sailed out to a big lead. A lap 36 restart would see the eventual race winner challenged by Chris Pelkey as the two swapped the lead briefly before Morris powered back by to take the lead for keeps on lap 39.

It was Morris’ fifth career Thunder Road Late Model win and one that he used as a practice session for the 55th Annual Northfield Savings Bank Milk Bowl in just three weeks.

“We actually used this as a practice for the Milk Bowl and see how it would go,” Morris said. “If it didn’t go good, we weren’t planning on even racing it.

“Practice turned out pretty good. We won practice.”

Milton’s Eric Chase got to the top-five early moved past Pelkey following the mid-race restart to finish second. Bobby Therrien of Hinesburg ran from a 15th place starting position to finish third, which was more than enough to earn him his first Thunder Road Late Model championship.

The defending champion Scott Dragon finished fourth while Pelkey held on for fifth. Jason Corliss sealed the third place in the championship standings while second place championship finisher Trampas Demers finished seventh. Marcel J. Gravel, Tyler Cahoon, and Ricky Roberts completed the top-ten finishers.

Dwayne Lanphear earned his first Thunder Road feature win since 2007 on Sunday afternoon. (T. J. Ingerson/VMM photo)Dwayne Lanphear capped off an unplanned full-time return season in victory lane in the 50-lap Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tiger feature.

The Morrisville driver started ninth and took the lead on lap 14 from Robert Gordon. From there, Lanphear sped off and held on through a trio of mid-race restarts to claim the win.

“I tell you what, at my age, to here come and run with these young guys,” Lanphear said. “Man, what a car. To beat these these guys and finish third in points for an old guy.

“I’ve waited all damn year to win this. Man, am I excited.”

The win for Lanphear was the fifth of his Flying Tiger career and his first feature win in any division since 2007.

Jason Woodard of Waterbury Center finished second to secure his second career Thunder Road Flying Tiger championship while his championship rival Brendan Moodie of Wolcott finished third.

Rookie drivers and brothers Jamon and Jaden Perry completed the top-five finishers while Trevor Lyman, Gordon, Mike Martin, Joe Steffen, and Mike Billado completed the top-ten finishers.

Jamie Davis does a burnout in celebration of his win in the Allen Lumber Street Stocks that helped earn his second career Thunder Road Street Stock championship. (T.J. Ingerson/VMM photo)Jamie Davis entered the Street Stock 25-lap finale with a slim point lead, but gave his competitors no chance as he claimed the win and secured the championship.

It was Davis’ second win of the season, his tenth career Street Stock win, and helped earn him his second Thunder Road Street Stock championship.

Davis’ path to the championship eased on lap 15 when his closest two competitors — Cooper Bouchard and Alan Maynard — were caught up in an incident on the frontstretch.

Davis would restart in the fifth position and moved into the third position on lap 20 as he passed another championship competitor, Kelsea Woodard. Davis would inherit the lead on lap 30 when the two front running cars, Tom Campbell and Tommy Smith, made contact that sent Campbell around and Smith penalized to the rear.

Rookie driver Logan Powers finished second with Woodard third. Kevin Streeter and Gary Mullen finished fourth and fifth. Bouchard rebounded from his incident to finish sixth with Stephen Martin, who was also involved in the lap 15 incident, finished seventh. Reg Theroux, Campbell, and Smith completed the top-ten finishers.

VtMotorMag.com will have more from the Community College of Vermont Championship Finale soon.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS — Community College of Vermont Championship Finale
Thunder Road Speedbowl, Barre, Vt.
Sunday, September 10, 2017

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

Late Models (65 laps)
1. Boomer Morris, Barre
2. Eric Chase, Milton
3. Bobby Therrien, Hinesburg
4. Scott Dragon, Milton
5. Chris Pelkey, Barre
6. Jason Corliss, Barre
7. Trampas Demers, South Burlington
8. Marcel J. Gravel, Wolcott
9. Tyler Cahoon, St. Johnsbury
10. Ricky Roberts, Washington

Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers (50 laps)
1. Dwayne Lanphear, Morrisville
2. Jason Woodard, Waterbury Center
3. Brendan Moodie, Wolcott
4. # Jamon Perry, Hardwick
5. # Jaden Perry, Hardwick
6. Trevor Lyman, Hinesburgh
7. Robert Gordon, Milton
8. Mike Martin, Craftsbury Common
9. Joe Steffen, Grand Isle
10. Mike Billado, Essex

Allen Lumber Street Stocks (35 laps)
1. Jamie Davis, Wolcott
2. # Logan Powers, Middlesex
3. Kelsea Woodard, Waterbury Center
4. Kevin Streeter, Waitsfield
5. Gary Mullen, Tunbridge
6. Cooper Bouchard, Hinesburg
7. # Stephen Martin, Craftsbury Common
8. Reg Theroux, Derby
9. Tom Campbell, Middlesex
10. Tommy Smith, Williamstown

PHOTOS:
1 – Boomer Morris does a burnout in celebration of his Thunder Road Late Model win on Sunday afternoon at Thunder Road. (Alan Ward photo)
2 – Dwayne Lanphear earned his first Thunder Road feature win since 2007 on Sunday afternoon. (T. J. Ingerson/VMM photo)
3 – Jamie Davis does a burnout in celebration of his win in the Allen Lumber Street Stocks that helped earn his second career Thunder Road Street Stock championship. (T.J. Ingerson/VMM photo)