Barre’s Jason Allen celebrates on the roof of his Late Model after winning the WDEV/Calkins Trophy Dash at Thunder Road on Thursday, July 30. Photo by Alan Ward

Hometown racer Jason Allen captured his first career Thunder Road Late Model win in the WDEV/Calkins Portable Toilets Trophy Dash on Thursday, July 30.

Allen got around the outside of polesitter Matt White to take the lead on lap 28 of the 50-lap event and drove away for the victory. It was the first top-10 finish of 2015 for the sophomore driver after a tough first half of the season.

“We had to make it work,” Allen said of the winning pass. “I knew we had a decent car from the semi-feature; I just overdrove it. So I put that in the back of my mind. The car kept getting better as the run went on, and when (Josh Demers) jumped to the outside behind us and was making it work, it was the point where we had to go or not.

“This means the world,” he added. “This feels like Daytona to me. It’s for the team and the guys who’ve put it all the work. We’re old school; we work on the car at night after our full-time jobs, and that’s what makes it so special.”

Allen was running third when the race’s only caution came out on lap 11 for point leader Derrick O’Donnell’s slide off of turn 1. He got underneath Josh Demers on the restart and began to pressure White for the top spot. Demers – who was going for the Triple Crown after winning his heat and the semi-feature – slid back as far as fifth in the outside line, but began to move back up near the halfway point, prompting Allen’s winning move.

Fellow Barre driver Jason Corliss made a late charge on the outside groove to finish second, while Demers nipped White at the line for third. Brett Gervais, Trampas Demers, Cody Blake, Kyle Pembroke, Nick Sweet, and Eric Badore rounded out the top-10. O’Donnell finished 14th but unofficially maintains a 19-point edge over Sweet.

For the full story and results, pick up next week’s edition of the WORLD.