Longtime veteran of Thunder Road stock car racing, Joey Laquerre of East Montpelier earned his 14th career Late Model feature win during FairPoint Communications night on Thursday, June 5. It was the first Thunder Road Thursday night event of 2014. Laquerre held off both Shawn Fleury and Brett Gervais during multiple restarts to claim the win and move into a tie for fourth on the all-time Thunder Road Late Model wins list.
Fleury and Gervais finished second and third respectively in the caution-plagued 50-lap event. Dave Pembroke appeared to have the fastest car on the track at one point but couldn’t find room to get to the front after several caution periods near the end of the event. He settled for fourth followed by Brooks Clark. Nick Sweet, Derrick O’Donnell, Josh Demers, Jason Corliss and Kyle Pembroke completed the top ten.
The 24-car field was quickly cut down to 20 as a pile up in turn one, with just one lap complete, ended the day of Ricky Roberts, Eric Chase, Dave Whitcomb and Eric Badore. Several other cars were involved, but were able to continue. The event would see eight total cautions.
Eric Johnson of Randolph Center claimed his first career Bond Auto Tiger Sportsmen win after leading the 35-lap event flag-to-flag. He held off fellow podium finishers “Double-O” Joe Steffen and Mike Billado. Point leader Jason Woodard and Tucker Williams completed the top five. Dylan Payea, Doug Crowningshield, Brendan Moodie, Cameron Ouellette and Joel Hodgdon all earned top tens.
Wolcott’s Jamie Davis scored his third career Allen Lumber Street Stock win. He held off Kyle Streeter on a green-white-checkered finish, while Dave Whitcomb took his second straight podium finish in third. Garry Bashaw and Jennifer Getty rounded out the top five.
The highlight of the Street Stock 25-lap feature was a barrel-roll down the front stretch by Berlin’s Ken Stridsberg on lap 23. The roll brought the field under red, but Stridsberg was okay.
All three Thunder Road divisions will be back in action next Thursday, June 12 with Harvest Equipment night. Post time will be 6:30pm.
