Nick Sweet of Barre drinks from the Milk Bowl after winning the 54th edition of the race for the second straight year, and the third time overall, at Thunder Road. Photo by Alan Ward
Nick Sweet of Barre successfully defended his title in the Northfield Savings Bank Milk Bowl at Thunder Road, using a pair of wins in the three 50-lap segments to claim a two-point victory in the combined standings over Jason Corliss of Barre. It was the third Thunder Road Late Model Sportsmen Milk Bowl victory of Sweet’s career.
Corliss needed to finish within three positions of Sweet in the final race to earn the victory. He had a chance to move into fourth place, and claim the Milk Bowl crown, in the final laps of the third race, but couldn’t find his way through traffic and ended up in seventh place in the segment, and second place overall.
Trampas Demers of South Burlington finished in third place, and was followed in the top 10 by Cody Blake of Barre, Kyle Pembroke of Montpelier, 2016 King of the Road Scott Dragon of Milton, Jimmy Hebert of Williamstown, Scott Payea of Milton, Shawn Fleury of Middlesex, and Alex Labbe of St-Albert, Quebec.
A total of 38 cars attempted to qualify for the 30-car main event field.
Brendan Moodie of Wolcott put together a pair of top-three finishes to claim the Bond Auto Tiger Sportsmen Mini Milk Bowl. Moodie followed up his third-place finish in the opening 30-lap race Saturday with a second-place finish Sunday to finish one point in front of Cameron Ouellette of Barre and Dave Finck of Barre (both at six points) in the combined standings. Ouellete claimed the runner-up spot with his better finish in segment 2.
Trevor Lyman of Hinesburg, Stephen Donahue of Graniteville, Jason Woodard of Waterbury Ctr., Jaden Perry of Hardwick, Brian Delphia of Duxbury, Mark Barnier of Essex Jct., and Jason Pelkey of Barre rounded out the top 10. Finck was the winner of Saturday’s opening segment, while Donahue claimed the checkers Sunday.
In the Allen Lumber Street Stocks Mini Milk Bowl, Nick Pilotte of Jefferson, NH followed up a second-place finish in Saturday’s opening 25-lap segment with a tenth-place finish Saturday and finished one point ahead of five drivers in the overall standings.
Matthew Smith of Essex Jct., winner of Sunday’s 25-lap segment, claimed second place in the group tiebreaker by virtue of his higher finish in the second race. Alan Maynard of Fairfax (third overall), rookie Cooper Bouchard of Hinesburg (fourth) and Kevin Streeter of Waitsfield (fifth) rounded out the top five. Streeter was the winner of Saturday’s 25-lapper.
Finishing sixth through tenth were Jamie Davis of Wolcott, Brandon Gray of E. Thetford, Garry Bashaw of Lincoln, Michael Gay of So. Burlington, and William Hennequin of Hardwick.
