Barre, VT — Barre’s Jason Corliss made Thunder Road history by capturing his fifth Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model win of the season at Jet Service Envelope/Accura Printing Night on Thursday, August 26. Corliss snatched the lead from Orange’s Chip Grenier with 14 laps to go, then outlasted a charge by Montpelier’s Kyle Pembroke down the homestretch in front of one of the season’s largest crowds. 

In the process, Corliss became the first driver to win five point-counting Thunder Road Late Model features in a season since the creation of the modern Late Model class in 1992. It was also Corliss’s 25^th career Late Model victory and 31^st overall at Thunder Road, the latter of which moves him into a tie with Phil Scott for fourth all-time. 

Corliss quickly moved up to third in the 50-lap feature before getting trapped behind a duel for the top spot between polesitter Chris Roberts and Grenier. Although Grenier eventually got the nose out front, Roberts kept his foot in the door lap after lap, leaving Corliss without a hole. Montpelier’s Kyle Pembroke eventually joined the action and filled the lane inside Corliss, leaving him to hope that Grenier could finally seal the deal on Roberts.

The break came on lap 32 when Grenier and Roberts touched at the start-finish line, which got Roberts out of shape entering turn one. Roberts was able to save it, but both Grenier and Corliss shot past. It didn’t take Corliss long from there to make his move, getting to the passenger door of Grenier on lap 35 and getting the top spot one circuit later.

Pembroke was able to roll around the outside in his own right and snatch second from Grenier a few laps later. He then gave chase and was slowly gaining on Corliss at the end but ran out of time as Corliss took home victory in the caution-free race.

Grenier took third followed by Trampas Demers and Roberts. Stephen Donahue, Scott Dragon, Marcel J. Gravel, Tyler Cahoon, and Brendan Moodie rounded out the top-10.

After making a charge early, Graniteville’s Christopher Pelkey got stuck in traffic the rest of the night and ended up 11^th. That allowed Corliss to unofficially take the points lead from Pelkey by 25 markers with two point-counting events remaining.

Middlesex’s Logan Powers finally turned around a trying season with his first career victory in the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers. Powers started fourth for the 40-lap feature and negotiated his way to second after an early yellow. Coming out of turn two on the 10^th circuit, polesitter Ryan Boutin opened the door down low, and Powers roared through it to take over the lead.

A pair of crashes on lap 15 let Milton’s Robert Gordon take his shot at Powers. Gordon couldn’t make the outside work, though, and Powers put the pedal down. As a six-car shootout developed for the second spot, Powers left it all behind and cruised to a breakthrough win.

Thetford’s Brandon Gray topped the contest for the runner-up position, which maintained his narrow lead for the Rookie of the Year award. Barre’s Cameron Ouellette completed the podium followed by Derrick Calkins, Tanner Woodard, Stephen Martin, Gordon, Jaden Perry, Bryan Wall Jr., and Boutin. Martin will unofficially take the points lead by two over his dad Mike, who struggled all evening and ended up 13^th in the final rundown.

Chelsea’s Haidyn Pearce held off Barre’s Jeffrey Martin by a whisker to pick up his first ever RK Miles Street Stock victory. Pearce spent most of the 25-lap feature running away from the pack along with fellow hard-luck racer Kasey Collins. Behind them, Martin knifed his way from the 16th starting position to third. Martin was closing in when the caution flew with four laps to go for Jesse Laquerre’s stalled machine, bunching up the field for a final sprint.

On the restart, Martin slid underneath Collins for second. Josh Lovely tried to do the same, but with two laps to go, Lovely and Collins got together in turn two, sending both hard into the wall. After a lengthy clean-up, Pearce and Martin went mano-a-mano in a green-white-checkered finish. Martin had a slightly faster car, but Pearce had the short way around, and he nosed out Martin for the win by 0.027 seconds.

The battle for third was even closer with Berlin’s Chris Davis beating West Burke’s Dean Switser Jr. by a radiator cap. Justin Blakely, Tommy “Thunder” Smith, point leader Kaiden “Tropical Storm” Fisher, Tyler Whittemore, and James Dopp completed the top-10.

Graniteville’s “Flyin’” Fred Fleury lived up to his nickname by soaring up the outside line for his second Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warrior victory of the year. Fleury started 11^th in the 20-lap feature and steadily worked his way forward as polesitter Bill O’Connor, Mark Beaulieu, and Rodney Campbell led a three-car breakaway.

With laps winding down in the caution-free race, the handling went away on O’Connor’s car and his times slowed considerably. As Beaulieu and Campbell looked to get inside O’Connor, Fleury took advantage of the vacant high groove and rolled around all of them to snag the lead with five laps to go. Beaulieu swapped lanes and followed Fleury around O’Connor but could only watch Flyin’ Fred drift away.

Northfield’s Josh Vilbrin came alive late and passed Beaulieu with two circuits remaining for his fourth straight runner-up finish. Campbell took fourth in a late scrum followed by Taylor Sayers, O’Connor, Matt Ballard, Nate “Tater” Brien, Jamie York, and Paige Whittemore.

Part-time Road Warrior racer Jacob Hall-Larson of Northfield won the four-cylinder bracket of the “Run-What-U-Brung” spectator races. Hall-Larson drove his 2005 Saab 9-SX to victory over Eric Post’s 2002 Subaru WRX in the four-cylinder finale. In the eight-cylinder division, Barre’s Nathan Felch wheeled a 1988 Chevrolet Camaro to the win, beating out Barnard’s Scott Miller and his 2001 Dodge Durango. 

Hall-Larson easily beat Felch in the run-off for the overall title. The event saw its normal share of edge-of-your-seat excitement, which included Barre Town’s Mark Graves whacking the turn two wall in the very first match. Graves was not injured.

Thunder Road welcomes the ACT Late Model Tour for the 43^rd Optical Expressions Berlin Labor Day Classic on Sunday, September 5 at 1:00pm. ACT’s best will take on the local Maplewood/Irving Oil Late Model stars for a $5,000 winner’s prizes There are also double features for the RK Miles Street Stocks plus a full card for the Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors.

Admission is $25 for adults, $10 for kids ages 6-12, and free for kids ages 5 and under. Advance tickets are available at www.happsnow.com/event/Thunder-Road-Speedbowl. All Thunder Road events are also live-streamed on FloRacing for those with a paid subscription.

For more information, contact the Thunder Road offices at (802) 244-6963, media@thunderroadvt.com, or visit www.thunderroadvt.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @ThunderRoadVT. For more information about FloRacing, visit www.FloRacing.com.