Andrews channels Petty, again
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Vern Woodward (73), left, of Burlington and Joe Fecteau (75), of Hardwick are among several racers involved in a crash during the Street Stock “B” feature at Thunder Road on Thursday night. Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/Times Argus |
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By TOM HERZIG Correspondent - Published: July 31, 2009
BARRE — Tony Andrews wishes Richard Petty would come calling at Thunder Road more often. The Northfield veteran held off Dave Pembroke to win the WDEV/Calkins 50-lap Late Model feature Thursday night. It was Andrews' first win since 1992, the same year the King came to Barre as part of his farewell tour as an active NASCAR Cup champion.
Andrews, driving the E.A. Grandfield/Hallstrom Excavating No. 1, started on the pole, led the first 19 laps then started swapping the point with Brooks Clark before taking the lead for keeps after the third caution when Nick Sweet's rush up to the leaders ended when Rich Lowrey gave him the boot.
As Andrews and Clark cruised around unchallenged at the front, Sweet took the measure of Mike Bailey and Lowrey and dove cleanly under them both for third only to wind up at the tail with Lowrey moments later. That opened the door for Pembroke and Cris Michaud.
On the final restart with five circuits left, Pembroke and Michaud raced past Clark and went after Andrews, but never got there. Clark wound up fourth just ahead of Phil Scott.
"Brooks is a great kid and he raced me respectfully," Andrews said. "I could see Pembroke coming at the end and then I stopped looking where he was and just tried to hit my marks."
Unofficially, Pembroke's second-place effort put him back on top of the Late Model standings five points ahead of Jean-Paul Cyr, who finished 8th.
The second half of the top ten went to John Donahue, Bailey, Cyr, Doug Murphy and Trampas Demers. Andrews, Brooks Clark and Jerry Lesage won the Late Model heats.
Josh Demers of Middlesex won the Tiger Sportsman feature after taking the lead from Mudflap Quenneville on a restart with eight laps left. Tom Therrien got up for second with Quenneville third, Lance Allen fourth and John Drinkwine fifth. Earlier in the race Demers got into Quennevilles side ahead of the pack, but backed off in time for both drivers to recover and save their spots. Pete Ainsworth, the Sportsman point leader at the start of the night, almost didn't make it out of the full-contact last chance qualifier won by Ray Stearns. Ainsworth was 19th in the main event.
Tommy Smith caught Jason Corliss on the final lap and beat him to the line by inches winning the Street Stock feature. Bunker Hodgdon placed third.
Lance Donald of Williamstown drove to his first career win in the Power Shift Junkyard Warrior feature. Keith Fortier of Hinesburg was second, followed by Kevin Wheatley.
Sportsman Jimmy Hebert wiped out the competition in the Port-A-Potty Grand Prix.
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