“Joey Pole” on the Milk Bowl Pole Again
Nineteen year-old stock car sensation Joey “Pole” Polewarczyk, Jr. won his third consecutive Booth Bros./H.P. Hood Pole Award at the 45th Annual Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl at Barre, VT’s Thunder Road on Saturday afternoon. The Hudson, NH driver earned the $1,000 top prize after posting a single-lap time of 13.165 seconds around Thunder Road’s high-banked 1/4-mile oval, besting 56 other cars in attendance.
“We always post great times here in qualifying, now we have to put the pieces together to take that next step and win the race,” said Polewarczyk, who finished third in the event in 2006. “My team is firing on all cylinders, we have two ACT (American-Canadian Tour) wins this year, and now we want to win the big one, the Milk Bowl.”
Seven-time ACT Late Model Tour Champion Jean-Paul Cyr of Milton, VT will start outside Polewarczyk on Row 1 in Segment 1 of the Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl on Sunday. Cyr and Craig Bushey of Cambridge, VT posted identical best-lap times of 13.268 seconds; Cyr won the tie-breaker with a better first-lap time of 13.469 seconds to Bushey’s 13.617 seconds. Bushey, the NAPA Tiger Sportsman division point leader at Thunder Road, is making his first Late Model-division start of the season.
Brad Leighton of Center Harbor, NH will start in fourth place after winning his Booth Bros./H.P. Hood “Triple 50” qualifying race. Cyr and Bushey won their respective Triple 50s as well. Five-time ACT Champion Brian Hoar of Williston, VT, also making his first start of the year, will start in fifth place. Ryan Nolin of Georgia, VT, Patrick Laperle of Montreal, Scott Payea of Milton, VT, Brent Dragon of Milton, VT, and Trampas Demers of South Burlington, VT will round out the top ten starters in Milk Bowl Segment 1.
The Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl is a three-segment, cumulatively scored race that awards points in each 50-lap segment – 1 for first, 2 for second, etc. The finish of each segment is inverted to begin the next, and the driver with the lowest three-round total score is the overall winner. Top prize is $10,000 and a kiss of the beauty queen – a Vermont dairy cow! The Milk Bowl is 12th and final round of the American-Canadian Tour Championship; Payea leads Laperle by just 19 points for the title.
General admission is $25 for adults and $5 for children 6-12. Gates open at 10:00am, with the last-chance “B” Feature qualifying race set to begin at 1:00pm, followed by pre-race ceremonies for the 45th Annual Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl. For more information, call (802) 244-6963 or visit www.acttour.com or www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com.
Chittenden Bank Milk Bowl starting lineup (first 22 of 28 starting positions)
Row Pos # Driver/Hometown Sponsor/Car
1 1 97NH Joey Polewarczyk, Jr./Hudson, NH Pole’s Automotive/NHPrecision.com Chevrolet
2 32 Jean-Paul Cyr/Milton, VT Ehler’s RV/RPM Racing Engines Chevrolet
2 3 05 Craig Bushey/Cambridge, VT Vermont Life Safety Dodge
4 55NH Brad Leighton/Center Harbor, NH Irving Oil/Subway Ford
3 5 45 Brian Hoar/Williston, VT Burnett Scrap Metals/Goss Dodge Dodge
6 78 Ryan Nolin/Georgia, VT Mountain Air Systems/Champ 101.3 Chevrolet
4 7 91 Patrick Laperle/St-Denis, QC Systemes Interieurs Descoste Chevrolet
8 89 Scott Payea/Milton, VT Ouellette Plumbing & Heating/Leahy Press Ford
5 9 55VT Brent Dragon/Milton, VT Beverage Mart/Furniture World of VT Chevrolet
10 85VT Trampas Demers/S. Burlington, VT Jiffy Mart Chevrolet
6 11 6 Cris Michaud/Northfield, VT Merchants Bank/Burrell Roofing Ford
12 26 John Donahue/Graniteville, VT National Guard Ford
7 13 48VT Robbie Crouch/Tampa, FL Shearer Chevrolet/Pete’s RV Chevrolet
14 86 Dennis Demers/Shelburne, VT Shelburne Limestone Corp. Chevrolet
8 15 22VT Gary Caron/Colchester, VT VT Wholesale Lumber Chevrolet
16 15VT Joey Laquerre/E. Montpelier, VT Domino’s Pizza/Laquerre’s Marine Pontiac
9 17 9VT Chip Grenier/Graniteville, VT Douglas for Governor/Streeter Concrete Ford
18 02NH Randy Potter/Groveton, NH P&R Excavating/Caron’s Stove Shop Chevrolet
10 19 25 Dave Whitcomb/Essex Jct., VT Ferguson Waterworks/SunRay Security Chevrolet
20 7VT Eric Williams/Hyde Park, VT Unicel/Ward’s Systems Chevrolet
11 21 1VT Tony Andrews/Middlebury, VT E.A. Grandfield/Hallstrom Excavating Chevrolet
22 76 Quinny Welch/Lancaster, NH Mulleavey Electric Dodge
Positions 23-24 and will be the top-two finishers of the last-chance “B” Feature on Sunday. Two ACT Late Model Tour provisionals will be awarded, along with one Thunder Road provisional and one Serie ACT-Castrol provisional—28 total starters.
Sources: ACT LM Tour PR