Burroughs Caps Off First Thompson Season with Mini Stock Title
(THOMPSON, CT) – Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park held night two of its Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing , presented by Xtra Mart, on Saturday, October 15th, crowning several more champions as some of the greatest racers in New England and beyond turned out for an afternoon full of non-stop on track action.
One of the highlight events of the night was the conclusion of the Thompson Mini Stock season with Wayne Burroughs, Jr. making a push towards his first Thompson track title in the series, outracing reining champion Dave Trudeau all season long despite the defending champs early success. Trudeau won the first three races of 2016 at the Big-T, but ran into a string of bad luck that all started on the same night that Burroughs claimed his first Thompson win after Trudeau was wrecked out of the lead in a battle with Brad Caddick. Caddick sat third in the points coming into the final race of the season.
From that moment a series of on-track incidents and equipment failures continued to plague Trudeau while Burroughs wracked up two more wins and secured a 36-point lead on Trudeau coming into the World Series. Burroughs would hold on to the points lead in the final 15-lap feature with a third place finish to claim his first Thompson title in his first season racing the Mini Stocks at the speedway.
“It’s an awesome feeling. I know it won’t probably sink in until tomorrow or Monday, but this is awesome,” Burroughs said following the final laps of the event. “For our first year to do what we did, we didn’t have a single finish outside the top three. I can’t thank my guys enough. It’s an awesome team effort.”
Burroughs nearly capped off his championship season with a win in the final event, but a determined Eric Bourgeois played spoiler by leading much of the race and taking advantage of a bad restart by Burroughs in the closing laps to take the lead for good. Bourgeois was ecstatic after finishing the Thompson season with a victory after a season full of ups and downs and mixed results.
“I’m shocked believe me. The World Series for me has been either checker or this thing has been on the wrecker going to the trailer. I’ll take the checker for once,” Bourgeois said. “It’s the end of the year and it gets you set up for over the winter. This is only the second time I’ve finished in the World Series and both were wins. This is special to me. This has probably been one of the worst seasons I’ve had racing.”
Several more drivers celebrated championship success in night two of the Sunoco World Series. The Northeastern Midget Association (NEMA) drivers started off the days racing action with a 25-lap feature, the penultimate race in the 2016 NEMA season. Defending series champion John Zych came into the event hoping to pad his lead on Randy Cabral, however Cabral put together an impressive performance leading much of the event in a repeat victory in Thompson’s World Series weekend to match his 2015 victory. The win keeps Cabral well within striking distance of Zych, who finished fourth, in the points standings and gives him a shot at another NEMA title heading into the series’ final event of the year at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl on October 23rd.
The winningest active drive in the NEMA series at Thompson, Cabral said he always wanted to win at the Big-T and counts the World Series as a highlight event that he marks on his calendar every year. “Being a kid saying ‘watch, I’m going to be in victory lane’ and now being able to do it I mean you wait all year long to come back here and try to win this race. It’s so hard to do and I was pretty good today,” Cabral said. “I didn’t know if the car was going to stay that good. It felt good and I knew everyone else was good so I asked myself where they were going to be. I really put a lot of work into the car to make it handle better and it paid off today.”
The American Canadian Tour late models brought a thirty-three car field to Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park for a 75-lap feature to close out their season as Nick Sweet looked to wrap up the title with a fifth place finish or better.
The large field included series regulars and local racers from Thompson’s own Late Model division looking for one last win at the Big-T for 2016. With a title on the line, Scott Payea, second in points, did everything he could to keep his championship hopes alive, but came up short after holding the lead for most of the race before Dillon Moltz finally wrestled away the top spot on lap 67. That would set into motion a dramatic finish after Moltz faced a hard fought battle with Bobby Therrien for the lead in the closing laps. After trying to make a move for several circuits Therrien was able to get his nose to the quarter panel of Moltz’s car in the final two turns of the final lap and beat Moltz to the finish. Moltz, clearly unhappy with Therrien following the race, spun Therrien after the two crossed the line, but in the end Therrien wasn’t deterred from celebrating a hard fought win.
“Early on in the race we got up to second and got shuffled back a little bit on a couple restarts. Once my spotter told me there was only ten laps to go I knew I had to at least get into second to have a chance at winning the race,” Therrien said after the race. “There have been three races this year where I’ve been moved on the last lap. I didn’t want that happen again tonight. I was in position with a lapped car that I had my nose in there. Coming to the checkered at a place like Thompson you go for all you got coming out of turn four. I can’t thank my crew enough. They did a lot of changes to the car today. The first time I’d seen (Thompson) was this morning when I walked in and this is an awesome facility,” Therrien added that he wasn’t surprised by the retaliation from Moltz saying that American Canadian Tour is full of intense drivers who put a lot of emotion and passion into their sport.
With his closest rival, Payea, settling for third Nick Sweet managed to wrap up the 2016 ACT late model series title with a fifth place finish. The championship is Sweet’s first in the series and brought a tremendously successful season full circle.
“For the first time (at Thompson) we had a pretty good run. I’m happy with fifth,” said Sweet. “It’s been a real blessing. My crew has done a real good job all weekend – Winning the championship is real special for our team. I never would have thought in a million years we were champions so it means a lot of this whole team.”
The Valenti Modified Racing Series held the second to last event of its 2016 campaign at Thompson with a 50-lap feature and a champion already decided. With Jon McKennedy already having wrapped up the series title following an impressive year the race became a battle for bragging rights as drivers sought to claim one more win and end the year on a high note.
With the title already wrapped up all eyes were on the battle for the lead that ensued between Woody Pitkat and Paul Masse late in the race, which culminated in a six-lap dash for the finish after a late race caution slowed the field on lap 44. Pitkat was the class of the field for much of the event, but a wiggle on the restart nearly gave Masse the lead before another incident brought out the red flag. When the green flag waved again Pitkat was ready, but contact between Pitkat and Masse put an end to Masse’s impressive run causing his car to slide up into the turn two wall. Pitkat held off one more challenge by McKennedy in the final two laps to claim a hard fought, albeit controversial win in the Valenti Modified Series.
After his win Pitkat commented on the contact between himself and Masse and his desire and determination to bring home the win. “I’m here to win. I’ve had such a bad year. I don’t care if people are spitting or kicking at me. It is what it is. The leader dictates what line he wants to take. It was just two people going for the win. One guy has to lift when you’re going down into the corner and it wasn’t going to be me,” Pitkat said. “I’m here to win and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do – Nobodys doing anything intentional out there. Everybody’s driving as hard as they can because they want a win and stuff’s going to happen.”
Several other series also took to the track, some crowning winners while others named champions. In the North East Street Stocks, Joe Arena capped off a strong season with both a race win at Thompson and a title. The Pro 4 Modifieds saw Chace Dowling claim a victory in the annual 22-lap Harry Kourafas, Jr Memorial Race. In the Texas Roadhouse North East Mini Stock Tour event Haywood Herriott locked up a title by simply starting the final event of the season while Nick Maniatis scored a victory in the caution filled 20-lap feature. Finally the Lite Modifieds closed out the night with a victory by Corey Barry.
The action continues Sunday, October 16th with the weekend’s biggest race, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Sunoco World Series 150, the closing event of the 2016 Whelen Modified season. Timmy Solomito will start from the pole while Doug Coby, going for yet another Whelen Modified Tour Title, will take off from the outside pole position. Also set to take center stage Sunday are the Limited Sportsman and Sunoco Modifieds, each crowning their own Thompson track champions, as well as the NEMA Lites and the 50-lap International Super Modified Association feature prior to the Whelen Modified Tour ending a busy weekend of racing action at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.
MINI STOCK FINISH: 1. Eric Bourgeois (East Haaddam, CT); 2. Dave Trudeau (Mansfield, CT); 3. Wayne Burroughs, Jr. (Oakdale, CT); 4. Mark Panaroni (Ivoryton, CT); 5. Chris Ivory (Oakdale, CT); 6. William Schoeler (Warwick, RI); 7. Roger Ducharme (Foster, RI); 8. Ed Field (Deep River, CT); 9. Doug Curry (Groton, CT); 10. Ian Brew (Wood River Junction, RI); 11. Steve Michalski (Brooklyn, CT)l 12. Nick Matera (Warwick, RI); 13. Brad Caddick (Wyoming, RI); 14. Keith Ballou (Pascoag, RI); 15. Nate Taylor (Brooklyn, CT); 16. Scott Bellisle (Wauregan, CT)
NORTHEASTERN MIDGET ASSOCIATION (NEMA) FINISH: 1. Randy Cabral (Kingston, MA); 2. Cole Carter (Brownsburg, IN); 3. Seth Carlson (Brimfield, MA); 4. John Zych (Mendon, MA); 5. Jim Chambers (Atkinson, NH); 6. Todd Bertrand (Danielson, CT); 7. Avery Stoehr (Lakeville, MA); 8. Alan Chambers (Atkinson, MA); 9. Paul Scally (Raynham, MA); 10. Doug Cleveland (Sudbury, MA); 11. Kevin Park (Foxboro, MA); 12. Jim Santa Maria (Burlington, CT)
AMERICAN CANADIAN TOUR FINISH TOP-10: 1. Bobby Therrien (Hinesburg, VT); 2. Dillon Moltz (Waterford, CT); 3. Scott Payea (Milton, CT); 4. Brad Babb (Windham, ME); 5. Nick Sweet (Barre VT); 6. Eddie MacDonald (Rowley, MA); 7. Alex Labbe (St. Albert, QC); 8. Devin O’Connell (Madison, CT); 9. Raymond Christian, III (Norwich, CT); 10. Rick Gentes (Burrville, RI)
VALENTI MODIFIED RACING SERIES FINISH TOP-10: 1. Woody Pitkat (Enfield, NH); 2. Jon McKennedy (Chelmsford, MA); 3. Anthony Nocella (Woburn, MA); 4. Dave Ethridge (Portland, CT); 5. Geoff Gernhard (Bozrah, CT); 6. Ronnie Williams; 7. Jeffrey Gallup (Agawam, MA); 8. Chris Pasteryak (Lisbon, CT); 9. Matthew Mead (Richmond, NH); 10. Troy Talman (Oxford, MA)
NORTH EAST STREET STOCK TOUR FINISH TOP-10: 1. Joe Arena (Bristol, CT); 2.. Kyle Casagrande (Stafford Springs, CT); 3. Jim Silva (Middletown, RI); 4. Steve Kenneway (Lowell, MA); 5. Larry Barnett (Moosup, CT); 6. Frank L’Etoile, Jr. (Wethersfield, CT); 7. Zack Robinson (Putnam, CT); 8. Troy Waterman (Killingly, CT); 9. Ryan Waterman (Danielson, CT); 10. Jack Aquilina
NEW ENGLAND PRO FOUR MODIFIED FINISH TOP-10: 1. Chace Dowling (Roxbury, CT); 2. Randy Cabral (Kingston, MA); 3. Andy Major (Wales, MA); 4. Norm Wrenn (Amherst, NH); 5. Robin Berghman (East Providence, RI); 6. Doug Meservey, Jr. (Dennis, MA); 7. Phil Lausier (Hudson, NH); 8. Mark Charette (Wolcott, CT); 9. Tom Royer (Swanzey, NH); 10. Allen Rieser (Brimfield, MA)
TEXAS ROADHOUSE NORTH EAST MINI STOCK TOUR FINISH TOP-10: 1. Nick Maniatis (Hooksett, NH); 2. Nicholas Anderson (Oxford, MA); 3. Emerson Cayer (Contoocook, NH); 4. Mike Viens (Seekonk, MA); 5. Haywood Harriott (Gorham, NH); 6. Matt Sonnhalter (East Thetford, Vermont); 7. Marc Panaroni (Ivoryton, CT); 8. Chris Ivory; 9. Uknown (#07) ; 10. Desmond Skillings (Antrim, NH)
LITE MODIFIEDS FINISH TOP-10: 1. Corey Barry (Plainfield, CT); 2. Glen Griswold (Vernon, CT); 3. Keith Caruso (Millbury, MA); 4. Carlos Gray (East Hartford, CT); 5. Tony Membrino (Berlin, CT); 6. Wesley Prucker (Stafford, CT); 7. Joe Graf, Jr. (Mahwah, NJ); 8. Bill McNeil (Old Lyme, CT); 9. Damon Tinio (Mendon, MA); 10. Andrew Les (Boston, MA)
Sources: Jason Bleau/Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park PR