Point Battles Tighten Entering Devil’s Bowl Speedway’s Mid-Season Championships

Story By: JUSTIN ST. LOUIS / DEVIL’S BOWL SPEEDWAY – WEST HAVEN, VT – The championship point battles are close across all five divisions of dirt track stock car racing at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, and things are only just beginning to get interesting.

The Community College of Vermont presents the annual Mid-Season Championships event on Sunday, July 21, and with double points up for grabs, the entire balance of each division could shift.

With point values doubled, Sunday’s feature races pay 100 points to win and 96 for second, with a four-point decrease per position down to a minimum of 20 for positions 21st through 30th. Qualifying heats also play a bigger factor, with values doubled to 10 points for a win, eight for second, and so on, down to a minimum of two points. A driver can earn up to 110 points on Sunday or as few as 22 – an 88-point swing that could make or break a season.

Kenny Tremont Jr. leads the headline Pepsi Sportsman Modified division as he chases after his tenth Devil’s Bowl Speedway championship. The West Sand Lake, N.Y., veteran has four wins on the season but crashed and slumped home in 23rd place at last week’s rough-and-tumble event. He avoided taking a major hit in the standings, though, when fellow title contenders Adam Pierson and Justin Comes also crashed.

Tremont has a 26-point advantage, 314-288, over Manchester Center, Vt.’s Frank Hoard III entering Sunday’s race – the annual 38-lap Vince Quenneville Sr. Memorial; Hoard won last week and vaulted into second place. Pierson sits third at 283 points, followed by Comes (268) and recent high school graduate Tanner Siemons (259). The top 12 drivers are all within 100 points of Tremont.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts Limited Sportsman division has been a place of parity in 2019, and Orwell, Vt.’s James Hanson holds the lead despite not having won a race yet. Hanson has 320 points, 20 better than Johnny Bruno and Marty Hutchins, who are deadlocked in a tie for second at 300 points apiece. Adam Piper sits fourth at 291 points with Matt Bilodeau fifth at 278.

West Rutland, Vt.’s FitzGerald family is sitting pretty in the Super Stock division, with three-time winner Scott FitzGerald leading his son Andrew, 353-308; Scott FitzGerald’s 45-point cushion is the largest in any of the five weekly classes. Josh Bussino ranks third at 297 points, ahead of rookie Cam Gadue (265) and Kevin Elliott (254).

Shawn Moquin has dominated the win column in the Mini Stock division, but he has a too-close-for-comfort lead of just nine points in the standings. The Milton, Vt., racer has four wins, but Jake Barrows has kept pace to keep the title fight close, 351-342. Craig Kirby sits third at 326, with rookie Katrina Bean at 253 and Tim Simonds at 240.

The smallest point lead belongs to Cambridge, N.Y.’s Samantha Mulready, as she leads the Friend Construction 500cc Mini Sprint battle. Mulready has just one win, but her six top-five finishes in seven races have rewarded her with the point lead. Rookie Evan Roberts has three wins and trails 325-317, with Shawn McPhee just one more point back at 316. Joel Belanger and John McPhee Jr. are tied at 298 points to round out the top five.

The Rookie of the Year battles are interesting as well. The Sportsman Modified run has sugared off to two main contenders, as Joey Roberts and Brent Warren are just four points apart, 198-194; both drivers have become big players against the veterans, and each has scored a top-five finish in the month of July. Gadue is out front in the Super Stock class, 33 points ahead of Mark Norris, 265-232, with Roo Forrest and Kaleb Shepard close behind. Bean has 22 markers on David Sartwell-Cornell in the Mini Stocks, 253-231, with a group of six other rookies hot on their heels. Roberts has a big 68-point lead in the Mini Sprints, 317-249, but Alyza McKeighan has four others breathing down her neck for second place.

Racing on Sunday, July 21, begins at 7:00 p.m., as the Community College of Vermont presents the Mid-Season Championships and the Vince Quenneville Sr. Memorial 38. The annual driver autograph session will be held at intermission. General admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (62+), and free for kids 12 and under.

POINT STANDINGS – Through July 14, 2019
Devil’s Bowl Speedway – West Haven, Vt.

Pepsi Sportsman Modified
Pos.-Driver-Hometown-Points (Wins)

1. Kenny Tremont Jr., West Sand Lake, N.Y. – 314 (4)
2. Frank Hoard III, Manchester Center, Vt. – 288 (1)
3. Adam Pierson, East Corinth, Vt. – 283
4. Justin Comes, Middlebury, Vt. – 268
5. Tanner Siemons, Orford, N.H. – 259
6. Bobby Hackel, Rensselaer, N.Y. – 257 (1)
7. Billy Lussier, Fair Haven, Vt. – 238
8. Jimmy Ryan, Shoreham, Vt. – 231 (1)
9. Marty Kelly III, North Bennington, Vt. – 223
10. Vince Quenneville, Brandon, Vt. – 220

O’Reilly Auto Parts Limited Sportsman
Pos.-Driver-Hometown-Points (Wins)

1. James Hanson, Orwell, Vt. – 320
2. Johnny Bruno, Castleton, Vt. – 300 (2)
2. Marty Hutchins, Poultney, Vt. – 300
4. Adam Piper, Leicester, Vt. – 291 (1)
5. Matt Bilodeau, Brandon, Vt. – 278 (1)
6. Anthony Warren, Shoreham, Vt. – 272
7. Dave Snow, Brandon, Vt. – 251
8. Anthony Ryan, Benson, Vt. – 250
9. Austin Chaves, Chester, Vt. – 230
10. Austin Comes, Middlebury, Vt. – 217

Super Stock
Pos.-Driver-Hometown-Points (Wins)
# – denotes rookie

1. Scott FitzGerald, West Rutland, Vt. – 353 (3)
2. Andrew FitzGerald, West Rutland, Vt. – 308
3. Josh Bussino, Belmont, Vt. – 297 (2)
4. # Cam Gadue, Highgate, Vt. – 265
5. Kevin Elliott, Rutland, Vt. – 254
6. Garrett Given, Orwell, Vt. – 246
7. Ronnie Alger, Orwell, Vt. – 238
8. Curtis Condon, Queensbury, N.Y. – 236
9. # Mark Norris, Benson, Vt. – 232
10. Chris Murray, Fair Haven, Vt. – 223 (1)

Mini Stock
Pos.-Driver-Hometown-Points (Wins)
# – denotes rookie

1. Shawn Moquin, Milton, Vt. – 351 (4)
2. Jake Barrows, Middlebury, Vt. – 342 (1)
3. Craig Kirby, Winooski, Vt. – 326
4. # Katrina Bean, Benson, Vt. – 253
5. Tim Simonds, Clarendon, Vt. – 240
6. Willie Rice, Poultney, Vt. – 233
7. # David Sartwell-Cornell, Highgate Springs, Vt. – 231
8. # Scott Cowdrey, Leicester, Vt. – 218
9. # Kendra Walden, Poultney, Vt. – 213
10. # T.J. Knight, Fair Haven, Vt. – 187

Friend Construction 500cc Mini Sprint
Pos.-Driver-Hometown-Points (Wins)
# – denotes rookie

1. Samantha Mulready, Cambridge, N.Y. – 325 (1)
2. # Evan Roberts, Fletcher, Vt. – 317 (3)
3. Shawn McPhee, Rutland, Vt. – 316 (2)
4. Joel Belanger, Washington, N.H. – 298
4. John McPhee Jr., Rutland, Vt. – 298
6. Cody O’Brien, Springfield, Vt. – 284 (1)
7. Dakota Green, Cambridge, N.Y. – 276
8. Kevin Smith, Brandon, Vt. – 272
9. # Alyza McKeighan, Brandon, Vt. – 249
10. # Jack Koponen, Mount Holly, Vt. – 238