06/23/2011
By Kara Herlihy
Waitsfield’s Grant Folsom claimed his third career Thunder Road Late Model feature win in the Harvest Equipment Sunday Twilight event on Sunday, June 19.
Folsom got underneath polesitter Scott Payea after an early restart. After several laps of banging doors with Payea on the outside, Folsom got free. During a long green flag run, Folsom distanced himself from the remainder of the field, but a late caution erased his lead.
“I was third at the time and I think there was some contact between him and the second-place guy; they drifted and I got underneath him,” he said.
Folsom said that winning after what he called a “pretty interesting last 12 to 15 laps,” he’s pretty happy with the win.
“We had a bad couple of weeks,” he said; Folsom spent 11 hours working on his car on Saturday.
“A lot of people don’t understand how much goes into it,” he continued.
Last Saturday Folsom spent hours going through the different angles of suspension of the car.
“We usually spend a few hours going through everything; we weigh it on the scales and get the weight for every tire. We have limits in the rules as to what we’re allowed to run,” Folsom said.
In this, his 10th season racing, Folsom has had a win every year since returning full time to Thunder Road in 2009 after splitting his time between the Riverside Speedway in New Hampshire.
Runner-up finisher Chip Grenier didn’t have enough to get around Folsom over the final laps. A hard charging John Donahue came from 14th and might have contended for the lead but ran out of laps and settled for third.
Rookie driver Jimmy Hebert claimed his first top five in fourth, while defending champion Nick Sweet rounded out the top five. Phil Scott, Trampas Demers, Scott Payea, Cody Blake and Mike Bruno completed the top 10.
Thunder Road International Speedbowl will host the CARQUEST Vermont Governor’s Cup 100 for late models this Thursday, June 23. Bond Auto Tiger Sportsmen, Allen Lumber Street Stocks and Junkyard Warriors will have regular events. Post time is scheduled for 6 p.m. For more information and complete event results visit www.thunderroadspeedbowl.com.
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