RGeeProductions
10-16-2016, 10:53 AM
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.”
(continued)
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.”
(continued)