Quenneville clinches NASCAR Vermont State Championship
WEST HAVEN, Vt. – Devil’s Bowl Speedway officials have been forced to cancel the Dirt Track stock car racing event scheduled for Sunday, September 18. Overnight rains at the speedway that continued until 9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning have resulted in heavily saturated grounds, leaving the track’s surface too wet and too soft for grooming into suitable racing conditions.
The possibility of more rain in the weather forecast for Sunday evening only adds to the decision to cancel the event, which was to include a 50-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Sportsman Modified race presented by Sunoco Race Fuels. The cancellation marks the seventh Dirt Track race cancelled due to weather in 2016 and the 11th event overall at the facility. The race will not be rescheduled.
“We face a big delay in preparing the track and the racing would be postponed several hours, and the surface would likely by very rough anyway,” Devil’s Bowl Speedway promoter Mike Bruno said. “It’s obviously disappointing to cancel again, but we refuse to give the race teams a bad surface, and with work and school on Monday morning it would not be fair to everyone to wait all night long while we still face some uncertain weather.”
Because of the cancellation, veteran driver Vince Quenneville Jr. of Brandon, Vt., will clinch the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Vermont State Championship; September 18 is the NASCAR-mandated cutoff date for drivers to earn championship points in the state and national standings. The title is the second-straight Vermont State Championship for Quenneville.
Two events remain in the weekly Dirt Track point championships at Devil’s Bowl Speedway. The second annual “Green Mountain Sprint Car Nationals” presented by Fabian Earthmoving is slated for Sunday, September 25 at 5:00 p.m., with the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints taking on the Sprint Cars of New England in a $3,000-to-win event. Sportsman Modifieds, Renegades, and Mini Stocks will all be on hand as well.
The championship season wraps up on Saturday, October 1 at 5:00 p.m. with the “King of the Clay” 100-lap Sportsman Modified race presented by The Stove Depot, paying $2,000 to the winner. Renegade, Mini Stock, and the Enduro Series champions will also be crowned at the event.
Devil’s Bowl Speedway is located on Route 22A in West Haven, Vt., four miles north of Exit 2 off of U.S. Route 4 and just 20 minutes from Rutland, Vt. For more information, visit www.DevilsBowlSpeedwayVT.com or call (802) 265-3112. Devil’s Bowl Speedway is on Facebook at facebook.com/DevilsBowlSpeedway and on Twitter and Instagram at @DevilsBowlSpeed; follow the action using the #DevilsBowl hashtag.