Ticket reservation forms for the 2006 ACT/Thunder Road Banquet of Champions on Saturday, January 13 at the Sheraton Burlington (VT) Hotel and Conference Center have been sent to all licensed competitors. Reservations will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis and must be made through the mail. Payment, (tickets are $35 each) must accompany all reservation forms. Deadline for reservations is Tuesday, January 2, 2006.

Chad Wheeler of Waterbury Center, VT, who earned his first Thunder Road Late Model “King of the Road” title will be honored as will Montpelier’s Shawn Fleury who scored his second NAPA Tiger Sportsman crown. Eric Badore succeeded fellow Milton, VT resident Joe Small by earning his Allen Lumber Street Stock title while Maynard Bartlett Jr from Wolcott, VT raced to his first PowerShift Warrior championship.

Nominating ballots for several season-ending awards have been put in the mail to licensed ACT and Thunder Road competitors and officials. Each participating driver from the 2006 ACT Late Model Tour and ACT Sportsman Series as well as weekly divisions at Barre, Vermont’s Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl can submit a nominating ballot for their division.

The Late Models and NAPA Sportsmen (weekly and Tour/Series) will each offer up deserving candidates for their division’s “Most Improved Driver” award. Additionally the two classes will also nominate names of fellow competitors who are deserving of the “Sportsmanship” award. The Allen Lumber Street Stocks will propose names for the Ed Carroll Memorial Award which honors the driver who is deemed a sportsman by his peers.

Each license holder can nominate up to four names. The names appearing most frequently will go on the final which will be sent out in mid-December. Nominating ballots, which can be sent by mail (P.O. Box 296, Waterbury, VT 05676) or fax (802-244-1616), must be received by the ACT/Thunder Road office no later than Friday, December 15.

Former Thunder Road stock car champion Tracie Bellerose has announced her return to the track she dominated in 2000. The Gorham, NH race driver was forced into retirement following a serious crash in 2003, which left her with a badly shattered arm.

“Earlier this year I watched the ACT race haulers pass through Gorham on their way to Oxford (Plains Speedway, Oxford, ME) and I cried all day. It’s time for me to return to the one thing I love best. I’ll be at Thunder Road for the Merchants Bank 150 opener on Sunday, May 6, with a great car, and I couldn’t be more excited,” she said. Bellerose was victorious in the same event in 2000 at the Barre, VT quarter-mile oval.

Bellerose will drive for Scott Fearn of Springfield, MA but the car will be maintained at Jeff Laquerre’s shop in Montpelier, VT. Laquerre was crew chief during her championship run when she became one of the first women in the U.S. stock car racing to win a major short track crown.