Winner will Find Their Name Forever Etched in Barre, Vermont Granite

Barre, VT — Just over a week after an incredible doubleheader weekend of racing at Oxford Plains Speedway, the Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour teams are quickly turning around their cars for the big change from the near-flat circular Oxford Plains 3/8-mile to the highbanked, tricky oval at Thunder Road. The Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour faithful prepare their final nut-and-bolt checks for the 47th running of the EastRise Credit Union Labor Day Classic 200 this Sunday, August 31.

Thunder Road’s Labor Day Classic has a long and interesting history with the Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour playing its part along the way. Initially a big end-of-year dance for the Sportsman Coupes that brought Thunder Road to fame in the 1960s, the Labor Day Classic took a fifteen year hiatus as the Vermont Milk Bowl was annually held on Labor Day weekend from the 1980s to mid-1990s before returning to the schedule. Ever since returning as an ACT event in 2017, the winner’s list has been a mixed back of greats, firsts and epic returns for the region’s Late Model drivers.

Plainfield, New Hampshire’s Rich Dubeau took an emotional win in the 2019 200-lapper to cement his claim on the championship that season, Fayston’s Brook Clark bookended the 2021 season with a surprise win in the end-of-summer classic and D.J. Shaw joined his father Dale as a Labor Day Classic winner in 2022. Last year, Scott Dragon cracked a record-breaking twenty-one year winless streak in the rain-shorted affair.

Now in 2025, it’s a whole new shake-down. Quebec’s Raphael Lessard continues to lead the Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour standings and after his top three run in the season opener has shown he has what it takes to compete at The Road. Community Bank 150 winner Kaiden Fisher would love nothing more than to bookend the year at his hometrack with a second win while top chasers Gabe Brown, Jesse Switser and Erick Sands would love to make it win #1 on the Barre highbanks this Sunday.

Dartmouth, Massachusetts driver Derek Gluchacki has proved his short run prowess at the Nation’s Site of Excitement in past Vermont Milk Bowl 50-lap segments, but 200 laps on the highbanks will challenge his notebook. Quebec trio Alexendre ‘Fireball’ Tardif, Jonathan Bouvrette and Remi Perreault are all looking for a good run on Sunday as are New Hampshire invaders Cole Littlewood, Justin Storace and Craig Smith.

Leading the homefront is former track champion and Vermont Milk Bowl winner Christopher Pelkey and EastRise Credit Union driver Taylor Hoar in her chase for the Kulwicki Driver Development Program Cup. 2018 Labor Day Classic victor Jason Corliss currently leads the track championship battle and has yet to announce his participation in Sunday’s 200 lapper but would certainly be in contention for win number two. Other possibilities include defending winner Scott Dragon and defending Vermont Milk Bowl champion Marcel Gravel, just to name a few.

The Milton CAT American-Canadian Tour teams have a short week ahead, turning their cars around from the slightly-banked 3/8-mile at Oxford to the highbanked 1/4-mile of Barre, Vermont’s Thunder Road International Speedbowl next Sunday, August 31 for the 47th running of the EastRise Credit Union Labor Day Classic 200. One winner will have his name added to the granite monument high atop Quarry Hill at the famed Barre oval next Sunday afternoon with a 4:00pm Post Time.

For more information about the American-Canadian Tour, contact the ACT offices at (802) 244-6963, media@acttour.com, or visit www.acttour.com. You can also get updates on Facebook and Twitter at @ACTTour.

For more information about Milton CAT, visit their website at www.miltoncat.com or get updates from their Instagram account at @milton_cat.