Friday, October 21, 2016

Monster Mini's Crown a First Time Champion at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park







Posted by Wayne G. Barber & Photos by Wayne G. Barber

Thompson extended the 2016 racing season to a scheduled 10 race season for the highly competitive Monster Mini's from the 7 race schedule in 2015. At the Ice Breaker I noticed a few changes with no brothers Baxter in the race. Joe in his sparkling #24 who was always in the top 5 and Chad a former Monster Mini Champion electing to run the Friday schedule at Seekonk Speedway. Trudeau, Veins, Michalski Brothers, Field, Bourgeois, Ballou, Ducharme, Matera prepared nice entries for the first event.
 New race teams added for the 2016 season were Wayne Burroughs Jr., Brad Caddick , Douglas Curry, and Nathan Taylor.
 Reigning 2015 Monster Mini Champion Dave Trudeau started off the season with three straight convincing victories and most thought a lights out repeat in the division. I noted on our radio program, the Race Chatter that the newbie who came over from New London Waterford Speed Bowl Wayne Burroughs Jr. had scored a second and two thirds in his adapting to the super speedway. The car screamed in practice and the heats and I knew it just a matter of time before this team was in victory lane. The next race on June 15th Burroughs spanked the field for his first of three victories in the 2016 season. The September 7th race was called for rain and not re-scheduled so the division raced 9 times to claim a champion.
  Burroughs claimed 3 wins, 2 seconds and 4 third place finish's in 9 events good for 461 points. Burroughs enters the final race at New London Waterford Speed Bowl in first at 536 over Hall of Fame driver Ken Cassidy Jr. #11 who has 519 only 17 back and Charlie Canfield #25at 511 -25 and Trudeau #97 at 500 only 36 back. In the National NASCAR points standing that are concluded, Burroughs ended up in third place in this division . Can he claim two championships with the same car on two different size tracks ?
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.”
  Trudeau claimed 4 wins,1 second and 1 third good for 428 points. He lost the points race by a 4th place on 8/10 and a 11th place finish on 8/24 and a kiss of death,  DNF on 7/9 for 13th place.
  Newcomer Brad Caddick #24 soon adjusted to the larger surface and scored a victory and some strong runs and soon made the die-hard race fans forget about the former # 24 Baxter. Watch for Caddick in 2017. Eric Bourgeois , a former division champion claimed the World Series hardware for the second time to turn his disappointing season around and get some momentum for the 2017 Ice Breaker.
“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.” 
 Rhode Island long time racer Roger Ducharme #34 ended his season at 6th place and 347 points and young Keith Ballou #10 who entered his second season with a goal of finishing in the top 10 did just that at 10th place and a hard earned 233 over his 215 in the 2015 season.

Final 2016 Monster Mini Point Standings

120WAYNE BURROUGHS, JR 461
297DAVE TRUDEAU428-33
324BRAD CADDICK385-76
438EDWARD FIELD382-79
587ERIC BOURGEOIS361-100
634ROGER DUCHARME347-114
744STEVEN MICHALSKI329-132
819NICHOLAS MATERA290-171
97CHRISTOPHER VIENS245-216
1010KEITH BALLOU239-222
1151SCOTT MICHALSKI191-270
1255NICHOLAS ANDERSON187-274
132DOUGLAS CURRY167-294
141NATHAN TAYLOR132-329
1550SCOTT BELLISLE131-330
1637JORDAN HADLEY117-344
1726JEFFREY MOFFAT, SR114347
1810CTMITCH BOMBARD96365
193IAN BREW80381
2084WILLIAM SCHOELER76385
2196CHRIS IVORY75386
2212MICHAEL D. VIENS59402
2397CTDAVE TRUDEAU JR.54407
2451CTMARK PANARONI45416
25BRANDON FISHER26435
2647LAWRENCE LOOMIS, JR24437
271RIGLYNN ROY22439

 
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