BNS: Thunder Road Speedway fact sheet

2001 BUSCH NORTH SERIES NASCAR TOURING RACE FACTS

WHAT: True Value 150 Busch North Series, NASCAR Touring Race #16 of 21

WHERE: Thunder Road International Speedbowl, Barre, Vt. (.250 mile paved oval)

WHEN: Saturday, September 1, 2001

DISTANCE: 150 laps (37.5 miles)

POSTED AWARDS: $79,200 (including $3,350 Busch North Series, NASCAR Touring Championship point fund money)

FIELD: 26 cars (Fastest 21 through one round of time trials Two additional positions will be added as provisional starters based on the current 2001 Busch North Series driver point standings, two based on the current 2001 Busch North Series car owner point standings, and one reserved for a past Busch North Series champion, if needed).

SANCTION: National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR)

PROMOTER: MGM Racing, Inc. <pre>

SCHEDULE: Saturday, September 1 10:00 a.m. Registration & Inspection 12:30 p.m. Mandatory Drivers Meeting 1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Practice 3:00 p.m.-3:45 p.m. Practice 4:15 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Practice 6:15 p.m. Bud Pole Qualifying (positions 1-21) 8:00 p.m. (approx.) True Value 150

NOTES OF INTEREST </pre>

Brad Leighton outdueled Dennis Demers to win the 2000 True Value 150, which was halted by rain after 69 laps on Saturday night and completed on Sunday afternoon. Dale Shaw was placed third after last-lap contact with Demers. Martin Truex Jr. and Dave Dion completed the top five. After Tracy Gordon led the first 40 laps, Leighton and Demers would swap the top spot four times, with Leighton gaining the upper hand for good on lap 94.

Tracy Gordon won the Bud Pole for the 2000 True Value 150 with a time of 13.001 seconds at a speed of 69.225 miles per hour. The track record was set in 1997 by Dave Dion at 12.696 seconds, 70.888 mph.

This will be the fifth visit by the Busch North Series to Thunder Road. The previous winners are Kip Stockwell (1997), Tracy Gordon (1998), Dale Shaw (1999), and Brad Leighton (2000). Stockwell's 1997 Thunder Road victory came in his very first Busch North Series start.

Busch North Series legend Stub Fadden is expected to enter the True Value 150 driving a car fielded by his grandson, BNS point leader Mike Olsen. Fadden retired after the 1998 season, but made a brief return in 1999.

More Busch North Series drivers call Thunder Road their home track thn any other speedway. Dave Dion, Jamie Aube, Barney McRae, Kip Stockwell, Dennis Demers, current point leader Mike Olsen, and current Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Year leader Brian Hoar are all alumni of "The Nation's Site of Excitement".

Thunder Road International Speedbowl opened in June 1959. Since the 1987 closing of its sister track, Catamount Stadium in Milton, Thunder Road has been the only paved track in Vermont.

STAT OF THE WEEK

The True Value 150 marks the second of six straight races for the Busch North Series. At the end of the streak, the BNS teams will have raced 18 times in 19 weeks. Among the 12 NASCAR national and touring series, only the Winston Cup Series packs as many races in so short a span of time.

-nascar/bns