Last Lap Slide Job Nets Fire Swamp $5,000 Northeast Crate Nationals Top Prize At Devil’s Bowl

Story By: DEVIL’S BOWL SPEEDWAY – WEST HAVEN, VT – Akwesasne, N.Y.’s Fire Swamp has been good in 2024. So good, in fact, that he has won two races at Devil’s Bowl and one at Airborne Park in the first month of racing, ran well when he hasn’t won, and earned over $9,000 in prize money in the process.

Swamp began Sunday’s Crate Nationals by turning in the day’s best time trial. He proceeded to win his heat race, and redraw the pole position for the 100-lap feature. All eyes were on the 18-year-old kid, who was coming off a win at Airborne Park and win in this year’s opener at ‘New England’s Fastest Dirt Track.’

The race began with tough luck for top-running Devil’s Bowl regulars, Josh Leclaire and Jimmy Ryan. Leclaire blew a rear end running 2nd in the opening laps, and Ryan suffered a spin in turn four not so long after. Meanwhile, 2020 Vermont 200 Champion and 2021 Sportsman Track Champion Demetrios Drellos was busy, working from 19th starting spot, having made his way into the top-10 by lap 25.

Swamp controlled the field every step of the way, being paced by Brian Calabrese, Kevin Chaffee, Richard Murtaugh and Tyler Corcoran, and then on lap 40, Drellos cracked the top-five.

Instead of his usual black #111 mount, he piloted Dave Rogers’ white and red #44 car. That car pulled into Swamp’s proverbial rear-view mirror on lap 56, during a lengthy green-flag run.

On lap 79, Drellos took the lead.

More trouble would strike for Devil’s Bowl regulars Dave Camara, Tim LaDuc and Frankie Hoard, III during the second-half of the race. LaDuc and Hoard each found themselves spun at one point, Camara appeared to break something at the north end of the track. The separate incidents each drew their own yellows.

On lap 89, Swamp took the lead back. Then, Drellos reclaimed the top spot with 10 to go. They ran side-by-side for the closing laps, with Swamp edging Drellos to the line on 97 and 98, but Drellos cleared him in the middle groove for what looked like good coming to the white flag.

On the final lap, heading into turn three, Swamp drove in deep on the slippery surface, generating an audible gasp from the crowd. He cleared Drellos long enough to slide up in front of him, and Drellos was unable to cross him over in time, watching Swamp drive off to victory.

Brian Calabrese completed the podium with Richard Murtaugh and Tyler Corcoran completing the top-five.

Sportsman Modified

Northeast Crate Nationals 100 (100 Laps): 1. 88-Fire Swamp[1]; 2. 44-Demetrios Drellos[19]; 3. 21C-Brian Calabrese[7]; 4. 33M-Richard Murtaugh[10]; 5. 64-Tyler Corcoran[4]; 6. 78-Vince Quenneville[6]; 7. 80-Dominic Roselli[16]; 8. 8-Kevin Chaffee[2]; 9. 13A-Troy Audet[12]; 10. 51-Justin Comes[25]; 11. T69-Travis Green[20]; 12. 54-Tim LaDuc[9]; 13. 11VT-Joey Scarborough[21]; 14. 22J-Bubba McPhee[24]; 15. 357-Marty Kelly III[29]; 16. 5-Tanner Siemons[23]; 17. 29-Max Dolliver[27]; 18. 60R-Randy Ryan[26]; 19. 25-Billy Lussier[17]; 20. 66-Adam Piper[18]; 21. 75-AJ Munger[30]; 22. 22-Johnny Bruno[13]; 23. 00-Pat Miner[22]; 24. 13-Frankie Hoard III[8]; 25. 2-Brent Warren[28]; 26. 88M-Michael Wagner Fitzgerald[15]; 27. 26-Dave Camara[11]; 28. 60-Jim Ryan[5]; 29. 7-Josh Leclaire[3]; 30. (DNS) 11X-Josh Masterson

Consi 1 (10 Laps): 1. 11VT-Joey Scarborough[2]; 2. 5-Tanner Siemons[1]; 3. 51-Justin Comes[6]; 4. 29-Max Dolliver[4]; 5. 357-Marty Kelly III[3]; 6. 10X-Cory Castell[7]; 7. 09-Tad Kingsbury[5]; 8. 60W-Anthony Warren[8]; 9. 514-James Hanson[9]

Consi 2 (10 Laps): 1. 00-Pat Miner[3]; 2. 22J-Bubba McPhee[1]; 3. 60R-Randy Ryan[4]; 4. 2-Brent Warren[7]; 5. 10-Jim Nagle[6]; 6. 75-AJ Munger[2]; 7. 36-Brian Whittemore[5]; 8. 17-Bruce Loomis[8]; 9. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer[9]

Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 88-Fire Swamp[1]; 2. 21C-Brian Calabrese[2]; 3. 26-Dave Camara[3]; 4. 22-Johnny Bruno[5]; 5. 25-Billy Lussier[4]; 6. 5-Tanner Siemons[6]; 7. 357-Marty Kelly III[7]; 8. 09-Tad Kingsbury[9]; 9. 98-Craig Wholey[8]; 10. 17-Bruce Loomis[10]

Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 13A-Troy Audet[1]; 2. 33M-Richard Murtaugh[2]; 3. 78-Vince Quenneville[4]; 4. 11X-Josh Masterson[10]; 5. 66-Adam Piper[3]; 6. 22J-Bubba McPhee[5]; 7. 00-Pat Miner[6]; 8. 36-Brian Whittemore[7]; 9. 10X-Cory Castell[9]; 10. 514-James Hanson[8]

Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 54-Tim LaDuc[2]; 2. 8-Kevin Chaffee[1]; 3. 64-Tyler Corcoran[3]; 4. 88M-Michael Wagner Fitzgerald[5]; 5. 44-Demetrios Drellos[6]; 6. 11VT-Joey Scarborough[8]; 7. 29-Max Dolliver[7]; 8. 51-Justin Comes[4]; 9. 2-Brent Warren[10]; 10. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer[9]

Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 13-Frankie Hoard III[1]; 2. 7-Josh Leclaire[2]; 3. 60-Jim Ryan[4]; 4. 80-Dominic Roselli[3]; 5. T69-Travis Green[5]; 6. 75-AJ Munger[6]; 7. 60R-Randy Ryan[7]; 8. 10-Jim Nagle[9]; 9. 60W-Anthony Warren[8]

Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 88-Fire Swamp, 00:19.830[10]; 2. 21C-Brian Calabrese, 00:19.972[5]; 3. 26-Dave Camara, 00:20.135[7]; 4. 25-Billy Lussier, 00:20.150[1]; 5. 22-Johnny Bruno, 00:20.274[2]; 6. 5-Tanner Siemons, 00:20.390[4]; 7. 357-Marty Kelly III, 00:20.481[3]; 8. 98-Craig Wholey, 00:20.627[8]; 9. 09-Tad Kingsbury, 00:20.699[9]; 10. (DQ) 17-Bruce Loomis, 00:20.885[6]

Qualifying 2 (2 Laps): 1. 13A-Troy Audet, 00:20.109[9]; 2. 33M-Richard Murtaugh, 00:20.212[8]; 3. 66-Adam Piper, 00:20.320[2]; 4. 78-Vince Quenneville, 00:20.341[1]; 5. 22J-Bubba McPhee, 00:20.510[10]; 6. 00-Pat Miner, 00:20.666[3]; 7. 36-Brian Whittemore, 00:20.697[6]; 8. 514-James Hanson, 00:20.793[4]; 9. 10X-Cory Castell, 00:20.854[5]; 10. (DQ) 11X-Josh Masterson, 00:20.201[7]

Qualifying 3 (2 Laps): 1. 8-Kevin Chaffee, 00:20.430[8]; 2. 54-Tim LaDuc, 00:20.432[9]; 3. 64-Tyler Corcoran, 00:20.477[2]; 4. 51-Justin Comes, 00:20.593[4]; 5. 88M-Michael Wagner Fitzgerald, 00:20.597[3]; 6. 44-Demetrios Drellos, 00:20.603[6]; 7. 29-Max Dolliver, 00:20.679[5]; 8. 11VT-Joey Scarborough, 00:20.830[7]; 9. 61-Alex Palmer Sawyer, 00:21.017[1]; 10. (DNS) 2-Brent Warren

Qualifying 4 (2 Laps): 1. 13-Frankie Hoard III, 00:20.294[8]; 2. 7-Josh Leclaire, 00:20.422[9]; 3. 80-Dominic Roselli, 00:20.447[5]; 4. 60-Jim Ryan, 00:20.602[6]; 5. T69-Travis Green, 00:20.743[1]; 6. 75-AJ Munger, 00:20.746[7]; 7. 60R-Randy Ryan, 00:20.861[3]; 8. 60W-Anthony Warren, 00:20.873[2]; 9. 10-Jim Nagle, 00:20.916[4]

Limited Sportsman

A Feature 1 (30 Laps): 1. 23T-Scott Towslee[10]; 2. 06-Steve Miller[2]; 3. 65-John Gosselin[1]; 4. 53-Gary English[11]; 5. 44D-William Duprey[7]; 6. 751-Alex Layn[8]; 7. 813-Jason Quenneville[12]; 8. 1VT-Marty Hutchins[4]; 9. 42-Kamden Duffy[3]; 10. 2X-Michael Clark Jr[9]; 11. 92-Steve Pope[15]; 12. 9-Tyler Travis[14]; 13. 77J-Bob Kilburn[16]; 14. 27X-Cody O’Brien[6]; 15. 40-Ed Bell[18]; 16. 25-William Lussier Jr[5]; 17. 52X-Adam Lafountain[20]; 18. 4X-Joshua Patterson[17]; 19. 75-Derrick Counter[21]; 20. 78-Don Williams[13]; 21. 77-Eric Shaw[19]; 22. (DNS) 47-Kyle Kerr

500cc Mini Sprints

Segment 2 (10 Laps): 1. 9Q-Quinn Quenneville; 2. 17-Chris Lennox; 3. 68-Raymond Hanson; 4. 13NH-brandon emerson; 5. 73-Vern Woodard; 6. 15P-Chris Pierce; 7. 67-Kevin Smith; 8. 4J-Tucker Jones; 9. 25D-Destin St Clair; 10. 4-Tommy Kasuba; 11. 81-Alex Reed; 12. 727-Jenna Zak; 13. 11A-Gage Provencher; 14. 743-Ashleigh Kulzer; 15. (DNS) 10-John Smith; 16. (DNS) 5-John Carleton

Segment 3 (10 Laps): 1. 11A-Gage Provencher[1]; 2. 9Q-Quinn Quenneville[11]; 3. 67-Kevin Smith[5]; 4. 73-Vern Woodard[7]; 5. 17-Chris Lennox[10]; 6. 25D-Destin St Clair[3]; 7. 15P-Chris Pierce[6]; 8. 13NH-brandon emerson[8]; 9. 4-Tommy Kasuba[2]; 10. 727-Jenna Zak[14]; 11. 743-Ashleigh Kulzer[13]; 12. 81-Alex Reed[12]; 13. 4J-Tucker Jones[4]; 14. 68-Raymond Hanson[9]

OVERALL: 1. 9Q-Quinn Quenneville[1]; 2. 17-Chris Lennox[2]; 3. 73-Vern Woodard[3]; 4. 11A-Gage Provencher[4]; 5. 13NH-brandon emerson[5]; 6. 67-Kevin Smith[6]; 7. 15P-Chris Pierce[7]; 8. 4J-Tucker Jones[8]; 9. 25D-Destin St Clair[9]; 10. 68-Raymond Hanson[10]; 11. 4-Tommy Kasuba[11]; 12. 727-Jenna Zak[12]; 13. 743-Ashleigh Kulzer[13]; 14. 81-Alex Reed[14]; 15. (DNS) 10-John Smith; 16. (DNS) 5-John Carleton

Mini Stocks

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 3-Jarrod Colburn[12]; 2. 27X-Brian Blake[15]; 3. 4-Chase Allen[11]; 4. 4C-Chris Charboneau[8]; 5. 81X-Adam Mahoney[3]; 6. 83-Mark Mahoney[10]; 7. 44-Craig Kirby[16]; 8. 39-Ryan Patch[14]; 9. 54X-Ron Alger[13]; 10. 10-Griff Mahoney[17]; 11. 79-Jeremy Brownell[19]; 12. 25-Damian Olden[6]; 13. 1X-Austin McKirryher[21]; 14. 6A-Adam Stewart[7]; 15. 88-Nicholas Melotti[5]; 16. 625-Robert Steves[9]; 17. 5-Christopher Hewitt[1]; 18. 15-Tim Robinson[20]; 19. 65-Luke Marcheski[4]; 20. 19-Chris Sumner[18]; 21. (DNS) 99-Nick Stark; 22. (DQ) 54JR-Jakobee Alger[2]