WEST HAVEN, Vermont – Vince Quenneville Jr. turned an ugly start into a big win on the half-mile asphalt track at Devil’s Bowl Speedway on Saturday. Quenneville converted his subpar night into late-race dominance to earn his first win in the annual C.J. Richards Memorial 67 for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series sportsman modified division.

Other winners at the event included Robert Bryant Jr., rookie Austin McKiernan, Saranac Lake’s C.J. LaVair and Zach Wood.

The fifth-annual event honored late Devil’s Bowl Speedway founder Chuck “C.J.” Richards, with the 67-lap total distance serving as a nod to the track’s opening in 1967. Quenneville, the defending track champion from Brandon, Vermont, had an uncharacteristically poor showing in his qualifying heat, and improved only marginally in the first 22-lap leg of the three-segment main event.

Jackie Brown Jr., of Hurley, N.Y., ran away with the first segment to earn a single scoring point in the three-round total tally, while Jason Durgan finished second ahead of Travis Bruno, Ron Proctor and Dave Snow. Quenneville mustered only a seventh-place finish, putting himself in a hole to start the race.

With full-field inversions between segments, and enough time to make significant setup changes on his No. 78 Black Diamond Builders/Champlain Construction-sponsored Troyer, Quenneville made major gains to dominate the 22-lap middle leg. Durgan and Brown got physical in a late battle for second place, with Durgan prevailing. Billy Lussier finished fourth with Proctor fifth.

Entering the final 23-lap segment, Brown and Durgan were tied in the lead at four segment points apiece, three points better than Quenneville and five points ahead of Proctor. Quenneville did his part and came from deep in the field in the final round to win. Proctor finished second ahead of Alex Bell, Bruno, and Brown, who fought through heavy traffic and survived a late scrape that knocked Durgan out of contention.

The final tally showed both Quenneville and Brown at nine points (Quenneville – 7, 1, 1; Brown – 1, 3, 5), but Quenneville was given the tiebreaker and the overall victory based on his better final-segment finish. The win was Quenneville’s second of the season and his first in the five-year history of the C.J. Richards Memorial event.

Brown’s runner-up showing will keep things close as he and Quenneville battle back-and-forth for the NASCAR Vermont State Championship title. Proctor (4, 5, 2) scored 11 points to be placed third in the overall finish. Durgan (2, 2, 8) was fourth overall at 12 points, and Bruno (3, 7, 4) took fifth at 14 points, unofficially.

Robert Bryant Jr., of Brooklyn, Connecticut, nursed an ailing engine to win the 30-lap Central Vermont Motorcycles late model feature, his second win of the season. Jamie Aube held the lead for the first eight laps before a three-car accident bunched the field for a restart. Bryant pounced and took the lead away, but was never comfortably out front as Aube hung tough in second place. Josh Masterson came back from the early crash to steal third place by inches at the finish line from Todd Stone; Seth Bridge rounded out the top five.

Leading rookie Austin McKiernan, of Moriah Center, ran to his first career victory in the 15-lap renegade division feature. McKiernan was hooked and up and never seriously challenged for the lead. Matt Monaghan took second for eighth podium finish in nine starts; R.J. Germain, Tony Salerno, and Jim McKiernan the winner’s father completed the top five.

Defending Portland Glass Mini Stock division champion C.J. LaVair finally threw the monkey off his back with his first win of the season. The Saranac Lake veteran led the whole 15-lap race, beating rookies Eric Messier and Brett Wood for the win. Brad Bertrand finished fourth with Zach Wood fifth.

Zach Wood was not done, though, and won the 50-lap Enduro Series race to close the evening. The Georgia, Vermont racer drove an extremely loose racecar, getting it sideways every corner. He was one of four drivers to complete all 50 laps; Cory Gray finished second, while Shawn McIntyre’s third-place run was his best to date. Brett Wood, Zach’s father, finished fourth. Craig Kirby finished fifth, one lap off the pace.