Rookie Champ: Wayne Burroughs Jr. Takes Mini Stock Title At Thompson Sunoco World Series

Wayne Burroughs Jr.

THOMPSON – In April Wayne Burroughs Jr. quickly made his presence known in the Mini Stock division at Thompson Speedway with a third place finish in the first event of his “rookie” season at the track.

Three wins later the rook was being celebrated as the champion.

Burroughs followed up a Mini Stock championship at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl in 2015 by clinching his first Thompson Speedway championship Saturday at the Sunoco World Series at Thompson Speedway.

Burroughs, of Oakdale, finished third in the 15-lap feature Saturday.

“It’s awesome,” Burroughs said. “I know this won’t sink in until tomorrow or Monday. But this is awesome. Coming up here our first year, to do what we did. We didn’t have a single finish out of the top-three. I can’t thank my guys enough for all the hard work. Just an awesome team effort.”

Eric Bourgeois of East Haddam won the event. Dave Trudeau of Mansfield was second.

“This is only my second time I’ve finished at the World Series and both of them are wins,” Bourgeois said. “Usually I’m crashed. So this is very special for me. This year has been probably one of my worst years since I started racing here. I’ve had blown motors, wrecked cars. One thing after another. We couldn’t get the speed out of the car. We made some changes before the last race that I got rained out and the thing is flying.”