It was more than 11 years ago, but for Bobby Dragon it could just as well have happened last season.

In June of 1997, the Milton, Vt., driver drove to what he called the most memorable checkered flag of his distinguished racing career, winning a 100-lap event for the old Busch North Series at the now defunct Nazareth Speedway.

Standing in the pit area at the Thunder Road Speedbowl, just a couple of hours before a last-chance qualifying race for the 45^th running of the Milk Bowl last Sunday, Dragon was trying to put the Milk Bowl in its proper place in the New England short track pecking order.

Even having grown up just a few miles away from Thunder Road, Dragon talked about the Milk Bowl as if it were some cute little event in the hills and not the prestigious race many would like to believe.

"I still look at it like it’s just a local race, to be truthful," Dragon said.

The Milk Bowl has the name recognition, and it certainly has its diehard following in some corners of northern New England. But, said Dragon, the 1972 Milk Bowl champion, that’s as far as it reaches.

"It’s a northeastern competition," Dragon said with a shrug, careful to not misrepresent the Milk Bowl as more than it is. "That would be more because of the rules for Late Models. You’re not going to have cars coming all over the country for this. And add to that fact that this track is tough. It’s really tough."

In some sense, the Milk Bowl represents the short track racing fan in America. While some people who call themselves "race fans" could care less about short track racing – instead getting their racing fix by watching NASCAR events on television – the people who follow the Milk Bowl do so with an almost religious fervor, living and breathing every lap of the triple-50 format.

To rob from an often overused cliche, the Milk Bowl is part of the fabric of the New England racing quilt.

Designed as an end of the season celebration of sorts, a bill that it nicely fills, the Milk Bowl has its limitations. It doesn’t draw cars or drivers from across the country, and it’s annals are filled with localized racing "stars" and not the names of young, hungry drivers who later went on to find NASCAR fame.

For every one Kevin Lepage in the Milk Bowl record books, there are a dozen future Cup drivers who competed in the Oxford 250 a few hours to the east.

"You’re whole year was geared around that race every July. If you could win or just run well in it, our season was made," Dragon said of the Oxford race, speaking more glowingly of a race he’d never won than the one that he did at Thunder Road. "We all knew we were going to run another 25 or 30 races around the area the rest of the summer, but that was the crown jewel, especially against the best of the best. When you talk about Junior Hanley, Mark Martin, Rusty Wallace – and these were Late Model guys at the time, Pro Stock guys, Super Late Model guys that would come here, because they were aware of it out in the midwest. It was that big of a race. That’s what made it so special for us.

"(The Oxford 250) is the one race that’s missing from my obituary, if you want to say it that way."

Quebec driver Patrick Laperle has made his name, at least stateside, in the Milk Bowl, having picked up his third career Milk Bowl win last weekend.

But Laperle was asked afterward which race means more to him – the Milk Bowl he’s won three different times or the Oxford 250 that, like Dragon, he’s still yet to win. He paused, then laughed.

He looked over his shoulder to see who might be listening.

"Uh, they’re equal?" he questioned more than stated. The inference was clear. Kissing the cow was nice, but the Oxford 250 is the region’s biggest title.

And asked if the Milk Bowl he did win stood high on his list of career achievements, Dragon was almost embarrassed.

"No. I would say probably my win down at Nazareth in the Busch North Series probably would rank above that," Dragon said, placing a hand along the side of his black No. 71 and looking wistfully toward the hills. "I probably should have won three or four Milk Bowls over the years."

He states the latter matter-of-factly, no regret, no haunting memories rushing back. The Milk Bowl, it seems, stands as a local phenomenon – something the short track purists hold for their own.

Dragon didn’t qualify for this year’s Milk Bowl. One can only assume he still slept soundly on Sunday night. Under a quilt woven with New England’s racing fabric, where the Milk Bowl is, unfortunately, but one small square in the pattern.

Posted at 9:00 p.m. by TBarrett