 |
|
Downtown
Barre,
Vermont,
on April 30.
(ACT/Leif Tillotson Photo)
|
|
5/4/11
THE RUNNING OF THE
RACERS
You have probably heard of the Running of
the Bulls, that wild spring celebration held each year in Pamplona,
Spain. At the beginning of the bullfighting season, the bulls are
rounded up from distant corrals and let loose to run down cobbled
streets to the arena.
People line the way for the gala
festival, some carefully, while the bravest (or drunkest) actually
attempt to outrun the herd of charging horns. It is a spectacular,
if often bloody, scene.
You wouldn’t think there is anything
remotely like it in the United States. But consider for a moment
what you would have seen had you spent Saturday, April 30, a warm
spring day, in the quiet town of Barre, Vermont.
That day,
as in the last nine years, legendary racing journalist and owner of
Thunder Road Speedway, Ken Squier and Tom Curley, commandant
extraordinaire of the American Canadian Late Model Tour, pull in
their combatants from far and wide. On Saturday, 102 race cars
were towed into Barre, unloaded, and angle-parked right along the
main street, their crews all outfitted in racing finery. Only cars
with roll bars were in sight; the entire town was closed off for the
event.
Thousands – literally thousands – of spectators
intermingled with the cars all morning, listening to the
radio-broadcasted PA, asking questions, seeking autographs, watching
Brian Hoar, 2010 ACT champ, win a pit stop contest.
“It’s
such an amazing thing,” emotes Cho Lee, renowned racing historian.
“This has become a tradition so quickly. I think that’s because
really racing is all we have here. We used to be known for the
granite industry, but now, realistically, after 52 years, the track
is the only constant we’ve got.”
“The whole thing may sound
hokey, but it just plain works,” says Barre resident Nick Sweet,
last year’s Thunder Road champion. “Somehow racing is totally
integrated here. I took 500 driver cards and they were gone in a
flash. I see my neighbors, people I work with, but now it’s in the
context of racing.”
Towards the afternoon you can feel the
enthusiasm and the symbolism of the day heat up. In a fully
orchestrated manner, all the drivers climb aboard their cars, light
’em up, and chug down Route 14. With the occasional burp of the
pedal (in neutral, of course) for some sweet-sounding resonance,
they take a left and work their way up Quarry Hill. Another left
onto Fisher Road and into the basic but groomed grounds of the
arena, Thunder Road Speedway, a mile and a half above town.
-
(ACT/Leif Tillotson Photo) |
“That’s the most emotional part for me,”
Nick Sweet continues. “On Quarry Hill this year I saw a little kid
waving frantically. It was one of those timeless moments. I swear it
could have been me 20 years ago. I was such an avid fan. Just like
him I would be on top of anything racing I could find. For years I’d
sit in the front row of seats down by the first turn, waving flags
and watching the cars my dad worked on. And you know what? That
little guy on Saturday was waving a picture of me!”
(ACT/Leif Tillotson Photo) |
Once up in the pits, all the drivers and
crews regrouped for a last practice for the Merchants Bank 150 the
next day. Forty-nine ACT Late Models, astoundingly matched by
affordable rules, circled the very tricky quarter-mile banked
asphalt, most all in the 13.2/13.3 bracket.
That Sunday
morning, a bright spring sun seemed to bless this Green Mountain
bull ring. A huge throng of spectators packed the seats and the
grass on the infamous Budweiser Hill. The 150 was yet another
high-speed shootout at the Road. It was over after a mere 39 minutes
of side-by-side intensity. Nick Sweet won it for a second year in a
row.
It was one great weekend for Barre and for Thunder Road.
Deservedly so.
=
Race Day. (ACT/Alan Ward Photo) |
Nick Sweet celebrates with event sponsor, Tom
Leavitt of Barre’s
Merchant Bank. (Eric LaFleche Photo) |
© 2011 Lew Boyd, Coastal 181
|
