SpeedReading

If you didn’t get your money’s worth last Saturday night at Thunder Road, you’re simply not a race fan. Between the NASCAR Busch North Series “True Value 150” -- won by native son Brian Hoar -- and an action-packed undercard featuring the final point race of the year for the Thunder Road Late Models, Saturday’s program truly had it all.

In the main event, Hoar found himself in the right place at the right time when leaders Dave Dion, Mike Olsen and Mike Johnson ran afoul of Laine Chase’s spinning lapped car with less than 10 laps to go. The lead trio drove through the infield to miss Chase - not the first time a bumbling backmarker has influenced the outcome of a BNS race this season - while Hoar picked his way through the smoke to claim a lead he never relinquished. The win was the first of Hoar’s Busch North career, and the former ACT Dodge Tour champion received the customary warm welcome from the Thunder Road faithful in Victory Lane.

Denied his shot at a second consecutive Thunder Road Busch Series win, Olsen was uncharacteristically outspoken after the race, calling Chase (and the series’ backmarkers in general) “drivers who couldn’t drive Late Models.

“That’s the problem with this series,” said the former Busch North champion, relegated to 14^{th place by his evasive slide through the infield grass. “There are probably 15 guys who can drive, and the rest are just field fillers. They have no respect.”}

While Olsen was understandably upset with his outcome, the large contingent of fans from the North Haverhill, NH, area went home happy Saturday, thanks to an amazing effort by Olsen’s legendary grandfather, 69-year young Stub Fadden. “The Racing Great-Grandfather” agreed to compete at Thunder Road when NASCAR officials found themselves one car short of a full field at midweek, and despite a pre-race game plan based on “staying out of the way,” Fadden shook off the rust of a two-year retirement to finish an amazing ninth at the drop of the checkered flag.

The 1978 and 1979 Thunder Road champion started slowly, but as the race reached its mid-stages, he made his way to Thunder Road’s tricky outside lane and began passing cars. Before long, the packed T-Road grandstands were splitting their attention; keeping one eye on Dion and company at the front, and another on Fadden as he gave driving lessons to men less than half his age.

One year from now, God willing, Fadden will have a chance to run The Road again in his eighth decade. And this time, he’s going for the win!

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The Late Model portion of Saturday’s program began - literally - with a bang, when 2000 track champion and 2003 title contender Tracie Bellerose took a horrifying ride after contact with Joe Becker in turn three. The two came together after Becker suffered a broken front suspension, sending Bellerose off the top of turn three at full song. Her Merchant’s Bank Freedom Lynx Chevrolet landed nose-first, then hurtled over a 15-foot high catch fence and into the parking lot, landing upside down.

“The minute I hit Joey, I knew I was going over,” said Bellerose this week. “I’ve never been upside down in a racecar before, and I remember thinking, `I’m going to keep my eyes open so I know what it’s like.’ All I could see was blue sky, and then I hit the ground. Right about then, I decided to close my eyes.”

When the car came to rest, Bellerose found herself hanging upside down in the belts, and decided to wait for help before unhooking.

“I could see all these feet around me, and people were shouting, `Tracie, are you okay,’” she said. “I told them I was, but I couldn’t understand why they weren’t climbing in to help me. It seemed like forever before the EMTs finally got me out, and when I looked around, all I saw was street cars. I couldn’t figure out what had happened, so I asked one of the female EMTs, ‘Where’s the race track?’

“She immediately started yelling that I had a head injury, but I told her `No I don’t, I just don’t know where the race track is!’

She said, “Honey, the race track is over there. You’re in the parking lot.”

Amazingly, the Gorham, NH, driver was treated and released at Central Vermont Medical Center, and returned to the track before the end of the evening to view the remains of her car.

“There’s nothing left,” she said. “The chassis and suspension are junk, the fuel cell is twisted, the rear end tubes are tied in a knot. The engine may be salvageable, and I think the transmission is okay. Other than that, it’s `start over.’

“I never shed a tear through this whole thing until I saw that car,” she said. “There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears there, and it’ll never race again. After the races were over, a couple of kids brought back half of the roof. They had to climb 20 feet up a tree to get it, so I guess it could have been worse.”

Bellerose said she has already received an offer to drive Joey Laquerre’s backup car in the season-ending Vermont Milk Bowl, an offer she will likely accept.

With Bellerose eliminated, the battle for “King of the Road” honors came down to a two-man dance between defending champion Phil Scott and perennial challenger Jamie Fisher. Scott entered the final race with a comfortable lead, but his Northfield Savings Bank team missed the set-up badly. As he struggled in the middle of the pack, Fisher thrashed his way to the front, passing four cars in the final laps to take a razor-close win over veteran Dave Whitcomb. Scott finished fourteenth, putting him in a flat-footed tie with Fisher (995-995) for the title. Fisher’s two feature wins - to Scott’s one - gave “The Hurricane” the championship in one of the most incredible finishes in Thunder Road history.

Scott’s improbable collapse prompted many to question his decision - made months ago - to run both the Busch North and Late Model races Saturday. Indeed, the Racing Senator from Washington County will have eight long months to second-guess that call. Did his Busch Series debut detract from his Late Model effort, costing him a record-tying fourth “King of the Road” crown? Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. Suffice it to say that Saturday night’s 14th-place finish was easily his worst of the 2003 Thunder Road season.

Saturday’s $25 front-gate admission was the steepest of the season at Thunder Road. Fans who pay just $8 on Thursday nights to witness one of the best short-track shows in the nation are understandably reticent to part with that kind of money, for what has sometimes been only a so-so performance by the Busch North troops.

This time around, though, they got their money’s worth, and then some. Saturday’s night’s race was, as advertised, a “True Value.”

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Barney McRae did not compete in Saturday night’s Late Model finale at Thunder Road, and that’s a good thing.

McRae, a full-time competitor on NASCAR’s Busch North Series, has wheeled Jimmy Winters’ ACT late Model on Thursday nights at “The Nation’s Site of Excitement” this season. The car is a first-race piece, fully capable of running up front and winning races. Unfortunately, McRae has squandered that equipment with a season-long series of “dump and run” maneuvers that have made him persona-non-grata with drivers, fans, and officials alike.

Two weeks ago, McRae started on the pole of the 50-lap Late Model feature, but was soon overhauled by defending Milk Bowl champion Dave Pembroke, who drove his Dodge quickly and cleanly past McRae’s Pontiac in the outside lane. Apparently unwilling to finish second, McRae responded by pounding Pembroke in the back bumper, spinning him out and triggering a multi-car crash that ended Pembroke’s night and damaged a half-dozen other top cars. Race Director Tom Curley did what he’s done all summer long, banishing McRae to the back of the pack for rough riding. The Colchester driver protested by lagging a half-lap behind the field under caution, prompting Curley to do what many believe he should have done weeks ago, ordering McRae to load his car in the trailer, take it home, and leave it there Saturday night, as well.

Thursday night’s shenanigans were not the first for McRae this season. In fact, by this writer’s unofficial tally, McRae has been black-flagged for rough riding at least three times in 12 starts this season; a full 25% of the time. He has managed just two top-10 finishes - again, despite driving one of the better cars in the field - and has been involved in too many crashes to count, most of the time as the instigator. His overaggressive style has cost a number of drivers shots at Victory Lane, but truly, the biggest victim has been McRae himself.

On two occasions, the Colchester driver has started on the pole, only to lose the lead when opposing drivers easily anticipated his patented “push `em off the track” move in turn one, stabbed the brakes, then cruised past as he sailed to the top of the banking. Jamie Fisher used that strategy to win the final Thursday night race of the season, after watching Cooper MacRitchie snooker McRae in an identical fashion a week before. Unfortunately for MacRitchie, he failed to get all the way past, and was driven off the backstretch when McRae hung a premature left turn, about 200 feet early.

“I never even went over to talk to him,” said MacRitchie after the race, echoing the thoughts of many in Thunder Road’s Late Model pits. “What would be the point? He knows what he’s doing. He just doesn’t care.”

Interestingly, McRae does not utilize his demolition derby tactics on the Busch North Series. Apparently, Thunder Road’s Late Model drivers are not worthy of the respect he affords his comrades on the NASCAR Tour. Or perhaps, McRae is more cautious with his own equipment - knowing he will foot the repair bill - than he is with Winters’. Either way, he has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of respect for the drivers he races with on Thursday nights, not to mention a total disregard for their personal safety.

Saturday night, ACT’s Late Model teams showed McRae what they think of him, after the veteran driver spun his Busch car during time trials. As he drove back to his pit stall, dozens of Late Model drivers and team members dropped what they were doing to regale the driver they call “Bumper Car Barney” with mock applause.

In this writer’s opinion, Barney McRae is a menace. There’s not a single driver in the Thunder Road pits who cares to race with him, and they should not be forced to do so any longer. ACT’s Curley did the right thing by parking McRae last Thursday night, and if he’s smart, he will extend the ban through the remainder of the ACT Dodge Tour season.

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…Shelburne’s Kevin Lepage is negotiating with Morgan McClure Motorsports for as many as seven more starts in the Kodak Pontiac this season. Lepage claimed a 15th-place finish last weekend at Darlington, one of the best showings of the year for Morgan-McClure. In addition, talks were scheduled this week with CLR, the company that sponsored Lepage in the #57 Ford earlier this season. Between the two teams, the Vermont native hopes to be a more frequent sight on pit road for the rest of the year.

…Terry Labonte brought an element of class back to NASCAR’s Victory Lane Sunday. No juvenile burnouts, no Gatorade baths, no “mosh pit dive” off the roof of his car into the waiting arms of his crewmen. Just a simple, dignified victory lap with the checkered flag in hand, followed by some humble, low-key, appropriate comments in Victory Lane.

Any chance the rest of the garage area might take a hint? Don’t bet on it.

…Cale Yarborough returned to Darlington Raceway Sunday, driving a replica of his three-time championship winning cars around the egg-shaped oval during pre-race ceremonies. Yarborough, one of the toughest customers in NASCAR history, looked fit and trim in his driver’s suit, prompting many to say it was a good thing Cale wasn’t really in the race, lest he teach some of NASCAR’s “new breed” a thing or two.

…Despite an eighth-place finish at Darlington, Sunday was a tough day for Maine native Ricky Craven. Early Sunday, fire gutted Craven’s ATV, snowmobile and motorcycle dealership in Waldo, Maine, destroying large amounts of merchandise, along with many of Craven’s trophies and racing memorabilia. Lauri Matheson, Craven's sister and manager of Ricky Craven Motorsports North, promised to rebuild the destroyed building, saying, “We are ready to fight and build a new business. It's life, it happens. We're not going anywhere."