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By Bill Ladabouche

DIFFICULT TRANSITIONS IN 1965

Although the reasons were quite different, two pivotal race tracks in Vermont faced very interesting, but difficult seasons in 1965. In 1965, the state had only four tracks, having just lost Northeastern Speedway the year before. In 1959, there had been Stateline Speedway, Colchester – Bayview Speedway, Northeastern Speedway, Fairmont Speedway and arguably a few part - time venues. The next year saw the disappearance of two of these and the emergence of Thunder Road, which would be the cause of the third aforementioned track dying by 1964.

1965 would be an extremely significant year in the history of stock car racing in Vermont. Firstly, the high – profile Catamount Stadium was to open in Milton, located in Vermont’s, most populous county. Secondly, the former Otter Creek Speedway would be re-opened as Hillside Raceway, by former driver Joe D’Avignon, fronting for C.J. Richards.

Courtesy of Dave Wood
The Unbeatable Lennie Wood, on the track with starter Pat McGrath, was one of the Hillside raceway regulars.
The track pretty much ran the same cars Fairmont did in 1965.

Thirdly, Thunder Road remained in operation, having shed the competition of Northeastern Speedway; but now the track was to face accepting sanction from NASCAR, an unpopular choice foisted on them by Catamount’s coming into existence under the banner of the huge and intrusive sanctioning body. Lastly, C.J. Richards’ Fairmont Speedway was soldiering along in the southern part of the state, looking at some big changes of its own.

Whether you look at Thunder Road or whether your first interest is Fairmont, the factor that would raise a ruckus at both venues was the overhead V-8 sportsman – type car that was knocking at the gates of both places. For years, New Yorkers [and southerners] had been busy perfecting and honing the overhead valve sportsman race car. Unlike what was called a modified in those days, the sportsman car featured a small V-8 engine – either a 283 C.I. or possibly one bored out to around 327. Fairmont had seen the occasional sportsman visit at the end of a season, while the Barre oval seldom ever witnessed a sportsman.

Courtesy of CJ Richards
Fairmont starter Danny Rumpf sends off a hodge podge field for a 1965 heat early in the season. Gene Tetrault’s six cylinder sedan, runs alongside Art Visconti’s 01 whatever the hell it was, a Lebanon Valley sportsman for :Lou Searing, and Vince Quenneville’s brand new local sportsman Chevy. Below – Perhaps reacting to a quirk in the CVRA rules, Visconti later came out with this unusual 1953 Ford sportsman.

Visconti Family Photo

Ever the savvy and knowledgeable observer of the racing scene, C.J. Richards had known that Catamount was coming on board and bringing NASCAR [with its sportsman cars] with it. He had seen the success that the flathead Ford, early thirties stock car had at his facilities; but he had also seen the awesome power of the overheads at his own track [for special, late – season events] and at the longer Otter Creek Speedway, in which he dabbled in 1963 and 1965. So, when the rules for the 1965 Champlain Valley Racing Association were sent out, the overhead V-8 was to be allowed into the organization’s lead division.

The earlier part of the 1965 season at Fairmont Speedway was one of the most interesting in the history of Vermont stock car racing. Reaction to the overheads was varied, among those who had been running at Fairmont for years. Vince Quenneville and car owner Gael Dundon built a full – fledged sportsman, as did the Castleton, Vermont – based Taggart team. Former hobby star Charlie LaDuc would take a Dick Hawkins Ford that had run at Otter Creek and drop an overhead in it.

Courtesy of Barb LaDuc
Old Reliable, Charlie LaDuc, came out with his first of many sportsman cars in 1965. This one had
run against real NASCAR sportsman cars at Otter Creek in 1961.

Other of the Fairmont faithful simply chose to field the usual six or flathead with a much lighter car. George Rogers, the tempestuous and brilliant veteran from Castleton came out with an ultra-light 1934 Ford with his usual six in it, while Chet Doaner, a Rutland runner, retained former driver Al Romano to construct a chopped and channeled ’36 Chevy with a traditional power plant. Both cars were rockets. The track also saw the addition of several new teams, including Quenneville’s former builder, Norm Scarborough, out of Whiting. Not having Quenneville available, Scarborough went with a previously – unknown rookie named Russ Shaw, who would turn out to be wild but effective. Lebanon Valley regulars Lou Searing and Stan Wetmore would now be able to make regular appearances at Fairmont, as would the occasional Fonda team. The only thing limiting more outsiders was the small 283 C.I. engine limit.

Courtesy of Wes Moody
Typical Fairmont action in 1965. Vince Quenneville’s and Cecil Bosworth’s newly – built sportsman cars race Howard Steven’s converted flathead coupe [333] and George Roger’s light and fast six cylinder [white car] in turn two.

            Features in the first part of that 1965 season were a crap shoot. One week, someone like Sonny Rabideau, running the biggest flathead he could in a completely cut down Ford coupe, would manage to fend off the overheads. George Rogers had similar success with the six banger. Other times [and increasingly, as the season wore on], the flatheads would either languish in the middle or rear of the fields or the really stroked – out ones would expire halfway through turns three and four in the middle of a race. The newer sportsman cars – particularly Quenneville’s – took some time to be dialed in and gotten used to, maybe accounting for some of the flathead success.

            By the end of the season, the flatheads were not showing up much. George Rogers soldiered on, while fellow 1950’s era veteran Gene Tetrault took the old engine out of his familiar maroon sedan and dropped in a 283. The man who had been having the most success with a made-over, former flathead car was Howard Stevens, in Leo Vallaincourt’s orange 333. Stevens was leading the points well into the middle of summer, running a small V-8 in their old car, when Vallaincourt inexplicably sold the car out from under the team. By the 1966 season, you almost never saw a flathead at Fairmont any more.

Courtesy of CJ Richards
Howard Stevens was having the best time with points at mid – season with a converted flathead coupe – when the car was sold to Sonny Rabideau. Rabideau had seen his Stroker Smith #311 flathead become less and less competitive.

            Meanwhile, about 60 miles up to the north in Barre, Thunder Road International Speedbowl was having one of the strangest seasons it would ever see. Catamount Stadium had been built and the two tracks were now going under the NASCAR banner. NASCAR had made the controversial and infamous decision, a few years before, to disallow any and all pre – 1937 bodies on their modified and sportsman cars. Thunder Road, of course, was arguably the capital of early 1930’s, flat – topped coupe body. Obviously wanting a foothold back in Vermont, and probably due to the influence wielded by Ken Squier, NASCAR agreed to allow the old coupes to race that one final year at the two tracks, mixed in with the overhead V-8’s.

Courtesy of Cho Lee
Even at the beginning of 1965, the flathead was still king at Thunder Road. Here, Larry Granger in Libero Buzzi’s 93 chases Norm Chaloux [12] and the Messier 50, which featured different high – profile drivers like King Carpenter, Jean-Paul Caban, Mike Cody, and Ernie Gahan. [And they’re headed towards the Widow Maker].

            Thunder Road was a perfect place for the flatheads to raise hell with their more powerful rivals. The track is a high – banked quarter mile paved bowl, with turn four coming right onto a cambered, intimidating wall called “The Widow Maker”. When a car comes off turn four, oftentimes, the way the track is unloads the rear end and makes setting up onto the front stretch an adventure for the uninitiated. Therefore, the 1965 season at Thunder Road saw just as many flathead wins as overheads. Brothers Doug and Russell Ingerson, of New Hampshire had two wins each running flatheads.

            The newer NASCAR invaders were largely from the Airborne Speedway, in Plattsburgh, NY and consisted of New York and Montreal area drivers. At first, the thundering V-8’s were uncomfortable on the tricky Barre oval, with only Canadian Jean – Paul Cabana having had much experience at the track. That experience would parlay into four feature wins, but the late arrival of the sportsman cars at Barre that year would relegate Cabana to a 12^th place finish in the points.

Courtesy of Brian Hanaford
In the end, it was Hard Luck Hanaford taking all the marbles in 1965 – the last time a flathead would triumph.
He is at right with son, Brian.

            Usually a dominating flathead star at Thunder Road, the massive Ronnie Marvin of Bethlehem, NH, seemed to finish a disappointing 4^th , behind fellow flathead runners Harold Hanaford [1^st place], and doug and Russ Ingerson. Team mate Paul Martell, from Rochester, NH finished right behind Marvin. There was a lot behind that finish in 1965. Firstly, Marvin belonged to the three – car Andy Cote team, running is 13NH along with Martell’s 3J and the 0 of Tony Colicchio, a transplanted Massachusetts driver. The Cote team had run afoul of the Thunder Road tech officials and sat out part of the season. Secondly, Marvin seemed to be a serious chase for NASCAR points in 1965, not only having Daytona in February but also running events as far away as Quebec.

Courtesy of Cho Lee
The controversial Cote team, including Marvin’s national points – chasing 13NH. Colicchio’s 0 is in the rear,
with Martell’s 3J in the foreground.

            T Road regular Harold “Hard Luck” Hanaford, of Plymouth, NH won the title by 44 points over Doug Ingerson. Other flatheads finishing in the top ten included Merlin Bean, Chet Woods, Popular Johnny Gammell, Cote team mate Tony Colicchio, and Mike Osborne, a Barre native. The overheads had Cabana finishing 12^th,            his mentor, Andre Manny finishing 13^th, Wichendon, MA driver Bob Karvonen in 14^th, and former national champion, Dick Nephew in 17^th. National champion Rene Charland finished 16^th, driving the local flathead car, George Hay’s #68. he had parlayed the flathead’s early – season advantage and the fact he couldn’t regularly get one of his cars that far north into valuable national points for his last championship.

Ladabouche Collection
Jean-Paul Cabana, shown here in Victory Lane at T Road, was eventually the hot thing that year despite a
12^th place points finish.

            Catamount, on the other hand, saw few of the older cars. The longer track would make any semblance of competition very unlikely. Marvin ran enough at Catamount [15^th place] to attain a third place finish in the 1965 NASCAR sportsman points in Vermont. The Ingersons and Hanaford finished well, too. Other traditional Barre flathead runners, such as Merlin Bean of Montpelier, acquired a V-8 sportsman car and tried to race on equal footing with the newcomers. Much like the people around Devil’s Bowl Speedway, never accepted anything but dirt racing at that track, the Thunder Road faithful were not thrilled when their beloved flathead cars were gone in 1966. When George Barber opened up Bear Ridge Speedway, nearby in Bradford in 1968, he made the rustic little fifth mile a haven for the banished flatheads from Thunder Road, Claremont, and even Devil’s Bowl. Many fans went there to see their heroes [or at least the cars the heroes used to drive].

Courtesy of Cho Lee
Merlin Bean was one of the flat head guys who defected to the overheads. Here, he poses in the Dick Blake #2, which he seemed to run mostly at T Road. Below – A typical 1965 Thunder Road heat shows flatheads like the two on the front row
having to compete unequally against overhead valve sportsman cars like Jack DuBrul's black #7, Bob Bruno's white 66, and
Charlie Trombey [rear].

Courtesy of Cho Lee

            Catamount, on the other hand, saw few of the older cars. The longer track would make any semblance of competition very unlikely. Marvin ran enough at Catamount [15^th place] to attain a third place finish in the 1965 NASCAR sportsman points in Vermont. The Ingersons and Hanaford finished well, too. Other traditional Barre flathead runners, such as Merlin Bean of Montpelier, acquired a V-8 sportsman car and tried to race on equal footing with the newcomers. Much like the people around Devil’s Bowl Speedway, never accepted anything but dirt racing at that track, the Thunder Road faithful were not thrilled when their beloved flathead cars were gone in 1966. When George Barber opened up Bear Ridge Speedway, nearby in Bradford in 1968, he made the rustic little fifth mile a haven for the banished flatheads from Thunder Road, Claremont, and even Devil’s Bowl. Many fans went there to see their heroes [or at least the cars the heroes used to drive].
            By the end of the decade, having survived the changeover from the non – overhead to the overhead V-8 sportsman, Vermont found itself with Devil’s Bowl, Catamount, and Thunder Road running almost exclusively with the newer V-8’s; Bear Ridge was just getting started, running dozens of recycled flatheads from all over the region. While tracks like Oxford Plains were finding success with support divisions like their six – cylinder, full – sized Chargers, Vermont did not react until 1970 or 1971 – with full – sized automatic transmission, nearly – stock Hurricane cars. But, there was never such a clashing of the past and the future as there was back in 1965.

Courtesy of Cho Lee
Starter Emilio Girelli, a former Thunder Road driver displaced by the NASCAR overheads, congratulates Ralph Stygles, driver of the car 17. Allen Whipple's 47, a former Thunder Road championship car with then - owner George Barber, sits at right.

Please email me if you have any photos to lend me or information and corrections I could benefit from. Please do not submit anything you are not willing to allow me to use on my website - and thanks. Email is: wladabou@comcast.net . For those who still don’t like computers - my regular address is: Bill Ladabouche, 23 York Street, Swanton, Vermont 05488.

AS ALWAYS, DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE
www.catamountstadium.com

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