Random Snaps

Been digging up some old pictures, which is what drives this whole thing in the first place. You who have been following this right along will be interested in seeing some new additions to the Big Bill and Tommy Richardson pieces. I've been scanning in a bunch of stuff, including some really old black-and-whites from the early '60's which I'll let you see in a while.

By the way, if you happen to have something that you'd like me to post here, just let me know.

This particular batch of photos were taken at the Nor-Way Pines Speedway in the early to mid 90's.

This gentleman is "Sweet Lou" Ottati, who I think hailed from Franklin or somewhere near there. (As always, feel free to leave comments that correct my errors. Hey, I'm a race fan, not a historian!) Lou drove mostly in the Dirt Stocker class at the Pines. I think this was one of his later cars, or at least paint jobs. By his own admission, Lou sometimes got a little over-excited and drove a little rough, but he was actually a very good driver. He collected several feature wins over the years, and challeneged for the division title on a regular basis.

He had one of the scarier moments in local dirt track racing one night when his engine went up. The radiator exploded and doused Lou with boiling-hot water and anti-freeze. The safety crew got him out of the car and he sat down right on the front straight while the EMTs determined whether or not he was going to be all right. He turned out fine, but he sure had us worried for a while.



This is "Flying Fred" Fecteau, from Belmont, NH. As of 2006 he was still driving this car, although with completely different body work. It still ran great, too. This car was originally one of a pair built by John and Royal Moses, who came from around Hill and Franklin. This was Royal's, while John kept his and eventually got a track championship with it. It's a great little car, from the days when the Modified division at the Pines (and most everywhere else in the area) was running on V6 power. The engine is placed almost in the center of the frame, and it was a beautifully balanced little rig.

Fred's never really been a big threat to the big-money teams, but he's really a very good driver and has taken quite a few trophies home over the years. The biggest memory I have of Fred, though, was one night when he gave Warren Emery's wrecker crew a chance to show just how good they were. Fred got in a wreck, and I mean he really trashed the thing. They towed it off the track and left it in the infield until the end of the night. Then, they got two wreckers and put one on each end of the car. They picked the whole thing up off the ground and Fred backed his trailer underneath it, and then they lowered it down. It was the only way they could load it. Happily, he was back in a couple weeks, and as I've said he's still racing that car.


Beany O'Haire's number 09 was a good car, but I always liked the old Nova he used to run. Won a bunch of features with that old rig. By the mid 90's the Late Model class was going to these tube-frame cars, and this was one of the better ones. I still think Beany just raced for fun, though. If he got behind he seemed to lose interest. Great driver, though, and always raced clean. Eventually his wife, Carol, became the Pines' pit steward, and Beany stopped racing for the most part. I've heard he's still got this car.

I always loved this picture. I was writing the weekly piece for the Plymouth Record, and took my own pictures. I was getting tired of pictures of the winning driver shaking hands with the flagman in the dark, so I went around the pit before the races and asked the drivers to "do something interesting." Mark Jenot of Rumney did this. About this time he won his first feature, so I got to put this picture in the paper. God is good!

I used to call him "Miracle Mark," because of a move I saw him pull in a Dirt Stocker qualifier one night. There were three cars dicing for the lead going through turns three and four, and they were taking up the whole track. Coming across the back stretch was Mark, and you could tell he had his foot in it and wasn't going to back off. Coming out of four, just at the last possible second, all three of the cars ahead of him bashed fenders and parted like the Red Sea. Through the gap, with inches to spare, was Mark. He went on to win the qualifier. Beautiful, gutsy, and incredibly foolish move that paid off.

I'll throw some more stuff on in a while. Enjoy. And, don't forget that racing season starts up pretty soon. Hope to see you at the races.