Warren Randlett

Here's a couple of shots of Warren Randlett's '34 Ford, which raced around NH in the '50's and '60's. Warren is the gentleman standing beside the car, and these shots are only about 10 to 15 years old. The assumption is, this car is still around. Last I knew, Warren was living in Homosassa Springs, Florida. The pictures are by my father.

"Smiling" Bill George

 

This fellow was my hero when I was growing up. He was from Andover. I'm not sure what he did for a living, but he had oxen that he used to pull at the fairs, so I suspect he might have been a logger. His brother, Woofie, had a garage in Andover. Woofie - whose real name was Carleton, I believe - also raced a little, but Bill really had the gift.

He won a track championship at the old Legion Bowl, and another one at the 106 Midway Raceway in Loudon. He also raced at Claremont back when it was dirt, and probably a few other places as well.

This picture is from the Legion Bowl in Wentworth, circa 1963. On a historical note, that's Raymond Heath, Sr. in front of him in the original "Sweet 16."

Yeah, that's me about the same time. It's also me with Bill in the top picture. This is the first car I saw him in, and the one up above he picked up late in the '63 season. By the way, that one was built by my uncle, Jim Parris. More on him later.

From what I understand, Bill passed away just a couple of years ago; '04 or '05. He'd have been around 90.

As usual, anyone who has any more to say about Bill is more than welcome to leave comments.

Dynamite Dave and Old 97

This picture's from the late 1950's, from the pits at Claremont. I remember this car, or one just like it, from the Legion Bowl and 106 Midway Raceway in the early '60's. Note the bull horns on the roof. They were a recurring theme for Al.

See? This car was the one Al raced in the early 1980's. I always loved the look of this one. I don't know what kind of chassis this is but damn, that's a pretty car.

If I'm not mistaken, this was Al's last race car, Alf. The Sanville's always named their cars. I suppose it gave them personality, as if the driver didn't already do that. By this time, Al was in his early '60's and still winning races.

Eventually, he turned over the steering wheel to a succession of drivers, and the operation of the team to his sons. Wally Langlois was probably the best of the hired guns, winning a track championship one year at the Nor-Way Pines.

Eventually, Al's son Dave took over the driving chores. He quickly earned the nickname "Dynamite Dave," which sticks with him to this day. Over the years Dave has won many championships at several different tracks. The unsung hero of the Sanville team is Dave's brother, JJ. He's the engine and chassis guy, and Dave will be the first to tell you he's not really competitive if JJ's not turning wrenches for him. This car is the famous Miss Emily, which Dave raced (and won with) in many different forms for almost twenty years. Different bodies, six or eight cylinders, Miss Emily was a winner.

Thanks to JJ Sanville, and to Norm Roulx, for supplying some of these pictures. I took the other ones. I'll add more as I get them.

FYI: Dave's still racing, and JJ's still his crew chief. He and his new car, Sassy Theresa, can be found at Canaan Dirt Speedway and the Legion Speedway about any Friday or Saturday night.

Racing becomes an obsession, you know. I've seen it dozens - no, make that hundreds - of times. It becomes the center of your life. And your family's life, too. Even though it's never more than a hobby, everything revolves around it. And of course eventually the kids are going to take it up as well.

 

That's what it must have been like around the Sanville house. Like so many others. Y'know, I've been around the Sanville's for years, and I have no idea what any of them do for a living. They certainly don't race for a living. Nobody at this level does.

Except in a few, very rare, cases, it always costs more than it ever makes. And yet, come Friday and Saturday night, there you are again. And evenings during the week, either repairing or upgrading. And all winter, hitting swap meets, heating the garage so you can tweak things for next season.

Al Sanville was the dad, of course. And the Old 97 was at just about every track in the area. And, it was always one of the ones to beat. Some thought Al was a little rough sometimes, but the simple fact is that the front of the field is crowded. Sometimes, you've got to use your elbows a little bit.

Big Bill Moses

Buck and Big Bill

Bill Moses, taking a victory lap

If you’ve spent any time around race tracks in New Hampshire, you’ve undoubtably heard the name Moses. I am proud to be able to call a number of the Moses family my friends, but two of the clan that impressed me the most are the father-and-son team of Buck and Big Bill Moses.

Buck, in front of Bill's car

I can remember Buck driving his own car back in the ‘60’s at the 106 Midway Raceway in Loudon. (More on that place later.) One of my all-time favorite racing stories features Buck, and his nemesis Paul Martel. One year, the two were neck-and-neck for the track championship going into the last week of the season. Paul blew his engine in the qualifier, and all Buck had to do to take the title was line up for the green flag in the feature. Instead, he loaned his car to Martel. Now, if you wrote that into a piece of fiction, nobody’d buy it. It’s too ridiculous. My dad was the pit steward, and I swear to God it happened just that way.

The one thing I remember most about Buck is that he could do more with less than any car builder I ever heard of. He also wasn’t above seeing how far the rule book could be bent. Once, he brought his car with some new “improvement” into the pit at 106. Dad found it, and asked Buck about it. Buck protested that it was legal, and he should be allowed to run it. To his surprise, Dad agreed. That REALLY got him mad.



“You mean, EVERYBODY’S going to be allowed to run that way?” he protested.



Still, I think if my life was on the line over a race, I’d want Buck to build my car.

I think even Buck would agree that, as successful as he was as a driver, Big Bill was better at it than he was. There were, of course, two Bill Moses’. There was Buck’s son, and Buck’s brother, Dusty, also had a son named Bill. Dusty and his Bill were both musicians, so the other became known as “Billy Gee-tar.” Gee-tar Bill has some recordings somewhere on the web, and if he or somebody he knows reads this, maybe they’ll leave the link in the comments. (HINT!!)

Bill at Nor-Way Pines

Gee-tar Bill also raced, and was very good at it, but Big Bill was truly one of the greats. With Buck building his cars, he went from victory to victory and made it look easy. They were the last team I ever saw run a flathead Ford, and the last season they did they were still winning features with it. When they finally gave up the flatty and switched to a straight-6 Ford truck engine, Big Bill won the track championship at the Nor-way Pines. They were also the first I ever saw try an independent rear suspension on a dirt-track car. Somehow, Buck came up with a rear end out of a Corvette, and they spent half a season trying to get it to hook up properly. Never did get it to work quite right, but nobody else could have done half as well with it either.



I got into trouble with Bill once when I was track announcer at the Nor-Way Pines, over one of Buck’s clever innovations. They had built a new car and from what I hear they didn’t have enough money to put a proper body on it. Instead, somebody gave them some corrugated aluminum swimming pool lining, so they rivetted it onto the bare frame and went racing. When I heard that, I thought it was a great idea. What turned out to NOT be a great idea was my decision to call the new car “The Flying Bathtub.” Now, most racers have a sense of humor about the nicknames I make up, but Bill was actually planning to hit me with a pie. He was really mad! Of course, I apologized, and swore I’d never use the offensive name again. I honestly didn’t think there’d be a problem, because most of the other racers only saw it from the rear anyway.



I think it broke everybody’s heart to hear about Big Bill’s passing. It happened during the off-season, and I don’t recall what year it was, or what the situation was. I’m hoping somebody will post something to the comments section and give us the details. I know the loss was felt by everybody in the racing community. Bill was a great guy, and if he’d never won a race in his life there’s an awful lot of people who would still miss him. No matter how he did on the track, he was a true champion.

Buck, Sarah, and Bill

Three generations of racing Moses'

The last I knew, Buck is still with us, although I haven’t seen him in years and I don’t know if he still goes to the races. Bill also had a daughter, Sarah, who’s quite a race driver in her own right. Sarah married another good driver, Sam Comeau, from another racing family that includes such dirt track heroes as “Flying” Franny Comeau and “Hard Luck” Harold Hannaford. And, of course there’s the endless parade of Moses cousins, etc. who keep the dirt flying wherever they go. “Prince” John, Ray, Billy, Royal, and the rest of the gang. Good people, every last one of ‘em.

Tommy Richardson

Tommy Richardson, receiving a trophy

from starter Ted Winot

at Bear Ridge Speedway, Bradford VT

I promised when I started this that from time to time I was going to talk about some of the more interesting people I've known in this sport. A while ago I was being interviewed for a story, and the writer asked me what the most memorable race was that I ever saw.

Now, I've got to tell you, I've seen a lot of races in the last 45 years, but it didn't take long to come up with an answer. It was in the early 1960's at what was then known as the Legion Bowl in Rumney/Wentworth, NH. At some point in the feature, whatever held the hood down on the leader's car broke. Probably a piece of rope. The hood flopped up over the windshield. The driver then stuck his head out the driver's side window and kept on going. Not only did he finish the race with the hood covering the windshield, he won. That driver? Tommy Richardson.

Tommy was from Enfield, NH. When everybody else was running Fords his car was an old Plymouth coupe bearing the number 574 jr. Why "jr"? No idea. Don't care. Tommy sure could make that thing go, though. He was a uniquely talented driver. I can remember him in that old Plymouth, tail hanging out, and he was smooth when everybody else was just trying to get around the track in one piece.

To be honest, I don't remember if he was ever the track champion, but he sure did win his share of features at the old Bowl. I never really knew that much about him, either. As far as I know, he is no longer alive, but he still has family in the area. I would love to hear from anyone who remembers Tom. He had a nephew, Bobby, who raced Modifieds in the area in recent years, and showed quite a bit of his uncle's talent.

From what I gather, Tom had his share of health problems as he grew older. The last time I ever saw him race was in the early 1970's at Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, VT. The impression I got was that he'd just shown up to watch the races. One thing led to another, and he got invited into the pit area. The owner of a Ford coupe, # 319, offered him the use of his car for the afternoon, and I guess Tom couldn't resist. I also got the impression that it had been some time, possibly years, since he'd driven a race car. He went out and won the feature in convincing fashion.

That is how I will always remember him. Standing on the front stretch, shaking hands with the flagman, holding the first-place trophy. That, and with his head sticking out the driver's side window, grimly chewing dust on his way to that trophy.

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You long-time readers noticed that I recently added the picture at the top of this piece. I fished it out of an old scrapbook I've kept since I was a kid. I sliced through the tape on the edges of the 8x10 to put it on my scanner, and when I did I noticed that he autographed it on the back; "Tom Richardson - 574". I still get a lump in my throat just thinking about it. Miss ya, Tom.

The Guy To Beat

It is NOT one of the constants of the universe, but it happens frequently enough so that you might think it was. It's an interesting phenomenon, and almost unexplainable once you look it over. Also, it seems to be more and more difficult to achieve as time goes by. It's when there's one driver who almost completely dominates a race track.

The first time I remember seeing it was at the old 106 Midway Raceway, the tiny dirt bullring that eventually grew up into NHIS. The driver in question was a gentleman named Paul Martel. He was a driver of exceptional skill, and although he reportedly knew nothing about mechanics, he drove for a car owner who definitely did.

For a few years, Paul Martel could not be beaten. Simple as that. He drove the # 444, and it went like stink. After a long period of domination it was discovered that the 444 was built on an International Scout frame. Now, you've got to remember that this was about 1964, 1965, and there were no Troyeas and such. A racecar was a pre-war coupe with a roll cage welded to the frame and the fenders removed. A Jeep or Scout frame was the ultimate, but quite illegal at most tracks.

To make a long story short, Paul was given two weeks off and the car was outlawed. When he returned, it was in a legal car and the other drivers thought it would be open season. No such luck. Paul went right back to his winning ways in the 3J, which was a pretty basic old Ford, just like everybody else was running. Paul was flat-out good, and there was nothing anybody else could do about it.

In the A class at Riverside Speedway in Groveton, there was a fellow named Sylvio Bilodeau. He drove a '34 Ford sedan, # 92, painted purple. It had the words "Al Capone" on the back. During a three-year period in the mid-sixties, Sylvio and the Al Capone Special won over half the A-class features. At Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, VT, Alan Whipple brought a beige # 47 with a Chevy six and ruled that track for a couple of years.

It's not that they were never beaten. It's just that they so clearly outclassed the field that it was ridiculous. These drivers won features and championships with an ease that was disconcerting. Consequently, they were hated passionately by the average fans. You would hear their names over the loudspeaker, and it was always followed by a chorus of boos.

In retrospect, this was the weirdest part. In each case, the drivers in question were the nicest of fellows, and almost always drove an honest race. Sylvio Bilodeau in particular was a real sweetheart of a guy, who lived quietly in North Stratford and drove a logging truck for a living. One day a week, he was a villian of Darth Vader-ian proportions who greeted the boos with a smile and a wave.

The only driver I ever saw beat this stigma was Franny Comeau. Fran owned the Late Model division at the Nor-Way Pines Speedway in Wentworth for over a decade. In that time, he won nine championships. He started out with a '56 Ford sedan that had already been beaten to death by another racer and discarded. Fran won either four or five titles with it. Then, he and his car owner put together a Mustang. For years after it was plainly obselete, Franny was the one to beat at the Pines. When he finally quit racing, the majority of the Late Models were tube-frame pure-race cars, and he was still beating them with that old Mustang.

And the best part of it was, the fans loved him. I mean, absolutely loved the man! For a while, the track held a Favorite Driver poll, but Fran would win every year by a country mile, so they just didn't bother any more. If you had a Late Model and raced at the Pines, you were racing for second; both on the track and in the hearts of the fans.

I haven't seen anybody in recent years that dominated like those four. If you have, feel free to post your comments, but in the last ten to fifteen years it seems to be getting tougher and tougher to do. One reason could be the vast number of classes now being run. It has thinned out the race fields considerably, at the same time as it has increased the car count at most tracks. Another factor closely related to that is the fine-tuning of the rules over the years. It's become harder to come up with a combination that can't be easily replicated.

Still another reason could be that, once a driver proves his domination in one of the lower classes, they give in to the temptation to move up, and the magic disappears. I've seen it happen to a pair of drivers who, each in turn, ruled the 4-cylinder division at the Pines for a couple years at a time. Both John Chase and Pete Royea came off big championship seasons and moved into Modifieds, only to find themselves running mid-field.

It's like Ray Evernham said back when he was Jeff Gordon's crew chief. First, you're competitive. Then you're a winner. Then, a champion. Finally, a dynasty. In 45 years of NH dirt track racing, I've seen four dynasties. Who will be next?