Road Trip Day 2

Who says you get to relax and sleep in on vacation?  We were up by 6:30am and out the door by 7:45am to make the hour drive to Cooperstown, NY to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame.  This was my second visit to the Hall, but Jayme's first.  Seeing how much she enjoyed it made it all worthwhile.  After spending about four hours in Cooperstown, it was time to head to Bradford, VT.

The four hour drive to Bradford was plagued with slow drivers and traffic...enough to make even me say a few choice words along the way.  Nevertheless, we pulled into Bear Ridge Speedway right at 5:00pm, with 30 minutes to spare before Hot Laps.  Upon our arrival, promoter April Preston kindly greeted us with open arms and gave us a quick tour of the place and showed us around the facility.

A look at Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, VT.

Bear Ridge is a 1/4-mile D-shaped oval with only a small amount of banking.  The track is nestled in the hills of eastern Vermont and sits high atop a ridge (hence the name), making for a picturesque setting to say the least.  The pits are located off turns three and four, as cars exit the track at the end of the backstretch and enter the track at the beginning of the frontstretch.  The infield is mostly grass and kept clear of safety vehicles and track equipment.  Concrete basically lines the entire speedway with the exception of turns one and two where just a few "yuke" tires mark the outer edge of the narrow track.

The grandstands are built into a small hillside and are a mix of both wood and aluminum.  Behind the flagstand, the top seven rows of seats all have backs on them.  And behind the seating area, the midway is all gravel and contains a nice mix of track food ranging from cheeseburgers ($5.00) to onion rings ($5.00) to gravy fries.  Yes, gravy fries.  

The grandstands, press box, and VIP suites at Bear Ridge.

On tap tonight would be Sportsman Mods (21 cars), Coupes (18), Midgets (15), Limited Lates (7), Hornets (19), and Mini-Stocks (11).  A cool program was in store with "Mod Madness", in which the Mods run no heats.  Instead, they run three 40-lap features with lap money being awarded to the top five drivers each lap of each feature.  It was an added bonus for me, as this is one of my favorite classes to watch.

Hot Laps rolled out at 5:30pm and the first heat of the night hit the track at 6:15pm.  It wasn't too long before the first 40-lap Mod race hit the track and it was a dandy.  Nip-and-tuck racing at the front of the field combined with heavy lapped traffic made this race a good one (albeit a tad dusty).  After that race, I'd already felt like I got my money's worth.

The first of three 40-lap Mod features gets rolling. 

The rest of the evening went well.  The second Mod feature saw a full field inversion and the winner came from 14th.  Throughout the course of the night, there may have been a few instances in which "too much downtime" came into play, but that was mostly due to the track crew working hard to keep the dust down and keep moisture in the race track.  

With just a couple races left, and a fireworks display still to come, we headed out around 10:00pm and made our way to the hotel.  All-in-all, it was an enjoyable evening.  Bear Ridge, the only dirt track in Vermont, gets the "Puttin' On A Show" seal of approval.  

Cars roll down the Bear Ridge backstretch.

I'm happy to say that Bear Ridge Speedway becomes track #157 and Vermont becomes state #29 on my lifetime track-chasing journey.  If all goes as planned, Legion Speedway in Rumney, NH will be track #158 and state #30 Sunday night.

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend and stay cool.  Congrats to all of this weekend's winners.

Bear Ridge Speedway - "Home of the Coupes!"