[G]ov. Phil Scott says he may not race cars at Thunder Road this season because of potential gun rights protests.
Scott has taken a lot of heat from his Republican base for signing sweeping gun restrictions into law earlier this month. Gun rights activists booed, heckled the governor, and shouted, “You lied to us Phil” and “You broke your promise,” as Scott gave a speech at the bill signing.
At a press conference Friday, the governor told reporters that there has been “a lot of chatter” especially on social media about protests in the aftermath of the bill signing, particularly referencing Thunder Road.
“It was a very emotional day with some people saying things they don’t mean in anger that maybe they regret, maybe they don’t,” Scott said.
Scott has been a regular at the Barre race track for 20 years and he made national headlines last year when he continued to race as governor.
“The last thing I want to do is prevent people from enjoying themselves at Thunder Road,” Scott said. “They paid good money to get in, they come there to watch racing, they’re not there to get politically active, and I don’t want to take anything away.”
The governor said he didn’t “want to be the reason for ruining somebody’s afternoon or evening.”
While he isn’t ruling racing out completely, he is willing to take himself out if he is the “catalyst” for demonstrations. “We need to take it one race at a time and see what happens,” he said. “I’ll talk with my team and the track and see if there is an opportunity for me to race again.”
