[V]ermont’s stock car racing governor is back in victory lane at Thunder Road, a contrast to last year when his concern was less about fending off competitors than keeping political protesters at bay.
The uncertainty over whether Gov. Phil Scott would race last year was triggered over concerns gun rights activists would protest at the Barre track, a scene the longtime race driver-turned-politician worried would dampen the experience for Thursday night fans and hurt attendance at the quarter mile, high-banked speedway affectionately dubbed “The nation’s site of excitement.”
Scott will compete again on the Fourth of July, adding to the 20 events he’s run since being elected governor in 2016.
Last Thursday, Scott picked up his first victory since July 2017, and his second since taking the oath of office as chief executive. The three-time track champion won the 50-lap, late model division. He trailed in fourth place for most of the first half of the race, before passing on the outside groove to take the lead with 15 laps to go.
“He’s the governor, but he’s really just one of us, just a racer that’s always been supporting Thunder Road,” said Cris Michaud, Thunder Road’s owner.
Since his election, Scott has continued to be fast and active on the stock car scene, but reduced his participation to around six or seven races per season. In addition to the two wins, he’s also picked up three podium finishes, four top-fives and 10 top 10s. He’s raced 20 times since taking office.
“He’s still competitive when he shows up here,” said Michael Stridsberg, Thunder Road’s media director.
Last season, Scott considered skipping out on racing after signing a series of gun control bills. Ultimately, he opted to compete a few times after talking to track staff and his fellow drivers.
The concern? He didn’t “want to be the reason for ruining somebody’s afternoon or evening.”
Stridsberg said some fans booed the governor during introductions, but there were ultimately no security issues and large crowds still turned out at Quarry Hill.
“We got a lot of mail and calls from people when he was still deciding, saying they would boycott the track,” he said.
This year, the tension between gun rights supporters and Scott downshifted when he vetoed a bill in June that would have created a waiting period for handgun purchases.
It’s harder for drivers like Scott who are part-time to maintain their level of competitiveness, according to Stridsberg. The track’s handicap system places less frequent or faster drivers in the back of the pack for starts.
This season, the governor largely found himself further behind at the start, but that’s due to his top place finishes, not level of participation, he said.
From wooden buggies to Thunder Road
Scott’s eyes gradually lit up as he spoke about his racing career in his Montpelier office this week. The trophy from his recent Thunder Road win sat next to his desk. His communications director said his staff encouraged him to bring it in.
He became hooked on racing after his mother, Marion, a huge race fan, began taking him and his two brothers to the track every Thursday night, leading to a champion stock car career across the Northeast.
Scott grew up racing the hills of Barre in model wooden buggies painted the colors of his favorite stock car drivers at Thunder Road.
“I loved anything with wheels and that goes fast and/or had an engine involved,” he said.
There was an organized race almost every summer night in the late 1960s, and neighbors would come watch on the corners and make sure no cars were passing through intersections as the young boys sped by.
After catching the racing bug from his mother, the natural step for Scott was racing himself. But the sport was expensive and he couldn’t afford to enter the stock car circuit. His father, a World War II veteran, was a double amputee and died when Scott was 11 years old from injuries sustained in the D-Day invasion.
Scott worked as part of a pit crew with Robbie Crouch – a well known racer at the time – and raced snowmobiles and motorcycles during his time in college at the University of Vermont.
“That grew from being from Vermont-based, to New England-based, to being up in Canada and in the Midwest,” Scott said in an interview Monday. “And then I finally decided that I got to a point in my life where I could afford to get involved with racing, stock cars, and I bought a car and started racing myself.”
In his 30s, Scott’s racing career at began Thunder Road in 1991. In 1996, he won his first late model series race. He now has the record for most career wins on the track, has won the challenging kiss-the-cow Milk Bowl competition twice, and has nine American–Canadian Tour late model wins. Four of the ACT tour wins came at Thunder Road.
Michaud, a former racer who has co-owned the track since buying it from founder Ken Squier and Tom Curley, described Scott as a “hardnose” racer well respected by his competitors, and who always races clean.
“When we were competitors we had some tough, knockdown drag-out races,” he said.
The 25-plus drivers hit speeds upwards of 90 mph on the oval, completing a lap in around 12 seconds. The sport is intense, especially in longer races, with drivers experiencing strong G forces on the track’s 18 degree turns. Temperatures in stock cars during the summer can reach up to 155 degrees, requiring drivers to drink lots of fluids and keep in good physical condition.
Squier, who opened the track in 1960, said Scott is always “unfazed” by the things going on around him at the track. He thinks Scott may have advanced to a higher level of racing, had he not pursued politics.
“He’s consistent, he hits his marks every time, and he’s one of those that doesn’t falter in that, which makes him quite valuable,” said Squier, a legend in racing annals after decades of television broadcasting from around the globe.
Continuing to race as governor
When Scott announced his run for governor in 2015, with his shocking lime green #14 car parked outside the event, he said he’d “unfortunately” have to give up racing at Thunder Road if he won.
But he changed his mind. Scott now drives a black car and has dropped the sponsors that covered the outside. Now, the car carries a simple message on the side: “Thank a Vet.”
“I’ve been racing for a long time. Still love to do it. Still feel as though I’m competitive. And that’s the important aspect,” Scott said. “But I know my day job comes first and being governor is important, a responsibility, and that always comes first.”
The governor’s security detail accompanies him at the track and in the pit. Like other racers, he wears a fireproof suit, helmet and drives a stock car designed with numerous safety features, such as a roll cage and a five-point harness.
“There were discussions with the security detail about the inherent risks of racing and being in a large open air environment, and how to mitigate those risks,” said Rebecca Kelley, the governor’s communications director.
Michaud said most injuries at the track are small, such as a broken wrist. Thunder Road hires an auto racing safety company which provides first responders with specialized training.
A Vermont State Police officer has typically driven the governor to and from work with the expectation they will not sneak out and go behind the wheel after being dropped off after the workday is done.
But Scott brushes off the idea stock car racing is dangerous.
“I love to bike as well. I do a lot of that,” he said. “You’re probably safer in a race car than you are on a bicycle.”
Racing at Thunder Road begins at 7 p.m. and lasts for several hours. Fans normally leave a little early towards the end of the last race to beat the traffic. Michaud said last Thursday night, after the governor’s victory, most stayed to hear his victory speech and celebrate the win.
“I cherish every one these days because in my heyday, when I was pretty successful, I think I took a lot of them for granted. And they’re hard to come by,” Scott said. “And so anytime I can win now I cherish the moment.”
Politics and racing in the same style
Scott said racing is similar to politics on several levels. Both are team activities, where you need the support of others to succeed but the glory is focused on one person. He said he takes the same civil approach to politics on the racetrack.
“I like to race clean, I like to be someone respected. And that’s actually served me well, because, in stock car racing, what goes around comes around,” he said. “So if you get into somebody’s bumper, you knock somebody off the track or put somebody in the wall, eventually it’s going to reciprocate, and they’re going to come back after you.”
Glen Wright, an accountant and friend of Scott’s for more than 30 years, said the governor’s political style is similar to the way he races. His victory last week showed his approach of waiting until late in the race to pull ahead.
“He figures out a strategy and then figures out how to implement it,” Wright said in 2016. “He’ll watch the field, and he knows the only lap he needs to lead is the last one.” He’s a gentleman, too, Wright says, who won’t get ahead using “the chrome horn,” also known as a bumper, but who isn’t afraid to use the “angel expressway,” the top part of the high-banked track, to get by an opponent.
Scott can’t entirely escape the world of his day job on a night at Thunder Road. Many people, including fellow racers, will talk to him about politics, ask questions and bring up policies.
“They wouldn’t feel comfortable coming to the Legislature to talk about the issues, but they are comfortable in talking with me because I’m one of them,” he said.
Thunder Road is celebrating 60 years of operation this year, and draws fans from across the region, as far north as Montreal and south as Connecticut.
“It’s a place where people just get along,” Michaud said. “You have all aspects of people, you have businessmen there, you have day laborers, all types of people, not just one class of person. Everybody enjoys it.”
Squier said Scott has been a part of Thunder Road since the track was built.
“I’m grateful for him,” he said. “A lot of people give up on things like this, but he never has. He loves it, and does it well.”
Now 60, Vermont’s stock car racing governor has no plans to exit the race track for good anytime soon. As long as the job permits and he remains competitive, Scott hopes to continue his decades-long career. He now races against the children of former competitors.
“It’s part of my roots. It’s part of who I am. It’s part of my foundation. You know, it’s a blue collar community,” Scott said.
“It’s traditional and historic for me. It’s just an integral part of who I am.”