CATAMOUNT BITS IN TIME
Definitely Under
Construction...Nowhere Near Done.
This was one of the very first
pages on the site and I had big plans for it. I would still like to write up
the little anecdotal stories that best make up the tale of Catamount;, but I
don't have enough time right now.
-Bill
A Man Whose Career Defined Catamount
Courtesy of Cho Lee Burlington Free Press Photo - Mark Sasahara
Jean-Paul Cabana drove this white coupe to the very first feature win in Catamount history. Around 22 years later, he drove this state - of - the - art fiberglass - bodied car to the track's final feature win. This shot shows a caution during that feature.
It Could Only Happen With the Grace o' God
 Courtesy of Darrell Rogers The C.A. Crouch Buick sits in the pits, under preparation for a race. This is the car Glaser drove that April afternoon. |
 Photo Source - Mark Dean Ricky Crouch, right around the time of this story. |
The Spring Green was finally to feature a
second Crouch [or third, if you count C.A.]. Younger brother, Ricky was now old
enough to be put in the seat of the Crouch #12 car. The usual Spring Green hype
and spin was in place, and practice had been held in the none-too-warm Vermont
countryside.
The out-of-town teams either retired
to a motel or to some generous local's garage to make final preps on the car.
The locals headed home or to the headquarters of the racing team. Radio talk
shows buzzed away; parties were held - so, about every racing topic was covered
at one point or another. Expectation was high.... and that included the Ricky
debut.
Then, the following morning, the most
unbelievable news began to seep around. Ricky Crouch had somehow gone off the
interstate in his father's pickup, and was killed. The usually merry pre-race
activity in the Catamount pits was severely tempered by this news. People went
through the motions numbly, sadly.
The race community was heartened to
see the yellow #12 Chevy towed into the pits - the car that was to be Ricky's.
It was learned that former mini stocker Tom Glaser, a friend of the Crouch
family, was to try driving the car, one that was somewhat familiar to him. To
make a long story short, Hollywood could not have made a better script. Glaser
ended up upsetting the entire field and winning the race - for C.A., Robbie, and
Ricky. There wasn't a dry eye in Victory Lane.
A Sad Ending to a Proud Track
From the SOSCARS website
Russ Urlin, London Ontario - Catamount's final lap speed record holder.
Nancy asked "Does anyone know what ever happened to an Ontario driver named Russ Urlin? He was champion of the ACT tour in 1989 and one heck of a driver." 01/07/26From the SOSCARS website
Courtesy of Mike Cain
Urlin taking the victory lap after setting the final lap speed
record at Catamount
The Well - Traveled Hurricane Cars
 Bill Ladabouche Photo
The Larry Warren - built Hurricane sits under fine tuning in the Catamount pit area. |
ACT Office Archives Photo Colchester's George Boudreau poses with his '62 Plymouth hurricane after he had bought it and owned it for the first time |
|
The Hurricane Division was not yet very well established at Catamount when Larry Warren arrived on the scene. The division had not even enjoyed the name for all that long of a time, as it had started out being called The Night Riders, The Chargers, and a few other ill-conceived monikers, as well. The cars were nothing much to look at, although, in their second year of existence, they were a far sight more attractive than those original monstrosities that had lurched, bounced, and squealed around Catamount's third mile asphalt the first season.
Larry arrived with a low-riding 1957 Chevrolet around 1971. The first one was nothing to look at, but the Burlington driver soon put in some effort to make the car attractive. he picked up a sponsorship from Aunt Sara's Pancake House, on Shelburne Road...and he was off to the races ! The following year, the car was back, and it had been re-configured into a very impressive-looking hot rod. Warren became a serious threat to win every year.... and the car caught the eye of any dedicated Hurricane fan. Warren eventually tired of the whole thing and sold the car off. What came next was a remarkable string of owners for this most memorable Chevy. To name a couple, it was owned and run by future late model owner and Beaver Dragon L.E. Farrell crewman Rodney Weed - and it ended up in the hands of future Catamount star and Nascar North Champion Jamie Aube, for a brief spell. Very few cars hit more different owners than Larry Warren's orange Chevy with the Motor Mouse cartoon on the hood. |
Around 1972, Leon Gonyo built himself a 1962 Plymouth for the Hurricane Division at Catamount. The powerful, thundering Mopars were now the car of choice in the division. Gonyo, who spent more time around Airborne Speedway than Catamount, knew that this car would get him more results than his more preferred Fords, at that time. Except for the tandem of Richard Buzzi and Dennis Tucker, Fords weren't doing much in the Hurricanes, at that time.
For whatever reason, Gonyo didn't stick around long, and he sold his car off to George Boudreau of Colchester, Vermont. This would begin a remarkable string of successful use and ownerships of this car. It had almost as many lives as a cat - by the time Hurricanes were no longer allowed. Boudreau would own the car twice, at two different times. Other owners would include Jim Hogan [in between Boudreau's stints] and finally Don Turner, a hometown Catamount veteran who had started back in 1966 as the" Flying Milkman ". By the time Turner was down, the Hurricanes were being phased out. The car was built amazing sturdy and, despite its considerable weight, the huge Mopar engine could propel it at very competitive speeds. As far as I know, the car never visited Victory Lane; but it was always regarded as one of the better cars in the division and it was always a threat to win - if the division hotshots weren't careful.
The car, at full color when
Boudreau and |
Little John and Chester T.
Photos Courtesy of Lloyd and Gregg Gilbert
Little John Rosati, from Agawam. MA Chester T. Wood, from Orange, VT
Here is a Story - an Excerpt From the Column North Country Thoughts :
A RUDE
AWAKENING
.......
The track saw the return of
Jean-Paul Cabana and Andre Manny - from Quebec. Rene Charland actually got
together with a Chevelle, although it was not particularly competitive. New York
saw a contingent of former coupe drivers return with Mopars, but they were not
very competitive either. Even Vince Quenneville, Sr. left Devil’s Bowl long
enough for an abortive try. In a nutshell - the locals had become pretty damned
good. The established Catamount stars, for the most part, remained the top
runners.
Into
this scene came “the big money” from Massachusetts, in the form of the
Rosati family. An Italian trucking company with money to burn from Agawam,
Massachusetts …well, never mind. Anyway, in they came with two matching 1967
Ford Fairlanes, hauled on matching haulers, all festooned with “John’s
Trucking” ads. “Little John” Rosati, the driver, was a mutton-chopped
teenager and the son of John [John’s Trucking] Rosati, Sr., a very nice man
actually. With this came the reknowned car builder [and crew chief] Fred Rosner
and a large, uniformed crew. To lend a local touch, Rosati took on some
sponsorship from Swanton, Vermont’s E.J. Barrette Ford dealership.
Into
the Catamount pit area they pulled with this entourage, and most activity in the
pits virtually came to a halt. Scores of grease-stained guys stood, about four
deep, watching this outfit un-trailer and unpack their elaborate equipment, as
Rosner tuned up the “Frantic Ford” as it was dubbed along the front fender.
Little John, a very shy youngster, observed this activity, often with downcast
eyes, apparently quite uncomfortable with so much attention. Rosati’s crew,
however, was soon to be fascinated with something else entirely.
Now,
one would have to go back to the earlier days of Barre, Vermont’s Thunder Road
Speedbowl, the mother of Catamount so to speak, to completely appreciate what
held the attention of the haughty [well very confident] flatlanders: the arrival
next to them of Chester T. Wood. Chester T. Wood was from Orange, Vermont, out
in the middle of nowhere. He had run T-Road with considerable success in the
flathead coupe days, driving the X-1 from a tractor seat. He liked the seat
because he could “feel” the car better, he always said. Wood ran on a
shoestring, and his return to racing that year was no different.
Chester
T. had driven the yellow 1962 Plymouth on a limited basis the year before, and
he had just pulled it out a snowbank about a week before Catamount was to open.
He came with little or no equipment, one crewman [a tractor mechanic named
Calvin Frost], and went about buying some used tires upon arriving. The Rosati
crew was scarcely able to maintain straight faces as the taciturn Frost and his
not - too - spiffy - looking owner/driver went about their business, with great
many “ayuhs” sprinkled into a conversation full of racing terms left over
from ten years ago. Everyone except Fred Rosner, who had been around long enough
to know better.
The
Rosatis used every bit of warm-up and practice time, coming into the pits and
going back out under the frowning, thoughtful eyes of Rosati, Sr., Rosner, and a
battery of stopwatches and such. Chet and Calvin weren’t interested in much of
that practicin’ - wasted a lot of gas, they thought. The man who had once
plugged a radiator leak with a Thunder Road hot dog and then had gone on to win
the feature appeared more interested in all the doo-dads in the Rosati pits next
door [when he could see them through the mobs gathered to watch Rosner’s every
move]. Calvin, as I remember, did change two plugs which he pronounced as lookin’
a bit “ratty”.
The
preliminary races were run off with a lot of fanfare given to the important new
team from Massachusetts and with considerable emphasis on the raging rivalry
between hometown Bob Dragon and the hated Cabana. There was also the
newly-introduced automatic transmission Hurricane division. So, Neither
Rosati’s nor Wood’s progress in their heats were all that noted. Catamount
had done away with its traditional “Freshman Reception”, a race for all the
rookies that year; so Rosati would not have a chance to outshine his
less-financed rookie rivals just then. But, both men qualified for the feature.
The
rest is almost as predictable as baby Bush invading Iraq. Little John struggled
his way through the main event, finishing considerably behind Chester T.
Wood’s top three finish. When Wood brought the rusty, dented yellow Plymouth
into the pits after the feature, he and Frost were met with incredulous stares
of begrudging admiration from the Massachusetts crew. It didn’t take Wood long
to clear out after either - not much to pack and relatively few visitors to his
pit area. They were long gone with the still - steaming Plymouth before the
crowd around the Rosati car was anywhere near to dissipating.
Some very quiet
words had passed between Chester T. and one of the Rosati crew, in the midst of
all that chaos - and the Rosati car steadily improved to become a considerable
force that summer. And they were
very personable and popular all that summer. Nobody knows what was said, but it
was pretty obvious what was thought - just by the looks on the faces of the men
in the nice uniforms from South of the Vermont border. The locals ? Well most of
‘em knew better than to ever underestimate Chester T. Wood.
