TRACKS IN THE GRANITE STATE

A lot of what happened in the history of Vermont stock car racing is directly attributable to our neighbor to the East - New Hampshire. New Hampshire's history is very similar to Vermont's: boom in the early '50's; bust in the late '50's, development of stable tracks in the '60's and '70's, and a gradual settling to a core of tracks - some of which are struggling to survive. This is a compilation of photos from some of my best supporters, including Scott Haskell, George Hill, Neal Davis, and Cho Lee. Some come from people like Phil Chastenay who shares photos openly on message boards. Others come from random contributors. I am sure I have omitted names, and I apologize.

Howard Hodgdon Photo, via George Hill Two men with car 197	Howard Hodgdon Photo, via George Hill After an apparent rollover - common, in those days.	Howard Hodgdon Photo, via George Hill Getting the car 177 out of a ditch.	Howard Hodgdon Photo, from NHSTH Site, via Scott Haskell Lining up a race on the track.	Howard Hodgdon Photo, from NHSTH Site, via Scott Haskell Bill Morrill, a teenager, drove this car - owned by George Hodgdon.
Howard Hodgdon Photo, from NHSTH Site, via Scott Haskell Two men and their car. Anyone know who ?	Howard Hodgdon Photo, from NHSTH Site, via Scott Haskell Bob Puffinburger [l] and George Hodgdon. This car became Harold Hanaford's #77.	Howard Hodgdon Photo, from NHSTH Site, via Scott Haskell The Hodgdon/ Puffinburger 280.	M. Condon Photo, from NHSTH Site, via Scott Haskell The Maurice Condon 12, out of Claremont, also a regular at Claremont Speedway.	M. Condon Photo, from NHSTH Site, via Scott Haskell The Maurice Condon 12 heads out of the pit area.
	\| NHSTH SitePhoto via Scott Haskell The pit area. The car 12 of Condon is visible.	NHSTH SitePhoto via Scott Haskell A woman has crossed the track and into the pit area.

Courtesy of Wayne Boyce
Sprint cars line up by the announcer's stand at the Plymouth Fairgrounds in 1948.

The old fairgrounds track at Plymouth, NH may have been one of the true birthplaces of auto racing in the Northeast. It is not exactly clear to me yet how long they raced there, but racing - of one sort or another - began in the late 1940's. Probably because of this, there has always been a number of drivers from this area: Harold Hanaford, Jim Thomas, Denny Dearborn - to name a few. Also, one of the premier sponsors in the sport for many years, Moseley's Express, was headquartered in Plymouth.

Courtesy of R. Scott Haskell
An article in the local newspaper gives an idea of who was running in the earliest days of New Hampshire stock cars.

Thanks to R.Scott Haskell
The Plymouth Fairgrounds, as the track [and grounds] looked in its heyday.

Start/Finish Line towards turn one.	Turn two.	Backstretch, back towards turn two.	Could be the backstretch.	Unidentified area on fairgrounds track.
Turn Three.	Turn three into turn four.	Turn four.	Unidentified area on fairgrounds track.	Unidentified area on fairgrounds track.

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Courtesy of George Hill
Same view as one below, but has one more car in rear. The car with the visible advertisement
is 640, Ray Sanborn, of Andover, NH.