Brandon Gray Named Inaugural Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame “Racer of the Year”

Thunder Road rookie title, Claremont championship, and more highlight diverse season

MILTON, Vermont (November 17, 2025) – History has been made for motorsports in the Green Mountain State: Brandon Gray has been named the first-ever recipient of the Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame’s “Racer of the Year” Award. The East Thetford, VT native will be honored at the inaugural VMHoF Induction Ceremony, along with the nine distinguished members of the charter Class of 2025.

The event will be held on Saturday, December 6, at the Vermont SportsCar facility in Milton, home of Subaru Motorsports USA. Doors open at 5 p.m., followed by dinner at 6 p.m. and awards at 7 p.m. Tickets are available to order through Friday, November 21.

Twenty competitors who are either native to Vermont or compete regularly within the state were nominated for the VMHoF 2025 Racer of the Year Award. Outstanding competitors from asphalt and dirt ovals, tractor pulling, rally racing, hill climbing, autocross, and motocross were represented. In addition to a formal voting process by the VMHoF Voting Committee, an online “fan vote” was held in early November with well over 500 individual responses.

Only 28 years old but already a veteran of two decades of motorsports competition, Gray has built a reputation as a drive-anything-anywhere type of competitor since he first began racing while in elementary school. An accomplished winner and champion in stock cars on dirt and asphalt, in snowmobile snocross, and in enduro and demolition derby events, he earned his 100^th career stock car victory in 2025 – part of 17 wins overall.

Gray was a weekly racer at both Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl in Barre and at New Hampshire’s Claremont Motorsports Park in 2025, competing in the premier Late Model divisions at both tracks and the Super Street class at Claremont. He was dominant in Claremont’s Super Streets with six feature race wins and the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series track championship. Running his first full season in the Late Model division at both tracks, he earned a victory at Thunder Road and two more at Claremont, capturing a hard-fought Rookie of the Year title at Thunder Road in the process.

Moonlighting in “fun” events, he won three Enduro races – two on the dirt oval at Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford to go along with the famed “People’s Race” Enduro 200 at Thunder Road – and five demolition derbies at county fairs around the region.

Gray topped the VMHoF Racer of the Year fan vote poll, giving him credit for one official vote in the process. That vote made a difference, as he claimed the 2025 Racer of the Year Award by a narrow margin among the Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame’s Voting Committee members; Gray earned 46% of the total votes, while Devil’s Bowl Speedway Sportsman Modified track champion Joey Scarborough of Brandon, VT, finished a close second with 38% of the votes. Thunder Road Late Model champion Jason Corliss and New England Hillclimb Association champion Patrick Martin were also contenders.

Gray will receive his award on Saturday, December 6, in the company of the Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame Class of 2025. The charter group of inductees includes promoters Tom Curley of Thunder Road and the American-Canadian Tour, Chuck Elms II of Bear Ridge Speedway and Northeastern Speedway, and C.J. Richards of Devil’s Bowl Speedway and the Champlain Valley Racing Association; stock car driving brothers Bobby Dragon and Harmon “Beaver” Dragon; tractor pulling legend Gardner Stone; drag racing royalty Shirley Muldowney; the multi-faceted Ken Squier of Thunder Road, Catamount Stadium, and NASCAR television and radio broadcasting; and John Buffum, a global icon of Rally racing.

Tickets for the Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame Class of 2025 Induction Ceremony are on sale now through Friday, November 21, at $90 each; order forms are available at www.vermontmotorsports.net/halloffame. Sponsorships and program advertisements are available as well. Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. For more information, find the official VMHoF page on Facebook or email vtmotorsportshall@gmail.com.

(Photos by Alan Ward)