Inaugural Class Announced for Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame

The inaugural class of the Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame was announced Saturday, March 29, as part of the Vermont Motorsports Expo in White River Junction, with nine pioneers honored for their contributions to motorsports in the Green Mountains. A formal induction ceremony is being planned for later in 2025, with details to be announced in the future.

The inaugural includes for the VMHoF Class of 2025 (in alphabetical order):

John Buffum

John Buffum: A Connecticut native living in Colchester, VT since 1970, Buffum is an 11-time SCCA Pro Rally Champion and the 1973 SCCA Trans Am 2.5-Liter Champion. He has 23 National Rally championships as a driver, with 61 titles in the U.S. and Canada as team owner, car builder, and team manager with Libra Racing and Vermont SportsCar. His resume includes 123 rally, hill climb and road racing victories in six different countries, with stints as SCCA’s Pro Rally Series Manager (1988-1992) and President of the American Rally Association (1994-1995).

Tom Curley

Thomas “T-Bone” Curley: A Maine native who lived in Vermont from the 1960s until his death in 2017, Curley parlayed a mediocre career as a driver to become a nationally recognized track owner and promoter. He served as co-owner of Barre’s Thunder Road Int’l Speedbowl from 1982-2017 and Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, NY from 1990-2007. In 1979, he took his weekly Late Model Sportsman racers “on the road” as the NASCAR North Tour, racing successfully throughout the northeastern United States and eastern Canada before transitioning to the modern-day American-Canadian Tour in 1986. Curley was honored as Race Promotion Monthly’s North American Auto Racing Promoter of the Year in 2004.

Beaver Dragon

Harmon “Beaver” Dragon: Born and raised in Milton, VT, the elder half of Vermont’s storied Dragon brothers collected feature wins and championships like few before him ever had. He claimed track championships at his home track, Catamount Stadium in 1967, 1979 and 1983, adding a pair of Airborne Park Speedway titles in 1973 and 1975. Dragon was NASCAR’s Vermont State champion in both 1965 and 1967, Northern NASCAR Circuit champion in 1975 and the inaugural champion of the NASCAR North Tour in 1979, successfully defending that title in 1980.

Bobby Dragon

Bobby Dragon: The Milton, VT native (younger brother of Beaver) amassed an amazing 145 feature wins in his illustrious career, including 17 on the NASCAR North Tour and 14 in NASCAR Busch North Series competition. He claimed the Northern NASCAR Circuit championship in 1973, 1977 and 1978, was crowned Vermont State champion in 1969, 1973, 1977, and 1980, and accumulated a total of 13 track championships: four at Catamount Stadium, three on the Sanair International Raceway short track, three at Thunder Road, two at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven and aven and H

one at Airborne Park Speedway.

C.V. "Chuck" Elms II

C.V. “Chuck” Elms II: A native of North Haverhill, NH, Elms was involved in the formative days of stock car racing in Vermont. He served as President of the United Racing Club and Northeastern Speedway in 1964, before working as an official at Bradford’s Bear Ridge Speedway from 1968-1972. He purchased the track in 1972 and oversaw its operation for 17 years, until handing the reins over to his son. He also owned Stub Fadden’s championship Flying Tiger entry at Thunder Road in 1964.

Shirley Muldowney

Shirley Muldowney: Born in Burlington, VT and raised in the Lake Champlain Islands, her amazing life story was told in the Hollywood film “Heart Like a Wheel.” Muldowney was a regular at the Milton Dragway in the mid-1960s. In 1965, she became the first woman licensed to compete in the NHRA, embarking on a professional career that saw her become the first woman to win an NHRA Top Fuel National event (1976). She went on to win four Top Fuel World Championships; one with AHRA in 1981 and three more with NHRA (1977, 1980, 1982); the first person – male or female – to collect multiple NHRA Top Fuel World titles. She rebounded from life-threatening injuries suffered at Quebec’s Sanair Dragway in 1984 to return to NHRA Victory Lane in 1989, before finally retiring in 2003 at age 63.

C.J. Richards

Charles “C.J.” Richards: A tireless promoter of Vermont motorsports, this Fair Haven native is best remembered for building, owning, and promoting Devil’s Bowl Speedway from 1967-1978 and again from 1982-2011. He also promoted a pair of now-defunct Vermont ovals, including Fairmont Speedway and Otter Creek Speedway, as well as Rutland’s Vermont State Fairgrounds, and served as owner/promoter at New York’s Airborne Park Speedway (1971-1972; 1982-1987) and Albany-Saratoga Speedway (1977-2011). He founded the Champlain Valley Racing Association and served as its President from 1962-2011, and he was RPM’s Northern Region Promoter of the Year in 1997.

Ken Squier

Ken Squier: A native of Waterbury, VT, he followed in his father’s footsteps by debuting as a track announcer at age 15 in Morrisville, VT. He promoted his first stock car race at the Barton Fairgrounds in 1951 at age 16, and constructed two highly successful Vermont tracks: Thunder Road International Speedbowl and Catamount Stadium. He co-owned/promoted Airborne Park Speedway from 1973-1975 and 1990-2007 and founded both the Northern NASCAR Circuit and the NASCAR North Tour. His Waterbury radio station, WDEV, provided valuable coverage of Thunder Road and American-Canadian Tour racing events for many years. On the national scene, Squier served as public address announcer at Daytona Int’l Speedway in the 1960s and co-founded the Motor Racing Network in 1970. He anchored NASCAR Cup Series television broadcasts on CBS, TBS, TNN, NBC, ABC and FOX from 1971-2003, and his World Sports Enterprises produced and syndicated several racing and automotive programs.

Gardner Stone

Gardner Stone: This Middlebury, VT native began drag racing at Milton Dragway in 1964 and won virtually every week through 1970. In 1978, he turned his attention to tractor pulling, winning the first two events he entered in Mini-Modified class. Moving up to full-size Modified tractors in 1979, his distinctive entries – named “The General” – garnered three consecutive NTPA Region 1 championships in 1983-1985, NTPA Grand National titles in 1990 (2 classes), 1999, 2003, and 2004. He collected trophies in oval track and drag racing competition as well, winning on dirt in both Pro Stocks and Modifieds in the early 1990s and claiming an NHRA Gatornationals win in 2015 at age 74.

“After more than a year of planning, discussion, and preparation, it’s exciting to finally announce our first group of honorees,” said VMHoF President Justin St. Louis. “While the decision-making process will certainly become more difficult in coming years, the members of this inaugural class were essentially ‘no brainers.’ Each and every one was a pioneer in Vermont motorsports, and we are thrilled to finally give them the recognition they deserve.”

ABOUT THE VMHoF: The Vermont Motorsports Hall of Fame was established to preserve the history of automotive sports and motorized competition in the Green Mountain State; honoring those who have been essential to the success, longevity and enjoyment of the sport while raising awareness, educating the public, and promoting the growth and future prosperity of motorsports in the state. Sponsorships and advertising opportunities are available for the Hall, which is a registered nonprofit corporation. Individual supporting memberships are now on sale, along with limited edition apparel. Learn more online at www.vermontmotorsports.net/halloffame.