Where the Race is Really Won!
When the checkered flag falls on a Northeastern Midget Association race, the average race fan packs up and heads home to reflect on the night’s action. The NEMA race team packs up, heads to their “home-away-from-home and gets to work. The preparation for the next race starts immediately, It starts in the “race shop.”
Recently, I grabbed the opportunity to visit the race shops of four very successful NEMA teams. The four teams have a combined total of over three dozen NEMA championships.
The Dumo’s Desire #45 operation is located in Oxford, CT. The late Gene Angelillo, a 14-time owner champion, built the facility in 1988 and made sure he had plenty of room. The shop is not only big enough (2,700 square foot) to house two race cars but also the 30-foot camper/hauler. It also boasts a full machine shop in the back and upstairs storage which held a classic Badger midget racer for years. In the main shop area you’ll find the usual tools and equipment: an engine hoist, work benches, tool boxes and assorted parts hanging on the walls. Three decades of awards, trophies, plaques and pictures hang on all walls. My tour guide, long time Angelillo family friend Joe Fiore, can recall every detail of all memorabilia. Joe points out no less than twelve race cars have passed through the shop over the years, even dirt sprinters. It is truly impressive.
My next Connecticut stop was at the modest shop of Bertrand Motorsports in Suffield, CT. It is literally a 26-year old, two-bay garage attached to the family house. Tim Bertrand has been the owner champion four of the past five seasons. This shop is small at 900 sq. ft. but every inch is used wisely. Three midget chassis sit in different stages of completion. On this day, space heaters kept the place warm while Tim’s brother Todd, a driver, worked on sheet metal templates. Along one wall is a work bench with a lathe and a tire rack hangs in the back with an engine hoist in the corner. Father Gil has a story for each of the body panels that hang from the wall. Along with the panels are awards from past racing successes. Amazingly, this small shop has housed 10 quarter midgets and micro sprints as well as 8 full-size midgets.
It’s off to the Bay State and the shops of Bobby Seymour Enterprises in Marlboro. The busiest shop on the tour, this facility not only houses four full-midgets (plus one bare frame that was once driven by Jeff Gordon), but also a machine shop, welding shop, engine shop and enough parts inventory to supply the entire club. According to veteran Bobby Seymour, the place’s history goes back some 60 years starting with his legendary father Boston Louie Seymour. The Seymour family, including Bobby and Mike, has written a ton of NEMA history. On this particular day, Mike is working on a customer’s engine while Bobby’s son Matt was installing gauges in a racer. Cleanliness and organization is everywhere as two large roller tool boxes sit in the back, bins of nuts and bolts sit to one side with a milling machine and engine hoist on the other. Bobby estimates around 60 racecars have called his place home.
If Seymour’s shop is the busiest, the most unique shop is the Stoehr family facility at the Motor Car International facility in Bridgewater MA. The Stoehr family has been racing for four generations, the latter two still active – brothers Russ, a six-time champion, and Greg and their children, Avery and Bethany respectively. Russ met me at the door, took me in the back where I saw no racecars. “Where are the cars?” I asked. He pointed straight up, literally to the rafters. Seeking no elevator or ram, I ask “How do the cars get up there?” He taps the back of a vintage fork lift as we walk by. After “taking the stairs” we enter the elevated race shop. Space (approximately 2,000 square feet) is tight. A frame sits on a jig, part of a collection that includes a vintage chassis, Avery Stoehr’s Lite car, Greg’s #26 and the newest addition to the fleet, Bethany’s Beast chassis that sits front and center after receiving some graphics to accent new paint. Standing upright, leaning against the wall is Avery’s top secret future ride. The family uses the “high rise”space during the off season. During racing season, the cars stay in the trailer and are brought into the dealership bays only when repair is needed. The shop is loaded with trophies.
So, when you see a NEMA race team pull out of the pits after a race you know their night has just begun as the preparation for the next week’s race will start soon at the race shop, where the race is really won.
Sources: Bill Van Slyke/NEMA