Bobby Dragon

Competitor
CLASS OF 2009

You can’t mention racing in northern New England without the name Bobby Dragon coming up. Bobby began racing in the late 1960’s. He’s wheeled Modifieds, Flying Tigers, and Late Models. He’s competed at over 70 different tracks. A resident of Milton, VT, his home tracks were Catamount Stadium and Thunder Road Speedbowl.

Dragon’s won many championships over the years, including four at Catamount Stadium: a Flying Tigers title in 1969, then 3 Late Model championships (1972, 1977, 1980). He also earned two at Thunder Road (1973, 1976) and one at Devil’s Bowl (1977). He also won the Late Model Sportsman Championship at Airborne Speedway (NY) in 1972.

He was crowned Northern NASCAR Circuit Champion 3 times (1973, 1977, 1978), then was a mainstay on the old NASCAR North Tour from 1979-1985, winning 17 races and finished in the Top 5 in 50% of the races he entered in the series (81 out of 162 races).

During the first decade of the NASCAR Busch North Series, Bobby won 14 races. His last BNS win came on June 29, 1997 at Nazareth Speedway when he was 51 years old.

The other tracks where Dragon visited victory lane include Westboro Speedway, Twin State (Claremont) Speedway, Oxford Plains Speedway, Seekonk Speedway, Thompson Speedway, Riverside Park Speedway, Star Speedway, Jennerstown Speedway, Wiscasset Raceway, White Mountain Motorsports Park, Monadnock Speedway, Lee USA Speedway, Shangri-La Speedway and the road course in Watkins Glen, NY.

In 1983, Bobby was the recipient of the prestigious Don MacTavish Award.

Bobby’s brother Harmon (aka Beaver), a Hall of Famer himself, remembers the tough schedules, which sometimes involved running two different tracks in a single day. “One day”, remembers Beaver, “I was driving the school bus Bobby had as a car hauler after an afternoon race in Montreal. We had to get down to Vermont fast for an evening race at Devil’s Bowl. I came out of the parking lot…fast. I knew I had grazed the ticket booth, but I didn’t realize until later that I had KNOCKED THE BOOTH OVER”.