Harold Hanaford

Competitor
CLASS OF 2009
Veterans Committee Selection

Harold “Hardluck” Hanaford began racing on the ice in 1947. He went on to compete in flathead powered Fords throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. A staunch supporter of the ’32 Ford, Hanaford switched to a Dodge to race at the Plymouth Fairgrounds, a track 5 miles from his home, where they plowed the track and raced right through the winter.

Hanaford won two of the 1st three Milk Bowls at Thunder Road Speedbowl in 1962 and 1964. He was also a two-time Thunder Road track champion (1964-1965). In 1966, as a Thunder Road champion, he took a ’59 Pontiac, with an engine he’d built himself, to Daytona. “Being a track champion, they paid me ten cents a mile to tow down, and $300 to take the green”, Harold recalls. “I think the total check was about $800.

He was given the nickname “Hardluck” by Thunder Road owner Ken Squier, although Hanaford was always stumped on the origin of the moniker.

Hanaford after retirement from competitive racing, Hanaford would still make appearances in his familiar purple #30 when the NEAR car club visited Thunder Road. Harold Hanaford passed away at his home on March 17, 2018 a couple weeks after his 89th birthday.