Paul Tremaine

Checkered Flag Announcer
CLASS OF 2004

Paul Trowbridge, better known in racing circles as Paul Tremaine, started doing race reports on station WILI in Willimantic, CT. Soon, however, the 40-minute spots were cut back a few minutes, then cut again, until the reports were squeezed into a forty second slot. Feeling that the sport was not getting enough coverage, Paul began something he called The Checkered Flag Announcer.

Paul, with his good friend Andy Maine, would travel from track to track in an old Volkswagon van. He took his name, Trowbridge, and combined it with Andy Maine, to come up with the “on air” name Paul Tremaine. The old Volkswagon was later replaced by the infamous CFA Gremlin. In later years, Joe Golas stepped up to help with Checkered Flag Announcer duties.

After getting home from a race, Paul would stay up until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, recording messages of race results. He would then transfer them to between thirteen and fifteen answering machines, hooked up at various locations throughout New England, thereby reducing people’s need to pay for a long distance call to obtain race results. Wally Saleeba, Dan Pardi, Allan Whipple, and Ted Doubleday were just a few of the volunteers who had CFA phone lines in their homes or offices.

Paul has many fond memories from his CFA days. “Ken Squier was the man I most emulated. I would sometimes answer the phone lines myself, and got to know people like NEAR Hall of Fame members, Bugsy Stevens and Fred DeSarro. Wives like Sue Cook and Peg Summers would call to see how their husbands had made out. Richie Evans even used to call me to ask how Jerry Cook had done at a particular track. There was nobody else foolish enough to spend the time or money doing what I did. I loved it, though, so I guess that was my payment”.

Paul was awarded the prestigious Frank Maratta Award in 1991 for his outstanding contributions to auto racing in New England. He passed away on August 30, 2007 at the age of 89.