Carla Occaso
Vrroom! Ever been to Thunder Road in Barre? It is a summertime tradition in central Vermont that was started in 1960 by the late Ken Squier of Waterbury, former owner of radio station WDEV. Squier died in 2023 at the age of 88. Thunder Road started out hosting racing events on Thursday nights because that is when the Barre stone shed workers got paid, according to current owner Cris Michaud in a video from the Vermont Historical Society. They still race primarily on Thursdays, Sundays, and some Saturdays, according to thunderroadvt.com. Squier sold the racetrack in 1971 or ’72 to a buyer from New Jersey, but it quickly failed under his supervision, Michaud said. This prompted Squier to go to court to get it back soon after.
Michaud said when he was growing up, Thunder Road race car drivers were looked up to as heroes. In fact, Barre native Gov. Phil Scott also grew up admiring the Thunder Road race car drivers to the degree that he became King of the Road champion himself in 1996, 1998, and 2002, according to Wikipedia. He drives a number 14 late model car with “Thank a vet” on the side.
Thunder Road is a quarter-mile-long, high-banked, paved, short-track speedway. The course is considered challenging because of sharp corners on the curves. One of its features is called the “widowmaker” — the front-stretch barrier that is “an ominous slab of slanted concrete slathered in green and yellow house paint,” per an article in Hagerty.com titled “Widowmaker: Thunder Road’s treacherous turn four wall.” This is a place where the “racing groove narrows on the exit of turn four, forcing the drivers to either give quarter or flirt with the widowmaker,” the article states.
Thunder Road is now owned by champion racer Cris Michaud and building developer Pat Malone.
