Though it’s not a Waterford Speedbowl shot, this guy is simply-synonymous with the track affectionately-known by Connecticut natives as “The Shoreline Oval.” A scan of the record books reveal Bob Potter to be one of the most-successful Modified drivers to have ever emerged from the Bowl’ (and for that-matter, New England). Ranked 2nd on the track’s all-time Modified win list (a stat that includes 6 championships), this image captures Bob at Thompson when he was wheeling the Coventry Racing Enterprises coupe, a ride that bought him much-success at his home track. His stellar record at all-three of Connecticut’s active tracks gained him a spot in the New England Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 2007. (Dugas Photo).    

During his days as the chauffer of the Bud Moore/Wrangler #15 they referred to NASCAR Cup’ racing’s late, great Dale Earnhardt as “One Tough Customer.” I’d bet that this guy would have given ole’ Dale a run-for-his-money as one of the toughest guys to ever strap-in behind the controls of a race car. Glynn Shafer could be rough on both equipment, and competitors. However, he won a ton of races at the Speedbowl, and was a thoroughly-exciting guy to watch! This shot captures Glynn at one of the pre-season “car-shows” back in the 1970’s that were always a part of ushering-in the new season. (Dugas Photo).

We have a lot of shots of this Waterford Coupe-era driver on file, but it was just recently that we learned a bit about him. Waterford Modified veteran and close friend Mark LaJeunesse put the puzzle-together for us. He says; “Dave Roselund was a pal of the late George “Moose” Hewitt, having owned the #111 Bomber that Moose started his career-in. Dave himself later drove this Modified, which was associated with the Hewitt stable of cars. The number is a throw-back from his early days with Moose and the Bomber. At that time, Dave weighed 111-pounds, and that’s how they came-up with the number.” Thanks for the information, Mark! (Dugas Photo).  

Here’s another driver & car closely-associated with multi-time Speedbowl track champion, the late George “Moose” Hewitt. The late Keith Armbrust drove for a number of seasons, recording a singular Modified victory on Sept. 19, 1966 beating Walt Dombrowski & Newt Palm to the checkers. Keith was part of the “Hewitt Group” early-on, along with guys like the Craig Kirchoff (who later owned cars campaigned by both Moose, and Gordon Page), and of-course, George Brennan who was there all of the championship years. (Dugas Photo).  

And here we have another early paddock image captured at what was then known as the “New London-Waterford Speedbowl.” The late Johnny Savage campaigned this neat-looking little Coupe to many fine-finishes during a career that started in the mid-1960’s. He was closely-associated with the team of Speedbowl Icon, the late Fred “Fuzzy” Baer and his father “Pops.” Sadly, Johnny passed-away a few years-ago at a relatively-young age. (Dugas Photo).          

Though he became an SK Modified champion at Stafford Springs Motor Speedway during the later years of his career, Charlie “Chuggy” Savage was just another young Speedbowl “Coupe Jockey” when he was captured pit-side in the lens of longtime racing photographer Rene Dugas. Always considered one of Waterford’s top-drivers, “Chuggy” had an admirable run at the shoreline oval, scoring a feature victory in 1982. (Dugas Photo). .      

That's it for this week. Email me at: foreveryounginct@gmail.com