Thunder Road's next generation | Taylor Hoar

The next generation of Vermont race car drivers at Barre’s Thunder Road International Speedbowl are not who you think they are. Taylor Hoar, 20, is one of the only female drivers.

Hoar started racing at Thunder Road in 2021, entering a sport that typically has been male-dominated. The track still crowns its top weekly division champion each year the “King of the Road,” and the first woman to earn the title — Tracie Bellerose, in 2000 — remains its only female track champion.

“So many people just don't even understand when I say I've got to go race this weekend, or I've got to go work on my car,” Hoar said. “People are like, ‘You work on a car? You race a car?’ There are only three or four girls that are racing at this track.”

Montpelier filmmaker Lukas Huffman interviewed drivers during Thunder Road’s 2022 season. In the process, he learned that young racers found their way to the sport through family connections.

Thunder Road International Speedbowl, which opened in Barre in 1960, is one of an estimated 900 short tracks (dirt or paved ovals measuring less than a mile in length) operating in the country. The track’s 64th season kicked off May 6th, 2023.

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