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Stories on NEMA Racers from
Trackside Magazine
BOSTON
LOUIE SPECIAL FOR BARRY KITTREDGE |
Twenty-five years ago Barry Kittredge
was thinking about driving at Westboro Speedway. Another activity got in the way.
"I was 16 and we bought a Street Stock," he recalls. "I was a high school
sophomore and a starter on the varsity baseball team. I was going to play American Legion
baseball that summer. My father [Jack] said 'you're playing baseball. You can drive race
cars some other time.'"
It came 20-plus years later for Kittredge, now in this third season as an owner-driver
with the Northeastern Midget Association. "Baseball was the right decision,"
says Kittredge who rode that sport to a couple of degrees including an MBA."I would
not be where I am today without baseball."
He got back to racing in his mid 30s. "If I have a regret it's not starting earlier
but I can't complain" says the successful business executive..
The 41-year old Kittredge believes a victory in NEMA's premier event - the "Boston
Louie Memorial" at Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday night, Aug. 24 could bring it all
together very nicely. The race honors legendary car owner Louis Seymour.
"First, anytime you're in a memorial race for a family member, well, that's
special," explains Kittredge. Louie was actually Barry's great uncle, making NEMA
drivers and race founders Mike and Bobby Seymour cousins.
"Second," continues Kittredge, "it's the biggest Midget race on the East
Coast. It's the race to win for a winged Midget. Everybody turns it up a notch for a
couple of reasons. There's more money, but there's prestige too. There's a little energy
in the air for that race."
And, the race comes to Waterford. "I just have a knack there," he says. " I
feel I have a chance no matter where I start ."
Kittredge scored his first NEMA win in the 2001 Waterford Finale. He equated the win with
"joining the fraternity." Boston Louie winners, he says, are in "an honors
fraternity." Drew Fornoro, Russ Stoehr, Bobby Seymour, Randy Cabral and Jeff Horn
make up the latter group.
Louie Seymour's fame is based on his travels out of Marlboro, MA to USAC Sprint and Silver
Crown Car events for almost three decades. The "Boston" tag came for Marlboro's
proximity to the better known Massachusetts locale. Kittredge was actually a part of that,
trailing after his older cousins.
"When I was 10 or 12 I used to go to the races on weekends when baseball was
over," he says. "I spent time around the cars. My father would take me to the
garage to watch them work on them. I developed a lot of interest and at one point I said
to myself 'when I can afford it, I'm going to get involved.'"
He also remembers when Mike and Bobby began driving Midgets in the early 80s.
But another cousin had greater influence. "I lived in the same neighborhood with a
lot of relatives," Kittredge explains. "I had an older cousin and he was doing
pretty well in Little League. That was it, older family members did it, so I did it."
A standout at Marlboro High and in American Legion, he had several college scholarship
offers. He decided on the University of New Hampshire because "I loved the school,
the atmosphere, and the baseball program. It was where I wanted to be." New Hampshire
played the very best teams in New England.
After hitting .409 in his junior year, he spent the summer on the Cape Cod League
(Orleans) in the nation's premier college league. .
He admits to "being disappointed" at not getting an opportunity to play
professional baseball. In hindsight, however, that too might have worked out for the best
because Kittredge accepted a position as an assistant coach at New Hampshire College,
getting his MBA as part of the deal. He continued to play semi pro baseball into his 30s,
growing in his chosen career as well. Kittredge did not join the family business (J.
Kittredge & Sons) until "I could bring something to the company."
"Finally," he says, "I got to the point where I looked at racing and said
'you know I want to do this. I can afford to do it and I'm going to do it.'" So, he
went to cousins Mike and Bobby, and then off to Whip City Speedway in Massachusetts to
drive Mini Sprints.
"I figured it would be a good stepping stone and it really helped as far as
understanding the car," said Kittredge. "I did real well at Whip City one year
and said 'Hey, let's go to NEMA and I think it was a great choice."
Co-Rookie of the year in 1999, he suffered through a mild sophomore jinx and then finished
fourth in points a year ago, getting that elusive first win at Waterford. "I never
doubted it was going to happen," he says. "I had been so close six or eight
times."
Kittredge's "seat time" is limited. Even NEMA's teenagers have much more, coming
from years in go karts and mini sprints. He did, however, take some of his baseball
experience into racing including, but not only, hand-eye coordination.
He insists drivers like Stoehr, Fornoro, Mark Buonomo, his cousins, "could have been
great athletes if they went in that direction." Talent is important but Kittredge
believes work and a love of competition are the real keys to success in any endeavor.
"I really loved college," he points out. "I played baseball fall and
spring. I loved practice. I loved the repetition, the structure, all of it. That's just
the way I am." During the winter "I made myself a good college hitter by going
down to the gym every day and loading 500 baseballs into the pitching machine."
He believes preparation is vital in both baseball and racing. "You just don't show up
and play a game," he says. "You have to work and you have to practice and the
game is how you count wins and losses. It's the same in Midgets. It takes time to prepare,
to set up for each track, to go over every nut and bolt."
Kittredge kept a "book" on every pitcher he faced in college. One of the
pitchers he faced was Billy Swift, who went from the University of Maine to the major
leagues. He can still remember "Swift liked to start you off with inside stuff, back
off the plate and then get you away (outside pitches)." Now, he has a growing
"book" on race tracks and fellow competitors.
"I've been fortunate to compete against the best," he sums up. "Right now
I'm out there with some outstanding race drivers. I can tell you this, nobody is going to
out work me." |
Used with permission from
Trackside Magazine
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