Track Information

Bear Ridge Speedway
When Bear Ridge Speedway was being constructed, a bear rumbled across the edge of the woods, so the place was named “Bear Ridge." The little track in Bradford, VT, which opened in July 1968 and the road leading to it are both dirt. Grandstands sit on a natural bank much like an amphitheater with concession stands, restrooms, novelty booth and scorers tower behind them. This hidden gem offers some of the best dirt track racing anywhere on Saturday nights from May through September.
George Barber built the original fifth mile track expecting auto racing would be a passing sport and it would soon be bulldozed over. 2025 will be the 58th consecutive year of racing at Bear Ridge.
Bear Ridge has been operated and/or owned by the Elms family since the beginning. Charles V Elms Sr was a member of Barber's team on opening day. In 1972 after a disagreement following a call regarding a Barber family member, Barber sold his interest to Charles Sr and his three partners, Robert Nutting, Wayne Weeks, and Marcel Dube -- with permission from the property owner Herb Gray, to continue to lease the land to be used as a racetrack. The group of four continued to run it until 1976 when Weeks sold his interest, with Dube and Nutting following suit to Charles Sr by 1982 leaving him the sole owner. In 1990 he sold the operation to his son CV (Butch) Elms III and Dale Fullerton. Fullerton sold his interest to Butch in 1994, a few years later Butch bought the land from Gray. In 2006 Butch brought his wife April May Preston on. They have owned and operated the track together since.
With the evolution of ownership there has been an evolution of divisions and facilities. In 1968, driving coupes, Athol, Massachusetts' driver Cecil Bosworth won opening night and Merlin Bean won the championship. Fifty years later, drivers are still racing coupes although the engines have gone from flatheads to overhead V-8s and are the main support division to the DIRTcar Crate engine powered Modifieds.
Over the years there have been many support divisions including street stocks, late models, mini sprints, sprint cars and popular Xtreme DIRTcar DMA midgets.
Today's quarter mile speedway has benefitted from improvements that have included its front stretch wall, a guaranteed purse (except for the Xtreme DIRTcar midgets whose drivers race for trophies), an expanded pit area, and an electronic scoreboard for fans.
Bear Ridge has a comfortable but exciting atmosphere that sends guests back to days gone by while offering modern-day conveniences. With good food (including fresh-cut French fries and real hamburg burgers) that's inexpensively priced and competitors who drive hard, Bear Ridge is a New England gem.