Brad Lafontaine confirmed exclusively to RaceDayCT Wednesday that he will not return as the race director at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl in 2026.
Last April Speedbowl management shocked many in the local racing scene when it was announced that Lafontaine, a longtime car builder, former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship winning crew chief and New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame would take over as the racing director at the Speedbowl.
“I really thought that they wanted help and you could go in there and change some stuff around, and we did. we tightened up the tech by a ton,” Lafontaine said.
But after a season of learning that the role came with more handcuffs than he expected, Lafontaine has decided he will not return.
“I really really thought when they asked me about things … do you want to fix the place? Look around. Where do you start?,” Lafontaine said. “They promised me they wanted to fix it and do all the different stuff and now I realize they don’t really want to fix it. It’s sad.
“The rulebook is not out yet. I promised everybody the rulebook would be out in November. The rulebook is still not out, it’s the end of January. Come on? … There’s definitely sneaky stuff going on behind the scenes that I wasn’t aware of as we were going along. They need to replace some people there. … I wish I would have had more backing behind me. More of having my hands untied so we could have straightened out the whole place. I would have enjoyed that a lot more.
“If things would have gone the way they should have at the end, I would have definitely gone back. But then everything kind of changed the last five or six weeks. You could see it. There was secrecy going on. It’s like, Ok, the handwriting is on the wall. Right then and there I pretty much decided I was not going back. … Just a lot of undermining going on there. I don’t know, if they wanted to fix it, that was their opportunity and I feel they don’t want to fix it. That’s fine.”
Discover more from RaceDayCT.com
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Its really confusing – who is they? Rule book? the SK and SKL rule book is the same as Stafford
Sadly, Is anyone honestly surprised ?
Heidi needs to go ASAP, everyone else’s role has rotated but hers. All the same complaint of how management people need to go. It’s all a hint that it’s her, seems to be the common dominator. Get rid of Heidi, put someone in that actually cares, and The Bowl will be making progress (I know Bruce is part of the issue too, but it seems shes a huge issue as well)
You get what you pay for.
“As the “Bowl Swirls”
What a drama factory.
🥱 🥱
Same old 💩, different day.