Another title for Maine snowmobile hall of fame driver

Episode 338

November 8, 2020

Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame member garners another hall of fame honor

Tom Peters, Presque Isle, Maine at the 2018 Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Augusta Civic Center. Lorraine Chamberlain and Joe Chamberlain, Woodland, Maine awarded him his momentos. Peters was the first snowmobile racer to be inducted into the Maine Motorsports Hall of Fame.(HTF Motorsports photo)

Tom Peters at top of the page in the official Eastern Snowmobile Hall of Fame induction program. Peters along with George Gordon, Paul Lamontagne, Judy Rinaldi and Ted Winot made up the fourth class of inductees. The Eastern Hall of Fame is headquartered in the Crane Snowmobile Museum in Lancaster, New Hampshire.(Eastern Snowmobile Hall of Fame photo)

After the induction ceremony at Crane Snowmobile Museum, Lancaster, New Hampshire. Presque Isle’s Tom Peters was unable to attend the september 17, 2020 event due to orders from his oncologist. Inductees from left to right, Joe Wilkinson, Ted Winot’s daughter Darcy Brill accepting on behalf of her deceased father, Paul Lamontagne, George Gordon, Judy Rinaldi, Marc Belanger accepting on behalf of Tom Peters, and Roger Poulin. (Crane Snowmobile Museum photo)

Tom Peters aboard his 1968 Ski Doo Super 370 raced that season. (Tom Peters photo)

Though not the exact sled that he raced in 1968, Tom Peters with the help of restoration expert Greg Roderick was restoring this 1968 Ski Doo Super 370 at Roderick’s shop. The Covid-19 pandemic has put the project on hold. (Tom Peters photo)

Race time at Bahrain International Karting Circuit

While a student of mine at Caribou Technology Center, Cole Disy of Caribou became President of the Caribou FFA, the student organization of agriculture education. His work in a leadership role helped the local FFA Agriculture Mechanics Team qualify for the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky in October 2003.

One of my highlights every year was taking FFA members to the National FFA Convention to join with over 50,000 like minded young men and women. When the convention moved to Louisville from Kansas City, my students and I would stay in or near Indianapolis for two or three days to take in the sites of the Racing Capital of the World.

One of my ideas was to visit as many motorsports sites in one day as possible which I named the “Gearhead Tour”. This one day whirlwind of immersion in motorsports in 2003 included Cole Disy, Tim St.Peter, Malcolm St. Peter, and my son Mike Hale. All these FFA members were from Caribou except my son who was from Westmanland.

Caribou FFA on “Gearhead Tour” 2003 at Kelley Racing in Indianapolis, Indiana. Kelley Racing was active from 1998 to 2004 at this Coffman Road shop. Front row left Cole Disy and Tim St. Peter on right. Back row left FFA Advisor Tom Hale (me), Malcolm St. Peter and Mike Hale. (HTF Motorsports photo)

I like to think that I provided a positive motorsports influence for these students as well as many others over the course of several years. On that “Gearhead Tour 2003”, the week ended with a session at a kart track located outside of Indianapolis (I do not recall the track name only that one lap was a mile in length).

Cole Disy went on after graduation from Caribou High School in 2004 to join the United States Navy. After several years in the Navy, Disy went home to help run the family business and became an active reservist.

Cole Disy was featured on the cover TNR (The Naval Reserve) ,magazine Volume 2019 Issue 3. He was taking part in the 2019 Chief Petty Officers Heritage Training aboard the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor. (U.S. Navy/Roger Duncan photo)

Recently while on active duty Disy and friends was able to race at the recently re-opened Bahrain International Karting Circuit (BIKC) which had been shut down due to Covid-19 restrictions. The circuit located next to the Formula 1 track was built in 2011 and was top notch.

BIHC has hosted international kart races held at night, one of the first circuits to host such a type of kart race.

With no frost and little chance of precipitation the .9 mile outdoor track features multiple configurations for club races as well as private rentals.

Cole Disy, Caribou, with several friends suited up and race ready at the Bahrain International Karting Circuit located at Umm Jidar, Bahrain. (Cole Disy photo)

Karts on the grid awaiting the green flag. According to Cole they were in top notch condition. (Cole Disy photo)

Disy described his experience at BIKC saying, “The price was $155 USD for the “grand prix” race using 13HP karts.”

“The grand prix race consisted of 3 sessions. First session, 7 lap qualifying- your best lap out of the 7 is your qualifying time.”

“Once qualifying laps are completed, the racers stack up on the starting line according to their times. Ahem…yours truly got the pole position 
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Tom Hale

About Tom Hale

Tom wrote 14 years as freelancer for the Bangor Daily Sports covering motorsports in Maine. Now blogging and concentrating on human interest stories about people and places in racing. He races Champ Karts and owns HTF Motorsports in remote Westmanland, Maine