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Lowell Paddock
Skip Barber receiving his plaque at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Daytona Beach, Florida.
LAKEVILLE — Skip Barber reached motorsport’s highest echelon this week when he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame.
At the official celebration in Daytona Beach, Florida, on March 10 to 11, Barber’s legacy as a visionary who reshaped American motorsports was cemented.
As a driver, Barber won national championships in the 1960s and 1970s, racing everything from sports cars to high-powered formula cars.
But when he transitioned from the cockpit to the classroom with the opening of the Skip Barber Racing School, his influence accelerated.
“There is no driving school as recognizable as Skip Barber,” said Mario Andretti, who sent his sons, Michael and Jeff, and grandson Marco through Barber’s programs.
Longtime Barber instructor Terry Earwood puts it another way: “I put Skip up there with Wally Parks, Bill France, and P.T. Barnum. They had a vision of what they wanted to do, and they did it.”
Convinced that racing was a teachable craft, he founded the Skip Barber Racing School in 1975 at Lime Rock and Thompson Speedway, funded by a loan supposedly for a bathroom remodel.
The early days were lean — the first class had just four students and two borrowed cars. “We used to joke they’d call it Skip Barter Racing,” said Carl Lane-Lopez, one of the school’s first instructors. “He bartered for trucks, airplane rides, haircuts — you name it.”
Since 1975, the school has produced champions across nearly every professional racing series, from Formula 1 to the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Rolex 24, and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Celebrities like Paul Newman, Jerry Seinfeld and Tom Cruise also honed their driving skills under Barber’s tutelage.
Through its defensive driving programs, the school has saved countless lives on public roads and profoundly impacted the sport by training an entire generation of mechanics, engineers, administrators and marketing specialists.
Barber sold the school in 1999 but continued working there until 2001.
In 1983, Barber spearheaded a group of investors to purchase Lime Rock Park, eventually becoming sole owner. In 2021, he sold the track to a like-minded group of investors committed to preserving Lime Rock’s legacy, and remains a significant shareholder and an active member of the management team.
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Letter to the Editor 3/13/25
Mar 12, 2025
Chris Murphy: Poster boy for what’s wrong with Democrats
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is all over Facebook these days, asking for donations so that he can lead us to a better world.
Mr. Murphy is making his big push to the forefront of the national Democratic party as he apparently gears up to run for president in 2028.
In his Facebook fundraising and fearmongering pitch, Murphy screams like a good Democrat that we’re in a “constitutional crisis.” He says Donald Trump is trying to “shut down democracy” so that his “billionaire friends can steal from us.”
What? Again? This is the same failed playbook the Democrats have been using for 10 years. Don’t the Dems ever learn? One of Murphy’s own colleagues, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.), summed it up best after his party’s truculent performance at Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress. Fetterman said the Democrats are like car alarms that go off and no one pays any attention to them.
But screaming that the end is nigh is all the Democrats have. Endless claims of existential threats to democracy, to the Constitution, to the planet, to humanity, to government bureaucracy, to the Democrat agenda, ad nauseam.
Ever since the Dems got shellacked in November, they have assumed that all they need to do is a better job of putting out their fearmongering message. But messaging is not their main problem, although it is a problem.
Their main problem is their actual agendas and policies. As long as the Democrats keep pushing their transgender insanity, their woke insanity, their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion insanity, they will continue to lose. As long as they keep shouting against false fascist demons and for false woke gods, they will lose. As long as they divide us with identity politics, they will lose. The country has had enough.
Murphy, however, is one of the left’s old-school types. He doesn’t know how to do anything but fearmonger. He is fully embedded in the Democrat’s dying agenda and in the notion that screaming louder about Armageddon at the hands of Donald Trump and the MAGA hordes is the key to victory.
Well, if Chris Murphy is the best the Democrats have to offer, then JD Vance or Pam Bondi will be elected president in 2028, and even more Democrats will cross party lines to join the Republicans.
That will really make Sen. Murphy and the Democrats scream.
The Democrats should forget “messaging.” The only way they can fix their morass is to take all the insanity out of their platform.
But then they’d be Republicans.
Mark Godburn
Norfolk
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Turning Back the Pages
Mar 12, 2025
125 years ago — March 1900
SHARON — Miss Edna St. John left this week for Chapinville, where she will fulfill the duties of stenographer in Joseph J. Morehouse’s office in that place.
Mr. Edward Middlebrook of Sharon had the misfortune to lose a horse on Thursday last. The animal took fright near Mr. Robert Harris’ and kicking himself loose from the wagon ran until he came to the foot-bridge in front of the blacksmith shop, and thus becoming tangled up, broke a leg. This of course necessitated the shooting of the animal.
Mr. Chas. Beeman met with an accident on Tuesday. Jumping from a scaffold he struck a rusty wire spike which passed nearly through his foot, causing a very serious, if not dangerous wound.
A.F. Roberts is advertising a special in tea and coffee this week.
John O’Hara, who resides in the north part of the town was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Martin Monday for illegally selling cider. He appeared before Justice Hicks at Salisbury on Monday and was fined $10 and costs amounting to about $200.
The measles seem to prevail pretty generally throughout this and neighboring towns.
During the high water last week the gas main was bent and sprung where it passes through Burton brook, creating a leakage of the gas. The pipe was soon repaired by Messrs. Miller and Hoyt. It has been raised in the form of an arch over the brook and is fastened to the stone work of the bridge.
Last Thursday “Lon” Rowe had a narrow escape from drowning. He was fishing through the ice on Long Pond; he fell through; lost his fish ice tools and fishing tackle. John Thorpe was near by and rescued him. “Lon” now appreciates the sentiment of the old nursery rhyme “Ding Dong Bell, Pussy’s in the Well,” while John can answer to the character “Big Tom Stout.”
100 years ago — March 1925
Arthur Benson, 28 years old, of Lime Rock, died at the Sharon Hospital at about 5:30 o’clock Thursday night of last week as a result of injuries suffered when the blade of a buzz saw, on which he and his brother-in-law, Joseph Spoth, were cutting logs in the woods on their farm, was broken off, and imbedded itself in his leg, laying it open from the thigh to the knee. Benson was taken to the hospital immediately, but loss of blood and shock were fatal. He leaves a wife, Eda Spoth Benson. His father-in-law, Dr. Joseph Spoth, is serving a five-year sentence in the state prison at Wethersfield for manslaughter.
The life of a country squire in the town of Salisbury is just one animal after another according to Representative J. Mortimer Bell of Salisbury who succeeded in giving the legislative judiciary committee the impression that when one had routed out the red squirrels nesting in the beds, it was time to hurry outside and chase cows out of the garden. Mr. Bell is a member of the committee and did not appear before it, but did considerable to enliven a hearing on the humane society bills by his questions and comments.
Blue birds and robins are here; the boys are spinning tops and playing marbles, the sap is running and by these signs we know that spring is just around the corner.
Joseph Stanton has resigned his position at Leverty’s Pharmacy and the vacancy is now filled by his brother Thomas, and the vacancy at Benjamin’s store left by Thomas is now filled by his brother James.
More rents are needed in Lakeville, but there are at present no indications of new building construction. Several new houses could be used and it is regrettable that present high costs act as an obstacle to new construction.
If you observe a restless spirit shown by the average housewife you don’t need to be unduly alarmed — just remember it’s housecleaning time and the good wife will promptly recover after the house has been properly gone over, and don’t kick if you do have to take your meals off the shelf for a time.
50 years ago — March 1975
Housatonic Valley Regional High School teachers were reported in a “state of shock” late Wednesday afternoon after learning of an order to eliminate teaching positions for the 1975-76 school year. “We found out at 3:20 today,” Faculty Association President Robert Gutzman told The Lakeville Journal shortly after that hour. Principal Edward M. Kirby gave teachers the bad news at a hastily called faculty meeting. Kirby told his staff that the HVRHS Board of Education, in executive session Tuesday night, directed that 4.4 teaching positions be eliminated. It also directed further study of pupil-teacher ratios in Vocational Agriculture. The board’s vote was unanimous. No permanent staff members have yet been notified they will lose their jobs. The HVRHS staff now numbers about 48 full-time members.
Bargains and lower prices may have arrived, but there’s no such thing as 99-cent-a-quart scotch. Patrons by the scores learned to their regret this last week when they thronged the Millerton Super in response to a misprint in an advertisement in The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News. It was all a mistake as the price as listed was “less than $8.99.” The Journal and News apologize for the inconvenience to patrons and to Millerton Super, while noting by way of consolation that the episode demonstrated how many people read the ads.
25 years ago — March 2000
Sharon Hospital employees will learn next week if their jobs are among those slated for elimination. According to Ken Roberts, director of community relations at the hospital, another round of layoffs is scheduled to help in the cost-saving operations that are needed to keep the facility financially viable.
FALLS VILLAGE — A pile of debris in an abandoned railroad car off Sand Road was ignited Monday afternoon, creating a blaze that burned an acre of nearby swamp land. The incident has been reported to state police and to Fire Marshal Stanley MacMillan. No property was damaged by the fire and there were no injuries.
CANAAN — A spark from a sap house chimney was blamed for igniting a wood pile on Tobey Hill Road early Monday morning. The fire was discovered by property owners Winter and Judy Mead, whose home is across the road from the sap shed. They had been busy boiling sap until about 11 p.m. the night before. Firefighters and ambulance crews were dispatched to the scene about 3:45 a.m. Mrs. Mead estimated 12 cords of wood were destroyed but said the business remains in good shape for the season. “We have plenty of wood left and plenty more that we can cut. We’ll be fine. We were very lucky that the sap shed did not catch on fire,” she said. The Meads typically produce 600 gallons of maple syrup per season, she said.
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