Bradford, Vt.
By the time the Orford resident had closed to second place with 13 laps remaining in the 20-circuit race, spectators all but knew he’d win the 20-car feature event. Sure enough, he rolled into victory lane for the fourth consecutive week and the sixth time in 12 races this season.
“He’s learned the basics of driving and how to weave in and out,” said speedway owner Butch Elms. “You get a lot of parents who push their kids into driving and Tanner’s not pushed; he wants to be here and he wants to learn. And he’s got a pretty good little car to drive.”
Siemons may be 15 and only 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds, but he more than holds his own with older teens and adults. He’s scheduled to challenge more of the latter next summer, when he climbs behind the wheel of bigger, faster cars at higher levels. He’s played soccer, basketball and golf for Rivendell, but driving cars is his passion.
“I always assumed I’d race because my dad’s been doing it since I was born,” Siemons said. “I probably put in two or three hours a day working on my car and I just have a lot of fun with it.”
Siemons comes from racing stock, for his father, Gary, is a 1978 Hanover High graduate who’s a past modified champion, and Tanner’s paternal grandfather was a race car owner whose vehicles competed at Bear Ridge.
There are stories of Tanner toddling around his parents’ Woodsville auto repair shop with a large pair of sound-blocking headphones clamped over his ears.
“It was a just a matter of time but it’s not something we pushed him to do,” said Tanner’s mother, Kellie Siemons, who often works at Bear Ridge’s pit gate. “It makes me incredibly nervous, but he has a natural talent for it and I believe kids should do what makes them happy.”
From May through September, Saturday nights almost always find the Siemons family out at a track. A car like Tanner’s costs roughly $5,000 even though it arrived in pieces that he and his father assembled. Around age 10, he began to drive his father’s race car at home and would steer it onto the the transport trailer used to haul it to competitions.
“He could have raced at 5 or 6 but he didn’t show much interest so we didn’t push it,” Gary Siemons said. He and his wife required their son to start at the back of the pack when he did his first race three years ago. With roughly a quarter of the campaign left, they relented and allowed him to start closer to the front. He immediately won.
There had been a bit of go-kart racing before Siemons’ track debut but he had watched so many higher-level races and tinkered so long on Gary’s car and on those of his father’s friends that sliding behind the wheel and rolling out under the lights was a natural progression. The pits had served as something of a elementary school for racing and now it was time to take a spin at the equivalent of a high school dance.
“He’s a little bit shy but he’s been coming to the track since he was 3 and he’s been around a lot of different personalities,” Kellie Siemons said. “He watches and listens and takes away different things from different people.”
Toby Tatro of North Haverhill is one of Gary Siemons’ longtime crew chief. He’s watched Tanner grow up immersed in racing’s vernacular, culture and strategy.
“His ears are always open and he’s a sponge,” Tatro, who oversees the mechanical set-ups for for both the Siemons men, said with obvious pride. “He’s built up instincts because he’s seen Gary race for so long.”
Soon after, the signal came to roll Tanner Siemons’ vehicle back out of its pit bay in preparation for an eight-lap qualifying heat. A rain storm earlier in the day had left puddles low on the oval’s ends and the cars’ tires sprayed out fine mud that built up higher on the track. Other racers slowed as they approached either situation but not the No. 5 car. Its pint-sized driver roared right on through to first place.
“You have to pay attention and know when to make your move and when to wait,” Tanner Siemons said. In each race, it seems, he picks that spot flawlessly. A slight opening, pressure on the accelerator, a quick cut inside and the race is decided, even with laps to go.
Siemons is clearly a favorite up in Bear Ridge’s aluminum bleachers, low-slung benches placed right on the rocky hillside that looks down onto the track. An audible cheer goes up when he wins and a little boy playing with toy cars and clad in a t-shirt reading “Full Throttle, Wide Open” waves his hands in the air.
Puffs of cigarette smoke mingle with the scent of onion rings, the folksy, nattering public-address announcer talks as if he’s engaged in an individual conversation and ball caps, jeans and t-shirts make up most of the collective wardrobe.
“Siemons won that race just in the nick of time!” shouts the announcer, as Tanner zips into first place on the 17th lap and cruises to victory. Gary and Kelly and various sponsors troop out to victory lane. Their boy thanks them all on a hand-held microphone and photos are quickly snapped.
It’s beginning to become a habit of the best kind.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.