By Rita Savard
The Lowell Sun
CHELMSFORD, Mass. — When Bill Bacon isn’t manning a Chelmsford firetruck, he’s piloting a souped-up Mitsubishi at 120 mph on a tree-lined back road.
Like something straight out of Mad Max, Bacon’s rally-car racing skills have taken him all the way to the Summer X Games in Los Angeles, where his small motorcross team is taking on the biggest names in the sport this weekend.
“This is something he’s been interested in ever since he was a kid,” said his father, Bill Bacon Sr. “This is high-speed racing on real dirt roads with jumps and hills. It’s a challenging and aggressive sport.”
His direct competitors, Travis Pastrana and Ken Block, are household names in the world of rally racing and are backed by corporate sponsors with million-dollar outfits.
But Bacon Sr. said his son has an edge over the big guys.
“He’s leading both by a significant point margin,” he beams.
Not bad for a local guy with a $30,000 Lancer Evolution IX.
Bacon and his father “rallified” the car in the garage of their Chelmsford home, giving it all the necessary equipment to meet the treacherous road. A safety roll cage was welded, chasis reinforced and everything was put back together to resemble a factory car.
The rally racing atmosphere is different from most motorsports, Bacon Sr. said.
There are no fancy grandstands and no banked tracks. Instead, spectators who line up alongside the gravel race course often bring chairs or blankets and sit right beside the action.
The high-horsepower compact cars speed over a challenging short course of jumps, unbanked turns, hills and transitions between pavement and gravel.
“It really is a car race like no other,” Bacon Sr. said.
Videos of this weekend’s races can be viewed on rally-america.com. To follow Bacon’s results, visit the Bacon Motorsport Rally Team on Facebook.
When not racing to fires, Bill Bacon enjoys a different kind of racing. Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.
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