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Email Received from Gene's Grandchildren:
Thank you so much for everyone's care, concern and prayers. We
wanted to provide our Grandfather's friends and fan with an update
on his status. He has taken an unfortunate turn for the worse and
has been moved to the ICU at Florida Hospital in Ormond Beach. He is
receiving excellent care and is slowly improving. Please continue to
send your positive thoughts and prayers as he has a long, tough road
to recovery ahead of him.
Thank you again.
Gratefully,
Elizabeth, Christina and Eugene
Grandchildren of one of New England's Finest Racers
The new address for cards to Gene Bergin: Gene Bergin, c/o Elizabeth
McLaughlin, P.O. Box 2334, Flagler Beach, FL 32136
Gene Bergin was one of the most versatile drivers in New England
auto racing history, having driven Modifieds, Midgets, Sprint cars,
Indy cars, and Grand National cars in his career.
Bergin first started racing in the early 50's at the Riverside Park
Speedway collecting many feature event wins and the 1962 Modified
track championship.
He
then in 1964 moved on to the Stafford Motor Speedway winning several
features on the still dirt surface driving Sharkey Gaudiosi's #44,
and also holds the distinction of being one of only two drivers to
win a feature event on both the dirt and asphalt surfaces at
Stafford, ( The other being Ernie Gahan).
Gene also holds the honor of being the first Modified track champion
on the asphalt surface at Stafford when he drove Beebe Zalinski's M6
to the 1967 crown.
In yet another groundbreaking moment Bergin was the first driver to
win a NASCAR event at Stafford in a Pinto bodied race car when he
drove Bob Judkins # 2x to victory lane in 1971, thus ushering in the
Pinto revolution.
Other car owners who Gene drove for were Bob Garbarino and his
Mystic Missile #4 and Billy Simons and the Excavator Special #9.
He was successful in the NEMA Midgets with wins at Thompson in Aug.
1969 and Aug. 1973 at the old Lakeville Speedway in Massachusetts.
Gene also attempted several USAC Champ Car races in 1968.
In 2008 Gene was also inducted into the Hartford Public High School
Athletic Hall of Fame for his accomplishments on both the Football
and Baseball Teams.
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