WILTON – Cecil Bryant shook his head, at a loss of words to explain his attraction to driving fast around a race track.
“There’s something about it,” he said. “I like the power and being able to control a machine that goes at high speed.”
The 15-year-old, who just received his learner’s permit for supervised street driving three weeks ago, has set his sights on being a professional race car driver.
A NASCAR driver, in fact.
The freshman at Mount Blue High School has been driving on race tracks since he was 8 years old starting with go-karts, then super mini-cup cars and now the Late Model Pro4 at Unity race track.
Photos of his racing career are framed in his uncle Gary Bryant’s garage in West Farmington. A large trophy sits on the counter of the shop from his first year in a big car race.
For the second year, Bryant has a sleek, red and white late model Ford.
He hasn’t had a chance to test it yet but can’t wait to don his white helmet with flames on it and get behind the wheel to take his first lap around a track.
He’s hoping the car will be ready for racing Sunday in Unity.
On Saturday, The Dugout Bar & Grill in Farmington is hosting a Cecil Bryant Day for people to come meet “Farmington’s future NASCAR driver” and to view his stock car between 1 and 6 p.m. at The Dugout on Broadway and Front streets. There’s free hot dogs for the kids, and a 50/50 drawing with the proceeds going to benefit Bryant’s dream.
The Dugout, Peter Tyler Excavation, Howard’s Rexall, Distance Running, Mobb Web Internet Service, Crowell Pond Construction, Beal’s General Store, Coca-Cola, West Mount and The Car Clinic are his sponsors.
His family, including dad Scott Bryant, brother Darrick, 12, and uncle, are part of the Bryant Racing Team. His grandfather Vance Bryant and his mother, Leona Bryant, are among the avid fans who cheer him on.
Cecil Bryant knows there’s hard work ahead if he’s going to make it to the big time races.
“I need to do everything right with it to go where I want to go with it,” Bryant said.
Next year when he’s 16, he wants to race at Oxford Plains Raceway.
And after high school he plans to go down to North Carolina to race where the big names are, he said.
“You’ve got to show them you can drive and can handle going 200 miles per hour for about 500 laps.”
dperry@sunjournal.com
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