
John Frachella Good question, maybe because Natural Lite was a big money sponsor with wide reaching promo. That race was blistering hot the years I ran it. We’d duke it out with the Aroostook County Mooseturds run club, became friends with Lefty Johnson (a PI potato farmer) Conrad Walton (PI HS principal), Sam Hamilton (from caribou) and Lauren Ritchey (Katahdin HS principal in Patton). Here’s a shot of the starting line of the ’78 race: Frach, Pippin Carlisle, Lunn, Barbara Hamaluk in background with yellow shorts (female winner that year) and Bob Thomas behind her in the white visor hat. Then the following year (’79) all these N.E. superstars showed up and blew away the field. The course was super hilly in rolling potato fields.