April 8, 2008 Racing hobby turns fatal for young Halifax man Play video

(NECN) - 27-year-old Shane Hammond of Halifax was killed Sunday after the racecar he was driving at Thompson International Speedway in Connecticut crashed.

Thompson, Connecticut is an old mill town in the northeast corner of the state, near the Massachusetts-Rhode Island border. The quiet town has become well-known for speed racing.

Hammond died of head trauma suffered when his car hit a billboard. His car made contact with another car, went airborne over a 4-foot wall and hit the sign. It took paramedics ten minutes to get Hammond out of the car.

Hammond suffered from a brain tumor since he was 15-years-old. Racing was a hobby, but something he lived for, according to his mother.

8,500 people were at the race.

NECN's Mark Sudol has the latest.