I’ll never forget the first time Larry came down to Bridgeport with Dave (Adams) one Saturday night and Dave says, “Larry’s gonna be helping us out around here.” I thought, “There’s no way…me and this guy don’t get along at all!” Well, thankfully I was wrong. More importantly, I am thankful that I made a new friend in the process. This past Tuesday morning, Larry Daniels passed away at the age of 51 from cancer, leaving behind many fond memories.
For those of you thinking: “I have no clue who you’re talking about”. I will guarantee you that you’ve seen his face a thousand times over the past 40 plus years. Larry was what I would call a ‘Super Fan’. The man LOVED stock car racing. He lived it, breathed it, watched it; you name it he did it. He grew up going to our gone yet beloved race tracks like East Windsor and Flemington. His older brother would always take him in the 70s and 80s. Nazareth, Penn National, Bridgeport, New Egypt, Delaware, if there was a race Larry was there.
Over the last two seasons Larry was a mainstay at Bridgeport, so much so he moved into one of the motorhomes at the track this past year. If it needed attention, he was on it. He helped maintain the equipment, cut the grass, cleaned the skyboxes, picked up the trash, washed all the vehicles, pumped fuel, drove the courtesy cart (which he absolutely love doing for our fans), and helped out at all the promotional functions: One things for sure, Larry Daniels’ help and services are going to be missed.
However, it’s much more than Larry the ‘Bridgeport Employee’ that this world will miss. When you attend races all over the country for that long of a period, you build friendships over the years. Larry was a one of the biggest Billy Pauch fans out there. Believe me, we had our shouting matches over those years, lol. Then came Billy Pauch Jr., and boy did Larry loved rooting for ‘Little Billy’. He became closer to even more drivers since coming to Bridgeport and I’m sure those teams will miss Larry. I know one of Larry’s highlights this past season was being able to help out Scottie Ambruster since he parked next to the fuel island. Larry sincerely wanted to just help. He missed the days of crewing, working on cars, towing haulers up and down the east coast.
Larry would tell me stories throughout the day, week, and year about his memories. How he worked for Tom Capie back in the URC days. How he towed Billy Pauch’s car to several tracks, working with Frank Cozze at Hagerstown and Windsor. Working for Richie Cass Sr and the Cass & O’Neal Team. My favorite story is probably how he got to see Gary Balough this past season at Syracuse. Larry went up to the iconic Balough and said, “I bet you don’t remember me Gary?” Gary of course said, “Should I?” Then Larry told him how he was the little boy that always stood on Airport Road waving to him and all the other drivers because his brother would go into the pits leaving Larry by himself for a little while. Gary and Larry just both laughed.
Larry proposed the idea of camping out at Super Dirt Week last year because he had never really camped out up there. Well, neither had I…so I was down for it. So Larry and I drove the rented motorhome up I-81 Tuesday afternoon in what was the last Syracuse for everyone, not just Larry. Keith (Hoffman) joined us on Wednesday and the three of us had a good ‘ol fashioned fun time. Ooooh Larry got mad at me at Weedsport. See, he loved to bet on the races…on all the races! $1 a race as Larry would say. Well, of course the feature had to be $3 since it was more important lol. Well, I took Larry’s money that night just like I did in Delaware for Camp Barnes. That’s the kind of stuff I’m going to miss a lot when it comes to my friend.
I remember when he really wanted to go to Kutztown and was begging to ride with me for two straight days. I kept saying “Larry, I’m not going back to the track, I’m going home and you’re way out of the way.” Well, maybe I didn’t want to ride alone, or maybe I could just see the disappointment in his eyes but, we ended up going and I’m glad we did. He would text me during the week: ‘Pauch is coming to our race!’ and I could just see his excitement though the phone. He was on Facebook, message boards, twitter, you name it, trying to find information on racing in general.
Don’t get me wrong, Larry wasn’t always all ‘peaches and cream’. Larry was difficult to get along with sometimes. We’d butt heads plenty of times, and he got into it with Dave, Keith, Kolby (Ramey), Ed (Olsen), especially Bob (Brown)…man they were some good ones with Bob. But, that’s part of life, part of a relationship…the good times and the bad times and then you can sit back and laugh about the bad times. He became close to the Ambrusters, the Britts, the Laubachs, and many more families. I’m sure they’ll miss Larry too.
He simply wanted to help. Larry wanted to be a part of something. Larry’s sister informed us that for many years Larry fought addictions and eventually overcame them and he wasn’t happy for many years. However, during the past two years Larry was the happiest she’d heard or seen him in a long, long time. I’m thankful that Brian and the Bridgeport staff and drivers were able to make that possible, giving Larry hope and happiness. Larry wasn’t just good for Bridgeport, he was great for racing. We need more Larry Daniels to support this lifestyle that we live and love. I’m sure Larry’s going to be looking down on us along with Bill(Thomas) Doug (Hoffman), Kenny (Walls), Paul (Rutherford), and Aileen (Oldt), and hopefully we can continue to make Bridgeport Speedway a place where friendships are made and memories are created for a long, long time.
