17 replies to this topic

[Ron Hershman]

A good friend of mine who owned the slot raceway where I started out racing passed away the other day. If it wasn't for Larry I may have never raced slot cars.

1981 ARCA Champion Larry Moyer, 60, Passes



(BRANDON, Fla. - August 2, 2011) - Larry Moyer, the 1981 ARCA Racing Series national driver and car owner champion, died Monday night, August 1 at his home in Brandon, Fla. after a lengthy illness. He was 60.

Moyer, born on April 10, 1951, in Fort Wayne, IN, earned the ARCA national title in his rookie season with one victory at Dayton Speedway on May 17, 1981, in only his second series start. Moyer's lone ARCA victory came the day after ARCA founder John Marcum died.

Moyer's ARCA career was brief but impressive, making just 14 starts over the 1981 and 1982 seasons. Despite competing in a partial season in 1982, Moyer still finished 15th in points.

In addition to the win at Dayton, Moyer also finished second at Corbin Speedway in 1981, second at Baer Field Raceway in 1982, third at Flat Rock Speedway in 1981, and third at the Nashville Fairgrounds in 1982. Other top-10 finishes include a ninth-place result at Talladega Superspeedway in 1981 and a pair of ninth-place results at Flat Rock Speedway, also in 1981.

Moyer also raced in the Firecracker 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway in 1988, earning a 32nd place finish.

His racing career spanned four decades, and despite a 10-year hiatus along the way, he won hundreds of late model races across the Midwest and Florida.

Fittingly, Moyer won the first race he entered in a Hobby Stock in 1972 at Baer Field and won the very last race he competed in at Lake City, FL, in a Pro Truck Series event in 2002. Moyer also finished second in Pro Truck Series points on the strength of eight wins in 2001.

In addition to his racing pursuits, Moyer owned and operated several trucking companies over the years, including Moyer Trucking, Kreider Transport and Cool Ride Express.

Recently, Moyer commented on his career.

"First time I went to Daytona, going down the back stretch, I was going 'Man, oh man, I don't know what I'm doing out here!'" Moyer said with a laugh.

"Quite a year, quite a year," said Moyer of his 1981 ARCA championship season.

"We did it for years and years and years. It was a Saturday night thing.

"If I went right now, I'm happy. I did everything I wanted to do."

Cancer forces local racer into final lap

[TSR]

That's too young to die...

[Roho21]

Agreed, TSR. I hate to hear about the loss of racers, especially that early of an age.

Many of you guys here on Slotblog may not know that I have been racing (real cars) for about 23 years. I have had so many friends and acquaintances in racing leave us too early over the years. I really admire the fact that Mr. Moyer raced many different types of cars from Hobby Stocks up to Cup; that shows a true love and passion for racing, and that I love to see.

Sorry for the your loss Ron.

[Dave Reed]

60 is way to young! May Mr. Larry Moyer R.I.P.

[Bill Gerhart]

An ARCA champion, 1981 ARCA National Champion. I did not know him, but I heard he was a darn good racer.

RIP, Larry.

[One_Track_Mind]

Ron,

Sorry to hear the loss of your friend.

I seem to recall a Larry Moyer that also raced Dirt Late Model Cars? He only competed in some of the BIG payday races, like the Hillbilly 100 or the Dirt Track World Championships.
The car number was 21, usually red or yellow in color.

Wondering if this is the same person? Maybe Larry Mattingly can confirm this?

RIP, Larry.

[Larry Mattingly]

Different Larry Moyer...

The dirt racer is from MO, and is alive and well... still winning race.

I heard about Larry's passing on the ARCA telecast from IRP, and was saddened to hear the news. He represented what the 'original' ARCA series was all about... regional short-track racers competing in a national series at the next level. Not the same today, with Cup technology and presence abounding...

Larry represented a different era. Today's 'fans' never heard of him, but he will always be remembered by 'real' racers.

R.I.P.

LM

[Ron Hershman]

I think you may be thinking of Billy Moyer, who is or was one of the best in Dirt Late Models.

[Larry Mattingly]

Correct...

It is BILLY Moyer...

My bad...

LM

[Jacob Shiplet]

He's still a very, very good Dirt Late Model driver. Defending champ of the World 100.

[Ron Hershman]

He represented what the 'original' ARCA series was all about... regional short-track racers competing in a national series at the next level. Not the same today, with Cup technology and presence abounding...

Larry represented a different era. Today's 'fans' never heard of him, but he will always be remembered by 'real' racers.

Well, yes and no... back then in ARCA... most guys either had a very used up Busch car, Cup car, or homemade car. All of the teams had one car and used that car on all tracks. They were big heavy boats to say the least.

In '81, '82, '83 lots of times the ARCA cars would be faster on the superspeedways as they had no restrictor plates, no cubic inch limit, and only Hemi motors were not allowed. They could also "seal off" the bottom of their cars with sheet metal similar to Indy cars... flat bottoms.

Larry won the '81 Championship in a '78 or so Pontiac Ventura that I think came from Sam Ard possibly.

After winning the ARCA Championship in 1981, Larry got Cam 2 to sponsor him along with RHS engines for the '82 season. Larry purchased "Bertha", the big Monte Carlo that Darrell Waltrip made famous, from DiGard racing. While some say "Bertha" is elsewhere, I was there when ole DW confirmed that Larry in fact had "Bertha" in his possession. DW took one look inside the car and told Larry..." I don't know how you did it, but you got Bertha".

So Larry used Bertha for the superspeedways and we build basically a "short track" offset late model to run on the short tracks. Larry was one of the first to have different cars for different types of tracks in ARCA.

The first outing for the short track car was a July race at Winchester... the car was a rocket. The chassis had major left side weight percentage along with lots of other lightweight components.

The car was really low, slanted roof, and Lexan versus glass windshield to keep more weight out of the top of the car.

I will never forget Jerry Churchill looking at the car and saying, "That ain't no ARCA car". All the other competitors were grumbling as well, but it fit the rules at the time.

That day at Winchester ended real early when a backmarker who was getting lapped in the first five laps of the race dumped a motor going into turn 3 and Bob Dotter Sr, Marvin Smith, Scott Stovall, and Larry, who was lying back at the time, got into the oil and all crashed in turn 3.

We fixed the car and ran it again at Baer Field Speedway which was our home track and Larry had lapped all but second place by the 100 lap mark of a 200 lap event and we got a flat tire very late in the race and I think we finished second after the flat.

After the '82 season, we took all the racing stuff to Dave Dayton's auction in Indy and sold it all, including Bertha.

Larry moved to Florida in Feb of '83 to increase his trucking business and few months after that he closed the raceway in Fort Wayne and moved the tracks to Florida.

I never really heard much from Larry after we moved him down there except when he made the '88 Firecracker Cup race. Larry was the first to be sponsored by Hooter's and introduced Hooter's to Cup racing. We know the rest of that story and as I type this they are saying on the radio that Hooter's has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Larry's slot tracks were set-up in Florida and started the slot car "boom" in Florida and in the south in the late '80s.

[Larry Mattingly]

A great deal of, ahem, strange things regarding rules, etc., happened back in the day in ARCA... particularly in Marcum's later years.

Remind me to tell you the story sometime when one of my local 'invited field fillers' decided it would be cool to win the ARCA race at Sharon Speedway with an illegal car...

And who can forget John standing trackside with his arms folded? EVERYONE knew what that signal meant...

LM

[Tom Harrington]

Ron: Very nice of you to remember a racer from the past like Larry Moyer and to also see that some of your racing background was 1:1 and that an ARCA champion had an influence on your slot car career.

Although I remember Larry very well, and probably raced with him a few times, I can't remember if we ever met. I ran some USAC stock car races in the late '70s and ran my first Dri-Power 400 at Winchester in 1978. I was living in Cincinnati at that time and raced in ASA and all over the Midwest and USA. I ran a few ARCA weekly shows at Flat Rock and Toledo and made the Midwest rounds to Salem, Anderson, Louisville, Queen City, IRP, Columbus, Milwaukee, etc. I'm so old I even raced at Dayton Speedway.

I do remember racing with Marvin Smith and Scott Stovall so probably Larry, too. He was a great champion!

[Ron Hershman]

Ron: Very nice of you to remember a racer from the past like Larry Moyer and to also see that some of your racing background was 1:1 and that an ARCA champion had an influence on your slot car career.

Although I remember Larry very well, and probably raced with him a few times, I can't remember if we ever met. I ran some USAC stock car races in the late '70s and ran my first Dri-Power 400 at Winchester in 1978. I was living in Cincinnati at that time and raced in ASA and all over the Midwest and USA. I ran a few ARCA weekly shows at Flat Rock and Toledo and made the Midwest rounds to Salem, Anderson, Louisville, Queen City, IRP, Columbus, Milwaukee, etc. I'm so old I even raced at Dayton Speedway.

I do remember racing with Marvin Smith and Scott Stovall so probably Larry, too. He was a great champion!

Well then I am sure you remember Dave Jackson, Buddy and Vern Schrock, Royce Mason and Dave Sorg from those days.

[Tom Harrington]

Ron: Absolutely. Dave lived in Loveland, Ohio where I lived. He raced a lot of the local shows at Tri County/ Queen City and ran some of the closer ASA races. He took a bad spill at Winchester as I recall. Vern with cigar attached was in the last couple of years of his career and Buddy was getting it going pretty good. He was the Dillion "house car" racer after Mark and Rusty and I was on a very limited deal with Ray Dillion, so Buddy and I became buddies (how about that) in the ASA series. I have some very fond memories of racing with all those guys. Good talk!

[Ron Hershman]

Ron: Absolutely. Dave lived in Loveland, Ohio where I lived. He raced a lot of the local shows at Tri County/ Queen City and ran some of the closer ASA races. He took a bad spill at Winchester as I recall. Vern with cigar attached was in the last couple of years of his career and Buddy was getting it going pretty good. He was the Dillion "house car" racer after Mark and Rusty and I was on a very limited deal with Ray Dillion, so Buddy and I became buddies (how about that) in the ASA series. I have some very fond memories of racing with all those guys. Good talk!

Yes good talk..... and how did Buddy lose his "Dillon Deal"????

Bad spills at Winchester??? Ray Dillon himself had a bad one winding "up" in the trees.

[Tom Harrington]

Trailer with a mind of it's own?

[Ron Hershman]

Trailer with a mind of it's own?

LOL yep something like that