Dirt Analyst & Promoter Gary Montgomery Passes Away At 74
Story By: STEVE OVENS – RACE CHASER ONLINE/ racechaseronline.com
Photo By: JOHN MELOLING
PENN YAN, N.Y. —November 4, 2016- The dirt racing community in the Northeast and a small community in Upstate New York are both mourning the loss of a husband, father, grandfather, friend, mentor, dirt track analyst and beloved promoter in Gary Montgomery, who passed away Wednesday on his 74th birthday.
Montgomery was surrounded by his family and was taken to be with the Lord on Wednesday evening. He had battled courageously against cancer for the past year, with the cancer taking over rather aggressively this Fall.
It would take days to tell the story of Gary Montgomery’s rise in the world of motorsports, but he had involvement on every level, from the grassroots stage of New York’s many dirt tracks all the way to announcing from turn four at the Daytona International Speedway during NASCAR’s marquee event, the Daytona 500.
Montgomery’s love of auto racing started in 1950, when his family attended races at the Wellsville Speedway. They attended races twice weekly at local tracks, with the community levels of the sport being on display. Though he couldn’t recall the winner or how the race played out at his first race, Montgomery recalled in a recent interview that it was wandering the pit area during the post-race technical inspection that made him “catch the racing bug.”
In 1959, Montgomery got his first shot at announcing a race at the Bradford Speedway. It was really by chance that he found himself in the tower, but that night was an event that would change the course of the rest of his life.
“The track owner realized at race time that he didn’t have an announcer,” said Montgomery recently. “I stepped up and said I would announce for him. The rest, as they say, was history.”
Montgomery later became a big fan of racing at the Spencer Speedway, where he got his next shot at play-by-play duties. During the 1968 and 1969 seasons, Montgomery’s first time announcing at Spencer was a night that he felt was the most challenging of his career.
“I remember it vividly,” recalled Montgomery. “A car got up in the air and landed in the grandstands, killing several people. One of them was the owner and person behind building Rolling Wheels (Raceway Park). Imagine that being your first night officially on the job?”
Montgomery was a master of networking and knowing the drivers in the pit area better than any announcer in the area. In his time as a broadcast announcer for the TV series ‘Rush Hour on DIRT,’ Montgomery was much more than just a color commentator.
He knew the pit area and all it’s drivers like the back of his hand, and his way of reproducing that information at just the right time was powerful. He knew where the driver was from, what he did for an occupation, how many kids he had, how many different car owners he had driven for and much more.
It was this level of preparation that set Montgomery aside from anyone else that has ever held the microphone. His level of preparation wasn’t aided by the use of social media, but was obtained through weekly conversation with drivers from each division, not just the premier division.
It was a networking opportunity at one of Gary’s favorite events, Super DIRT Week, that landed him an opportunity to join the broadcast team at the Motor Racing Network (MRN) to cover countless NASCAR events.
Montgomery recently recalled a fond memory of his first trip to announce for MRN at Daytona.
Legendary broadcaster Dave Despain came up sick and couldn’t announce from the turn four position, prompting MRN to call Montgomery in for a relief effort. Montgomery said with a smile, “That started a relationship that lasted a very long time at MRN.”
Other notable events that Montgomery found himself in the middle of while broadcasting for MRN included the tragic day that J.D. McDuffie lost his life at Watkins Glen International. McDuffie’s crash happened right below Montgomery’s call position.
Some may even remember the day that eventual six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson launched into the turn one guardrail at the Glen, in what was then the NASCAR Busch Series. Who was the first reporter to interview Johnson after exiting the Infield Care Center?
That’s right: Gary Montgomery.
Even though Montgomery served as a full-time announcer for the very beginning of the Camping World Truck Series at MRN and interviewed the biggest names in all of NASCAR, the local dirt track scene always held a special place in his heart.
“I’ve interviewed everyone from Dale Earnhardt to Stu Sheppard to your dad,” recalled Montgomery in a 2014 interview with Turn 5 Live host and Race Chaser Online dirt track writer Steven Ovens. “The funny thing is that I can’t remember a thing about interviewing Dale, but I can remember interviewing the local guys like Sheppard and your dad.”
It was this love of local dirt track racing that prepared Montgomery for his final project as a dirt track promoter.
While promoting events at the Little Valley Speedway for super late models, a division called the super stocks caught Montgomery’s eye.
“We struggled to get roughly twenty super lates, but I remember getting forty-seven super stocks,” Montgomery said. “I just knew that we had to do something to help promote this division.”
That started the BRP Can Am 360 Late Model Series, which operated for nearly a decade and has produced some of the biggest late model names in the Northeast. The division took a stock stub chassis and incorporated a 360 inch steel block engine and hung late model-style chassis, similar to what fans see on television with the World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series.
Montgomery took this class all across New York, Pennsylvania and Canada and gave drivers, who typically raced at one or two home tracks, the opportunity to race at tracks they’d only ever heard of or maybe saw on television with the Super DIRTcar Series. The series lasted nearly a decade, while averaging forty-plus cars to start with and finishing with an average number still in the twenties.
In fact, even with cancer ravaging his body, Montgomery was still able to watch the 360 late model division compete in their final event at New York’s Woodhull Raceway with his family alongside. The division carried out a four-wide salute that will be remembered for years to come, with Montgomery’s granddaughter from North Carolina waving the green flag for the event.
Gary Montgomery won’t be remembered for his tragic passing. Instead, he will be remembered by everyone who knew him in their own way.
Maybe it will be a conversation had in the pit area, or a race he called on ‘Rush Hour’, or maybe a race he called on MRN. It might be his unforgettable eulogy of local racing friend Doug Mattison or even that last 360 Late Model Series event at Woodhull.
But what everyone should know about Gary Montgomery is that he absolutely had a love affair with auto racing, of course fourth in line after God, his wife Karen and his loving family.
“I want the racers, all of them, to know how much I loved them,” Montgomery recently said.
We will never forget Gary Montgomery, nor will we lose sight of the contributions he has made to this sport. The thoughts, prayers and condolences of the entire staff at Race Chaser Online go out to Gary’s family at this difficult time.
So long, friend, until we meet again.
Godspeed.
A memorial service for Gary Montgomery will be held on Saturday, Nov. 12 at the First Presbyterian Church of Penn Yan, N.Y. at 1:00 p.m. The church is located at 211 Main Street in Penn Yan, N.Y. It was one of Gary’s final wishes and requests that as many racers as possible would attend to share memories and bench race.
