Despite Tremendous Effort, Fonda Forced to Cancel Saturday Night; Speedway Ready to Honor Lou Lazzaro and Ken Shoemaker this Saturday, May 21st
Story By: RON SZCZERBA / FONDA SPEEDWAY MEDIA Photos By: MATT NOLES / RACERSGUIDE.COM
FONDA, NY- May 16, 2016- The Demitraszek Enterprises management team held on until the last minute on Saturday evening May 14 before cancelling the racing program due to a heavy rain that had just hit the track. Cars were in the pit area and word had come out that the plan was to get the racing program in but that one last heavy rain shower forced the cancellation of the event.
That said the tribute to Ken Shoemaker will be held on Saturday, May 21 along with a tribute to Lou Lazzaro. A regular racing program in all divisions will be on the racing card that evening sponsored by VP Small Engine Fuels with double points for the street stocks up for grabs. Starting time will be 7:30 p.m. Please refer to the press release on www.fondaspeedway.com for information regarding the tribute to Shoemaker.
According to the book FONDA! under the chapter titled Lifetimes of Dedication: the Lazzaro/Lape Years, Lazzaro was born in 1935 and hailed from Utica, NY the son of Pete Lazzaro Sr. who raised his family of six kids in East Utica in the ‘30s and ‘40s. Louie was a terrific baseball player in his youth according to his story in the book FONDA! with his longtime sidekick Pete “junior” Bianco quoting in the book: “He was a very patient long ball hitter and could hit a home run nearly every time.”
Already losing his hair in his teens, Lazzaro’s baseball buddies called him “Monk” a nickname that stuck with him throughout his lifetime. Lazzaro might well have become a ball player, except that he became bitten by the motor head bug. Louie’s father drove a hot Olds 88, so Louie got himself a low rider Merc. Dad hung out at Vinnie Maugeri’s Esso station on Bleeker Street, so “Monk” did likewise.
In the early ‘50s, a quartet of Utica stock cars each one sharing the common number four (#4, #41, #44, & #46) called Maugeri’s home. Lazzaro followed the boys to Bennett’s Field Speedway one day, Cliff Kotary was God and Lou Lazzaro was hooked. Louie and Junior crewed Johnny Velletto’s #4 before borrowing it for Lazzaro’s Fonda driving debut on May 30, 1957. The trip to Fonda was something that would be repeated nearly a thousand times during Lazzaro’s career.
For Fonda’s opening day in 1960, Louie had a brand new racer numbered #4 in the Maugeri tradition. Like all of the Team Maugeri cars it was painted maroon and white, which were the colors of Utica’s Proctor High School sports teams, and it had wide striping that looked like a backwards Nike swoosh. The color combo, stripe design, and number would stick with Lazzaro for life.
In 1969 Fonda doubled the feature winner’s prize from $500 to $1,000 weekly and Lazzaro peaked that year, winning 11 out of the 16 events held usually in a romp. He was equally dominant at both Albany Saratoga on Friday’s and Utica Rome on Sunday’s that year. In a switch of surfaces Lazzaro also finished ninth in the Daytona Permatex 300 on February 21, 1970 in Gil Cramer’s #70. Another big win for Lazzaro was the 1974 All-Star 300 at Islip when he won the event over Eddie Flemke and Charlie Jarzombek bringing home the $5,000 winner’s share up the New York State Thruway to Utica.
The second half of the ‘90s decade Lazzaro was just living to race. He hung around the house all week anticipating Saturday nights at the “Track of Champions”. He went winless from 1995 through 1998 when perennial fan Danny Marrone had seen enough and bought a new Teo car for Lazzaro to drive and he responded by nosing out Ronnie Johnson in a late 1998 duel. Then on May 15, 1999 Lazzaro won his final race at Fonda when he took his 113th career victory at the “Track of Champions”.
Legendary Fonda Speedway announcer Jim King was there to call Lazzaro’s final win and referred to Lazzaro as the “Living Legend”. A few years before that on July 30, 1994 award winning writer Bones Bourcier had gone to Fonda to check out the legendary “Monk”. Jack Johnson immediately set Bourcier straight proclaiming “as far as I am concerned Lou Lazzaro is Fonda Speedway”. That was how much people thought of Lazzaro.
On April 29, 2000 Lazzaro had a massive blood clot that caused a devastating stroke which took his life. ESPN did a story on Lazzaro when he died, Dave Lape gave the eulogy in church, and Fonda Speedway promoter Ric Lucia was wonderful through the whole thing, holding a big memorial race in honor of Lazzaro which was won by Seth Gano. At that event the ashes of Lazzaro and his dog Blackie were spread all around the Fonda Speedway.
Lazzaro’s career at Fonda shows that he won a total of four track championships in 1964, 1969, 1977, and 1978. He is second on the all-time win list with a total of 113 wins in a total of 30 winning seasons with the first win coming on 5/20/1961 and his last on 5/15/1999.
For more information about the Fonda Speedway you can go to their website www.fondaspeedway.com. Also don’t forget to visit the Fonda Speedway Museum which is open every race night from 3:00 p.m. until race time. This week there will be many displays of items documenting Shoemaker’s and Lazzaro’s racing careers so stop in and check it out and talk to all of the other visitors about the history of the “Track of Champions” Fonda Speedway.
