Western New York Auto Racing
Team Lawrence stands tall in Midgets
Peggy Lawrence was not present at Dunn Tire Raceway Park (DTRP) last September when her husband, Hal, and their son, Dan, celebrated their TQ Midget season championship. Yet Hal believes he could feel the presence of his late wife, who died in November 1989 after a battle with cancer.
He knows she would have loved to have been there.
Hal is the team owner of Lawrence Racing and Dan is the driver of their potent racing machine. The team also fields a second TQ entry driven by Street Stock veteran Russell Knutsen.
“When we won the title last year, it was such a thrill to see my son win his first championship as a driver,” Hal said. “I had the opportunity to win a championship when I drove and won the 1955 Jalopy championship at Civic Stadium. My mentors then were Hugh Armstrong and Bert Fleischman. It’s ironic now that my son Dan is racing in the TQ Midget class against Bert’s son Jim.
“The only regret I have about Dan’s championship last year is that Peggy was not here to share it with us, but I believe that she is looking down from a much better place and knows about it and is smiling.”
Hal has been involved in motorsports for decades. He has been a driver, team owner, announcer, pit steward and race promoter. While he has been involved at many different tracks and with many types of cars, his career has always revolved around his love, the TQ Midgets.
“When I was the chief starter for the Can-Am TQ Midget Racing Club for 15 years, I traveled from Quebec to Daytona,” recalled Hal. “To put it simply, I’ve worked at most every track in Western New York and Southern Ontario over the years.”
Dan recalls that he got a late start on his racing career due to a long-standing policy set down by Hal.
“I grew up at the race tracks and also wanted to drive race cars from the time I was a kid,” said Dan, 49. “My father told me that I could not drive a race car until I finished high school, got a higher education and established myself with a job or business and then I could start driving. I didn’t get behind the wheel until I was in my 30s.”
The team not only won the DTRP title last year but placed a very close second in the traveling Casey’s TQ Midget Racing Series standings to Justin Mapes.
“In the last few years I pretty much limited my racing to Dunn Tire Raceway Park but last year I joined the Casey’s series as a way to support John Casey, who has done so much to promote TQ Midget racing,” said Dan.
Whether it be family life, racing or business, Hal and Dan have a very close relationship with a tremendous amount of love and respect for one another. They are coowners of the Manchester Cable Co. located in Tonawanda.
Crewman Greg Edwards, Tom Mancica and brothers Randy and Dale Bolam are intricate parts of the team.
“I’ve been driving now for 12 years and it’s because of my father that I can do this,” said Dan. “He bought me my first race car from Ross May and the race car I have now, we got about five years ago from Mark Sammut. We later got a second car as a backup and that’s the one that Russell drives.
“It means so much to me that I’m a champion and that my father is the one who gave me the opportunity to do it,” said Dan. “I’m glad that I was able to win it with him.”
Hal is equally grateful. “We have a father and son relationship that is truly special,” said Hal. “You can’t buy this type of experience and what it means to share it with my son. I love my whole family and I know that Peggy did too. She was always with me at the tracks. It may now be in a different way but Peggy is still with us now.”
Paz suffers stroke
A tremendous amount of support and concern has surfaced in both the local and national racing communities in recent weeks over race announcer Mike Paz of Rochester. Paz suffered a major stroke earlier this spring and is undergoing rehabilitation.
Paz is a professional and one of his strengths is that he has a vast knowledge of a great many different types of motorsports competition, ranging from stock cars to dragsters to sports cars.
He has announced at most area tracks including DTRP, Holland, Genesee and New York International Raceway Park.
Paz also advanced to the national scene, having announced at such venues as NHRA national events and International Speedway Corporation facilities, including Daytona International Speedway and Watkins Glen.
What is most impressive about Paz is that he never forgets that many people who attend a motorsports event are there for the first time and do not always understand racing. Paz has always taken the time to explain to all in the grandstand about the basics of what they are about to see at each event before the first race begins.
Despite the time he has spent in the national announcing limelight the last several years, Paz also has never forgotten about the importance of the local race teams and speedways. On occasion, he still has the opportunity to announce at a local track and spoke last year about how much he relishes those opportunities to return to his roots.
His voice has become so familiar to the racing world that one fan wrote on the Grand American Road Racing Association Web site that “racing will be so much better when Mike recovers and we can all enjoy his distinctive booming voice again.”
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