Howdy Witter (Driver)
Larry Witter (Dad/Owner)

Back to Drivers Page

This father and son team are long time members of the club.
Larry and Howdy attend as many of the races as possible.
Howie Witter
More driver/owner information below.
Car Engine Favorite Track Hobbies Sponsors Crew Members
1937 Chev Coupe 302 GMC Thunder Mountain Racing and Snowmobiling Lantz Used Cars and Truck Parts Larry and Barb Witter
Larry and Howdy Witter
Written by Brenda Sonnenberg and Larry Witter
While chatting with Mike Monet at Five Mile Point this summer, I discovered that Larry Witter, father of Midstate driver Howdy Witter has a race'y' past that he'd been withholding from me! Intrigued, I asked if he'd mind doing an 'email' interview for me. What follows, penned mostly by Larry, is his response about himself and his son, Howdy and their racing endeavors. Barb and I have two sons, Kevin who lives in Orlando and Howdy (Howard) who received my racing torch! I also have 3 sisters and one brother; Carol, Gail, Anita and brother Tom, who also races and is a member of the Midstate club. My first racing experience was at the Otsego County Fair, Morris, NY in 1958. Four of us had built a 1937 Chev coupe number 'PX48'. The guy that was supposed to drive it got sick so I climbed behind the wheel. I was bitten by the 'Racing Bug' never to recover! I built and raced two more cars after that. A 1933 5-window and a 1934 3-window, both Chevrolet coupes and raced every week at Morris along with some special races at Brookfield, Vernon, 5-Mile Point & Glen Aubrey. I joined the original Midstate Club in 1958 during the Moose Carey, Dan Smallin, Jimmy Mott, et al era. - quite frankly only so I could race as I wasn't much of a 'club person' back in those days - the rules left a lot to be desired, there were many loop-holes and double interpretations and the safety regulations were very loose but that was true of all forms of racing in those days. Ah yes, the jalopy days. I could go on forever! We raced in t-shirts, jeans, sneakers, one roll bar - no cage, one lap belt - no harness and a motorcycle helmet. We used skinny little street tires as racing tires were not allowed and most guys, including me, knew nothing about stagger, chassis loading or double-action shocks. We did know that putting the largest tire you could find on the right front and the smallest on the left front got you around the corners faster! Cornering was done by slamming the car sideways and broad sliding it through the turn. If you let up on it in the turn you either went off the track or around in a spin. The first time I tried these tactics in the number 9, I did just that - went around in a circle! I had to learn to DRIVE through the turns, not broad slide. I also found all that safety gear very confining at first but have since found it very comforting . In fact, I am now a stickler on good safety equipment as we all are. In 1963. I was building two more cars, a 1937 Chev coupe for local races and a 1937 Ford 2 door sedan for Syracuse. Due to a growing family and a house building project I decided it was time to quit. From that point I drove off and on for other people including Phil Monet at Morris, Five Mile and Glen Aubrey. I worked for many years at the old Shangri-La Race Track as assistant handicapper, scorer, pit runner, pit gate what have you. Just couldn't get away from that "bug-bite"! In 1990, the year Howdy and I joined Midstate, Howdy asked me if I would like to go back into racing and I jumped at it. We discussed go-carts, street-stocks, mini's etc. My brother Tom had been racing with Midstate. I had went with him several times and enjoyed it very much. We teamed up with the Beal brothers and restored the number 9 Chev coupe (now owned by Tom Toomey). The four of us took turns driving this car and I soon found out things have changed since my old jalopy days! In 1991 Howdy and I bought the old Cross brothers number 47. We rebuilt it and started racing it in 1992 as the original purple number 47. In 1995 we repainted it red and white and changed the number to 4. One of Howdy's most memorable Midstate moments was his first feature win at Brewerton, NY in 1993 - but that changed this summer when Howdy was the first (of the three Midstate classes) across the line at Skyline Raceway with their recently installed 302 Jimmy! Upon penning this story, I realized that I am now a 'club person'. There are so many things I enjoy about our club that it's hard to single out just one. To my way of thinking it's the people that I enjoy the most. I've never met a nicer group of folks in any of the organizations I've ever belonged to; they think like I do, act like I do and most of all they care about each other. I also like the fact that we get to race at many different tracks and I think we put on a darned good show for the promoters and spectators. In an email Howdy sent me, he says that his dad is his partner and his mom along with girlfriend Sue and kids are their support group. Howdy and Larry both enjoy this sport and have a good racing relationship. In fact, as Larry writes "Howdy is a much better racer than I ever was; more level headed and much less aggressive" - quite a statement for a racing dad to admit!