JOEY LAQUERRE

Cho Lee recalls hanging around the LaQuerre garage in East Montpelier, Vermont as a youth. Firstly, the operation was run by the elder LaQuerre, Armand, who was a 1950's stock racer himself. The small town had a modest race track briefly in theearly '50's, and the Armand LaQuerre Rocket 88 coupe would have been one of the entries. Later, Armand would field cars for drivers such as the brawny granite cutter, Norm Chaloux. Joseph, the eldest son, was to take an active role in the family business and in auto sports from the beginning. My first familiarity with Joey LaQuerre's career is when he fielded an attractive black 1955 Chevrolet in the waning years of the original Flying Tiger series at Thunder Road and at Catamount.

The first LaQuerre entry was jet black, beautifully - lettered, and numbered GT-1 -maybe after a motor oil of similar name. LaQuerre had long observed the successes of one Larry Granger, who had capture championships with the Libero Buzzi #93 coupe and who had also run the 46 for the legendary George Barber team, after the seat had been vacated by the legend, Pappy Forsythe. Partly because the competition had caught up with Barber and maybe because Granger wasn't getting any younger, he never did a lot with the 46.

         Nonetheless, when the LaQuerre family fielded their beauty of a car, Granger was installed in the driver's seat. Larry had a pretty good stint in the car, although NASCAR gave the team grief for not using a NASCAR-approved two digit number on the door. The following year, one of the last for the Tigers before they converted over to limited sportsman cars, LaQuerre repainted the car and re-numbered it as "HAWAII 5-0", probably the origin of the number 50 he used frequently later in his own driving career. LaQuerre seated another enormously popular but aging veteran into the car in the person of Johnny Gammell. Gammell had some wins with the car, along with a few eye-catching wrecks.
         With the conversion to limited sportsman cars, Joey moved to join the new mini stock ranks by around 1972 and became a staple there for years to come. Joey also toyed with the new Flying Tigers in the late '80's and ended up in the late model sportsman cars that took over T Road by the 1990's. He still drives in that division and the Tigers today - an ageless wonder, to say the least.
        Of late, Joey has taken ownership and the promotion of Groveton, NH's track, the former Roiverside Speedway. Renamed in honor of Joey's grandson, the track [which has always struggled to survive in an ecomonically depressed area] has been his biggest challenge.

Bob Doyle Photo Courtesy of Cho Lee
Larry Granger, in LaQuerre's snazzy Race and Custom GT-1- around 1968.

Bob Doyle Photo Courtesy of Cho Lee
A very young Joey LaQuerre, left works on the HAWAII 5-0 after Gammell
dumped it at Thunder Road in 1968.

Courtesy of Cho Lee Coming off Blake & Loso's Wrecker at T Road.	Courtesy of Cho Lee Gammell walks away in disgust after dumping HAWAII 5-0 off the banks at T Road.	Courtesy of Doug Farrow Johnny poses with the HAWAII 5-0 Chevy.	Courtesy of Cho Lee Gammell with his wife, while driving for LaQuerre. That's Cho Lee peeking over Joan's shoulder.
Courtesy of Dave Moody A much younger Blake & Loso team unloads the Hawaii 5-0.	Courtesy of Cho Lee Joey with one of his first mini's.	Courtesy of A. Boright Coming out, onto the track at Catamount.	Courtesy of A. Boright A "new Tiger" with an old. familiar graphic scheme.
A and A Ward Photo In action, at Barre, in the New Tigers.	Courtesy of Cho Lee Joey, with a win at Catamount.	Courtesy of A. Boright Joey is #16 in this Catamount mini - stock pileup.	Courtesy of Chris Companion Bob Dragon hitches a ride with Joey in the 1970's.
_{Courtesy of Andy Boright} Joey takes a victory lap with his Tiger, the former Ray Lasnier Firebird.	_{Courtesy of Walter Newell} Joey was the winner of the 1976 T Road Mini Milk Bowl.	_{Courtesy of Andy Boright} Joey stands with starter Paul Boyer and the huge Ronnie Marvin. Must be both won a race somewhere that day.	Courtesy of Cho Lee Joey, with one of his better mini-stocks.
From Cho Lee Joey shows up at Catamount with one of his cars and the Tiger of Ralph Baldwin. He is trying not to get involved in one of Barney and Fran McRae's animated discussions.	Courtesy of Johnny Racer Joey once had one of the former Lammell T Birds.	From Kathy DeBoer The productive 16 Camaro.	From Johnny Racer Another Tiger win with the car once owned by Ray Lasnier, then Joe Myers,, and also Norm Andrews.
	Courtesy of Cho Lee Joey, Jr.	Courtesy of Johnny Racer Joey, Jr with one of his cars.	From Outside Groove The LeGault 07 at Cat with Joey, Jr.
Courtesy of Justin St.Louis Joey gets a goose from Eric Chase at an undetermined track around 2010.	Courtesy of Justin St.Louis A recent victory	A more recent ACT shot.	_{Buzz Fisher Photo} A more recent shot. Ken Squier talks with now - fellow - promoter Joey Laquerre.