WHEATLAND, Mo. — When Larry Ferris purchased a Capital Race Car before the 2021 season, the veteran Late Model driver from Nevada felt he had reached a career crossroads.
“It was a game-changer,” Ferris said of the new car. “To be honest, I figured I’d give it one more shot and if we couldn’t run any better than we were, I was just gonna hang it up. We got that car and it totally changed our program and it totally changed everybody’s attitude, especially mine.
“I was tired of not running good,” Ferris added. “It’s so expensive and took so much time and work that it just wasn’t worth it anymore to run fifth all the time.”
The car was, indeed, a game-changer.
Ferris missed the first two Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series shows at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2021, but went on to win three features that season and finished fourth in points. He carried that momentum over to a big 2022 season, resulting in his first Late Model championship.
Ferris won four times and was runner-up four other times in nine events. He finished 80 points in front of runner-up Tucker Cox in the Hermitage Lumber Late Model division for one of his most-memorable years in more than two decades of racing.
“It feels good to get one, for sure,” Ferris said of the Lucas Oil Speedway championship. “We’ve never really run for one. Last year we missed the first two races and had a pretty good year. I thought, shoot, with an effort to make everything we ought to have a pretty good chance this year. That’s what happened.”
Ferris cruised into the Rempfer Memorial Season Championship Night on Aug. 27 with an insurmountable lead. Just by taking the green flag, he clinched the title.
“It’s got to be up there,” Ferris said of where the season ranks among career highlights. “I won a track championship at North Fork Speedway in 1997 in a Modified. We had a really good year that year and this is right up there with that.”
The only downside came in the Lucas Oil MLRA Ron Jenkins Memorial over Labor Day Weekend when motor issues relegated Ferris to a 14th-place finish. He said the motor was overdue for a freshening after back-to-back problem-free seasons and that’s taking place this winter, along with routine maintenance on the rest of the car.
All signs point toward making a run at a weekly series title defense next season on an expanded, 14-race Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series schedule. Lucas Oil Speedway also had a Fall Brawl spotlight the weekly Late Models tentatively set for Sept. 22-23.
“That’s the plan,” Ferris said. “Danny (General Manager Danny Lorton) has got some more races scheduled and got some good races at the end of the year he’s working on. That’ll be great. It sounds like it’s going to be a really good year over there.”
The Ferris team might expand in 2023. Larry has put together a USRA Modified that son Ryan Ferris might climb behind the wheel of next season.
“We’ve got it done for the most part,” Larry Ferris said. “Finding the time is gonna be the hard part. We’re gonna try to have my boy run it more than anything. I think I’ll let him play with that. I just don’t have time to do it all. He’s ready to get back in one and I think I’m more ready to help him as much as anything.”
With the success of the last couple of years in the Late Models, those thoughts of hanging up the helmet definitely are on hold.
“I think we’re still gonna hit it pretty hard, the next two or three years, anyway,” Ferris said.
Larry Ferris said his success couldn’t have happened without help from some key contributors, including Ryan Ferris and Dave Collins helping out, Brian Larimore from Dirt Track Specialists, Josh Poe and Scott Bailey Racing Engines.
“Scott takes great care of us if we ever need anything for the engine,” Ferris said. “If we need help, he’ll come down and help us. He’s a major part of our program.”