Lance Conley

Promotional Director

The first memory I have of auto racing is being glued to the T.V. and watching early race broadcasts. Then about that time playing on the front lawn seeing a real race team go by on an open roll back truck, WOW!! Where were they going? I ran inside and told everyone about what I saw and about two hours later my grandfather said lets take a ride.

You cannot imagine my surprise when he turned into the Monadnock Motor Speedway. I thought this will be great and started to picture in my mind what was going on down in that valley behind those tall white fences, but at ten years old I was not ready for what I saw. The cars were all really fast but the Modifieds would shake the grandstands. When the green flag flew on the first heat race I was literally scared for the drivers. But what was even more shocking was that the fans in the stands stood up and screamed for their car and driver to race harder! Don’t these people understand that when these cars wreck people get hurt? Anyway some guy named “Richie Evans” won that night. When he took his Pinto around the speed way for that victory lap with the checkered flag flying out of the drivers window, and the flash bulbs started popping, that was when I new that I wanted to win a race someday. I also knew that the danger that these men faced was just part of the job when the trophy girl kissed the driver. When we left the track we turned right cause it was the only line moving. We went by a little dirt track called “Rattle Snake Mountain” were they raced little VW’s. Oh how I laughed at this ridiculous little place after having just left Monadnock. Wouldn’t you know that the first lap that I ever drove in a racecar was at “Rattle Snake Mountain” in a car that I built in two days from start to finish. I lasted exactly two laps before I ripped the shifter out of the tranny. This distraction somehow made me look at what happened. I flew out of the park on turn one flipped two times end for end. I landed at the hotdog truck (two with cheese please). It’s a long way to winning or even competing at a NASCAR track.

After many years of working on other people’s teams, and trying, and failing to get ideas that revolutionize racing onto the track, I drove my first Enduro event at Monadnock Speedway, I think it was there first also, 100 laps, the distance and $10,000.00 the prize. When they red flagged the race on lap 89 to clear the track surface for an 11 lap shootout between the last running cars, (only about 15) Lance Conley’s number 77 Chrysler Newport was on the scoreboard as the leader one full lap ahead of the 2nd place car. Time dragged on as the loaders moved cars, and the temperature moved dangerously close to the red. So I shut my motor off so not to over heat. When the red flag was lifted, the car would not start, a wire had been knocked the starter during the competition. That broke my heart and gave me a bad attitude somehow. The eternal optimist became an angry pessimist.

With no one to guide me or manage my racing career, as no one in my family but my little sister, Tanna, supported what I was doing, I bought a late model. I tried to run the only Mopar at Stafford speedway. This was not a good time for me, or the raceway, I was eventually asked to leave. From here I went back to work on other peoples cars and was able to help Keith Dagget win some races. I moved to upstate New York and hooked up with Randy Snyder, on his Bush Grand National number 3. I drove the hauler, changed tires on the road, and eventually help Ed run the organization. When randy ran out of doe, and went back to dirt Modifieds I decided to step back and built my own open wheeled modified and go back home to racing. Home to Stafford because I had raced all over the place with the Bush team and had the change to meet the best in the business. I found that there is no place on earth more respected as a competitive track then the Modified hotbed of the northeast Stafford speedway. Flat turns lend themselves to a driver, so it is not always the big dollar motor that crosses the strip first. I am proud to say that in my rookie year at Stafford in the number 38SK I broke the top ten in a feature race, raced clean and actually won 2 qualifying races in 2000. Most of all I took back my optimism and ran with the best and sometimes even beat some of them. I am working with Eddie Partridge from TS because he helped me many times during my two year Stafford effort. Eddie is a real credit to racing and I am grateful that he has let me work with him. I am still looking for a ride but the real hard part of racing is how to not run out of money and that is what I am working on here. Representing advertisers is easy with this kind of commitment. I am looking forward to a great 2001 season and now I am looking way beyond. Thanks,

L.W. Conley #38