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Early in the 1946 season the Gallup/Shurter midgets, #2 and #11 were driven by Johnny Nardiello and Larry. Larry was working full time with his father at the family lumber mill, plus racing and trying to maintain the three Midgets. They were too much work and too much money, so he sold the #2 and #11 to Bud Marl and Bill Meredith who had been driving the midgets. (A personal note from Raecine: Along with Larry’s claim of the extra work and expense of being a car owner I feel that Johnny Nardiello’s death influenced the decision of not being a car owner and all things considered Larry and Mavis thought it best to simplify their obligations. While I had heard the Nardiello story a number of times; it was late in Larry’s life that for the first time he added, “we went through the war together…I should have fixed the car right away…I didn’t race for a month after Johnny was killed.”) Johnny had been driving Larry’s midget since they got out of the war together. But when the midget broke down and Larry was too busy to fix it, Johnny got a ride in another midget for the June 21st of 1946 race at Buffalo Civic Stadium where he got tangled with Joe Russo, rolled multiple times and died of the injuries. Larry and Mavis were not present. The story has a few more twists of fate. Johnny and Larry and Joe’s last race together was June 2nd of ’46 at the Caledonia, NY track. In the time trials, Joe Russo had the fastest time at 29:64, Ed Shaw at 29:70, Al Keller at 29:85, Larry Shurter at 29:93, Doc Shanebrook at 29:95 and John Nardiello at 30;06. Shanebrook won the first heat, Shurter won the second heat and the feature was won by Russo, then Keller, Shaw, Shanebrook, Shurter with Nardiello on his tail. Something in Nardiello’s midget must have broke at the very end of the race because he didn’t race with Shurter at the Buffalo Civic Stadium on June 4th, where he was killed on the 6th. Mavis’ racing records show that Larry didnt drive again until the July 10th race at Middletown NYThey had served together in Germany during the war. Johnny’s midget broke down and in the few weeks that Larry took to repair it, Johnny took another “ride” and was killed.
Mavis was writing in her practiced calligraphy script while balancing her little 6″x9″ book on her lap. Notations of the accidents, injured and killed started to appear in the margins of time trials, lineups, finishes and running time of race.

In June Larry began to drive the #177 he bought from Jim Howie, while Carl Miller, Bud Marl, Don Merridith, and brothers, Len and Harry Fanelli, alternately drove Shurter’s #2 and #11. Larry had now purchased Glen Gallup’s half of the midgets

Mavis often drove the Shurter Ford towing the three midgets on the double decked trailer. It was the same Ford the three sisters and their mother had taken to California. Being the oldest and the first to own a car, (according to Doris, who at this writing on 6/30/2023 is 101 years old), Mavis did a majority of the driving for the sisters, whether it was to the shirt factory job in Kingston, NY (before the war) or to the Chance Vought Aircraft job in Stratford Ct. or sightseeing in parts of America going to Ca. and back. Doris also said that Mavis had an uncanny ability to find dead end roads, including, on one dark rainy night, managing to get them inside an airport runway grid where they were very unceremoniously escorted out a gate. This was somewhere around Endicott/Binghamton NY (they were lost while trying to get home from visiting Every relatives). It was the time in history when people could make a mistake; the mistake got corrected and people involved could just shake their heads and even, perhaps laugh. I know both Sarah and Doris got a lot of laughs out of that story through the years…

On August 30th Bud Marl set a new qualifying record of 19:93 with the #2 at Nassau Speedway. That same day Bud and Larry battled in their heat with Larry winning. Larry won the main event with Bob Disbrow in second and Larry’s #11 and #2, driven by Meredith and Marl, finishing third and fourth—but many a time before and after Larry saw the backside of Bud’s car while racing for the checkered flag. Telling the story, Larry smiled, and his blue eyes danced devilish, “it was better than seeing the front of Bud’s car spinning towards me.”

Cars Larry raced in 1946
#2, owner Larry Shurter
#11, owner Larry Shurter
#177, owner Larry Shurter
#80, owner Pappy Hough
#18, owner Russ Kirby
#35

Tracks raced in 1946
Victory Speedway,Middletown, NY
Nassau, NY
Civic Stadium, Buffalo, NY
West Springfield, MA
New Haven, CT
Springfield, MA
Caledonia, NY
Thompson Speedway, CT
Cherry Park Speedway, Avon, CT
West Lanham, Washington, DC
Richmond, VA
Yellow Jacket Stadium, Philadelphia,

Race Results for 1946 Season
June 2nd through October 6th

Events              Wins   Second Place    Third Place Feature              3                     
Consolation          1                         1
Semi                 2                        1
Heat                 2           3             1
   
 Total Wins            8

In the 28 midget meets Larry won 8 race events.

This might be a good place to say that my father was left handed. It runs through (mostly) the male side of the Shurter family. Every midget driver drove with his right hand. His left hand maneuvered the brake stick on the outside of the machine. This means my father was driving with his less dominant hand. (If you think this might not matter – try brushing your teeth with your less dominate hand). I feel this is fair to point out because I’m following the tradition of the newspaper and magazine articles of the midget era: from a 1939 newspaer headline, One-Armed Driver Wins Main…Wes Saegesser; Bill Schindler driving with one leg as a result of a racing crash; Lloyd Christopher’s very limiting hand/ arm use from WWII injury. Larry never mentioned anything pertaining to right-hand driving and he’d probably give me a hard stare for even asking him that question – which he probably wouldn’t answer. I’m certainly not suggesting that driving with a less dominate hand compared to loss or partial loss of a limb. I’m just wondering… in part because I’ve struggled to have a writing style less backhanded and more pleasing to the eye – like my mother’s beautiful handwriting.

What is really pertinent is a little story Bob Albert Jr told me. Larry and Bob Sr sometimes competed against each other. Bob said that while his father would always be his favorite driver to watch, he would often focus on my father driving the turns. Bob said that many drivers “see-sawed” the steering wheel through the turns. He said, “Larry would keep his hand steady on the wheel, almost never a back and forth move, smooth as silk through the turns. It was great to watch.”