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Increasingly, stock car racing events were paying more money than midget events. A number of midget racers were beginning to interchange driving midgets and stocks.

Milestones:

June 12, Langhorne Speedway, PA. Lou Hoenig was killed trying out. on the 45th lap, Charlie Miller went through the fence. He was seriously hurt during the 45th lap and the race was stopped. The drivers had been racing for 1hr, 58 mins 45:18. In order finish was

#3 Bill Schindler: #10 Henry Renard: #5 Bob Disbrow: #4 Tony Bonadias, #55 B. Chase: #90 Russ Klar: #17 Nick Fonoro

Midget driver Steve McGrath had 13 feature wins by June 26th.

Midget driver Russ Klar had 5 feature wins by July 3rd.

Larry raced midgets the first part of this year and changed to stock cars beginning July 30. Larry and Mavis had become good friends with Joe and Mildred Goldsmith since meeting them at the Woodstock track in 1938. Joe was a mechanic by trade in Ellenville, NY. Larry and he built the #216 stock.

The first time Larry drove the Goldsmith/Shurter stock, he won his Heat and Semi. In the semi-event he set a new track record of 3:12:80 on August 16 at Rhinebeck Speedway. George Landry had previously held the record with 3:19:41. Yes, that is 15 laps with no accidents at just over 3 minutes. These were seasoned drivers, not demolition guys.

Rhinebeck, August 20 feature win.

On September 3, the first time he drove the stock at Middletown, Larry won his Heat and Feature.

In Pitman, NJ on September 5, he got third place in a 100 lap Feature on the 1/2-mile track.

In Lodi, NJ on September 11, he won the feature event.

On Oct. 1st at the Rhinebeck track Larry began the night by winning his heat race. He ended the night by winning the 100 lap feature. Newspaper clipping writes the results of the race took three hours to confirm. Larry enjoyed saying that Mavis won a 100 lap feature for him by going to the officials with her scoring papers. After hours of comparing scores and calculating, Larry had taken the lead on the 84th lap and was officially declared the winner followed by Dick Eagan, Len Fanelli, Bob Tator, Al Keller, Ray Brown, Jokko Maggiacomo and Jim Reed. It was dawn before they boarded the ferry to cross the Hudson River towards home. Alas, Mavis usually threw her scoring sheets away, probably because she considered them hurried scribbling, but in the case of this particular race, I’m assuming the track officials kept them.

Being a lumber mill sawyer, Larry said this about racing stock cars compared to midgets, “it was like trying to drive a lumber wagon around the track.” Although Larry had great success racing stocks his real love would always be the open cockpit machines.

Midgets raced in 1949
#95,
#50, owner Bob Muir
#38, owner, Harry Hull
#8,

Stock cars raced in 1949
#X, (could this be the X owned by Frank Trinkaus?)
#11
#216, owners Larry Shurter & Joe Goldsmith

Tracks raced in 1949
(21 Midget Races & 17 Stock Car Races)
Stafford Springs
Avon, CT
Danbury, CT
Albany, HY
Middletown, NY
Thompson, CT
Springfield, CT
Lodi, NJ
Pitman, NJ
Rhinebeck, NY

Race Results for Midgets during the 1949 Season
April 13th through July 27th

Events Wins Second Place Third Place
Feature
Semi
Heat
Total Wins 7

Race Results for Stocks during the 1949 Season
July 30th through October 16th

Events           Wins     Second Place    Third Place
Feature           4            1               1
Consolation       1                                                            
Class B           1    
Semi              1                                                            
Heat              3            1               2 
Total Wins       10

In 38 race meets Larry won 17 events.