"Where it all began..."

2000 Crew Chief of the Year Joins S.A.F.E.R. Hall
by Joe Tomasino

Fred Lamac becomes one of the newest members to be inducted into the Ernie Maynor Memorial S.A.F.E.R. Hall of Fame.He spent 14 seasons driving Figure 8 cars at Islip Speedway and Riverhead Raceway and also raced at Freeport Stadium.

Freddy, as he is affectionately called, started racing stock cars in 1974. But his love for racing did not start in stock cars. Freddy has been involved in some sort of racing since he was a young boy growing up on Long Island. Many years ago he earned a Varsity Letter for track in High School. Upon graduation from High School he became a speed skater and won many gold medals.

Freddy's success continued into Figure 8 stock cars. He has always been a front runner driving the #123 in the early years. Fred is most remembered for starting from the back of a 24 car field, full throttle, challenging for the win and usually finishing in the top five. The "near misses" at the X kept the fans on their feet as his wife Donna could only watch from the stands. In fact, one night, Freddy was leading the feature and on the last lap he was nailed at the intersection.

Now when you look back at the old Islip Speedway days you may recall many a night when the Figure 8's would not run due to time restraints. Back then, the track would hold 2 feature events. One to start the show on the oval and then normal qualifying for the scheduled event. Well you trivia folks should know Freddy was the all time hold-over Oval Feature win leader. It seemed whenever there was a holdover main on the oval, Fred Lamac would be the winner. You could look it up!

The car number was changed to #1 when Islip Speedway bought a new scoreboard that accommodated two digit numbers only. The 12 was taken, the "Dean" had the 23, the 3 was taken as was the 2, but nobody had the #1.

Lamac was not a one man show. Throughout his career he had a lot of help. Aside from his wife Donna, who drove the cars in the Powder Puff Derby's, his crew members were Bruce Nielson, Bobby Kingdon, Kenny DeFreitas, Anthony Squelqua, Herbie Lanhan and Roy Engel. Fred's primary sponsor was Gulfway Marine Service.

Fred's early retirement in 1987 was due to travel from his job in Port Washington to Riverhead. He continues to be involved with racing through the Eastern Kart Racing Association as Crew Chief to his daughters, Katie and Liz, as well as 2000 Interclub Heavy Division Champ, John Denniston, Joe Larsen Jr. and the 2000 Inter Club Novice Champ, Jessica Larsen. You can also see Fred on Saturday nights at Riverhead on the crew of Super Pro Truck #2X driven by John Denniston.

One of the true pioneers in an era of 80 plus Figure 8 cars. Fred was one of the men to beat each week. He will be a welcomed  addition to the S.A.F.E.R. Hall of Fame.

Reprinted from 2001 SAFER Yearbook