Joey Laquerre, 17, carries the checkered flag following a qualifying race win at Thunder Road in the summer of 2014. The East Montpelier driver died following an ATV accident in Washington, Vt., on Saturday.
WASHINGTON – Vermont auto racing’s first family suffered a tremendous loss on Saturday afternoon as its new star, 17 year-old Joey Laquerre, died after crashing an ATV off-road vehicle.
News of the death sent shock waves throughout the northeast, and an outpouring of support and condolences hit social media within hours of the accident.
The East Montpelier teen represented the family’s fourth generation to take to stock car racing, and was certainly its most popular and universally well-liked racer. His grandfather — with the same name — is the most successful driver in the 55-year history of Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, winning 45 races and seven championships, each an all-time record at the track. His father, Jeff, is a multi-time champion crew chief who had a brief but successful stint behind the wheel, and uncles Jay and Joey Jr. are also multi-time winners.
Seventeen year-old Joey Laquerre, center, passed away on Saturday following an ATV accident. He celebrated with grandfather Joey Laquerre (right) and partner Pam Dunkling (left) at Thunder Road in Barre on June 5 after the elder Laquerre won the night’s Late Model feature event.
The younger Laquerre, a student at U-32 High School, got his start in four-cylinder youth divisions at several speedways in New Hampshire in 2010. Six victories on the track and a strong work ethic in the garage prompted his father Jeff to put young Joey in the family’s Late Model car in 2011.
At age 14, Joey began racing in the top-tier class and immediately rewarded his father’s trust with a third-place finish in his first race at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven. The team began racing regularly at the track and built a solid fan base in Rutland County before the youngster was permitted to compete at age 16 at Thunder Road in 2013.
The family’s crowning achievement came on July 7 of that year, as young Joey led 30 laps before finishing second with his grandfather finishing in third place. While competing in a limited number of races in 2014 with a restrictively small budget, Laquerre impressed with a solid eighth-place finish in the Labor Day Classic at Thunder Road last month and matched the result two weeks later at Devil’s Bowl to take seventh place in the final Vermont State Championship standings.
Young Laquerre’s mother, Deborah, passed away in 2005, and his uncle Joey Jr. died in a snowmobile accident in 1991, just months after winning the 1990 Thunder Road championship.
Justin St. Louis is a motorsports journalist, publicist, broadcaster, and former driver. Contact him at jstlouis1315@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Justin_StLouis
