Larry Cook - 2009 KCRHoF Inductee
Photo: Alta track promoter Dick Simpson (left) shakes hands with race winner Dennis Hovinga while flagman Larry Cook presents the checkers.
Larry Cook was born into a racing family and seemingly was ordained
from the start to become involved in the sport. Cook’s father Chet was a racer
and car owner in his day. His uncle Dwight Cook was also heavily involved in
the sport as a flagman and track promoter of the Kossuth County track.
Larry’s first involvement in the sport of racing was behind the wheel.
In the early 1960’s his wife Kay worked for Dutch Honsbruch at Honsbruch Drug.
One day she mentioned to Honsbruch that Larry liked racing. Soon after,
Honsbruch, Cook and Gene Schattschneider collaborated on building a race car.
Honsbruch helped provide the funding, Schattschneider used his mechanical
ability to help build the car and Cook was slated to be the driver.
The trio’s first race was in 1961 on the half mile track in Algona.
Cook’s first time behind the wheel, would prove to be his only time,
however. In that first race, competitor
Larry Cordes crashed in the fourth turn sending his car over the wall. When
Cordes’ car came to a rest it burst into flames with the driver trapped inside.
Cook and others rushed to aid Cordes; however, since the car landed outside the
track, it was difficult to get the driver extracted in time.
The experience caused Cook to take a step back and decide that driving
the race car was not worth the potential risks involved. Sometime later, Algona
track promoter Lamont Wellendorf asked Cook to be the flagman. This began a
long career as a track official that lasted until 1982.
Photo: Flagman Larry Cook (left) joins race winner Arnie Braaland in victory lane at Alta. Promoter Dick Simpson is also shown in the winners circle.
It turned out to be a true family affair as Cook would flag the races,
his wife worked in the concession stand and his children sold the National
Hawkeye Racing News in the grandstand. Cook’s career as a flagman grew as was
soon flagging events four to five nights a week. During his career he flagged
at tracks in Algona, Alta, Harlan, Denison, Rock Rapids and Fairmont.
He counts his favorite memories as all the friends he made in the sport
and having the opportunity to work for great promoters like Wellendorf and Dick
Simpson. Other favorite memories included flagging events in the Midwest that
drivers like A.J. Foyt and Johnny Rutherford competed in. He also considered
Gene Schattschneider and Les Wildin as friends.
Being a flagman at a short track can also pose some challenges at
times. He recalls a night at Algona in which Bruce Sommerfeld was so mad at
Cook for black flagging him; the driver brought a five gallon pail of water to
the front stretch to douse Cook.
The hardest night for Cook as a flagman occurred in 1976 when he was
run over on the track by a driver and was thrown nearly 150 feet. Cook recovered;
however, he says he was quite grateful that shortly after that tracks started
putting the flag stand in the grandstands.
Cook left the flag stand for the final time in 1982. Cook then moved to
Des Moines, Iowa in 1985 to manage a location there for VanderHaag’s.
Today, Cook is retired and he and his wife Kay split their time between homes in Arnolds Park, Iowa and in Arizona. They will be celebrating 50 years together in February 2010.
