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By Buffy Swanson
When the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame honors its Class of 2026 on August 13, the annual Gene DeWitt Car Owner Award will be presented to Chris Larsen, Nanuet, NY, whose Halmar banner has flown over victory lane at 37 Modified tracks in 11 states and two Canadian provinces in just the past decade. The ceremonies, which are free and open to the public, will be held at the Hall of Fame Museum on the grounds of Weedsport Speedway in New York.
The game has changed drastically since Larsen was a kid spectating from the Orange County Fair Speedway bleachers, watching heroes like Buzzie Reutimann and Will Cagle compete in coupes that car builders salvaged from junkyards. Now, the top team owners are savvy businessmen. And Larsen—a completely self-made man—is one of the best of the best.
“I didn’t have a pot to piss in when I went to work for Halmar,” said Larsen who started as a junior estimator at the civil construction firm. “I was very lucky that the three incredible guys who owned the company at the time taught me and gave me the foundation to eventually operate the business.”
The successful corporate philosophy was simple. “Get the best people—they’re our most important resource—and make sure they have everything they need,” is Chris’ Halmar doctrine. “We’re proud that we’ve got a billion-dollar job at the Golden Gate Bridge, almost a billion-dollar tunnel under the Potomac River in Washington, a $2 billion subway in New York… We’ve grown to handling projects of that size. We’re now considered one of the best contractors in the entire country.”
That guiding principle was key in building a competitive race team.
A lifelong fan of the sport, Larsen and his teenage son Conor thought it might be cool for Halmar to sponsor a dirt car at nearby Orange County and got involved with Willy Auchmoody, just for fun, in 2014. The following year, Chris became intrigued by all the hype surrounding the final event on the Syracuse mile, wanting to be a part of it. Leaning on Auchmoody’s connections, Larsen mounted an attention-grabbing Modified effort with none other than four-time race winner Gary Balough calling the shots and two-timer Jimmy Horton taking over the seat. It all escalated from there, with Larsen assembling the most talented people and no-expense-spared resources to create a multi-team juggernaut.
Larsen immediately set his sights on Syracuse race winner Stewart Friesen. “I met Stew at my office right after that. He had kind of a convoluted team—it was Jeff Daley’s motors, someone else’s cars,” he recalled. “And I proposed: Why don’t we do it as one—motors, cars, everything. One team.”
They exploded in 2016: 17 wins including the inaugural Super DIRT Week at Oswego and Orange County’s Eastern States 200.
“We put a great team together, first with Eric Mack, then with Tommy Conroy and Jay Castimore—so we surround ourselves with good people and good equipment and we give Stew everything he needs to go to work. I think my role is more to support Stew than to direct Stew,” Chris considered. “I give most of the credit here to Stewart. I give him the resources, we’ll bounce different ideas about what we need to win—if we need a certain type of motor, something like that. If he wants to try a different setup, he’ll talk to me about it. But he really deserves all the credit.”
Larsen also acknowledges Hall of Famer Jimmy Horton’s considerable contribution to the team dynamic.
“I credit Jimmy with raising Stewart’s stature. Stewart was already a very talented driver but he became more. He’s matured a lot. And Jimmy helped him do that, I think,” Larsen assessed. “When they were racing together, they shared a lot. One guy’s on his way up and one guy’s on his way out, both at different points in their careers… I was really proud of the interplay between them. Jimmy was a good mentor for Stewart.”
Friesen repaid the favor, acting as a role model for Halmar drivers Allison Ricci, Matt Janiak, Tyler Boniface and others. “It made me feel good to see this growth in Halmar Racing,” Larsen said. “Anyone who I’ve had driving any of my cars—I liked them all personally. I love the Ricci family. Same with Janiak and Tyler. Jimmy and his family. I try to become involved with everybody, as much as I can.”
A dominating force on the circuit, Larsen-led teams have won everything worth winning in the past 10 years—and then some. With Friesen since 2016, Larsen has taken down 199 Modified wins, including all the big ones: three Super DIRT Week victories, four OCFS Eastern States 200s, three Fonda 200s, the $50K STSS Port Royal 200, a basketful of SDS and STSS series races, and the 2020 DIRTcar championship. Horton added four wins and an OCFS Modified title, with Jessica Friesen, Matt Janiak, Allison Ricci, Tyler Boniface and Dan Morgiewicz also contributing. When Stewart was critically injured last season, Alex Yankowski was tapped to fill his seat for the big season-enders—and earned another Eastern States 200 victory for the Halmar 44 effort.
Friesen’s subsequent comeback from a horrific wreck at Autodrome Drummond last summer is nothing short of miraculous. “When it happened, my heart just stopped,” said Larsen who was watching the live TV feed from home. “DIRT wasn’t giving any news, the cameras cut away, everything was silent and that’s never a good sign.
“His injuries were as bad as everyone imagined,” Chris continued. “I honestly thought it might take him a little bit more time to rehab. But once they put him back together, with wires and bolts and rods, it was really a matter of him just fighting through the pain. He’s the real deal, this kid.”
At stake was not only the Modified team but Halmar’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck operation with Stewart as primary driver. For 2026, he is back in the fray, ferocious as ever, in both divisions. Friesen already has nine Modified wins and one top five in the Truck on this year’s scorecard.
“We both hate losing more than we love winning—we’re both driven by that,” Larsen recognized. “Stew’s the only one besides me who I’ve heard say that! So with the dirt team—everywhere we go, we expect to win.”
Which is what it’s all about, no matter what kind of horsepower you’re harnessing.
“If it wasn’t for Stewart, I’d be in the horse business only!” said Larsen, who owns a stable of prize-winning Thoroughbreds. “That’s one of my favorite wisecracks to him: I’ll call him up and say, ‘Hey Stewart, the one horsepower division just won a $50,000 race and all I had to do was give her hay! All it cost me was a couple of nine-dollar bales of hay!’ Then I’ll say, ‘How much are those tires again??’”
Larsen is an admitted competition junkie. “I get the same thrill in both sports,” he claims. “It’s hard to win! And when you win at anything, it’s exhilarating.”
