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INVERNESS - For 18 years Larry MacMillan's bass voice has boomed over high-horsepower engines, describing Turn 3 and door-handle-to-door-handle maneuvers. The 68-year-old Citrus County Speedway track announcer has seen many second- and third-generation stock car racers during his career, which started when he was a 19-year-old calling micro-midget races.
"Larry has been a fixture here," said 43-year-old Herb Neumann Jr. of Inverness, who drives car No. 98 in the Late Model division. "He's the mouth of the South. He knows the cars. He knows the drivers. He knows it all. He's the Howard Cosell of Citrus County Speedway."
Though he carries a 5-pound liquid oxygen tank to breathe and has battling emphysema the past seven years - the result of too many cigarettes - his voice carries on. Even after quitting smoking nine years ago, the damage was done.
"Those stairs (21 of them up to the announcer's box) are treacherous," said MacMillan, who has less than 30 percent use of his lung capacity. "I climb the first flight before I have to stop and catch my breath. I don't make more than one trip down and one trip up a night."
As MacMillan jokes, he is just too hardheaded to give up. So twice a week, he writes Larry's Race Reports for citruscountyspeedway.com before announcing on race nights. "I just enjoy what I'm doing," MacMillan said.
"As long as they'll have me I'll keep doing it. I've often told people that they'll carry me out of the box when I'm done."
But sometimes his stubborn streak gets the best of him.
"It's his way or else, but we all treat him like we've got our say," Citrus County Speedway head scorer Becky Sanders said. "Have you ever dealt with a good used car salesman? That's Larry. You'll end up buying a car from him just because he's that good of a salesman."
Over the years, MacMillan has held many jobs - working as a country disc jockey for WXOF in Citrus County; running errands for Supreme Court justices as a page boy; working as a remote radar operator for the U.S. Air Force in Alaska, Germany and Key West; working off and on as an announcer for the Sunshine Speedway from 1960 to '87 and from 1987 on at the Citrus County Speedway, that is located at the Citrus County Fairgrounds off Highway 41, two miles south of Inverness. Altogether, MacMillan said he has worked at seven racetracks and had one stint at night running the Daytona Firecracker 400.
His key to success is trying to point out details some fans might miss. "A lot of people don't look at the back end," MacMillan said. "When it's pretty evident who is winning, I try to take the crowd to look at another part of the race. A true racing enthusiast is looking for speed and passing. It can pretty wild sometimes. If one guy starts to bump and grind, then retribution seems to kick in."
Working at Florida's third oldest continually running race track that continually runs is more about the people than the racing.
"They can get rough at times," said MacMillan, "but when someone needs some help, race fans and drivers will come together.
"I've seen blood drives and drivers passing their hats around for a driver who is injured or lost a house, collecting $1,500 or $2,000. People you deal with in every cross section of humanity - attorneys, judges and blue-collared workers come to the race track."