CLAREMONT — Friends of Tyler Lescord are rallying to help him and his family with expenses after a serious crash at Claremont Motorsports Park last Friday that left him hospitalized at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Wade’s Ice Cream, Maple Lanes bowling alley and Golden Cross Ambulance are planning efforts to help the family with bills.
Lescord, of Claremont, was driving in the Late Model series when he and another car touched on the front stretch and Lescord’s car veered into the concrete wall off the first turn at more than 80 miles per hour.
Mercedes West-Sabins, a close friend of Lescord, said she has been around auto racing for a long time and called it the “worst accident I have seen.”
A DHMC spokesperson said Thursday Lescord’s condition was not available. Efforts to reach his parents, David and Dorianne Lescord, were not successful.
Craig Smith, of Newport, also races in the Late Model series though he was not on the track when the crash happened. He said he has known Lescord for about a dozen years and their friendship extends beyond the track. Smith said Lescord is fun to be around whatever they are doing.
“Tyler is a great friend,” Smith said. “He and his family are people who would give you the shirt off their backs to help someone.”
With her friend hospitalized, West-Sabins desperately wanted to find some way to show him support and help the family. Knowing she could not help at the hospital, West-Sabins thought about what she could do.
“I know I can sell ice cream,” said West-Sabins, owner of the popular Wade’s Ice Cream in Claremont.
And because Lescord was a frequent customer and lover of chocolate milkshakes, West-Sabins hit upon an idea.
All this weekend at Wade’s, “Shaking it for Ty” will donate half the money from all milkshakes sold to help with expenses for Lescord.
“He has an amazing sense of humor, ‘Shaking it for Ty,’ that would make him laugh,” West-Sabins said. “He loves milkshakes and he’d come by to have one and we would just sit and talk. He was always smiling.”
West-Sabins said people have already donated money and others have volunteered to help at the ice cream shop, which will be open Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 9.
“It is my way of repaying Tyler for his friendship,’ said West-Sabins, whose husband, Kodi, has been racing with Lescord for years.
Other efforts to raise money will include an event at Maple Lanes bowling alley on Saturday, May 14. Debbie Fitzpatrick, whose husband is part owner of the business, said beginning at 4 p.m. on that day, bowlers can pay $30 for four games. There will be a small payout for winners but Fitzpatrick said the majority of the money will go to helping Lescord, a friend of the Fitzpatricks. “I hope to raise $800,” she said.
Dale Girard Jr. of Golden Cross Ambulance, another close friend of Lescord, said people can help lift his friend’s spirits by printing out a sketch of Lescord’s racing car, coloring it in and dropping it off at the ambulance building. The sketch, done by Girard’s sister, can be found at Turn4podcast on Facebook.
Girard also said a few people and businesses have come forward and said they would donate $1 for each sketch dropped off up to $100. The colored sketches will be delivered to Lescord to decorate his room, Girard said, and the money will help the family with “gas, food and bills.”
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.