WV Veteran Freddie Carpenter Racing To Survive On Lucas Late Model Series

By LEN SAMMONS

At the age of 55, Parkersburg, WV driver Freddie Carpenter is making an attempt to follow the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series across the country this year for the first time in his career.

With a modest, self-owned and built race car and a few volunteer crew members, he’s attempting to compete against well-funded operations with paid crew members and young superstar proven drivers.

“We have to watch our resources and only race when we have to race, not always where we want to race,” said Carpenter, a big winner back home in West Virginia who is seeking success on the road for the first time in his long career.

“There are some good local races back home and other regional races we’d like to go to, but we’re not because we want to save our resources to follow this series. We’re going to try and hang in there as long as we can.”

On Friday, Carpenter drove his pickup with a modest-sized enclosed trailer to Georgetown, Delaware, for the first of three scheduled nights of series racing. His trailer wasn’t parked on “millionaire’s row” among stacker trailers that brought two race cars to the event with three to five full-time employees.

After 16 races on the series this season, Carpenter drove north for three somewhat close events for him in Delaware, central Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Unfortunately, he was ranked 19th in the standings, outside the top 15 to obtain series perks and tow money.

“I don’t get money yet for traveling with the series. I believe you have to be in the top 15 to get money, and I’m four spots out of that right now,” said Carpenter prior to Friday’s race at Georgetown Speedway.

“I’ve got to get ahead of a few guys to get traveling money. If we don’t make the show tonight, we probably don’t get a provisional, leave here with $100.”

Carpenter earned the 24th starting spot in the feature thanks to a provisional starting spot and drove forward to finish 16th, earning his team a much-needed $1,300.

“The cost of diesel fuel is killing us,” said Carpenter.

“Making the show tonight was huge for us. That was my goal from the start, that and to be competitive. I never want to be in the way, always want to be at least competitive.”

Carpenter acts as his car owner, crew chief, drives the rig to the track, and then races the car on the track.

“Got a bunch of family and friends that come with me, but unfortunately, they are not usually the same ones every time. My help’s all volunteer, but they jump in and help when they can,” Carpenter added.

Despite it being a planned three-day race weekend, he came north with just one car, one motor, and limited spares. Saturday’s race at BAPS was rained out, but they did get to race Sunday at Hagerstown, MD, which was on his way home.

“I do have a complete spare car that I usually take with us, but because of the bad forecast for tomorrow, I didn’t bring both this time,” said Carpenter.

“Usually, we drive two pickups to the races, two box trailers with two cars with us. Thankfully, we got through tonight okay with the one car, and Saturday’s race is already rained out, so we should be good. We’ll cross the bridge on Sunday and see what the weather is doing at Hagerstown.”

Carpenter has been a big winner around home at Ohio Valley Speedway in Parkersburg, WV, and at other tracks in the area.

“I’ve won 200 to 250 races in my career, never kept track in the early days because I never thought I’d win that much,” said Carpenter. “There were years I’d win 35 times, but that was when I was younger.”

Those wins got him thinking about one day going on the road and chasing a series, and this year he decided to do it.

“Ohio Valley was the first race track I ever went to. Been racing there now for 32 years,” said Carpenter.

“I used to go to the Hillbilly 100 at Tyler County Speedway (Middlebourne, WV). Years ago, all these cars would show up there for that race with these big trailers. I’d stand back as a kid in my 20s and fantasize about being at that level someday. I’m kind of doing it now, following these top guys around, but just not at their level.”

While he’s not a youngster by any means, Carpenter admits he’s going to school.

“I’m learning a lot just watching these guys and racing with them,” said Carpenter.

“I’m too old to get a ride with one of those teams. I’m 55, they are not going to pick up an old man to drive for them. I’m just out here to do the best I can with what I got and have some fun.”

Carpenter won’t run 80 to 100 races like series top runners Devin Moran, Hudson O’Neal, or Ricky Thornton Jr., but thanks to sponsorship, he does have a busy year planned.

“I hope to run between 65 and 70 races. I’m committed to running the Lucas Series. There are weeks that they are off that I will run some other stuff around home,” said Carpenter.

Carpenter explained that the Lucas loyalty program to its teams is different from what is offered by other series, such as the Platinum deal given by the World Racing Group to its World of Outlaw and DIRTcar Modified teams.

“Lucas requires a security deposit at the start of the year. You have to have perfect attendance to the end of May to get your deposit back. There is no penalty for missing a race after that, other than you don’t get any points. It’s the points that decide what your awards are,” explained Carpenter.

“With Lucas, if you’re in the top 15 in the points, you get about $1,000 a night just to show. I need to get by four guys to get that show-up money, which would be huge for me.”

It cost a new team a $3,500 deposit to be a part of the Lucas Loyality Program if they sign up before the season starts. After the first race, that price goes upto $5,000. That offers the new team some of the perks and if they run every race up until the Show Me 100 on May 23, they get their deposit refunded.

Several teams that started the year with the Lucas series in February and March have begun to drop off the tour, including Delaware’s own Ross Robinson, who was on hand on Friday for his home-track race.

On Friday, Carpenter advanced one spot closer to the money, to 18th, and increased his series earnings to $4,900. Devin Moran, the current point leader in chase for the $250,000 to win championship, won for the fifth time this season at Georgetown, pushed his earnings to a series-high $129,949.

“A few guys are dropping off, which will help me move up, but I still need to keep making the show until then to at least get that feature start money,” said Carpenter.

“If I don’t make the show, I have to lick my wounds and go home. It pays different money to start at different races. Some are $700 to start, tonight it’s $1,000, others as much as $5,000, I believe.”

A top dirt Late Model crew chief is said to have annual earnings in the six-figure range. Carpenter runs on as low a budget as possible by doing much of the work himself.

“It depends on how serious you want to get, but they say on average it costs you about $150 a lap to run one of these cars,” said Carpenter.

On Friday, teams ran three laps of practice and another three during group qualifying, an eight-lap heat, and a 49-lap feature. Missing by one spot in the heat, Carpenter had to run an extra 10 laps in the B-Main, but he finished seventh and was lucky to get a feature spot.

If that estimate per lap is correct, having put 63 to 73 laps on their cars, teams that ran the feature would have spent at least $10,000 to run the event on Friday. Winner Moran was over that threshold, making $21,049 for his team, but he was the only one of the 29 entries to make more than $10,000. Runner-up Hudson O’Neal received $8,300 from the hefty purse; tenth-place finisher Dillon McCowan earned $3,000.

Carpenter received $1,300; all feature starters made a minimum of $1,000. So how does Carpenter make ends meet?

“I don’t put new tires on every time I go out. If I qualify good I go at it hard, but if I’m in the back, I don’t burn up our resources because for us to come from the back and get into the show will be difficult,” said Carpenter.

To save costs and earn a living, Carpenter builds Late Models for himself and others. He now also builds UMP-style Modifieds under his Kryptonite Chassis branding and is now entering the Street Stocks market.

“I build race cars, but I don’t try to use shop money to race because it’s a small business,” said Carpenter.

“I’m lucky I have a lot of sponsors that keep me going. I have a program where every 18 races, I post all the spots on my car for sale. Thankfully, I sell them to a lot of different people across the country. That gives me the money to get through a handful of races. Then people come up and help me here and there, buy me a tire or a jug of fuel. Being the underdog does have its rewards.”

It’s Carpenter’s goal to one day be running up front on the Lucas series, maybe beating those big teams and their talented, proven drivers.

“My goal is to one day be able to mix it up with those guys up front, and I think I can,” said Carpenter.

“I’ve had nights when my car has been on, and I run good. But the first quarter of the season, I’ve been experimenting, trying to find something better, and that’s bitten me too. Not only have I not been competitive, my car sucked too, which makes me look bad all around. I’m trying to get back now to what we know to be more competitive.”

Carpenter’s son, Tyler, might be better known to race fans across the country than his father, thanks to his success at the year-end Late Model event held inside the Dome in St. Louis in December.

“I’ve run good there and been fast, but my son Tyler is really good there. He’s won that race twice and had some other top finishes,” said Freddie proudly.

“My best finish was a seventh in the big show, but that was with a right rear flat tire for the last five laps. I still held on to finish top ten.”

So you wonder, why doesn’t Tyler drive for his dad on the Lucas Oil Late Model Series?

“He races Late Models at home. He’s got five kids that also race, so he stays close to home so they can race too,” said his proud father.

“His daughter just turned 16, she has a Late Model. He’s got four other kids that race Mini Wedges—a go-kart that resembles a Late Model. I guess I created a monster; everyone in the family is racing.”