By Joe Verdegan

Contributing Writer

When the racing season begins each spring, Kyle Frederick knows full well that even the best laid out plans can change.

Frederick, of Oconto Falls, had no real intentions of chasing the IMCA Stock Car points title at Shawano Speedway in 2014. But after four straight wins in the month of May, it was basically a no brainer to keep running the fabled half-mile, clay oval on Saturday nights.

“I actually was going to run for points Sundays at Seymour and just sort of bounce around from track to track on the other nights,” Frederick said, whose career boasts 55 career feature wins, of which 45 of those are IMCA sanctioned Stock Car wins. The other 10 are season-ending specials in the months of September and October.

“Just running weekly on Sunday nights worked out for me schedule wise for the summer with the family. I really didn’t even want to get sucked into a points chase,” he said. “When I won the opener at Shawano I actually thought they had a night in already.”

Since Frederick had to go back the following Saturday to carry the American flag for the parade lap, he figured he may as well race anyhow.

Frederick, the 2011 track champion at Seymour, has been snake bitten no less than a half dozen times locally in more than one weekly points battles.

“I’ve come up short more than once on those title chases so it would be really nice to add a Shawano title to the resume’,” Frederick said. “In fact Bert Lehman told me when I was there I doubled my feature win total at Shawano during my first three weeks running there. I had no idea.”

Frederick ended 2013 with a bang, winning the Custom Windows Plus Badger Stock Tour Series finale at 141 Speedway in Francis Creek at the Creek Classic. He’s also won late season specials at tracks like Chilton and Antigo, in addition to the locally sanctioned IMCA tracks.

“You know I’m not sure what it is – maybe it’s because I take the attitude that I’ve got all winter to fix anything so I just go all out,” Frederick said. “Not sure why but I always seem to run very well towards the end of the year when those specials roll around and the weekly stuff is all done. I just seem to lay it all on the table and it’s seemed to work out for us so far. Plus while everyone else is partying it up at those two-day shows, that’s when we take things pretty seriously yet.”

Kyle’s car is a brand new Wolfe chassis.

“The car sat in Jon Courchaine’s shop in pieces last year,” Frederick said. “He made me a deal that if I took the time to put it together I could run it. Jon’s busy with work and an off-road truck so he couldn’t commit to it from a time standpoint.”

Frederick has also been lent a hand from Troy Krueger and also bounces ideas on his ride from a fellow IMCA Stock Car veteran Ben Kroll.  “We talk a lot on everything from cams in the motors to gearing and stuff.”

Frederick is used to competing in other people’s cars.

“In 2013 I drove five different race cars during the course of the season,” he said.

He put all of them in the top five at some point during the year.

“It really opened my eyes the first time I drove Ben Kroll’s car — just from a standpoint of what I was racing against. It was a night and day difference and I was excited to put something new together,” Frederick said.

Like many divisions locally the IMCA Stock Cars have taken a bit of a dip collectively at area tracks.

“It’s hard to point to one specific reason for it,” Frederick said. “I think the fact that now there are a bunch of classes is one reason. Look at 5 or 10 years ago, the Stock Cars had guys like Shawn Kilgore, Benji Lacrosse and Jay Matthias running in it. Those guys are still tough and winning in the Mods. We had a lot more competition back then. Right now the truth is, I just don’t think there are as many guys on any given night who can still win. Personally I tend to welcome competition versus going where there isn’t many cars.”
Frederick said he still has plans to race Sunday nights at Seymour Speedway, and bounce around a bit on Friday nights occasionally between Luxemburg Speedway and Oshkosh Speedzone.

Among the stable of sponsors helping out Frederick’s racing effort in 2014 are Iron Horse Sales and Service, Iron Horse Recycling, Custom Windows Plus, Complete Radiator, Kids Kingdom Daycare, Lena Swamp Archery, Kelsey Coatings, Big Johnson Harvesting, Schaal Repair, Kozaks Carquest, Lazerform, Quality Welding, Frederick Hay Sales and T & L Construction.

Kyle’s pit crew consists of Branden Demerath.

“Branden’s there, pretty much has been with me every weekend,” Frederick said. “We painted the chassis and put it all back together during the offseason. He’s there nonstop for me.”

Others chipping in the effort include Jeremy Petersen, Andy Buss and Bert Loberger (no relation to fellow IMCA Stock Car driver Dustin Loberger of Oconto Falls).

(This article first appeared in the June 2014 issue of Full Throttle magazine.)