Meet the Team - Charlie King

The next member in our “Meet the Team Series” is Charlie King, the mustachioed former driver from Dunnville. Charlie, who is in his mid-fifties and sells heavy trucks for Archer Truck Services, brings considerable racing knowledge to the organization, having started racing at the age of fifteen. He competed in the bomber class at Merrrittville and also put in one year in a late model at Merrittville and Ransomville in the mid-seventies. After his stint on the dirt, he switched to the pavement.

He explained, “I went pavement racing for quite a while. For about ten years. (I raced) at Flamboro, Delaware, and Cayuga, because I live out that way. We had some wins here and there. We were competitive. At Flamboro we were in the top five in the Street Stock class. If it was our night, we’d win. Then we ended up with a GM Motorsports car, which was a Camaro, for three years. That happened in ’89, ’90, and 91. We raced it at Mossport, Montreal, and Toronto. We did race at Cayuga once a year, with just Camaros and Firebirds. That’s about fifteen minutes from where I live.”

At the time, he preferred the pavement, but since then he has enjoyed the dirt.

After that Charlie took quite a bit of time off and didn’t race much at all. Then, when Mat started with his Sportsman car, his attention shifted. He noted, “I started with him. I was on a Cascar team with Joe Plazek for one year, with the Playstation No. 2 car, and I met Teddy (Renshaw) at that time. It was about two years later he asked me if I wanted to work with the team. I was with him the first night.”

Though there are no specific titles other than crew chief, Charlie does have a routine. He observed, “On Wednesday night, when we get together, I do all the nuts and bolts. We go around the car and check every nut and bolt. We’ve got a pretty good system that we go through. If Mat is going to change shocks, he’ll give me the shock package he wants, and then I help Randy (Williamson) with the setup once it’s up on the scales. At the track, it’s basically wheels and tires.”

Of the cohesiveness of the team, he declared, “We’ve been together for seven years straight now, between Dipper, Teddy, Randy, Mat and me. A couple guys have come and gone. I’ve been here from Day 1. Now, Wayne (Conn) is with the team, and he brings valuable experience. We all get along. We’ve had a routine right from Day 1. Everything gets looked at every week.”

Charlie has seen the progression in Mat’s career, noting, “In the Sportsman, he kind of kept his nose clean, minding his own business. In the first year of the Modifieds, again he kept his nose clean, but last year and this year he’s gotten really aggressive, which is the way it’s got to be. Now that we’re seven years into this, the third year in the Modifieds, we’re as fast as anybody. If we catch the breaks, it’s going to be our night to win. We shouldn’t move over for anybody. I don’t care who it is. I’m the kind of guy who says, ‘If we’re going to race, we’re going to RACE.”

It’s that kind of competitive spirit that fuels Mat, Charlie, and the rest of the team, and is why they are successful.