Tim McCreadie: Juggling race cars until something works

After the first win in 2018, McCreadie explains the new program including the much smaller trailer

McCreadie picked up his first LOLMDS win of 2018 in the North South Shootout

Tim McCreadie has struggled for the bulk of the 2018 racing season. From February to early August, McCreadie was blank in the win column. At this same point in 2017, McCreadie had 4 wins.

At the point of the 2017 North/South Shootout at Florence Speedway, McCreadie had collected $188,425 in race earnings. He also sat 3rd in series standings.

As of the 2018 North South Shootout, McCreadie had race tallied race earnings of only $93,075. In addition, he’s currently 6th in series standings.

That all changed on Thursday night. Tim McCreadie won his heat race then went on to hold off Bobby Pierce to take his first win of the season in a finish that nearly mirrored last year’s North South 100.

“It was pretty good, Tim McCreadie explains to RacingNews.co following his first win of 2018. “The ending was a little tighter than we’d like it to be. We kinda faded a little.”

“But, this is the first weekend out with this car. The engine is an engine that I ran last year. So, it’s a different engine combination than I’ve ran for most of the season. Same engine builder just a different engine combination.”

“It fits me. We started with a different design of the motor this year. We just went back to the stuff we were doing. We should have did it months ago.”

“Sometimes you just try to work with what you got. Then hopefully it works. But, it wasn’t working.”

Did you start the season out with new cars?

“Yes. Well, they haven’t all been new. Frame wise, this might be the fourth frame that we’ve tried this year.”

Tim McCreadie has been struggling since the first swing of the tour when they went to Georgia and Florida. After a night of struggling at East Bay Raceway Park the team rolled out the backup. “It didn’t help,” McCreadie told me back in February.

“The two in Florida I didn’t like, they were different. One of those wasn’t brand new. It was a car that was driven by a different guy last year.”

“Then I ran Justin’s car that he had. It was in the shop. Then, we built a new one. Now, this one is another one. This is the first one that’s completely new.”

In victory lane when you said that you went back to the stuff that you were using last year. Is that just the equipment or is that the setup too?

“Really all of it. Motor combination, setup combination and the design of the car. There’s a few little differences as far as different thing that they do in their shop. But, design wise it’s the design they’ve been using for years.”

“Guys have been able to take this car and be very competitive with it. Not that my cars were different because they weren’t. But, it was just a couple subtle things to try and make them maybe… I don’t know, you’d have to ask Justin.”

“This year, we tried some other new stuff to get better. Part of being the guy that’s trying to do this deal is you’re trying to improve the car for everybody. They don’t have as much time to do that.”

“So, what I do is… If we come up with a new design. Or Jonathan and Kevin and them. It filters down to everybody else. They just didn’t go in that direction. So, we’re just kinda like everybody else now.”

Tim McCreadie's trailer
Tim McCreadie’s trailer

What’s the reason for the smaller trailer?

“This is Justin’s truck and trailer. We don’t have the ability to have a truck driver. Carl, our main sponsor owns the truck and trailer. He wants somebody hired by Sweetners or myself.”

“The problem with that is I don’t have the time to get my CDL license. I got so much going on in my life that I haven’t had time. Anybody else driving it, they have to be a Sweetners Plus employee. They have to have one of their truck drivers.”

“For them to do it, it’s a pay cut. Nobody want to do it. So, here we are. Unfortunately, that’s what we got.”

Earlier in the season you said you didn’t have a truck driver and that was preventing you from going testing. Now that you have this trailer does that mean you’re out there testing again?

“No, we haven’t tested at all. This car, the first laps on it were at Florence on Wednesday.”

“It would be cool to test. But, it would be cool to be home too a lot. Like I was the last two weeks with my wife and my kids. They deserve more than I can give them.”

“If I had a choice it would be to do that and not test. Hopefully, we can build fast cars. Until the program changes and we can do more.”

I think the fans will look back on this weekend in a few months and see it as the turning point for Tim McCreadie’s 2018 season. Tomorrow night, the $50,000-to-win North/South 100 will conclude at Florence Speedway. McCreadie is the defending winner of the event.

Tim McCreadie wins at Florence Speedway 5302
Tim McCreadie wins at Florence Speedway 5302
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Related: Tim McCreadie details the lack of consistency early in 2018

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Tim McCreadie | Longhorn Chassis | LOLMDS | Shane Walters

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