A lucky guy, on and off the track
He’s best-known for being one of the most successful dirt track, big-block modified racers in the United States, with more than starts.
Racing primarily in the U.S. northeast against dirt shorttrack legends like Brett Hearn, Matt Sheppard and Billy Decker, Friesen has won more than his share. In fact, before it was shut down in 2015, he had a lock on the Super DIRT Week big-block feature that was held every October on the mile track at the New York state Fairgrounds in Syracuse. That race paid $50,000 to win and Friesen won it four of the last six years it was held.
But the reason we were talking wasn’t about his skill and expertise on the short tracks; it was about his season in the trucks, the re-awakening of his NASCAR ambitions and his first time shifting gears and turning right on purpose.
So is he really going to be flying blind when he gets to CTMP? It’s a pretty daunting place for a race driver going around it for the first time.
“Well,” said Friesen, “I’ll have been there without really having been there — if you catch my drift. I’m in North Carolina at the moment (on Monday) and I’m about to have a session in a Chevy simulator. I’ll be able to familiarize myself with Canadian Tire Motorsport Park so that when I get there and head out on the track, I’ll know my way around.”
Now, it must be pointed out here that Friesen, who moved on from go-karts to the CanAm TQ Midget Club — they raced at places like Lancaster Speedway near the Buffalo Airport and at Flamboro Speedway near Hamilton — and then into sportsmen and, finally, the modifieds, is not a total stranger to road racing. He did, in fact, attend the Ron Fellows Driving School at Spring Mountain in Nevada — for a day.
“I did a Corvette school day in Nevada months ago that was through Chevrolet and Ron Fellows (CTMP co-owner) was out there,” he said. “I got to meet him and he gave me some pointers. That was my first taste of it (road racing). It was a lot of fun. That’s obviously not Canadian Tire Motorsport Park but it helped a lot when it came to braking technique and shifting technique and stuff like that. Hopefully it’ll help.”
Years ago, the late Craig Hill told me that any good racing driver can drive any kind of racing car once they get familiar with it. Friesen said he’d heard the same thing.
“I’m kind of hoping my skill set will roll over a little bit once we get racing,” he said. “I hope I’m not going to be too much of a fish out of water.”
Friesen races for a living, so he’s on a speedway somewhere as many as four or five times a week, in addition to racing the truck.
“The northeast modified stuff is so busy,” he said. “Were going pretty much every weekend through the summer months and then there’s midweek specials and the truck racing. As a race team, we’re trying to hit as many races as we can and we’ve had a bunch of wins, so everything’s good there. All in all, it’s been a crazy summer but it’s also been a lot of fun.”
Friesen said at one time he had aspirations of landing a NASCAR Cup ride but let those dreams go when he couldn’t find a sponsor to go with him to the big league. But in recent years, he met some people — a gentleman named Chris Larsen, in particular — and that’s all changed. He sees the trucks as the start of a climb to the top.
“As my racing career progressed,” he said, “I’d kind of put the NASCAR dream on the back burner. I concentrated on modifieds to make a living for my family and everything was going great and then I got tied up with some people who wanted to try NASCAR and I went, ‘Wow!’ and the dream kind of came back alive and here we are.
“I love it, travelling to all the different tracks. Growing up, I only ever saw them on TV and now I’m out there, makin’ laps. And then this year, with our alliance with Chevrolet, I’m being competitive, and having shots at winning races, and running in the top five, and it’s just been such a cool experience.”
Where does Friesen see his career going, now that he’s making his mark in the truck series?
“I don’t know,” he said. “Racing is so sponsorship-driven. At the very least, we’ll be back in the trucks again next year but we have to wait and see what happens. Doing as well as we have the last couple of months has kind of gotten a buzz going in the industry. That’s been good. But there’s nothing set in stone, or offers, or nothing has materialized yet, so I’ll keep doing this as long as I can and see what happens.”
Friesen doesn’t think the fact that he’s 35 should have any negative effect on his Cup ambitions.
“Things are looking good,” he said. “Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer and all those guys are in their 40s and kicking butt in Cup. Harry Gant was Cup rookie of the year when he was 40 and had a pretty strong Cup career from 40 to 50, so I have time.
“If I can get there, great; if not, the modified gig is going pretty good. I’m a competitive guy and anything I do I want to do at the highest level. I’m pretty fortunate to have two great race teams — the trucks and the dirt modified team.”
He’s fortunate in another way, too. He married a fine racing driver, Jessica Zemken, who ran with the World of Outlaws sprint car series, and they have a 2-year-old son, Parker.
“She’s kind of backed off from the sprint car deal, with all the travelling, but she hasn’t stopped racing,” Friesen said. “We put a modified together for her this year and when I’ve been home, we’ve raced Fonda (Speedway) together and she’s had a couple of top fives and she’s been doing pretty good.”
Which doesn’t mean that she’s totally responsible for taking care of the child, either.
“We live in Sprakers, N.Y., which is about 45 minutes west of Albany,” he said. “We have a screen-printing T-shirt business we started four or five years ago, so when I’m home and not racing, I’ll take care of Parker and she’ll go out to the print shop. It’s great to spend time with him because he’s growing up so fast.
“Jess will say, ‘Don’t you remember something that happened when he was 2 months old?’ and I don’t even remember. I guess it’s nature’s way of blocking out all the crazy nights.”