Inside Dirt Late Model Racing
Column: For Loudy, ‘all I wanted to do was race’
Kaede Loudy’s two-race stint last weekend driving North Carolina car owner Billy Hicks’s familiar No. 79 was essentially a “trial run.” No agreement for future events together — let alone a regular deal — was made.
Nevertheless, it was a milestone of sorts for the upstart 21-year-old driver from Rogersville, Tenn. In his fourth full season of Super Late Model competition, he finally had his phone ring with an offer to just bring his helmet and firesuit and pilot a top-quality car.
“He called me on Wednesday before Eldora (Speedway’s recent World 100), kind of asked me if I would be interested in driving some for him,” Loudy said of Hicks, the former standout racer who has had multiple drivers run his machine in recent years. “There was nothing said like, ‘Hey, you’re gonna be full-time for me,’ but I was thankful for the opportunity.”
For a young driver like Loudy who’s grinding away in a quixotic pursuit of a career as a Dirt Late Model driver, just getting a call from Hicks, one of the Southeast’s most well-known figures, was a confidence- and morale-builder.
“It’s humbling and rewarding,” Loudy said earlier this week from his race shop. “All this stuff costs so much money, and me doing it myself out of my own pocket mainly is obviously not easy. Getting a chance (with Hicks) makes it feel like the work you’ve been putting in may be turning out to be worth it, as if it’s worth doing, I guess.”
Loudy’s results in Southern All Star-sanctioned action with Hicks were relatively quiet as he adjusted to driving a Longhorn Chassis for the first time — he finished eighth in last Thursday’s Scott Bloomquist Memorial Scorcher at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., and 10th on Saturday at I-75 Raceway in Sweetwater, Tenn. — but the good vibes he gained from the experience were real.
In a sense, hooking up with Hicks raised Loudy’s stature — perhaps even more than his first-ever Dirt Late Model feature win, which he earned just days earlier, on Sept. 6, in the Southern All Star tour’s Buddy Rogers Memorial at Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway.
“You just wait for the right time and the right opportunity, and I feel like the Billy Hicks deal may have been the first step in doing that,” Loudy said. “I think that maybe people see me drive for him, it may open some eyes to some saying, ‘Hey, he is looking for something. He doesn’t have everything and he’s willing to do what it takes.’
“It’s kind of the way I've chose to look at it, because I feel like, you know, some people take for granted that just being at the racetrack means you have everything. It’s like, well, if you’re there, then you can afford to do it. But they don’t really see more of the big picture. They don’t know the whole story until they are around and present to understand.”
Loudy’s story is the quintessential one of a kid with a dream of marking down “race car driver” as his occupation. He’ll do anything to make it a reality.
“I mean, yeah, that’s my goal, is to obviously do it for a living,” Loudy said. “Any guy that I feel like is in the sport, to an extent, they either do it because they enjoy it as a hobby or they’re doing it to try and get somewhere with it. I feel like I’ve kind of proven in a sense, doing it the way I’ve done it, that I want to do it for a living, driving for somebody. I’m just kind of a do-whatever-it-takes-to-get-the-job-done kind of guy.”
Indeed, Loudy’s entire being revolves around racing. Racing and working on his own car, finding ways to fund his efforts, helping others competitors to hasten his learning curve — it’s all part of his existence.
“It’s kind of funny,” Loudy said. “We went and ate Friday night after testing with Billy’s stuff, and we’re at dinner at Chili’s and (Hicks) said, ‘Dang, you really do eat, sleep and breathe this racing,’ because I was eating and watching highlights (on his phone) from I think it was a MARS race or something. I was like, ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do for a living. I don’t care about nothing else. I do, as a matter of fact, eat, sleep and breathe it.’
“I mean, I ain’t hanging out at the bar. I ain’t going and playing 18 holes on a golf course. Like, I’m in the shop working on my stuff or helping somebody else or trying to work new avenues of getting somebody to help contribute to the team. Just whatever it takes.”
Loudy feels like his dedication to racing came naturally. He was literally born into the sport with his father, Kirk Loudy, a noted veteran shock specialist and his maternal grandfather, Steve Boley, a Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame driver from West Liberty, Iowa.
“When I was first born, my dad worked at AFCO (Shocks),” Loudy said. “He was like the lead shock engineer or whatever, and I was at the racetrack at like 6 weeks old.
“I really didn’t have a choice (of becoming interested in racing) because we lived in Indiana, and then we moved to Tennessee. He was doing shock stuff all the time, and I always played with Hot Wheels or 1/64th diecast cars, just whatever racing, and anytime he’d go to the racetrack he took me with him. Then he took me to the gokart track (as a youngster) and got me a gokart. I won my third race out in my gokart, and then all I wanted to do was race because it was kind of all I was around.
“Of course, being a kid, you play some sports, but I learned real quick that I wanted to race and I ain’t gave up on it yet.”
After relocating to Tennessee from Iowa to live with his father when he was a high school sophomore, Loudy began his dive into Dirt Late Model racing in earnest. He found his outlet through racer Forrest Trent of Morristown, Tenn.
“Forrest was actually looking for a crew guy and I was 16 and wasn’t racing at the time, so I was like, ‘Hey, I might as well go make some money because I ain’t working at Walmart or a burger joint,’ ” Loudy said. “I worked with him and we’ve become very good buddies over the years. We’ve still gone racing together over the past four or five years just on and off … he just races for fun, and we enjoy racing together.”
The longstanding relationship Loudy’s father had with MasterSbilt Race Cars in Crothersville, Ind., also led to an educational opportunity and, eventually, a chance to race himself.
“My dad worked within their shop with various people, like (Scott) Bloomquist and Rick Aukland, John Gill, and he helped (company co-owner) Tader (Masters) some on shock stuff with (Don) O’Neal when they were doing the house car stuff” (in the late-2000s and early-2010s, Loudy said. “When (Hudson) O’Neal was driving for them (in 2020), I went and worked, I guess, with them as like a crew guy. I was still in high school then.”
In 2021 Loudy got his shot behind the wheel of a Dirt Late Model. Indiana lumber company owner Jim Beeman, a sponsor of the MasterSbilt house car team, offered Loudy the use of a car, crate engine and trailer.
“Jim was like, ‘Hey, if you want to race, I’ve got this car, this crate motor, so just take it, go race it the rest of the year, and get your feet wet. Then maybe you can come up with enough stuff to race your own stuff or something,’” Loudy said.
Loudy didn’t race in ’22, but he stayed busy raising money to fund his own Super Late Model debut. He had already saved up some cash, and then he earned more working as a crew member for Bobby Pierce during the DIRTcar Summer Nationals and some additional races. By August he had the $10,000 he needed to purchase a Super Late Model engine from Indiana racer Kent Robinson, and that winter he worked for Trent’s disaster relief company and made enough money to have the powerplant freshened and go racing in ’23.
A MasterSbilt Race Car was Loudy’s vehicle for the 2023-24 seasons. He joined forces with legendary chassis builder Barry Wright in ’25 to run what was essentially a house car — having his engine and a motor from Wright allowed him to enter a personal-high of nearly 50 events — but returned to the MasterSbilt fold this season, campaigning a newly-designed entry with the moniker “Unlimited” that he debuted in early April.
While Loudy has flashed his talent and potential — most notably, winning the Schaeffer’s Southern Nationals championship last year — his lone victory is his $5,044 score earlier this month at Tazewell. The joy of that one was tempered a bit because he inherited it because of a rear-deck violation penalty given to his buddy Trent, the apparent winner whose car was actually prepared for the night by Loudy because Trent was too busy with business commitments, but it marked a long-awaited step in his career.
Loudy has been competitive often, but wins have been hard to come by. Contributing to that is the fact that he simply can’t run the ragged edge to bid for checkered flags due to his modest racing program, which includes one car and one motor. That engine happens to still be the one he bought at a bargain price four years ago.
“That’s the same motor I still race,” Loudy said. “Pro Power built it in 2001 originally, and if I remember, it was built for Jimmy Mars to go to Eldora.
“It does good at its places. We kind of come to the conclusion that, like, if you have to get below like a .596 gear (at a track), we don’t need to go. So we try to pick races that we can stay above a .596 gear and usually it’s pretty competitive.
“We just try to race within our means with what we have,” he added. “We just freshen it about once a year because that’s about all we can really afford to do.”
There’s no frills to Loudy’s effort. He uses a standard, single-car enclosed trailer provided to him by his loyal sponsor, Bruce Miller Masonry, and pulls it with his pickup truck that has a “gooseneck ball in it.” He often doesn’t even have a crew member along to help him.
“Like at Tazewell a few weeks ago when we won that race, it was just me there working on it. I had zero crew help,” Loudy said. “It was kind of funny — the photographers (during victory lane ceremonies) said, ‘Would you like to get your crew in the picture?’ And I said, ‘Well, you see it.’ ”
Loudy admits that the limits of his resources show up in how he races. Ask him if he usually thinks twice before making a risky but perhaps fruitful move, and he’ll quickly respond.
“I think sometimes I think more than twice about it,” Loudy said. “It’s like, you’ll be in position thinking, ‘Can I take that spot and maybe get a little bit more or?’ Or do you just kind of be patient and let things fall where they may? You know, a lot of times we just gotta bite our tongue and grit our teeth, just be patient, and just wait for that right place at the right time.
“For myself, with one car, one motor, minimal crew help, other guys will get up on that cushion and I’ll be like a lane off of it just because we don’t really necessarily have all the stuff to just throw another car back together or just get at backup car out.”
Loudy doesn’t bemoan his situation though. He understands that crashing out not only costs him money but also reduces his seat time.
“We definitely have to race a little more manageable, but I’m not the one that’s gonna play the poor, pitiful me card,” Loudy said. “It’s the cards we’ve been dealt and we play them to the best of our ability. You know, every lap is another lap to learn. You just gotta be patient and sometimes just take what you’re given instead of taking a little bit more and being out for a couple months because you chose to be greedy and get too much.
“A good friend of mine told me something at the start of the year. We had some engine troubles (in April at Volunteer), and I was gonna keep racing even though it was having some issues. A quote he said that I’ll never forget was, ‘Is the juice worth the squeeze?’ ”
It’s not the optimum way to race, but it’s getting Loudy the experience he hopes will translate to bigger opportunities — and more wins — in the future. He believes he’s taken a step forward this season despite his schedule shrinking to two-dozen starts, including last weekend’s action with Hicks.
“It’s definitely been a step back this year on the number of races, but I feel like this year it’s been more valuable races,” said Loudy, who has three top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in 2026 and realized a big personal achievement in July by coming from deep in a semifeature field to transfer into the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway (he finished 13th in the 100-lapper). “There’s been a lot of races, like when we go a regional race, that we’re very, very competitive instead of necessarily just kind of being there. We’re more consistent and maybe more prepared would be the word, instead of just going because we feel like we have to be there.”
Loudy is also staying active even when his finances and equipment status prevent him from racing. He’ll typically be seen at a track somewhere, assisting other racers as a “consultant” or general crew guy. He’s periodically helped teenager Beckham Malone since last fall. In fact, with Loudy’s next racing scheduled for Oct. 2-3’s Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series finale at I-75, he’ll turn wrenches for Malone’s family-owned team this weekend at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway’s Hunt the Front twinbill and Sunday’s rescheduled Jack Starrette Memorial at Modoc (S.C.) Speedway. Earlier this season he went on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series road with Daulton Wilson and the Big Frog Motorsports team, which is based out of Double Down Motorsports owner Roger Sellers’s shop in Tennessee just 30 minutes from Loudy, for a swing through the Northeast and he spent the World 100 crewing for his pal Ashton Winger after initially planning to only spectate at Eldora.
“It’s another chance for me to learn and be at some places I’ve never been to, so maybe I can apply that if I ever go out there or see that type of dirt or, you know, just anything,” Loudy said of his work with other drivers and teams. “It’s not necessarily to learn off of people, but I get to work on the car and understand different situations and help other people. It also helps me at the same time because I can’t afford to go race every weekend, so when I do take that week off, you’re still learning.”
Loudy wants to race. He lives to race. But he understands that reaching the heights he envisions for himself behind the wheel will take more than just turning laps.
“Anytime you’re at the racetrack is another chance to learn, so that’s the way I’ve kind of looked at it,” Loudy said. “If I just take the week off because I can’t afford to go race myself and I sit home and watch it, I mean, I ain’t learning nothing. I’m just a fan. I try to take advantage of every possible way to be involved and learn something new.”
It’s a mindset that he hopes, combined with his work ethic and desire, will take him where he wants to go.
“I’m just very thankful for everyone who helps me,” he said, “and hopefully it just keeps turning into more.”
