Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – Charlie Donald’s car will still be sporting the familiar number and color scheme during the 2023 season that he has raced with for many successful years at the Orange County Fair Speedway.
However, the veteran will have a new look for the new year.
Fans of Charlie’s are used to seeing him in his vintage late 70’s Camaro Street Stock. But for 2023, the Jalopy Jet team will be racing with a much newer body on the #32.
“This is a chassis that we ran in a few years ago. It was the Tommy Meier tribute car,” Donald said. “After the car got wrecked, we put it off to the side. I came up with a brainstorm to get a car from a junkyard, 1 2013 Camaro. We gutted it, put it on and we were pretty amazed on how well it fit on the 1979 chassis. So we are going to race a 2013 Camaro in 2023.”
For many years a fan favorite, Charlie has accumulated 29 wins (3rd on the all time list) and two championships throughout the years, including his biggest win in the 2015 Eastern States Weekend Street Stock race. Charlie is looking for a good 2023.
“Our goal, like everybody else, is to win the championship again. Everyone will be racing hard for this championship. But really, I just want to get into Victory Lane again. And to keep the car in one piece.”
Throughout the years, Donald’s cars have been yellow and black with a little red mixed in. Two years ago, he added some teal to the look and he’s gotten to like it. Charlie expects the paint job (he does the painting himself) to have some more teal, which gives it a very sharp look.
“When I first switched it up and added some teal, I looked at it and loved it. We’ve been tossing around some paint jobs. I have one scheme that I like. I won’t know until I put it on the car. Once I paint it, I hope we like it, because we’re going to have to live with it. But I really feel we are having more teal on the car than last year.”
Although he didn’t have any wins in 2022, Charlie said he had some good things happen. And some not so good things also.
“We missed two races right at the start of the season. I was at my step-daughter’s (Rilee Davies) gymnastics competition. She’s my little munchkin. Her state meet was on our opening night. As much as she is a fan of me racing, I’m a fan of watching her gymnastics competitions. She wanted me to race while she did the gymnastics. I said absolutely not. I don’t want to be racing wondering how she is doing. And I don’t want her up there wondering how I’m doing. I’m glad I skipped the racing, she did very well.”
As his season wore on, Charlie had some motor issues. But his competitors in the Street Stock division and help from another awesome person helped Charlie get to the end of the season.
“Once we got racing, we had a good start, we had a top 3. But later on we blew a motor with 3 weeks to go in the season. We borrowed a motor from Jerry Wildrick. Had carburetor issues. We worked on it but couldn’t get it straightened out.
With one race to go, I was going to call it a season. But before the last night, a bunch of my Street Stock buddies came over and said that they weren’t going to let the car sit in the trailer. We rolled it off the trailer and figured out what it was. We got out and raced the last night. It wasn’t our best outing. But we got to finish.”
It was just another time that the Street Stock group from OCFS got together to help out another driver. The camaraderie that one sees amongst that group is amazing.
Charlie has always been one of those racer’s that gives so much back to the sport. The Jalopy Jet has made numerous trips to car shows and schools.
“We are going to try to do some more ‘Meet and Greet’ events. We will be going to School Time Children’s Center in Walden, NY, a pre-k school. Just seeing the look on the faces. They don’t often get a chance to see a racecar up close. We try to give as much back as we can.”
Another racing family that Charlie has gotten to know through the years is the Lowden Family. Billy Lowden Jr. has done much of the work on getting the 2013 Camaro body onto the car. Donald has been mentoring Izzy Lowden as she raced her first full season at OCFS.
“When I first started helping the OCFS Kids Club, Izzy was the first that I helped get into the Little Ms. OCFS pageant. Fast forward a few years and Rilee gets into the Little Ms. I went to see Izzy race Quarter Midgets at Blue Mountain Speedway. She was surprised to see me show up. Izzy and her dad called up and said they were getting into Street Stock racing. And they were going to need as much help as they could get. So I told them I could help out with anything hands on or wisdom and things like that. Izzy blew up a motor midway through the season and they were going to call it quits. I happened to have a spare motor. They used my motor for the rest of the season. I tried to help Izzy on where to drive, how to drive. Try to be consistent. She is a very awesome student.”
On board as sponsors of the Jalopy Jet for the 2023 season are Lothar’s Body Shop (Middletown), Sedita-1 Motorsports (Rob and Jenny Sedita) and School Time Children’s Center (Walden).
Crew members for the 32 are Rob Sedita, Stacey Davies, Rilee Davies, Kaitlyn Davies, Connor Donald and Charlie’s dad, Pops.
Charlie Donald is one of those racers that is great for the sport, both on and off the track. If he should drive it into Victory Lane this year, there will be a lot of happy folks. He’s one of the really good guys. Good Luck in 2023 Charlie. Grab that win #30!!
