Charlie Schultz may not be a household name to fans outside of Northeast Ohio where he resides. But that is slowly changing due to his recent Must See Racing Sprint Series championship and his success in the series in recent seasons.
Charlie Schultz may not be a household name to fans outside of Northeast Ohio where he resides. But that is slowly changing due to his recent Must See Racing Sprint Series championship and his success in the series in recent seasons.
To locals, “Chargin‘ Charlie,” is a fan favorite thanks to his success in sprint cars, supermodifieds, karts, Focus midgets and three-quarter midgets over the years.
The early years of Schultz‘s career featured a lot of supermodified activity as well as a handful of sprint car events. Often Schultz would compete in supermodified events with his sprint car. It wasn‘t until 2017 that Schultz began to focus on sprint cars. It seems like this may have been a wise and calculated move. Schultz is arguably one of the better winged asphalt sprint car drivers in the nation, as evidenced by his MSR championship.
In 1978, Schultz‘s parents, Al and Anna, relocated from West Virginia to Lorain Ohio for teaching jobs.
“Both of my parents graduated from West Virginia Tech, which is now part of West Virginia University,” explained Schultz. “They both graduated with teaching degrees. After they graduated in the mid 1970s. The city of Lorain was very busy with industry. You had the steel mill, shipyards and Ford. A lot of big industry in the city itself. At that time, the Lorain City Schools were expanding teaching positions.
“My parents actually stopped on their honeymoon, on the way to Niagara Falls, and interviewed for teaching positions,” Schultz said. “They both got accepted and moved up here. They‘ve been here ever since.
“My dad‘s always been a drag race guy. He‘s always been a tried-and-true drag race guy. He always has been. My dad got into cars early. He got a part-time job in West Virginia at a speed shop and the guy had a dragster. He was a national champion,” Schultz continued. “Jim Minnick was his name. He had a car called the “Nitro Gasser” since it was from Nitro, West Virginia. My dad‘s deal has always been to try and make a motor as powerful as he can, to get you from point A to point B.
“One day he just happened to be driving by a body shop on the east side of Lorain and saw a race car in there and stopped. It was a big-block supermodified. Coincidentally, it belonged to John and legendary car builder Jim Bodnar. My dad got hooked up with them and started doing some engine stuff with them, and kinda got into the supermodified circles.”
A 17-year-old Schultz made his first sprint car start unexpectedly in 1996 while hanging out at Plymouth (Ind.) Speedway for a Hoosier Outlaw Winged Sprints event. Schultz had enjoyed a successful rookie season with the Can-Am TQ Midget Series.
“I had been good friends with Sam and Rose Stockon for a while,” explained Schultz. “I just happened to be at Plymouth Speedway for a winged asphalt sprint car event. Sam wasn‘t feeling well and asked me if I had my stuff with me, which I did. He asked me if I wanted to start the feature. I think I was running 10th or 11th, somewhere in there. We ended up having overheating issues that night. Sam was so happy and pleased that the car ran as well as it did that, he asked me if I‘d be interested in running the car again in a couple weeks at Baer Field Speedway.”
Schultz ran two more races for Stockon before he and his dad bought a 305 sprint car to race at Sandusky (Ohio) Speedway.
“We were at a point with the TQs that it was getting expensive,” Schultz said. “It wasn‘t just the travel to Canada. That‘s right when the TQ guys were changing from Suzuki engines over to water cooled Kawasakis. Guys were spending upwards of 10 grand for an engine. Dad said we can go run a 305-pavement car and run for the same amount of money but only have 10 grand in the entire car.
“Our original plan was to run 305 events on pavement at Sandusky. By the time we got things going we had a 360 sitting there. We decided to put it together and go run some Auto Value Super Sprints and Pennzoil Outlaw Winged Sprints shows.”
Living in an area where supermodifieds reigned supreme, buying a sprint car may have been seen as a surprising move.
“I can‘t honestly say what made me go toward the sprint car side of it,” Schultz noted. “I‘ve always been a dirt sprint car fan. I‘ve always liked sprint cars from the standpoint of what kind of beast they are. Supers at the time were very popular in the area. I think it just boiled down to what we had. We had a cast-iron 360 block motor sitting there. We eventually bought a Stealth car Howard Stone had that Brian Tyler had been driving. We ended up going the sprint car route.”