Billy Hicks Racing announced ahead of the 3rd Annual Scott Bloomquist Memorial Scorcher that Kaede Loudy would be the new pilot and driver for the team.
The team announced on Facebook, “Kaede Loudy SET TO WHEEL THE #79 AT VOLUNTEER SPEEDWAY”
Loudy spoke with StockCarReport.com about how the deal came together ahead of the race and credited his performances in his family-owned MasterSBilt car throughout the year as key in earning the opportunity.
The Rogersville, Tennessee native in his No. 126 MasterSBilt has put together a number of solid runs this year including most recently a win at Tazewell earlier this month after Forrest Trent was penalized for a deck height infraction. He especially turned heads during the Prairie Dirt Classic when he finished third in his Showdown feature on Friday, July 24th and then followed that up with a 13th place finish on Saturday night during the Crown Jewel race. After that he had a solid showing at Florence Speedway for the North/South despite being in an underpowered motor. He made the Group B feature on Thursday night finishing 24th and then got a top 10 on Friday night with a 9th place finish in the Group B feature.
“We’ve proved that we can compete with anybody in the country, I feel like. My MasterSbilt’s been very good to me since we debuted it at this place back in July with the Ray Cook deal and we’ve been super consistent and just ran up front everywhere we went,” Loudy shared. “[Billy Hicks] called me last Wednesday and said, ‘Hey, I want to race. You want to drive for me?’ And I was like, ‘Well, let’s put together something. We’ll see how it goes.'”
“We’re both going into it with open minds and going race race-to-race and just see where it goes,” he added.
Loudy had a decent debut at Volunteer. He qualified 13th, advanced a position in his heat race to finish fourth, and started the feature in 10th. He then faced some significant adversity as he got caught up in a Lap 35 wreck, but was able to battle back and survive a chaotic final 15 laps of the 50-lap feature to finish in 8th.
As for what their immediate plans are for after Volunteer, Loudy shared, “I think we’re going to go to I-75 Saturday and just kind of race places I’m familiar with.”
He also shared that there will be a learning curve as he transitions from his MasterSbilt to a Longhorn and gets a big Clements engine under the hood, “I’ve never raced a Longhorn and he’s got good Clements motors. Never had a good Clements under me or drove a Longhorn before so we’re going to go some places I’m familiar with first and build a notebook and get comfortable and go from there.”
“The biggest thing is probably going to be the motor,” Loudy added. “Race cars are so close nowadays. It’s all in just putting the right pieces under them. I’ve helped people in Rockets and helped people in Longhorns. Just all about getting the right balance and getting comfortable. You never know what next week brings and we’re just going to take it day-to-day and work like it’s my own stuff.”
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