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NMCA Racer SPOTLIGHT Tripp Carter

Posted By: Evan J. Smith
The Holley EFI Factory Super Cars racer gives it everything he has and goes for glory
 
Interview by Mary Lendzion
Photography by the FSC staff

 
A part of his life for as long as he can remember, Tripp Carter appreciates adventure and adrenaline rushes. He was just five years old when he began riding dirt bikes. He went on to have some exceptionally exciting race boats, street machines, and race cars. 
 
Among them is the 2019 Mustang Cobra Jet clone that he campaigns in NMCA Holley EFI Factory Super Cars and in the Watson Racing Cobra Jet Showdown.
 
Because Carter is highly competitive and wants to win, he is committed to setting himself up for success by working with some of the best businesses in the motorsports industry. Among them is Watson Racing in Michigan, which constructed Carter’s Mustang Cobra Jet clone with a Coyote engine and Whipple supercharger. It is also maintained by this talented team, which turns out top-notch work.
 
As a result, Carter makes motoring to mid-sevens in the quarter-mile look easy, even though it definitely is not. He won races and set records, he finished in second place in points during the 2022, 2021, and 2020 campaigns, and third place back in 2019. That is proof that he has what it takes to earn a championship in the category where high-horsepower cars are famous for being a handful to drive. 
 
To know Carter, however, is to realize that the sometimes precarious passes that force him to tap the pedal, or take his foot off of it altogether, are part of what makes him even more passionate about racing.
 
When he is not racing, Carter enjoys spending time with his significant other, Wanda Hunsucker, who is as beloved in the racing community as he is. A rock and heavy metal music fan, he also goes to as many concerts as he can. Some of his favorite performers are Lamb of God, Black Label Society, the Deftones, and Ozzy Osbourne, and he has already made plans to set sail on the Headbangers Boat, which will go from Miami, Florida to Nassau, Bahamas, toward the end of 2023.
 
Read on for more about the Tennessean, who recently sold the historic Hunt-Phelan home he owned in Memphis and now lives in what he refers to as a metal shop house he had built on 200 acres just outside of Memphis.


 
WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR EARLY EXPOSURE TO RACING.
 
I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and my father, Marvin, raced a Henry J for a while, and had a couple other cars, including a 1955 Chevy and a 1956 Chevy. He is in a car club called the Memphis Rodders with Joe Lunati from Lunati Cams and a lot of other people who were originators in drag racing. I used to go with him to the track and to the car club gatherings, and we would also go to Lakeland International Raceway in Lakeland, Tennessee, to watch drag racing. That is how I got the bug. 
 
DID YOUR FATHER’S LOVE OF CLASSIC CARS INFLUENCE YOUR CHOICE FOR YOUR FIRST MUSCLE CAR?
 
It definitely did. My first muscle car was a 1970 Chevelle SS, and then I had a 1967 Chevy II, followed by a couple 1970 Stage 1 Buicks, Corvettes, and Porsches.
 
IS IT ACCURATE TO SAY YOU CAN APPRECIATE ANY MAKE OR MODEL AND NOT JUST A PARTICULAR MAKE OF CAR?
 
Yes, I really do love all forms of fast cars. I’m especially attracted to cars that are unique as well as good-looking and have high horsepower. If they are weird-looking, they will catch my eye, too.
 
SPEAKING OF HIGH HORSEPOWER CARS, WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST RACE CAR?
 
I had a 1987 Grand National that I drove on the street and then started bracket-racing at Memphis Motorsports Park. But in 2015, I was at a Memphis Rodders Reunion right before Thanksgiving in Memphis, and I met Randy Eakins, and he had his Mustang Cobra Jet there, and that’s when I decided I really wanted a Mustang Cobra Jet.
 
WHEN DID YOU PURCHASE YOUR FIRST MUSTANG COBRA JET? 
 
I bought my first 2016 Mustang Cobra Jet in 2016 from a collector in Florida. It had never been run, and by then, I had made plans to start racing in Holley EFI Factory Super Cars in 2017. I went to the races and met some of the racers, like Chuck Watson Sr., Chuck Watson II, Gardner Stone, Paul Roderick and others, and they were super-friendly. The guys at Watson Racing, including Chuck Watson II and Kim Mapes, helped me get my competition license, and helped me get comfortable in the car and helped me get it tuned, but after three or four races, we realized that if I wanted to be competitive, I needed more than the stock Mustang Cobra Jet that I had.


 
WHAT DID YOU DO WHEN YOU REALIZED YOUR FIRST MUSTANG COBRA JET WASN’T GOING TO BE COMPETITIVE ENOUGH FOR HOLLEY EFI FACTORY SUPER CARS?
 
I sold the 2016 Mustang Cobra Jet, and bought a zero-option 2019 Mustang that was the same color as my GT350R, and I sent it to Watson Racing. They stripped it and built a Mustang Cobra Jet clone in 2019. I took a year off of racing since they started it from scratch for NMCA Holley EFI Factory Super Cars. Watson Racing did everything, and Kim Mapes from Watson Racing, who is a drag racing genius, did the spec engine. 
 
WHEN DID YOU DEBUT YOUR MUSTANG COBRA JET CLONE, AND HOW DID IT GO?
 
I debuted the car at the first NMCA race of 2020, which was at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida. We got to make some test passes, and the car was perfect right out of the box, and it was fast. Unfortunately, I made a mistake early in eliminations. It’s funny because I ended up buying the 2016 Mustang Cobra Jet back. Jason Dietsch called me one day and told me he saw it for sale on eBay, so I bought it back from John Hennessey of Hennessey Performance in Texas, and I’ll just hold onto it. It’s nice to have it back since it was my first real race car.
 
WERE YOU IMMEDIATELY COMPETITIVE IN THE 2019 MUSTANG COBRA JET CLONE IN HOLLEY EFI FACTORY SUPER CARS, OR DID IT TAKE SOME TIME?
 
I loved the car right away and had a relationship with it right away, and I knew that I was going to have a good shot at winning in it. The first year in the car, we went to an invitational race that Jim Betz and Jason Dietsch put on at Dragway 42 in Ohio, and I was able to get my first win in the car there. It was a great first win. The car was running well and in the 7.50s. 
 
WHAT WERE YOUR EARLY THOUGHTS ON HOLLEY EFI FACTORY SUPER CARS?
 
I thought the cars were really competitive, and I loved that the class was heads-up and run on the quarter-mile. I like a really nice-looking race car that isn’t chopped up, so I like that the cars in the class look like cars you would drive on the street. I have both of my side mirrors on my car, and a full interior in my car. 
 
YOU HAVE SAID BEFORE THAT THE CARS IN HOLLEY EFI FACTORY SUPER CARS CAN BE A HANDFUL, AND FANS CERTAINLY SEE THAT.
 
Yes, they definitely can be a handful. You really have to drive them, and that is one of the reasons I love these cars and this class. They leave pretty hard, and frequently, they will go into wheelstands or power wheelies. When they do that, you have a split second to decide whether you think you can stay in the throttle, feather the throttle, or lift altogether. When you are on a perfect run, the car carries the front wheels a foot off the ground for 60 to 100 feet. These cars can be a pretty wild ride on 9-inch radials. Sometimes the tires will spin while you’re shifting into second gear and cause the car to get a little loose.


 
IN ADDITION TO RACING CARS, YOU HAVE RACED BOATS. WHAT WILL YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT?
 
I used to race with the APBA, which is the American Power Boat Association, in the late 1990s and 2000s. I had a Phantom, an offshore boat, and the class I raced in had the highest boat count, so it was satisfying to do well among 25 or so boats. It was exciting because we would get a running start, banging into each other, in big, nasty waves, and we would go about 95 mph. We raced on the Gulf of Mexico, in Key West, Sarasota, and Fort Myers. It was pretty intense and a lot of fun. I don’t do it anymore, but I have some friends who do. I just sold a 42-foot Cigarette boat, and I’m having a 40-foot Sunsation center console boat built. That will be very different for me because I’m used to blower engines and big horsepower in offshore boats, but as I get older, I like shade, so the center console boat will be good. It’s not a race boat, but it’s still fast. 
 
HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE RACING BOATS TO RACING CARS?
 
I like the level of competition for both, but they are very different. In the boats, I was racing wide-open throttle for 30 minutes with big-block Chevrolet-based Mercury engines, whereas in the car, I’m racing wide-open throttle, and on-the-end, for a little over 7 seconds with a Coyote engine and Whipple supercharger.

IN ADDITION TO YOUR MUSTANG COBRA JET CLONE, YOU HAVE A CHALLENGER DRAG PAK. COULD YOU TALK ABOUT THAT A LITTLE?
 
I debuted my Challenger Drag Pak in 2022. It’s stock with a 354 HEMI and 3.0-liter Whipple supercharger, and Watson Racing built it. When I had a little issue with my Mustang Cobra Jet clone at the last NMCA race of 2022, at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, fellow racer and friend Jim Betz, who owns a trucking company, made arrangements to have my Challenger Drag Pak picked up from Watson Racing in Michigan and brought back to Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park so I could race. It was running 8.15s, which is great, but it’s not competitive for Factory Super Cars. I can also run the Challenger Drag Pak car in NHRA, but my focus is on running the Cobra Jet clone in NMCA.
 
IT'S CLEAR TO SEE THAT YOU ENJOY A NICE RAPPORT WITH YOUR FELLOW HOLLEY EFI FACTORY SUPER CARS RACERS. WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE THAT TO?
 
I really enjoy the class, the competition and the competitors. We work hard at the races, but sometimes, we’re able to relax and spend time together at night. I have become such good friends with them, and I think I see them even more than I see my local friends here in Memphis. We all have the same screw loose to want to commit as much as we do to racing, but that’s a good thing.
 
WHAT WORK IS BEING PERFORMED ON YOUR CAR OVER WINTER SO THAT IT’S RACE-READY FOR THE 2023 SEASON?
 
My car is at Watson Racing in Michigan right now. Every winter, they take it all apart and check everything, and if there are any updates they can do to make the car even faster, they will take care of them. Every Watson Racing car gets that kind of great treatment.
 
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH IN 2023?
 
I plan to run all six races on the NMCA tour, and as always, I would like to win some, or even all, of them, but my main goal is to earn the class championship. Finishing in second-place the past three years was great, but I sure would like to earn the championship.
 
WHAT ARE A FEW THINGS THAT YOUR FELLOW RACERS AND RACE FANS MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU?

I own Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken in Memphis, Tennessee, and All Seasons Elite Indoor Boat Storage in Pickwick, Tennessee, and I co-own Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales Mid-South with Jason Dietsch in Michigan City, Mississippi. Also, I love all forms of fast cars and drag racing. In addition to my Cobra Jets and Challenger Drag Pak, I have a Cadillac CTS-V Wagon, a 1941 Willys, a Coyote Stock Mustang and a bunch of street cars.
 
WHO HELPS YOU ALONG THE WAY?
 
My longtime girlfriend, Wanda Hunsucker, supports me 100 percent, and she does everything from pushing my car around to packing my chute. She always sets the tire pressure. She is my only official crew member, and Watson Racing, Kim Mapes and his son, Kimmie, take care of setting the car up and tuning. They are all amazing and I couldn’t do it without them.


 
 

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