Biography
Carl was a fixture in the pit area for almost four decades as one of NEMA's hardest-working car owners and mechanics. He and his brother, Don, followed their father, Clayton, into the sport racing stocks for several seasons before they decided to take a different route. “I always liked Sprints and Midgets,” Carl explained in a 2011 interview. “It was too far to go to race Sprints, so it was Midgets.” They purchased the old Leader Card Kurtis from the Campanale family, installed a Chevy II, and went racing with a young Joey Coy in 1976. It didn't take long for Carl and his family crew, which included his Dad, brother, and two sons - Curt and Russ, to earn their first owner's Championship with Johnny Evans at the wheel in 1980 - an amazing accomplishment considering they did it without any feature wins. His partnership with the Legendary Dave Humphrey and the iconic generation three Lindblad Badger went on to produce many wins. Over time, the Kibbe cockpit was occupied by some other great NEMA wheel men, including Rick Hart, Doug Cleveland, Paul Stoehr, and Jim Lowery, Jr. However, it was fellow Hall of Famer Joey Coy who brought Carl three more championships and further cemented the Kibbe team's reputation as the ones to beat in the late 80's and early 90's.
According to Carl himself, the greatest day in his racing career was the 1985 Northeastern Midget Association opener at Star Speedway. It was the first feature win for this four-time NEMA Owner Champion. “I’ll never, never forget it,” said Carl in the 2011 interview. “It took nine years before that first win,” recalls Carl, who along with brother Don, decided to go Midget racing right in the middle of building a Modified in 1976. “We had actually won a championship (1980) before we got that first win. It almost didn’t happen. Dave Humphrey was the driver. On the green he went right to the back,” Carl reminisced.“After three laps there’s a yellow and it just saved us from going a lap down. I’m yelling for Dave to come in but he didn’t. They started again, and again he goes right to the back before a spin-out and this time he comes in. I had forgotten to take the covers off the injectors. He gets back out and, boom, boom, boom, he starts picking them off. He got outside Drew Fornoro, who was leading in Angelillo’s car, and they banged wheels. Humphrey went to the outside of the track in all the dirt but got back in shape. He caught Drew again and passed him - I’ll never forget it!” It was the first of 18 wins, including seven with Humphrey in 1985 and 1986, and 11 between 1989 and 1996 with Joey Coy.
Carl proved you didn't need big money and all the amenities to win races, just hard work and using your head. His cars were always very well maintained and prepared. As a result his cars always ran up front - always. He was the 1991 Mechanic of the Year and could set-up a race car better than most anyone. His 1989 Championship was the last one won by a Badger. NEMA banned the Badger at the end of 1989 and it was heartbreaking for him and his family. But Carl didn't let the banning of his championship car stop them. He reinvested in a Lindblad upright chassis, installed his Fontana power plant, and went on to win two more titles with Coy at the helm in 1991 and 1993, proving the success of the Badger teams was more a product of owner and driver than radical chassis offset.
Reinvesting in new equipment at the end of the championship runs of the 90's was getting harder to justify for Carl, and with the demands of his day job as a diesel technician changing drastically, he decided to retire as car owner. Thankfully, that didn't stop him from showing up at NEMA races and working on race cars for the next several years. He was a happy guy with a wrench in his hand. In the early 2000's he and his son, Curt, were valuable crew members for Gene Angelillo's famous #45, and at the end of the decade, they wrenched for the Stoehr family #25, resulting in two more trips to victory lane with Keith Botelho at the wheel. For the few years prior to his unexpected passing in 2015, Carl crew chief-ed and mentored a young Avery Stoehr in both the NEMA Lites and full NEMA series, guiding him to a number of victories, including the 2015 Marvin Rifchin Memorial most recently.
Carl always wore his heart on his sleeve and you always knew exactly where you stood with him. He'd show emotion at winning a NEMA award just as easily as arguing for a rule change during a NEMA meeting. But in the end, he was always Carl, a stand up guy who'd help anyone. His contributions to NEMA as car owner, contest board member, mechanic, and mentor helped mold this club into one of the most successful racing clubs in the country.
Carl always wore his heart on his sleeve and you always knew exactly where you stood with him. He'd show emotion at winning a NEMA award just as easily as arguing for a rule change during a NEMA meeting. But in the end, he was always Carl, a stand up guy who'd help anyone. His contributions to NEMA as car owner, contest board member, mechanic, and mentor helped mold this club into one of the most successful racing clubs in the country.
Remembering Carl
Matt O'Brien posted: "I remember in my second or third season as a driver...My Dad and I had been struggling to get our upright chassis to handle after so many years with the laydown. Carl drove all the way over to my Dad's house after he got out of work one week night, which was no short trip considering he worked in Warwick, RI and my Dad lived in Cheshire, CT. He spent hours helping us that night and telling us everything he could. We are forever grateful. That's just the kind of racer he was."
David Dykes posted: "One of the nicest people I've ever-met. Carl was a Gem.."
Mike Csiki posted: "So glad I got to meet him....and root for Coy in the Sunoco machine....Potent combination"
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