Woodruff High Freshman Jared Clarke’s Love of Racing Has Taken him to Major Raceways Across the Southeast
By: Garrett Mitchell, Staff Writer
garrett@thewoodrufftimes.com
Jared Clarke aspires to be a professional race car driver and loves to go fast. By racing standards, he was a bit late to the track, but as a quick study, he has certainly made up a few laps in a short amount of time.
Clarke, a freshman at Woodruff High School, races Go-Karts competitively, and his talent for the sport has taken him to many of the Southeast’s biggest racetracks. Jared recalled his early passion for racing.
“It’s kind of been a natural thing for me,” Clark explained. “I just kind of found it in a way, and I have been (racing) for almost five years now.”
Most kids who start racing do so at a much younger age than Clarke, and it takes time to establish a base in the sport. Jared, however, picked up the nuances extremely fast and quickly began to make a name for himself at many of the top venues.
The list of tracks that he has raced on is impressive.
“I’ve been to NCP in Illinois, I have raced at the Grand Nationals at the same track, I’ve been to Daytona, Charlotte Motor Speedway for spring nationals, there is the winter nationals in Jacksonville, Florida, and GoPro Motorplex races there pretty much year round,” stated Clarke. “I’ve been to Cincinnati, Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia, Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, SC, and we’ve been to BWI in Maryland.”
Racing has always carried a strong appeal for Clarke since he found his way to the sport, and he says there are multiple aspects that make racing fun for him.
“I really love the excitement and how everyone races differently and how they prep their karts in different ways,” he said. “How different everybody is and how competitive it is. The sport is very unique and hard. It takes a while to get used to and is hard to be very good at.”
And Jared goes fast. Very fast.
Clarke’s kart has a top-end speed between 60 and 70 miles per hour, which for a small vehicle on a big track, gives a sense of amplified speed. It is an adrenaline-filled experience every time he takes to the track. Jared has won 10 races, which is a tremendous accomplishment for a racer who has only been competing for five years.
“We’ve won 10 (races),” he added. “I really only started winning in the last year or so because it does take so long to get good at it. You just start developing your own way of driving. You can be fast as a driver, but you aren’t going to be as good as someone who has been doing it for a long time. You can run the same lap times as that guy, but you won’t be able to beat him.”
Jared’s dad, Justin, says he has been amazed at how quickly his son has learned and used the nuances of racing, accelerating his advancement in the sport. He is proud of Jared for all that he has accomplished so far, and for his dedication to doing something he loves.
“It’s incredibly awesome,” said the elder Clarke. “I’m proud as heck of Jared. It’s crazy; they always have their dreams when they are younger and always express what they want to be, and you kind of hope they stick with it. With racing, you have to get started really young, and we started him right before his tenth birthday. We thought we were starting him early, and when we showed up to start racing, you see four and five-year-olds out there racing, and you realize you are behind the curve.”
He added, “You really have to know that you want to do this early and have the drive for it. Some kids just want to have fun with it and think they can go out there and win, and when they don’t win, they lose interest in it.”
And Jared has certainly experienced his share of bumps and bruises along the way, describing multiple in-race wrecks he has experienced.
“Wrecking can be very scary,” he admitted. “Just wrecking in the kind of Go-Kart I drive is pretty bad. Since you have no seatbelts or anything like that, you just kind of fly out. You can break basically anything in your body if you wreck too hard. I have wrecked multiple times just because of how the open wheels are. Everybody is just so aggressive to try and get that first-place win and go for it.”
Jared recounted his first accident as well.
“One of my first races was at Daytona, and I spun out in one of the final corners and got t-boned and wound up out in the middle of the track,” said Jared.
The reward is worth the risk for Jared, however. On the flip side of being involved in on-track accidents is being able to design his own kart, and adding a personal touch is yet another appeal for him.
“Not every kart is going to be the best every time,” noted Jared. “You just kind of set up your kart for that track, and you can add all different colors and put graphics on it and make it your own kind of style. It’s your own thing.”
Jared’s most recent big race came at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Cup Karts North America Spring Nationals. An accident in front of him sent Jared to the rear of the pack, but true to his form, he rebounded to finish the race in ninth place out of 64 drivers and only five seconds behind the winner.
It was another testament to the talent of a young man who has even bigger and faster dreams for his future. Jared also races for a special person, his biggest fan, who is no longer here.
“I would really love to be a NASCAR driver,” said Clarke. “I’m really leaning more to the NASCAR side. I want to make my family proud. My grandfather died, and he really loved my racing and believed in me to try and make it to where I want to be.
Jared keeps the throttle down and is well on his way to making those dreams a reality.
Author: Tracy Sanders
