Catching Up With the Creamer’s, by Ken MacIsaac

Many thanks to Ken MacIsaac for this recent interview with Garth and Brady Creamer along with a gallery pf their cars over the years…

KM – Garth, you’re a well known name in the maritime racing circles and even though you did most of your racing in New Brunswick, you also ran a lot of the other maritime tracks during your Sportsman Tour days. How did you get involved in racing?

GC – My father took me to the races when I was a kid. But we didn’t go to the track in Miramichi, we drove down to Riverglade back then. I remember going to a race with dad and it got rained out. So I got him to follow Frank Fraser’s car all the way to Shediac so I could get a look at it. I got into racing in the late 80’s in Miramichi. Ran an old Sportsman car for a few years, then bought my first coil spring car from Clarence Patles. It had the shifter on the left side by the door. It was a great car. Tim Rodgers had a new car that year and we battled almost every race, along with Brad Mann. Around 1999, we ran a Dodge for the first time.

I remember we picked it up at Fraser’s just before Scotty went to New Smyrna with Rollie. In 2000 we started to run Ernie and Gary McLean’s Snap-On Sportsman Tour. So much fun back then. Ran that for a couple of years, then eventually got too busy with work and had to give it up.

KM – Brady, being around the track with your mom and dad sparked your own interest in racing?

BC – I either went with dad, or went to watch him race. Sometimes he’d sneak me in the pits. But when I was around 5, someone local had a go-cart and dad bought it and we’d go down to the Douglastown track and I’d just put laps in. So that’s really how I got started.

KM – Tell me about your cart racing?

BC – I ran for a few years and just kept updating it as best we could. We pretty much got all we could out of it, then bought a cart from Gerald Casely. That’s when we got more serious and competitive with the cart racing. We won 1 championship when I was racing novice. I think it was in my 5th year. I won the championship in Scoudouc. Then we started running the Maritime Cart tour. Speedway 660 used to have a track and we ran there a lot, along with the Scoudouc track. PEI had a track in Burlington and we’d race at the go-cart track at Scotia Speedworld too. I didn’t win any championships then, but I was competitive.

KM – Did you give up the carts because you were getting older?

BC – Pretty much. I just found that I outgrew go-carts. I wanted to try something else. Plus, I’m a bigger fella so I was looking for something different and we ended up in a Legend car.

KM – Was that your plan, or did you want to try a mini stock or street stock instead?

BC – Dad was always a creative guy and we did have a mini stock that I was going to run, but it had to be completely rebuilt – top to bottom. We started on that, but dad was so busy working, that we just didn’t have the time to finish it. One of our sponsors from the go-cart days was Kenny Robinson. He had a Legend car that he run a few times. He approached dad to buy it. We also had some friends from the go-cart days who had moved up from Carts to Legends. One of them was Steve McNeil and his son Justin. Justin was doing really well in Legend cars. So between Steve and Kenny Robinson, that pretty much turned us in that direction.

KM – You were quite young running the Legend.

BC – I was in early high school when I first started with the Legend car. Dad was just starting to go out west for work at that time, and my uncle Randy used to help a lot with the car. He used to race and he would do what he could and take me to the track. Sometimes he’d be my only crew. A lot of time in those Legend years we were more concerned with just ‘making laps’ and trying to get experience. We’d put on crappy tires and just try and be competitive.

KM – Didn’t your father race the Legend car a few times?

BC – I was still too young in 2008 to race at Scotia and Riverside. So dad got in the car at those races. We knew that going there, but we wanted to get more experience anyway. Plus, Steve McNeil asked us to come and he was a good friend to us. I think he just wanted us aa a field filler, which was fine. Getting seat time was our goal anyway.

KM – In 2009, you switched to your father’s Jeff Gordon paint scheme.

BC – I just liked the look of that scheme. I think I was 16 at the time, because I was able to run Riverside and Scotia. We went to the first race at Scotia in ‘09 and cooked the motor. The year before, we wrecked the car bad and on the front of the motor there’s a unit where the oil goes in and we screwed it up bad. We took the motor out after we wrecked it to get a clip put on, and when the motor went back in, I think the oil lines were hooked up backwards. Something like that. Anyway, we got about 40 laps in and it cooked the motor. We had to get a brand new engine which set us back. We spent all summer putting money together to get a new engine, and made it out for Speed Weekend at 660. Had a scarey moment in the heat that day. The oil filter wasn’t on tight enough and I thought it blew up again. Turns out the filter just vibrated off. We were some lucky that day.

KM – In 2010, you raced your father’s old Sportsman car.

BC – It was just sitting there so we spent some time getting it together, and dabbled around a bit that summer. Had a couple of runs here and there. I kept the Legend car. Ran the Sportsman at Miramichi when Jason Carnahan had the track, then again at 660. I wanted to get in an 8 cylinder car bad. We took it out for Speed Weekend but broke a hub in my heat race and didn’t make the feature.

KM – In 2011, you ran Pro Stock. Was that your plan after the Sportsman?

BC – Yes and no. We straight traded the Legend car for a Pro Stock with Lloyd Garnett. I was starting to work away then, and doing good for myself. I had a little surplus money to play around with. I knew I shouldn’t have made the trade, but I did. I had my friends all helping me at the time. It was just good timing. Probably the highlight for me that first year was qualifying for the 250 at 660. I finished 2nd in the Last Chance race which put us in the feature. It was a pretty big deal for us back then.

KM – What’s the story on that car?

BC – Darren Sherwood owned the car before Lloyd. It had a big motor in it. This was the days before crate engines. It was a big heavy dry sump engine. It was quite the power plant. After the first year, I said to myself “this isn’t going to cut it for what I want to do”. Don’t get me wrong, it was great engine, I just needed something lighter to learn in. We ended up buying a crate motor from Shawn Tucker. He had put a clip on the car for us too, ‘cause I wrecked it bad that first summer. We bought some odds and ends from Shawn too.

KM – In 2012 you moved back to Sportsman.

BC – Plans changed again later that year. It felt like we were in over our heads with the Pro Stock. I mean, we were kind of like that in a Sportsman too, but the Sportsman was a little more forgiving. In late summer, we traded the Pro Stock to Scott Alexander for his Sportsman. They had Scott Allen’s car from Riverside, which was a beautiful piece. It was a Bob Lane car, and it was just a great all around car. So we only ran, or attempted to run twice that summer with the car. Miramichi were having a big race but it got rained out so we tried Speed Weekend and didn’t make the show. The power steering wasn’t shimmed up properly, and the belts kept flying off it, so we kept losing belts. We were actually going to win our heat, and the belts flew off and we missed it. We were in contention n the Last Chance race, and they flew off again, so we missed qualifying. It’s neither here no there, but in 2013 we went full time racing all summer with the same Sportsman. We did around 20 races and got a lot of seat time that year.

KM – Back to Pro Stock again in 2014?

BC – The guys in NFLD were buying up cars like crazy that year. I know I shouldn’t have bothered doing what I did, but I ended up selling my car for really good money. We actually delivered it to Shannon Squires in St. John’s. After that, I made a deal with Shawn Connors. He had bought Wayne Smith’s pro stock that he had run down south a couple of times. He had bought it but later decided to get out of it, even before he could run the Pro Stock. Anyway, I ended up buying it off him along with a lot of parts. Mike Ryan, who used to run Mascar back in the day, was helping Shawn at the time. So he came on and helped us that year. He had a buddy, I forget his name, really good guy, he came along to help us too. So that was another reason why we went with that deal. Those guys came along to help us when we really needed the help. We also had some really good sponsors that year, so it all made sense to run Pro Stock.

In 2015, I got involved with Geoff Armstrong, and he went through it and fixed a lot of things. He put a really good setup under it, and we decided to run Fredericton for points. There was a really strong field of cars that year. Lonnie was running for points, and bunch of other good cars. The first 3 races we were in contention and should of won. It felt good early that season to know how well we were running, considering that I bounced around in different classes for years. With Geoff’s help, he pushed me in the right direction. Through the year we started to struggle, just trying to keep up with the car. Our own fault, just not knowing certain things about the car. Looking back, we had a pretty good year. The first of the season was awesome, knowing I could run with Lonnie or Matt Harris or Greg Fahey. I thought to myself, all the years of bouncing around different classes, and it was worth it, because now I’m competitive.

KM – So in 2016 you bought a new car?

BC – We bought a new to us chassis that Lonnie had. It was a Scott Mulkern car that ran on the PASS Tour. Andrew McKay sponsored Lonnie back then, and he had the chassis and a bunch of parts. Geoff was working on Sarah’s cars back then too, and he knew about the chassis. It was a Hamke car, and Gary Crooks had put it together for Lonnie or Mulkern at the time. Andrew was looking to get rid of it and we bought it. Geoff had basically rebuilt it brand new. I had my motor and drive train, but I stripped my Port City car and got rid of it. The problem with all that was, it took all that winter and most of the summer to get it together. I only ran it three times that year. The first run for the car was Speed Weekend and I won my heat. We ran top 5 the whole 250 until we got spun backwards into the bank. Then we went to Petty for the Mike Stevens’ race and finished fifth. That was pretty good for us. Then we went to Shediac in October and I got caught up with Josh Collins, and it launched the car, and a lot of stuff got tore up.

KM – Didn’t you run a Sportsman race at Petty that year?

BC – We raced Kevin McIntee’s Sportsman car at Petty one time. He was trying to sell it, so I drove it for him to help him out. Did well that day, finished 2nd in the Mike Stevens Sportsman race.

KM – In 2017 you made another trade.

BC – It started late for us that year. Our first race was in Fredericton in June. Battled with Dave O’Blenis for the win before getting turned. Ran the Best Of The Best race that year and ran like 2nd or 3rd early on. I was running PASS tires and I wasn’t aware of how much you had to save them. I ended up burning them up. Then we went to Speed Weekend, and that was the last run with that car. It was also the year they had the tire fiasco. The track bought tires and some were good and some weren’t. Some people knew, some people didn’t. That put the nail in the coffin for my pro stock days. We ended up spending thousands that weekend and I ended up with 2 bad sets of tires. We were kind of disgusted at the end of the year, and a couple of my guys said “you got a really good car here, why don’t you look for a good Sportsman car for next year”. So I ended up making a deal with Kyle Reid in the off season. Kyle had a Sportsman and we traded for my pro stock. Chris Reid and Andrew Hicken picked up my car at Geoff Armstrong’s, and they dropped off the Sportsman there. That was a really good car. In fact, they dropped it off on a Wednesday, and we raced it that Saturday in Shediac. The next year we ran full time at Petty for points and won the championship. Think I won 4 shows at Petty that year. It was a really fun year. I had some personal things happening at the end of that year, so I ended up selling the car to Mark Harris in 660. My plan was to take a few years off, but my good friend Dan McGrath talked me into going back in 2019 . Dan is probably the only reason I’m racing today. He put up quite a bit of money to get me back racing. Earl Wright basically donated a chassis to me. The car I’m running now belonged to Earl. He was going to turn it into a street stock. It already had the pockets in it, and was done up to be a street stock. We gathered up a lot of parts, and bought a lot of parts and put it all together. It was the IWK weekend before we made it out with the car. It wasn’t even ready, but we were there. We had a rally good run with it at Speed Weekend finishing second. Then we took it to the Mike Stevens race. Started 4th on a restart in the feature, and broke a sway bar. Then we went to Shediac and won that. Then we went to Sydney and won there too. So, 2019 started off slow for us, but it ended on a high note.

KM – At the June race in Riverside in 2019, you ran a Sportsman car. Not yours?

BC – No. Dan McGrath wanted us to run for points at Riverside too that year. We weren’t ready for the June race, so Dan rented a car from Andrew Starks.

KM – This brings us to the start of Covid in 2020.

BC – Ya, Covid was pretty heavy that year. We started out winning the first 3 races that year. We were probably going to go for 6 in a row, but we destroyed the car in Shediac that summer. We should’ve went to Fredericton that weekend for a 150 lap race, but we went to Shediac instead because it paid the same amount. So the wreck absolutely destroyed the car. Had to strip it and take it to Frank Fraser’s. He put it on the jig, fixed it, and we brought it back home. It was 2 weeks we were out. We went to Petty for the International that year, and it wasn’t perfect. There were still some issues from the wreck. On the second lap of the feature, I stuffed it in the wall again. So that was 2 big wrecks in a row. 2020 started out awesome, but the wrecks hurt us. But even when we got the car back a second time, we went to Shediac in the fall and won that.

KM – In 2021, you ran Jerry Hayes’ car a few times.

BC – Actually we ran the Mike Stevens’ weekend for Jerry in 2020. He came over to me after the International that year. I was in the pits, my car was wrecked and he said to me “‘do you want to drive my car?”. I thought he was joking. I was just trying to put my wrecked car in the trailer. Anyway we talked and I agreed to run his car in September. So I ran his car three times at Riverside in 2021. We went to Petty with his car too, but that didn’t go so well. At Riverside, we probably could’ve won all 3 races. The first weekend, something broke maybe the fuel pump. Then we finished 2nd to Pete Miller at the next race. The third race, we won. So when I wasn’t running Jerry’s car, I ran my own car in a few events. We started off slow because I found some issues that were still lingering from the wreck I had the year before. That’s when I hooked up with Bob and Ron Lane. Bob is only an hour and 15 from my place, so we ended up going there and getting a couple of things done to the car. He actually found a few issues that we overlooked from the wreck, that put us back to winning form. In fact, I just picked up my car from Bob’s a few weeks ago. He did some things to the car to get us ready for the season. I’ve built a good relationship with Bob and I have to thank him for his help.

KM – Why didn’t you continue running Jerry’s car?

BC – You know, the sky could’ve been the limit with that but I had my own sponsors that year. Companies that have supported me for a few years. I felt obligated to them. There’s pro’s and con’s to the deal. I couldn’t commit to more races with Jerry. Between wanting to satisfy my sponsors and run my own car, and running Jerry’s car, there just wasn’t enough weekends in the year. It was a great deal with Jerry. You just show up with your helmet and suit and hop in. The car is already set up. Who knows, maybe down the road we can hook up again, but I just didn’t want to screw up their plans, when I had commitments as well. We developed an awesome relationship with Jerry, Belinda, Rob and his guys. They come and help me all the time at the track if Jerry’s not racing himself. They’re like family to me now.

KM – So last year was definitely your most successful?

BC – Last year was a dream year to be honest. I ran the full MASS Tour and won the first race at Lake Doucette. I’d never even seen the track before. Me and Stephanie went down ourselves. Never had any help. I was lucky that Dan McGrath and his buddy Shawn Parker showed up. That was my only help. But that was ok, I went to Sydney last year and it was just me and Stephanie and we got along fine, but Dan and Shawn showed up there too. Actually, our first race last year was at 660. It was double features. We finished second to Drew Greenlaw in the first race, and I was leading the second one coming around to the checkered and assumed I’d won. But it was the white flag they threw. My mistake. I had slowed down going into one, thinking I’d won, and both the O’Blenis girls went inside me. I ended up in third. Felt like an idiot. I chalked that up to poor communication on my end. So then we went to Lake Doucette. I didn’t think I was going to win that one, but it kind of fell in my lap. When Craig started the tour, a lot of guys said they’d commit to it, but didn’t. I said I would run all the races, and I did. What a fun track. It’s like going into a parking lot in 1 and 2. You have to pretty much stop. Then the backstretch is like you’re going down a ski hill. Turns 3 and 4 are like Riverside. Then you’re going up hill on the front stretch. There’s nothing comparable to it. It’s super fun. I’d love to get back there. I doubt if I will this year, but hopefully in the future. So we went to Scotia the next week. Won the weekly Friday night show before the MASS race. Just wanted to run on Friday for a test for Saturday’s race. So after winning Friday night, we were confident going into Saturday but we were terrible all day. Could’ve been the tires, but we ended up breaking the sway bar again around lap 10 or 15. Jackie Tanner was in the pits trying to help us fix it. Anyway we were 3 or 4 laps down when we came out. So we didn’t do well in that one. The next week was IWK weekend, and we ended up winning that. That was pretty cool. Then we went to Sydney, and I beat the back bumper clean off Chris Reid’s car. Did everything but wreck him. Looking back, I think I should’ve hit him a little harder but I knew Robby wouldn’t have been happy with me. But it was still pretty cool. I knew those guys wanted to win in front of the home crowd.

Then we went back to Petty the next weekend. It was another big money race. We had the car to beat, and the distributor flew apart with 25 to go while leading. Then came back for the International weekend at Petty and broke the sway bar again for the third time. I was leading that race too, racing with Alex O’Blenis. Then back at Riverside. I was leading with 15 or 20 to go and got a flat tire. So we raced 14 times last year, and should’ve won 10 of them. But that’s racing.

KM – So what’s your plan for this summer?

BC – We’re definitely not going to do as much racing this year. We just don’t have a lot of help. Stephanie’s my crew chief, team cook, team principal, she’s done everything. She puts up with it. The car is pretty much ready, just have to put the motor in and do some body braces and a wrap. So my plans this year are up in the air. I didn’t commit to anything. We’ll see what we can afford to do, and what we can’t.

KM – But you do have some big news for your father.

BC – So dad (Garth) is going racing again. We bought Nick Cudmore’s Sportsman. It’ll be going to Bob Lane’s soon to get freshened up. Last summer, we lost my grandmother, dad’s mother. That hit us all hard. Dad works away so much in the last 15 years, and he’s missed so much of mine. So I figured, why not get him back in a car? He had mentioned to me that he’d like to try out my car, so I figured it was a good opportunity to get him back behind the wheel. Nick’s car is a Tucker chassis, just like mine. I know all cars are different, but at least they’re similar chassis to work on. Nick’s car was a good deal, so we bought it. Likely won’t be until late summer before it’s ready to race. If it’s ready in time, we’ll both do the IWK race in July, and at least 2 races in Sydney. We both had so much fun down there, and I do well on that track. We’ll shoot for the big races in New Brunswick as well.