PCMS: Brothers in Cars

The first racing weekend is in the books for Phillips County Motorsports and the event’s opening day started after the 16th Annual First State Bank (FSB) Car Show, which was extremely convenient for a pair of brothers last weekend.

John and Terry Carleton from Swift Current, Sask., came down for both the car show and the drag racing event held at the Hi-Line Drag Strip.

John was racing his 1966 Chevy II Nova at the drag strip in the event’s Pro Class. He considers the track in Malta to be his home track.

“We didn’t make it here the first year but we’ve been coming here ever since,” John said. “We come here all of the time. This is our home track.”

John started racing in the late eighties, racing for about five years before other responsibilities came up.

“My wife and I got married and then the kids came along and I put the car away,” John said.

John has been racing for about nine years and though he has been to other tracks around the state, he makes nearly every PCMS race. A local track brought John back to the sport.

“Drag racing came to Swift Current,” he said. “There is an airport there that had just opened up their track and I went out to help and thought it would be a good idea to drag out the car.”

He began racing only to come to a conclusion about his Nova that had been sitting for two decades.

“When I got it out it wasn’t so good,” John said. “It was outdated and kind of dangerous. It didn’t steer and it didn’t brake. It was dangerous. For a younger guy it was okay but for a married guy with responsibilities and dependents it was like maybe we should make it safer.”

John and his brother Terry had made changes to the front end, shocks and other parts before racing again.

“We got together and put a roll cage in it, a Mustang front end on it, updated the suspension in the back, did a few updates to the motor and made the car safe,” John said.

John raced in Swift Current for a year and then began coming to events in Montana the following year.

While John competed in last weekend’s races, Terry entered his vehicle into the car show.

“The event was really good actually,” Terry said. “We had a lot of fun actually, it was really, really good. It was a great way to meet new people.”

Terry entered his antique white 1934 Ford pickup that he had been working on for eight years after owning it several years before reconstruction.

“We just finished up a couple of years ago,” Terry said.

Terry wasn’t alone in the project, having good friends to help him out with the renovation.

“I have a group of friends back home,” he said. “One guy does interior, one guy does fabrication and another does electrical. We’re all really good friends so it was a good project.”

Terry has entered his truck into ten shows over the years and with his Ford finishing in the top six at the FSB show, the attention to detail paid off.

“We usually end up in the top ten and the truck has done really well actually,” Terry said.

He admitted that taking his truck to events isn’t about the accolades.

“I don’t go to shows for trophies, I just go to meet different people and talk cars,” Terry said. “Yesterday I met some folks from Arizona and you meet people from all over the world, so it’s kind of cool. Having the vehicle is just a way of meeting people that are interested in vehicles.”