MARNE, Mich. — Coopersville native Josh Frye grew up watching his father race.
"I always wanted to do it," Frye smiled."My father did it when he was my age, he got out of it when i was really young, I just want to be competitive and always have; whether it has been in sports or racing."
Competitive is the one word to describe Josh as year twelve of racing is now in the books for him.
It doesn't matter what he's racing or where, and he's raced in a lot of different classes and at a lot of different tracks, he's there to win.
"It's hard to go really fast, it's hard to compete with Ryan Holtzlander, Brian Campbell, anybody, but if you can do it consistently, it makes you dig harder every week," he added while looking at the fellow track champions at Berlin Raceway.
However, the road to victory lane hasn't been an easy one for Frye since getting behind the wheel for the first time in 2009.
"I started racing at 25 or 26 years old on dirt and I wasn't worth a darn," he recalled, "I couldn't win a race, couldn't get out of my own way and wrecked a lot of stuff."
After countless hours of practice laps behind the wheel and learning from some of the best local drivers, Frye found his niche.
"In 2012 we finally got the ball rolling and won national championships on dirt and we kind of did that 'what's next?' My friend Evan Shotko was a little kid and wanted to try pavement, so I said 'let's try it.'"
Frye would win a pair of unique track titles at Berlin on dirt in 2013 and 2014.
He would then add to his decorated resume with a track championship in the modified series in 2018.
"It's been a roller-coaster all the way through," Frye told FOX 17.
After racing in dirt, modifies, sportsman, and several other classes, Frye jumped into the limited late model division at Berlin Raceway last summer.
And the rest is history.
On Saturday night, in only his second season in the class, Frye won the track championship for his third at Berlin.
With all three coming in different classes, Josh puts himself second in track history with championships in different divisions, only behind the legendary Dave Lake, who has a title in four separate classes.
"This is great, my team will enjoy it for a couple of days," Frye said looking around him on Saturday night during the championship celebration.
But Frye isn't the type to celebrate for long.
"I want to win again, I want to win the next race, the next year, and we're not that great yet so we have to keep digging."
The plans for next year are already in the works, including returning to the limited late model class at Berlin.
"I don't know what's next, hopefully a challenge," he said, "I think next year this class will grow, there will be a dozen winners, it'll be harder to win a race and so much harder to win a championship but I'm all for it right now."
Just 12 years after getting behind the wheel for the first time, he's already etching his name into the conversation as one of the best all-around racers Berlin has ever seen.
"I don't see myself going to NASCAR, so we're just going to have fun in these things at Berlin Raceway and on the dirt on Friday nights," he smiled.
