Freddie Rahmer knows it's time. He may not publicly express the pressure that gradually amplifies as the days build between his last touring victory — Sept. 2018 with the All Star Circuit of Champions at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway — but the urgency to finally win a race beyond Central Pennsylvania’s local competition is very real.

“We have to get one,” the 27-year-old Rahmer said. “The sooner the better. It’s been a little bit.”

If there’s ever a night to make that happen, it’s Tuesday when the High Limit Sprint Car Series rolls into Grandview Speedway in Bechtelsville, Pa., right outside Rahmer’s Salfordville hometown.

The $23,023-to-win event streamed exclusively on FloRacing will attract Sprint Car racing’s biggest stars such as Kyle Larson and Rico Abreu, among others. And the stainless steel fabricator by trade would like nothing but to steal the national spotlight 15 minutes from where he lives.

“That’d be big time,” Rahmer said when thinking of possibly winning Tuesday’s High Limit Series event at Grandview. “We won an All Star race before (at Grandview in Aug. 2017) and have been close at (PA) Speedweek shows, like going from 18th to second (in July ’17). I think if we can get timed in really good there, have a little bit of luck with the pill draw — luck the whole night — we’re typically really fast there.

“Usually what you do at Lincoln (Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa.), at least for myself, translates there pretty good in the past. We have a pretty good car right now at Lincoln. We have for a while. We’re excited to go there and give it our best shot. We have a good motor that Ronnie Shaffer’s built us in our dad’s (No. 51) car. I’m looking forward to going there for sure.”

The Country's Winningest Sprint Car Driver

Freddie Rahmer's 10 wins this year are currently tied for the nation’s most. Two of those victories stand out above the rest: the $10,119 Steve Smith Tribute Race on June 3 at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa., and June 29’s Pennsylvania Speedweek race, also at Lincoln.

He has eight wins at Lincoln’s 3/8-mile oval and leads the track standings by a country mile, 960 points ahead of Dylan Norris. His remaining two victories are in weekly action at Williams Grove Speedway, where he also leads the standings, by 105 points over Danny Dietrich.

Never before has Rahmer posted a double-digit win season like the one that’s in progress. But never before has he gone this long between touring victories either.

The plus side is Rahmer — now competing mostly with longtime Central Pennsylvania racing enthusiast and businessman Rich Eichelberger in his candy-apple-red No. 8 — has never ran better. With that comes the pressure to raise his reputation from successful weekly racer to someone who can get back to winning Central PA’s prime-time events.

“To be truthful, you have to win a normal race — whether here or Indiana or anywhere else — if you want to win a World of Outlaws or a bigger show,” Rahmer said. “If you’re not consistently winning regular shows, you don’t deserve to win. We’ve been off a couple things — myself driving — and off maybe on our motors or whatever the last couple years lately.

“It’d be nice to win a couple big shows. At least one before the end of the year. We’ve been in position. And everybody is doing a good job. Just keep working on it. We’re way better than where we were last year between our motors getting better and being more organized and stuff.”

A Focus On Holistic Living

Freddie Rahmer has not only dialed in his race machines, but his holistic health, too.

He runs at least three times a week with his fiancée, Arynne Moody, whose passion is long-distance running. Moody competes in various marathons, half-marathons and 5K events around Central Pennsylvania, and Rahmer has made it a priority to train alongside his soon-to-be wife. Many of their runs are along Perkiomen Trail, a 19-mile path that’s carved out of the old Reading Railroad.

“From our house to the woods, you can run all these trails, paved and stone,” Rahmer said. “It’s a horse trail, or whatever. You can run all over it. … We just stay on top of (our training), that’s all.”

Rahmer’s prioritized his diet and spirituality, too. He’s never been a soda drinker: “None of that,” said Rahmer, who also attends church most Sundays at LCBC Church in Reading, Pa., for his "mind reset."

"We've been going to church and it rejuvenates you," Rahmer said. "Even the way you think, like something doesn't go your way and you reset. And not reacting in some bad response. I am more level-headed."

It's all part of a life that's more stable than ever, and certainly more stable than his PA Posse peers, Lance Dewease and Anthony Macri, who both parted ways from their full-time rides in the last two weeks.

“It’s everyday you’re thinking about it,” Rahmer said of his health. “She’s really good about her running, staying in really good shape. We’re together all the time, so we eat the same thing. It works out perfect.

“She’s definitely got me eating better,” Rahmer added of meals he eats with fiancee Arynne. “And even if it’s in your head, it makes you feel better about yourself. It does make a difference. When you run and get your wind up, you can hang on. I haven’t gotten tired in a long, long time. When the conditions are a little extreme, I think it makes you better.

“Together, I’ve learned a lot with Arynne about what we eat. Just not junk or whatever. I don’t drink soda or none of that. She makes anything that you’d think would be unhealthy but in a healthy version. Like, chicken burgers and chicken sausage, turkey this and that. We still eat burgers and all that stuff, but just refining it some. And it all tastes good. That’s the most important thing.

“We’re getting married the week after Thanksgiving, and it’s exciting. It has to be in the offseason, obviously. But it works out perfect. My parents got married the weekend after Thanksgiving. And I’m really looking forward to that.”

'This Is As Serious As It Gets'

In ways, Rahmer's an outlier for someone his age. Not very outspoken by nature, he isn’t on social media to make a platform for himself.

And if it wasn’t for racing websites that present statistics and articles such as these, he wouldn’t have much of an online presence.

That said, Rahmer’s been focused on letting his improved driving do the talking this year and especially trying to stay clear of on-track drama unlike last season that saw numerous of run-ins with various drivers, namely Danny Dietrich last July at Williams Grove. He knows some people don’t like him and he isn’t bothered by those negative opinions.

. @DIRTVision REPLAY: Battling coming to the checkered in Heat Race Three saw contact between @dannydietrich and Freddie Rahmer result in Rahmer going end over end. Making for some hot tempers in the pits. #OutlawTough pic.twitter.com/xuRZ6e4zIq

— World of Outlaws (@WorldofOutlaws) July 23, 2022

“I would agree with that. I care about what people think, but only the ones that matter, for sure,” Rahmer said. “Last year, those couple of incidents, it really stinks that happened. And hopefully we fly under the radar and don’t have anything like that again. If I could do it over, I wouldn’t have reacted to the stuff I did.

“But we work every day. It’s not a hobby. This is as serious as it gets. It’s not my day job, but it’s very serious. Sometimes you do things you shouldn’t. Just going to try and refine everything I’m doing as far as working (on the cars), driving the best I can regardless of how the thing’s working, and maybe not make myself look dumb or anything with that kind of stuff.

“I mean, (I’d explain it as) other people did something wrong and I made it worse by reacting to it.”

The Rahmer Legacy At Grandview

A win on Tuesday at Grandview would mean more than a reputation boost. Rahmer’s family has a long history at the third-mile oval, spanning back to when his grandfather, Fred Louis Rahmer, raced Late Models in the 1960s. Rahmer’s grandfather even won the track’s Late Model title in 1967.

Then there’s Freddie’s father, Fred Norman Rahmer, who cut his teeth at Grandview racing Big-Block Modifieds before starting his Hall of Fame Sprint Car career. Rahmer’s father, Fred, has nine career Sprint Car wins at Grandview, which is third all-time behind Billy Pauch’s 11 and Lance Dewease’s 10.

“It’s just nice to go there and race,” Freddie Rahmer said. “It’s an intense little track. I like racing there, especially when it gets wide and slick. Usually there’s a top you have to be aggressive on and a bottom, if you can run it, through the center and stuff. I just like going there.”

On Tuesday, Rahmer will be at the wheel of his family’s No. 51 machine, a car that nearly won May 25’s ASCoC event at Bridgeport (N.J.) Motorsports Park until a flat tire with eight laps to go.

With the World of Outlaws at Lincoln in March, he earned fast-time honors and was also in position to make a move for the win until wrecking out of the race midway through. While his PA Posse peers of Anthony Macri, Brent Marks and Danny Dietrich have won some of the sport’s bigger races in recent years, Rahmer doesn’t deny there’s pressure to keep up.

He’s hopeful his time is coming soon.

“I think so … hopefully,” Rahmer said. “I feel like we can do it, definitely, this year. I feel good mentally and am in really good shape and everything. Just excited. I hope so. That’s why we’re here.”