DIRT AMERICA!

DIRT AMERICA INTERVIEW: CHUB FRANK

By DOC LEHMAN

With the start of the Renegade Dirt Car Racing Series’ “Northern season” about to kick off at KC Raceway, we thought it would be a good time to check in with that series’ defending champion, Chub Frank, who has, in the past several years, risen swiftly to the top of the dirt Late Model world in terms of wins and especially in terms of fan popularity.

With a couple weeks of racing in Florida under his belt, Frank hasn’t raced since then due, mainly, to the winter and rainy weather conditions that have been plaguing the sport.

Regardless, with the Sunshine state in mind, we asked Frank how his year has gone thus far.

“Well, not as good as I like but it isn’t that bad,” responded Frank. “We ran decent at Volusia and stuff, but we really haven’t run anywhere but Florida. And we were never really any good at East Bay other than the first night. I don’t know really why.”

“I figured down there we would be a little better than we were. At Volusia we weren’t bad but the track was pretty one-landed, rubbered up. It was one of those deals but we were able to win one so that did kind of help out with what we spent down to Florida and back.”

One thing is certain, Frank is anxious and looking forward to the Renegade Dirt Car Racing Series’ season as they start to really get into the marathon season.

“I’m just looking forward to going racing (laughs)!” mused Frank. “Last week we were going to go racing but we had six inches of snow. If we can just get some good weather I’m ready to go racing. I’m actually looking forward to it a lot.”

Not only is Frank the defending Renegade champion, he has two consecutive championships to his credit. Is a three-peat in the offing?

“That’s going to be tough to do,” admitted Frank candidly. “I don’t know. There’s going to be some tough competition before it’s all said and done. It’s definitely going to be tougher this year than it was last year. I just have that feeling. We’re ready, but we’re not. I mean, I’d like to be a little more ready than what we are.”

Word out is that the Renegade series will have even more drivers running all, or a majority, of their events this season, which translates to more competition. Frank also acknowledged that the fields could be stouter this season with more teams participating.

“I think there is going to be more,” stated Frank. “I don’t know who and you don’t know for another month or so. After we run four or five more races you’ll have a better idea who is running what. But right now, there are quite a few guys who could hit the next few races anyway.”

With many months of racing facing him, Frank was asked if this could possibly be the year he achieves a goal: winning a big one at Eldora Speedway.

“I’d really like to,” Frank understated. “We’ve been qualifying good and stuff, but getting in the races is so damn tough. We’ve run decent there but last year we qualified good and had good chances at both races to run decent. But I knocked the wall down at the (ELDORA) MILLION and I basically, not really knocked the wall down again, but I basically got run over is what caused the deal at the WORLD (100).”

“ I don’t know, but I’d like to. That’s our goal. We’ve been going the last two, three, four years now and gotten a lot better out there but we still need more laps. We don’t get enough laps out there and that’s the biggest problem with that place, you don’t get enough laps to get it figured out. And when you do figure it out, Earl changes it anyway (laughs)!”

Frank will tackle the 2002 season back in Rocket Chassis and again using Draime Racing Engines for power. Sponsorship this season will come from Corry Rubber Corporation, Corry Laser Technology, Nystrom’s Auto Sales, Rocket Chassis, Farr Motorsports and Paul & Pudge Pierotti Motorsports.

Returning to the crew will be Rick (Boom) Briggs and Bruce Repine. New to the team this year is new crew chief Mark Ward, a former RJ Conley crew chief and former Renegade Dirt Car Racing Series Crew Chief of the Year winner.

“I hired one guy,” explained Frank. “The crew chief I had got married and retired. The guy I hired is Mark Ward. He used to work for RJ Conley. We’re still jelling a little bit but it’s pretty good so far. They’ve got ways they did stuff and I got ways I do stuff so we’re still working that out (laughs)!”

There has been one major change in Franks’ program that has really made industry people take notice: his newly implemented marketing, promotional and public relations campaign. In the never-ending search for sponsorship, Frank has started an aggressive marketing and promotional campaign of professional quality.

A new website from Wildside Designs (www.chubfrank.com ) regularly issued press releases, new souvenir trading cards, post cards and other merchandising, Frank has seen that, at the level of racing he competes on, marketing is the key to attaining attention from corporate America as well as the fans of the sport.

“A lot of that is Mike Farr,” said Frank. “He’s helping me out with it. I’ve known it for quite a while, that you need to do it (marketing and public relations). But it’s pretty tough to do it when you’re doing almost everything yourself to compete at this level. And it’s getting tougher to do. And keep up with all that part of it, the p.r. stuff, Mike and I talked about it and he said he would help me out with it.”

“We both agreed we need to do it. And for me it was so hard to do and keep the race team going and everything else going. It’s tough just to keep the race team going! We’re still looking for sponsors. And we did pick up some product sponsors this year. It’s been a big help. But we’re still looking for sponsorship and you know how hard that is. Some of the Winston Cup guys can’t get them.”

“Like I said, I knew we had to start doing it, and with Mike helping me and stuff, it has taken pressure off of me to do it and he does a good job. It helps me concentrate more on the racing part of it. I can still do some of it, but it just takes a lot of pressure off.”

With a good 90-some percent of the Renegade schedule facing him, Frank was asked if there were any particular tracks he looked forward to returning to.

“(Laughs) There is not too many tracks that I dislike,” stated Frank. “There are a few, but not many. I was looking forward to going to KC and Hagerstown and all those spring deals we go to. The Rock and stuff like that. I always try and hit a couple new ones every year so we might try and go and hit that TV race down in Tennessee with UDTRA. It just depends on whether we can keep everything together by then. We’ve got a couple three races we’ve got to go before that.”

For Frank, the chance of winning that UDTRA television race isn’t too far out of the question, given that during the past couple seasons he has managed to pick up big wins when visiting a track for the first time.

“Yeah, exactly, I guess that’s the thing to do,” commented Frank. “The thing with going to a track for the first time is, you can ask people about it who have been there or whatever, but the whole thing is, they can tell you something and you can go out there and you might say, that ain’t going to work for me. And that’s basically what happened to me last spring when we went down to Savannah and Fayetteville for the UDTRA races.”

“I just basically threw out what those guys told me when I got there and just threw on my own deal. And it worked. Plus if you have never been there, there aren’t any certain lines you have to run either. You don’t know where you’ve got to run so you just go out there and race.”

With more competition laying in wait this season, the popular Bear Lake, PA resident, who just turned 40 in January, was asked what his personal gut-feeling was for his team in 2002, in terms of winning the Renegade championship title for a third time.

“Oh, it would be nice to get it,” said Frank. “I’ll tell you what will be the determining factor this year I think is going to be DNF’s. The guy who doesn’t dnf a lot in the points deal is going to win it. I don’t know if there is anyone who will standout and dominate and win six or seven races or whatever.”

“I think Mike (Balzano) won seven the year before and we won six, but I don’t know if that is going to happen this year. I think probably three or four will be a lot of races won by somebody. It will come down to who is consistently in the top five without breaking.”

Which leads to the fact that parity is even more prevailing in the sport these days than ever before, something Frank concurs.

“The thing about it is everybody has got the same equipment for the most part,” explained Frank. “Everyone has pretty decent motors. Everyone can buy the same car. The whole trick is, to beat those guys, and qualifying is very important, is knowing your racecar and setups and knowing what to do at the race tracks.”

“There is always someone who will hit it right. You might not hit it right but there is always someone, one or two guys, who will hit it right and the rest might be off a little bit and they’ll be chasing those guys for the most part. But you have to take those consistent finishes if you’re going to run for points.”

Finally, Frank was asked one of the most important questions that could be poised to someone: How’s married life?

“(Laughs) It’s not any different!” quipped Frank.

Chub and his longtime love of his life, Mary Grimone, were married this past December 11.

“It’s the same as it was before (laughs)!” declared Frank with a chuckle. “No, it’s good, really. It was time, really. We bought some property and stuff and you’ve got to take care of each other, basically. We’ve been together for…. 16 or 17 years. It was time to do it!”

“There were no surprises, let’s put it that way (laughs)!”

And it will be no surprise to find Chub Frank a frequent visitor to victory lane and possibly front and center this winter at the champion’s table at the Renegade Dirt Car Racing Series awards banquet.

TOP: Chub Franks’ new souvenir postcard

Visit the CHUB FRANK website at: www.chubfrank.com