Chubzilla 25th

Chubzilla Celebrates 25 Years

of Championships & Winning

By Doc Lehman

Chub Frank, once known as the ‘Shoestring Traveler’ and these days more commonly designated as ‘Chubzilla’, is marking 25 years of dirt track racing and winning in 2003. The defending Renegade Dirt Car Racing Series national champion hopes to celebrate his silver anniversary of slinging racecars sideways with an unprecedented fourth Renegade championship title. Chub Frank got into his first racecar back in 1978 at Stateline Speedway in Busti, NY.

Chub Frank drives the Corry Rubber/Corry Laser/Nystrom's Auto Sales/Draime Racing Engines/Rocket Chassis/Pierotti Motorsports/Farr MotorSports Chevrolet Monte Carlo #1*. He already has one Renegade feature event victory this season, a February “Winternationals” race at East Bay Raceway in Florida.

Frank, a product of the ultra-tough Eriez-Stateline circuit, spend many years reaching the top of the “local” region out of his Bear Lake, PA base of operations. For years Frank raced, and won, at Eriez Speedway, Stateline Speedway, Raceway 7 and McKean County. One thing all those tracks have in common is the talent.

Those racetracks have produced, and continue to produce, some of the toughest and most competitive groups of racers in the country. Frank’s roots are steeped in an abundance of outstanding competition. He spent his formidable years racing with some of the baddest-to-the-bone racers which, along the way, made Frank all that much better. It was perfect grooming for the step up to traveling series.

And since going “national” Frank has won numerous national sanctioned events with series like Renegade, Xtreme Dirt Car Series and the MACS Late Model series.

He has, since his early years, steadily became a fan favorite, well beyond his original boundaries. People like Chub Frank. They root for him. Chub Frank represents the “blue collar” aspects of dirt track racing. And the blue collar fans, probably 80% of dirt Late Model racing’s fan base….relates. Plus Frank is just a dandy of a hard charger. Frank is the epitome of flat-footed racing. His wins across the sanction spectrum proves that. He can win anytime, anywhere, against anyone.

So it’s been 25 years since Chubzilla first started dirt track racing and one has to wonder how it feels to have been doing it that long.

“I feel old (laughs)!” jokes Frank.

When he first started out way back in 1978 did he think he would still be plying his trade these many years later?

“No, I might have thought I’d be racing but not doing it for a living, let’s put it that way,” responded Frank. “It wasn’t intentional starting out to do it as a living but after awhile I thought, what the hell, I like it and enjoy it and you’ve got to like what you do for a living I guess.”

So what memories does he have from his first season? Was he anxious and nervous?

“Back then we just did it for fun,” said Frank. “We won a race I think the second of June the first year we ran. We were running Spectators that first year which are like Street Stocks I guess.”

“I got a million miles on the race track (Frank’s father, Jerry, was a co-owner of Stateline and Eriez in Frank’s youth) before I ever got into a race car. I started at the racetrack when I was four. I was probably nervous the first night but just because competition wise and the beating and banging.”

“The first (Late Model) I ever drove was Southwell’s in ’85. I ran Limited Lates and Sportsmen and Late Models and I drove two different cars during the year. I didn’t own my own until the next year or year and a half after that.”

Frank is asked to take a look at his career, especially the beginning of his Late Model career, retrospectively. What memories pop up?

“We ran second the first night we ran Late Models and we were going to win the second night out but we were leading with two to go and they black flagged us because we were smoking (oil leak) so I was a little upset about that. But I came back the next week and won though (laughs)!”

Frank owns three consecutive Renegade championship titles and is vying for a fourth. What did it mean to him to win the first one?

“It was kind of surprising,” answered Frank. “We did run for points but I didn’t know if we could win them. I ran a lot of point deals back when I started out. We ran six years in a Limited Late and won all six years of the points at Stateline. The first year in a Late Model that I ran my own stuff we won the points. So the point deal, we kind of knew how to do it because points racing is different from ‘racing’ racing. That’s why I like going on that Xtreme deal because you can take chances and not worry about it if things don’t go right. You just go to the next race.”

“With Renegade sometimes, you have to take what you can get and sometimes you can’t too many chances. The first year winning the Renegade title it was great to do it and all that but the second year but probably was even better.”

So what would a fourth consecutive title mean to him?

“A fourth one, I don’t think anyone has ever done that so that would mean a lot,” commented Frank. “I don’t know what I’m going to do if I can do that (laughs)! I’d like to do it and we’re going to try and do it.”

One aspect of Frank’s career that is probably the most pivotal is the strong support he gets from his wife, Mary, an important factor in Chub Frank Racing.

“Well, she’s been around since ’85 and she’s been through all the rough stuff and the good stuff (laughs)!” said Frank. “It’s just great to have someone there to support you and she has. Otherwise it gets real tough sometimes. She’s a big part of the team and I couldn’t do it without her.”

Aside from all the Renegade races this season, Frank will also be partaking in a wide variety of Xtreme, MACS and UMP races. This year there seems to be an abundance of bigger paying events, especially in Frank’s region of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and West Virginia. And he is anxious to get to as many as possible, especially the Xtreme Ohio Late Model Speedweek events since several are midweek shows.

“I think that’s a good deal because all of the tracks we run around here are good tracks and I like that midweek stuff, like the Speedweek,” explained Frank. “I hope we get a good fan base for those deals. At Sharon, we have never been there and like at Wayne County, that track is always nice to race on. I haven’t been there in two years and that really bugs me because we’ve been pretty good there. So those places I’m looking forward to going to. At Sharon they redid it since the Blaney’s took over and it’s totally different.”

“I like that Speedweek deal and Muskingum is like five or six hours but the rest are all like three or so hours and I like that part of it. The tracks they are going to are all pretty racy, they aren’t one lane race tracks and that helps. And some of these people won’t get to see the Renegade or Xtreme drivers unless they go to one of these deals. Like at Wayne County, they (Xtreme) haven’t been there for two years. And they have never been at Sharon so I think it will be interesting and I hope it works out. Just hope the economy turns around.”

Race fans will next get to see Chubzilla in action at the Renegade sanctioned events at Bedford (PA) Speedway on April 25 and Hagerstown (MD) Speedway on April 26. Just look for the car headed for the front.

Chub Frank Racing

Rt.1 Box 146

Lottsville Niobe Rd.

Bear Lake, PA 16402