Coming Home: Q&A With LFR Owner Rob Fuller

Rob Fuller (left) with reigning Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby (Photo: Rob Fuller Motorsports)

Rob Fuller (left) with reigning Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby (Photo: Rob Fuller Motorsports)

Rob Fuller announced today that he has sold the chassis manufacturing rights of LFR. Fuller’s company will now support and service its base of LFR Modified racers by utilizing the cars and parts that will be manufactured independently in North Carolina.

Fuller will continue with a focused effort in supporting Modified racing in the Northeast through LFR brand Modifieds and working with LFR Northeast in Stafford.

Check below for an exclusive RaceDayCT Q&A with Rob Fuller on his new endeavor with LFR.

What went into the decision to focus on Modifieds?
Rob Fuller: Over the last 3 years I have learned a lot about business, people and most importantly my family. I have 2 boys 13 and 9 at home. In 10 years they will not know who won the Modified race at Loudon or who won a championship at Bowman Gray. They will remember who was at their baseball games and who was at the bus stop on the first day of school however. The LFR business grew extremely fast and that consumed all of my time. I was not providing the level of customer service that I intended, and I just was not doing what I love to do, and that is help racers win races and be a good dad. This will allow me to accomplish both of those goals. I have taken too much time from them over the past 3 years and I was not happy with the person I had become given the situations I was faced with every day owning a company growing at the pace LFR was.

How important is it for you to go in this directions considering your family history and bringing the business to where Modified racing is centered?
Fuller: I believe it is no secret that my heart is in the New England modified scene. I raced in this region at a very young age with my family, moved south for 15 years and returned home in 2010 with a vision of developing a modified using the skills and knowledge I had acquired while racing in NC with some of the largest teams in NASCAR. LFR was a MA based company that relocated to NC. Now I can return to MA with exactly what I wanted at a level that I can easily control. LFRs success was based on my passion for short track racing, Period. If I can continue to service these customers that came on board to help me show the racing community what we developed, and grow this brand up here while spending more time with my family, that would make me the happiest guy in racing. Keeping customers happy and providing them with a unparrelled level of support has always been, and will continue to be most important to me, whether we are talking Draco Springs or LFR. The LFR brand has come on the market like no other manufacturer has. We have won championships and countless races right out of the box which lead to the rapid growth and non stop strain in my personal life. I am extremely proud of the product I have developed and more proud of the customer base I have acquired over the past 2 years. I am looking forward to growing the modified brand in the NE region, and providing them with a location that they can rely on for parts and service. I believe it will be a huge benefit to the modified market in the Northeast. I know that it was tough for teams to commit to a chassis manufacturer in NC. This scenario will provide the best of both worlds for the NE racer. A state of the art chassis manufactured in NC and a full service facility in CT to provide parts, set up assistance, and a level of customer service that I have always wanted to provide. We will be announcing the product lines we will be adding and the services we will be providing in the near future.

How surprised are you by the rapid growth and success of your business in the Modified realm?
Fuller: Surprised is a understatement. The success wasn’t all that surprising honestly simply because I have such a long time relationship with this division and a good understanding of what these cars require to be successful, but the company went from 4 employees to over 30 in no time flat which was very surprising. The modifieds have always been a slow and steady business and never really provided the headaches that the other areas of the business had for sure. This is why I am excited for this opportunity. I have the opportunity to sell the parts and chassis I developed and I can lean on those guys down there for manufacturing. I believe I can enjoy doing this again if I can limit the overhead and the strain I had personally from such a large company. I never intended to get rich by building modifieds, I simply wanted to do what I was passionate about and provide a product and a service that no one else was able to.

So will you be taking over what is now LFR Northeast in Stafford?
Fuller: Those guys really have everything flowing smooth now. The phone is ringing more and Cory [Casgrande] will probably be a little busier than normal, but I really want to focus on the customer service side. I really enjoy testing and going to the track to help customers. That is the reason I wanted to start this company honestly. Why go to the track and work on 1 car when you can help 5 guys win a race or just perform better week after week. It really bothered me when I couldn’t give the customers the time they were requesting. I hired Ryan Stone to help with that but it just wasn’t the same as me being there with the customer. I felt like they really wanted to speak with me and I was consumed with 31 employees and 5 race teams. This is a much better situation for not only me but the customers as well.

Comments

  1. Rumor has it dareall is the new owner,no more big carbs , no more 17post shaker

  2. That interview was worthless. Though I was reading a Trump interview.

    The business was so successful he left it?

    Somebody please explain that.

  3. I have never posted her but man Dareal your a piece of work. Trump? The dude is saying he wants to be home and focus on Modifieds. I’m not a mod guy but yes the LFR cars are successful. I know Rick Fuiler through business and he was telling me how burnt out Rob was getting over the winter. Why do you have to turn everything into a negative. You must be a bigger loser than we all think you are. Must be difficult to sit at your computer and bash everything on here. Why don’t you get out of your closet and try to accomplish something in your life other than attack people that are doers not dreamers.

  4. Andy Boright says

    Dareal does have a point.

    Unbridled success doesn’t cause companies to layoff people like LFR did.

    I’m not sure we got even half the story here.

  5. And now the chassis of the 2, 44, and 8 are worth scrap metal prices.

    Steve, if you started a business that was growing so fast and was so successful, you don’t leave it after 2-3 years. Pretty simple. Wasn’t that the point of moving to NC in the first place? How many teams are using the LFR chassis? Sorry pal, that few chassis is not going to set up a revenue stream with after sales that will enable a company to thrive.

    Best of luck to Fury with mod chassis.

    Next season, the 2 and 8 will be back to Troyer, and the 44 will run the LFR until they wreck them. And they will run just as they have been.

    Way too much sugar coating, smoke, mirrors, and pixie dust. Anybody with the slightest business experience can see there are way too many questions and holes. It just doesn’t add up. It just didn’t work and those that invested and were left holding the bag have to try to get something out of it. Some people are born salesmen.

    Look, mod chassis business is tiny to begin with, and saturated with legendary names and companies. There’s a reason for that. It’s a tiny business market. If you want to compete with that, you have to do better and at a much lower cost. Looks like that didn’t happen.

    And opening a mod chassis business when the series overall is contracting (low car counts all over) was not exactly a brilliant move. Now if the established base of mod chassis suppliers was unable to keep up with demand, that would have been another story, but that was not reality. So opening a mod chassis shop in NC where there is no demand, during a downturn in the series, was not a great business model.

    Hey, it happens.

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