LFR And Troyer Brands To Remain Intact
A major change is coming in the landscape of Modified chassis production and sales.
LFR owner Rob Fuller confirmed exclusively to RaceDayCT Thursday that LFR and Troyer Race Cars have come together in a merger.
A new company, Troyer Manufacturing, will be formed and focus on manufacturing of cars. Another company created under the merger – Troyer Dirt – will focus on manufacturing and distribution of dirt cars through the Troyer dirt racing customer base. LFR and Troyer Chassis will continue with their individual chassis brands.
“It’s no secret that I have been trying to do something of this magnitude for quite some time now,” Fuller told RaceDayCT. “The timing seemed right, so Billy and I came together and discussed options and put a killer package together.
“I have tried several different avenues for manufacturing recently, and whether it was North Carolina or Canada, the Modifieds never were a priority. Now they are a top priority in every sense of the word. Tommy Baldwin actually called me one day and asked why Billy and I don’t figure out something where we can work together, and it kind of hit me how much sense it made to do this. The move is necessary in today’s market to be successful in all aspects of the sport. We will continue to service both LFR and Troyer dealers with a predetermined dealer structure. Myself and the LFR staff will provide at-track support for all Modified customers.”
Legendary Modified driver Maynard Troyer founded Troyer Race Cars in 1977. Colton began working for Troyer in 1981 when he was 20 years old. Troyer eventually sold the company to Colton in 1998.
“I believe that the timing is right for this,” Colton said. “Rob has proven that he will do an outstanding job taking care of the customers, working to better the product and educate the racer. When we combine that with the team that we have at Troyer and our ability to manufacture the some of the finest race cars and components in the industry, I think this will prove to be a great move for all involved.”
Fuller’s LFR chassis company was started in January 2014. The company quickly asserted itself as a major player in Modified racing.
In 2015 the Mike Smeriglio Racing team with driver Doug Coby team switched to the LFR chassis and went on to win the first of four consecutive series titles for the Fuller created product.
After three consecutive titles with Coby driving an LFR car, Justin Bonsignore – with the M3 Racing team – brought LFR it’s fourth consecutive Whelen Modified Tour title in 2018.
Last year the three top teams in the Whelen Modified Tour standings (Bonsignore, Chase Dowling, Doug Cob) ran LFR cars. Bonsignore completed one of the most successful seasons in the 35 years of Whelen Modified Tour action by winning eight of the 16 points events. Dowling had an eye-popping season in the LFR house car for Rob Fuller Motorsports with a win, nine top-five’s, 13 top-10’s and three poles in 2018.
LFR will distribute both LFR and Troyer products out of a new 7,000-square-foot facility in West Boylston, Mass. that will be equipped to provide engineering and set-up support for teams. LFR will continue distribution of Troyer products through their current Troyer Dealer network.
“We both agree that it is very important to continue to offer the Troyer and LFR as their own brands,” Colton said. “I believe that both the Troyer and LFR customers will benefit in this merger in several ways, between the tech support that will be available to them along with better inventory along with other product availability it seems like a definite win-win.”
Fuller is a former NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series crew member and the nephew of longtime Whelen Modified Tour stars Jeff Fuller and Rick Fuller.
“Maynard Troyer was my Elvis,” Fuller said. “He was an innovator, designer and a heck of a wheel man. It’s an honor to be involved at this level with his brand and make sure it’s going to be around for a long time to come. My family has been involved with the Modified Series for decades. I might not leave my mark from the cockpit like they did, but I hope when people discuss my legacy someday, they can say that I had some kind of positive impact on the Modified division and its evolution to what it has become today. The best racing in the country.”
Well there goes dozens of comments about the superiority of each up in smoke.
WOW, didn’t see that coming
Not enogh business for two companies. Plus if you talk to anyone who knows whats going on, they will tell you Billy C. has been hurting over the last few years.
Very confusing story to read. Not entirely sure what is going on. If lfr is taking over troyer or vise versus then why have two different cars? Chevy GMC type of deal? Spec racer type of deal?
Doug, not sure what that means. The performance is clear in my view. Seems like LFR dominates on the tour and Troyer dominates everywhere else. The question is can the Troyer teams get enough out of Fuller to make this worth while. Will the zebra change his stripes. If you get Fuller to focus on a ROC car would LFR dominate that too?? Jeff Gallup won his first race in ROC in a LFR in his second start. Hmmmm. This will be interesting to say the least. I want a pic of Fuller on a Troyer jacket. Better yet Colton in a LFR hat. Lol!!!
If you have followed this forum over the years the LFR vs Troyer rivalry has produced many a lively comment.That’s all I meant. But in the end Garry you summed up the big picture about as well as anyone has.
Who knows what’s going on with the builders. Mike P. at CD builds a wonder wagon for Preece that has been gathering dust since Speedweeks but will be pulled out for Thompson on June 5. Otherwise CD has it’s niche with lower division mods, Todd Owen at Chassis Pro has built a tour mod we’ll see tonight and SPAFCO continues to quietly turn out their chassis and do repairs quite nicely.
Building chassis is a microscopic market as has already been said. Low volume, high tech…..a labor of love mostly by skilled but vastly undervalued people. Barely enough work in the long term to eek out a living and for Fuller not even that since LFR is only a part of Fuller Inc. Rumors of Troyer struggling have also abounded as has already been said. Working together as opposed to beating each others brains out surely makes a lot of sense. The cost savings in testing and development alone you’d think would be huge.
Will this provide stability in the sport? Dubious at best. Is this simply an exchange of Troyer for Fury before Fuller adds his own special ingredients and works his magic? Is it more about distance from Fury then proximity to Troyer? Will Fuller share his secret ingredients with Troyer in his strength the NWMT series? You tell me.Who builds a new building to house an expanded operation only to water down his product and service offerings? What does merging but each maintaining it’s own brand even mean?
What I know is if you read the history of LFR from the time Fuller started it down south one thing is consistent. Constant reconfigurations, associations, locations and experimentation. Is Fuller now a dirt guy as well?
Jeff Gallup won in the VMRS. A short race with some fortunate developments leading to the win but a win nonetheless. Gallup is one of those guys that in my view is under appreciated in that shows up for everything with limited success. It will be fun tonight watching to see if something has changed fundamentally and he can make waves with the front runners. The clock doesn’t lie. He was one of the fastest cars at Lee.
That’s the view from the bleachers. If I got i wrong don’t whine, correct it.
It’s race day in CT on RacedayCT with fair skies and a full paddock of modifieds the prediction.
From the article on Speed Sport News, “This will be a big change for me,” said Colton, “but I am looking forward to my new role in the organization. I will be managing the manufacturing facility as well as Troyer Dirt for the next five years.” Sounds like Billy may be laying out his retirement plans.
Also, I thought Gallup won an VMRS race, not ROC.
LFR needs a manufacturer and network of dealers/repair shops.
Troyer needs a salesman.
B-O-O-M!
Dareal you’ve said all that needs to be said. We can speculate about this and that, only Fuller and Colton know. But I think Dareals statement says it all
What about Fury modifieds?
@dareal
That’s basically what just happened.
For Modifieds:
Billy Colton manufactures Troyer & LFR
Rob Fuller sells/distributes/supports/innovates
For Dirt:
Billy Colton does all
Mark my words, by 2020, Fury won’t be producing modifieds. LFR/Fuller is 85%+ of Fury’s business and with the newly created company Fuller has developed, he won’t be buying anything from them.
Just Me, what new company has Fuller developed? It looks like he crawled back to Troyer. I wonder how many other shops turned him down when he was searching for yet another place to build his chassis for him. Why didn’t he continue with LFR in NC, where he started, instead of leaving it? He had his own manufacturing right there in house. Can you explain with the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth? What kind of company can’t manufacture its own product?
LFR And Troyer Brands To Remain Intact
Troyer is the one with the history, assets and brand equity here. They didn’t need LFR. Fuller needs Troyer. Kinda sad when you have to end up at your competitor, the market leader, to build your product. It just goes to show who is the real deal, and who is the wannabe. But LFR sourcing their chassis from Troyer is kinda funny.
Just me, how can you say Colton’s hurting? Look at the modified divisions at any track, most are Troyer. And even if Colton doesn’t build the car himself, he gets a piece of the pie, not to mention the money he makes from parts, and Dirt mods. Hurting he is not.
Just Fuller burning another bridge ….The hand writing was on the wall when N.East. Brad became a Fury dealer ….Fuller screwed the Fury’s and Jeff Fultz and had to GIVE the company to them but they tried to work to work with Rob but he did not sell a lot of cars …..Fury / the old Lfr has a state of the art cup like shop the best jigs , welders , laser cut parts even sheet metal …Troyer is still 1990’s old style builder which is fine but i have seen tons of there welds not hold because of lack of heat ….You can not compare the two as far as fabrication not even in the same ball park if you know what your looking at ….
Talk to some of his suppliers and if you’re close to the industry, you’ll know. If he wasn’t hurting, why would he sell to Fuller. They might say it’s a merger, but read into it. Colton won’t be designing modifieds, supporting at the track, sellings parts/chassis etc. He will be manufacturing for Fuller. The only thing he’ll have full control of is the dirt cars.
There were rumors that Troyer had issues that had been circulating on social media that Troyer addressed with statements that it is business as usual. That all happened over the winter as I recall. Chassis building is a brutal business. I suspect they all struggle to some degree. Excepting Fuller who has other revenue streams. Who knows the truth?
The entire point of all this is for Troyer to concentrate on manufacturing. What LFR manufactures is being transferred to Troyer. Clips and such I would presume.
Fuller is not the salesman Troyer needs. He’s the track support that Troyer needs so they can focus on manufacturing. More accurately he may be the enemy they couldn’t defeat and have now joined.
You could have said Troyer didn’t need LFR two weeks ago and no one would have disagreed. And yet here we are. Apparently they do. They want to concentrate of MANUFACTURING and not have to worry about competing with Fuller’s outstanding track support.
This is about elimination of duplicate effort in a microscopic, highly specialized industry.
Were it not a microscopic industry the “M” word may be coming up.
Fuller is gonna have to learn to weld pretty soon.
Wind it up DGF. You’re going to get the green.
I can’t get over how much you’re like Trump.You say you hate the guy but you’re escalating insults and demeaning attacks on a well respected part of the racing community are just like the guy you hate. Once again you’re backing yourself into a corner and it’s fun to watch.
And to think it all started with calling Fuller a salesman.
PS: yes I know. Sybil, Insipid Sybil, Welding Wonders, Rickinmass etc………………….
Just Me, so what happened to Troyer asphalt modifieds? Who will be repping/promoting/supporting the Troyer modifieds?
Jeff P. Your going to be just the next loser on here to eat his words. Let’s see what Troyer Mfg announces next week. Fuller has 2 manufacturers (not including fury) that weld parts for him. Fuller left fury. Someone as sharp as him wont let go of a branch before he has a hold of another one. One day the industry will respect him. Until then it will hate him. Funny part is….now he doesn’t have to care anymore. The same people said “the geometry in the LFR car is wrong….who doesn’t plot geometry before they manufacture? That was a good one. Looks like the geometry on A LFR car is just fine. Fuller could win races with a Lawn Mower. Heads and shoulders above the rest. Just ask the folks in NC that have been riding his innovations for years. Now they are going to tell everyone how much they can help on a chassis they have no idea what or why it works. They better hope fuller doesn’t want to go Late Model racing again. Love listening to the outsiders sing their songs. What a joke. Not one LFR customer will purchase anything from anyone BUT Fuller. They fear being kicked off the LFR island. It’s a nice place to be it seems in the tour.
Amazing how the announcement of a business merger can lead to so much speculation and contraversy. Billy Colton AKA Troyer Race Cars is far from hurting. Just look at the roster of any track running modified, 98% of the cars are Troyer. Then you’ve got the touring series, about 80%. Add in parts and repairs, and the guys doing pretty well. Oh, don’t forget the Dirt stuff, and apparel. Now he’s building cars for LFR, and all of a sudden Rob has burned all his bridges, and came crawling back to Troyer. Get real. This merger is nothing more than 2 business men cutting a deal in which both make out, and more importantly the racers make out.
To all those that say that this is an echo chamber of ignorance there’s only one response. Ya think! But so what. You may want to think this is solving all the issues relevant to local racing but in the end it’s simply sports talk. It’s Vinny in Queens calling Mike Francesa to make the case that Brady is a bum, not the goat and the Patriots will suck this year.
Troyer welds failing and Fuller a salesman that is yet to be respected in the industry crawling back to a former associate that doesn’t need him.. Thanks Vinny in Queens for that. Sports talks.
There is one thing worse then this……..crickets. Not one entry because no one cares.
In the article I read it said Fuller approached Colton. Lets connect a few dots here. Fact 1, NE race cars and Troyer had a parting of the ways. Fact 2 NE became a Fury dealer.Fact 3 Colton is getting older. Fact 4, LFR and Troyer become a joint venture. Fact 5 Fury stopped selling cars to Fuller right after NE became a Fury dealer. It looks to me that NE asked Fury to stop selling LFR cars. Now LFR needs someone to build cars for them. Maybe Colton is getting ready to retire. How do any of you know LFR didn’t approach any other car builders? If LFR built their own cars, he would not have this problem. Remember all crash damage was going to Raceworks. Is that deal still on? Also, in this thread or the other one someone asked who was actually running Fury cars. The answer to that is they ALL are running Fury chassis with LFR bolt on parts.Let the bashing begin!
Jeff F. Call down to fury ask for Tony Jr. then ask whey Fuller left then you can talk about it …Heck call Ed Flemke Jr for that matter he will tell you the same thing …Had nothing to do with race cars ….
Hey Shawn, see if you can get Tony Jr. for a podcast.
you could get all three, (Colton, Tony Jr and Fuller) on podcasts and you’re not going to hear the same story. Let’s all enjoy modified racing and let the drama happen in the background.
I love reading some of the comments about how the LFR cars are so dominant well if you look at the teams dominating the mods like MSR and Colby well you have Phil Moran who at one point was on a cup team helping with chassis setups and is now a fulltime worker on his mods not many tour teams have FULLTIME workers for 16 races or spend the money they spend testing and researching on pulldown rigs etc. So if every tour team had the money that team did I’m sure it would be a different story. Everyone at one point years ago had a Troyer then CD came out won a crap load of races and everyone had to have a CD car then Spafco with Art Barry came out same thing of course when like Preece you have the builder of any chassis as a crew chief you have a good chance of winning so in the end who REALLY CARES if these two merge/unite whatever the hell their doing. Keith Rocco won a crap load races in CD car Teddy and some others go to Troyer win a few Keith switches its follow the leader but you need the intelligence behind the car to setup the car and whoever has that help will win with a good driver its been proven its the driver and crew setting up car that will win not the name of the chassis…. JUST SAYING AND yes I’ve been around since Danbury,Plainville days
Ed j, quick question. The chassis that Fury is welding together, who designed that chassis? Fury is still using the original chassis design that Fuller.
If you buy a pair of Nikes sneakers, They’re called Nikes, no matter who produced them. They might say, produced in China or Japan or Vietnam etc. I see this the same with LFR chassis, Fuller designed the chassis and bolt on parts but has different companies producing them.
Just me, quick answer. Fuller may have designed the chassis, but when Fury bought the business he has the right to put his name on it.And you have it backwards. If you buy NIke sneakers, no matter where they are made, they are built to Nike mfg. specs.Those companies are working for Nike. Those companies making the sneakers cannot sell the exact same Nike sneaker to another company and let some other company put their name on the sneaker. Do you really think Nike would continue to do business with a mfg. that would do that to them. So I stand by my statement that ALL cars are Fury chassis with LFR bolt on parts. Try again just me.
Just Me wrote, “Ed j, quick question. The chassis that Fury is welding together, who designed that chassis? Fury is still using the original chassis design that Fuller.”
These chassis are out in the public now and are in the public domain, nothing is secret. So tell us all about these design features that make the LFR chassis special and unique. Tell us all about each and every unique design feature and how it is directly related to a performance advantage.
Modfan, good to see someone remembers the good ole days. I too remember when if you wanted to win you ran a Troyer, then along came CD and everyone who what anyone drove a CD car. Then Fuller whooped everyone in Art Barry’s 21, and SPAFCO couldn’t build them fast enough, then Troyer updated, and everyone switched to Troyer. Now LFR is the car to have. Rumor has it that a new CD car is just around the corner, can you guess what will happen if it wins races?
Rob p, Art ran Performance Technology power that was pretty much untouchable at the time. Art was a master at getting those PT engines to sing… I could tell when Art’s car was qualifying from behind the stands by the tone.