As a general rule, we have a lot of respect for anyone who races on the Saturday night level as a full-time job. Correct that, a metric ton of respect.
Bull City only plans to build...
Bull City only plans to build straight-rail Asphalt Late Model cars so that its team members can concentrate their expertise specifically in that area. We found lots of things to really like about this clean-sheet design, especially the attention to detail. Notice the raised hoop for the upper shock mounts. This is more noticeable in this car because all the other bars rearward of the hoops have been kept as low as possible to keep the car's center of gravity down. The forward downtubes (from the halo to just behind the shock mount) are designed to help keep the front clip from flexing, which is a common problem with bumpstop cars.
There's a lot of truth to the old joke about the best way to make a small fortune is to take a large fortune and go racing with it. For most of us, the costs of racing far exceed the profit. To make it work you have to be able to do practically everything yourself, have a good relationship with dependable sponsors, know how to stretch a buck and--most of all--finish well practically every time you take the green flag. And even if you're able to do all that, there's still no guarantee that any racing program will be able to pay for itself in addition to providing for your family and making the house payment.
Jay Fogleman is definitely in that category. Although he has other business interests, Fogleman has been able to race and win for nearly 30 years with enough success to make it a profitable enterprise. Fogleman has raced practically everything on asphalt, including in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, but he's had his most success in the past decade racing straight-rail Super Late Models.
The driver's footwell is roomy...
The driver's footwell is roomy and completely boxed in so that your feet and legs are still protected even if the crush panel is damaged or torn out.
Much of Fogleman's success...
Much of Fogleman's success as a race car driver comes from his skills understanding how to set up and adjust a race car. To do it properly he says requires precision, and this can be seen in the way he builds his Bull City racing chassis. Small holes are drilled in several important bars to mark the precise center of the car.
Bumpstops are those hard rubber...
Bumpstops are those hard rubber biscuits placed on the shock absorber's shaft. Originally, bumpstops were meant only to keep the shock from bottoming out and damaging itself, but it's use has now evolved into a handling tool. Bumpstops can be adjusted by using different biscuits of different hardnesses.
"For me it all comes down to what's going to be fun to race," he says. "And the Supers make for some really good racing. I race mostly in the PASS series, and they do it so that the engines have enough power so that you can pass somebody and it's not just follow-the-leader hoping somebody will make a mistake so you can move up. The crowds have been good even with the difficult economy, so I think that says a lot about the quality of racing, too."
But if you aren't on television on Sunday, making the financials work can be difficult no matter how good the racing is. That's why Fogleman has decided to use his experience as a race-winning driver, team owner, and general wrench to help other teams achieve the same success. Shark Racing Development is the result of that desire and was founded to help young racers develop their skills behind the wheel, team managers understand how to develop strong relationships with sponsors and crew chiefs grow their knowledge of how to tune a race car for the conditions. Fogleman has even begun developing a line of racing parts that will be manufactured and sold through DRP Performance Products.
Through his racing and use...
Through his racing and use of the DRP pull-down rig, Fogleman discovered that round tube lower control arms can actually flex when the suspension is hard against the bumpstops. When this happens it changes wheel and tire location which can harm handling. So for his own car, Fogleman has designed a stronger square tube lower control arm setup.
This is the pull-down rig...
This is the pull-down rig setup from DRP that Fogleman uses to perfect his setups. The rig allows Fogleman to duplicate the attitude of the race car at any point on the racetrack and measure practically anything he wants, including camber, toe, and the weight on any of the four tires. The system is portable so it doesn't chew up a lot of your shop space. Fogleman, for instance, sets up his rig on his surface place.
The foundation of the system...
The foundation of the system are four special scale pads that sit on stands. These aren't ordinary scale pads because they must be able to accurately measure wheel weights much greater than the car sitting at ride height. The pull-down rig can add a lot of extra force in addition to the car's weight. The system is designed so that the tires can float on the scale pads so that the suspension is never bound up, which can throw off your findings.
"If you're moving to a new type of racing, you can waste a lot of time just trying to get to the level of other racers that have been in that class for a while," Fogleman explains. "That's a hard lesson I learned working with my son, Tate. We started him out in karts, and by the time I felt like I had learned enough to be able to set up and maintain his kart to give him a real chance against the competition he was ready to move up. Then I didn't learn my lesson and we did it again racing Bandoleros. His development as a racer didn't progress as fast as it could have because it took me a while to learn all the tricks with those cars.
"I've been racing for 29 years and have learned a lot of those lessons the hard way when it comes to racing stock cars, especially Super Late Models. If I can help somebody advance their own racing program a little bit by sharing what I've learned, then I think we're all the better for it."