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LFR Chassis is setting the standard at New Hampshire

In a span of just a few short years, Rob Fuller and his team at LFR Chassis have become one of the most prominent car builders in modified racing.

You would think winning the last three NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships with Doug Coby would be enough to point out the success of the operation but that is just the beginning. They have won various races — with multiple different drivers — all the way up and down the East Coast, and they have done it quickly.

This week, as the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour hits the halfway point in the 16-race points schedule at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, LFR has a favorable chance of being in Victory Lane once again.

Friday, select competitors will run the 35-lap All Star Shootout — the only non-points event of the season — while Saturday, the Eastern Propane & Oil 100 championship points event is slated to take the green flag just after 2 p.m.

In four of the last six races at the ‘Magic Mile’ — including both events last year — the driver who rolled into the winner’s circle was driving an LFR car. Bobby Santos III used the bottom groove to complete the season sweep at New Hampshire last year driving for Tinio Racing, and he will be back looking to grab another trophy.

In the last six NHMS races, only Todd Szegedy and Justin Bonsignore have won while not driving LFR cars, and, oddly enough, since their victories, both have transferred and been behind the wheel for LFR.

Szegedy wheeled the No. 15 LFR house-car for three events in 2016 and finished second in two of the starts, while after an offseason jump to the LFR team, Bonsignore is off to a sizzling start. Behind the wheel of his No. 51 Phoenix Communications Inc. Chevrolet, Bonsignore has four wins in the first seven races, and looks to be on a roll that will be difficult for others to stop.

“It’s been a really good transition for us, Rob (Fuller) was very instrumental in getting us to move to LFR over the winter,” Bonsignore said. “Ryan (Stone, crew chief) was an LFR guy from the beginning. They both have a good relationship and they bounce ideas off each other. It’s been a really good team effort between everyone.”

Saturday, Fuller’s operation has plenty of chances to hold the trophy, led by Bonsignore, four-time New Hampshire winner Coby, Santos and Chase Dowling, along with others.

Dowling, a Roxbury, Connecticut, driver, has put together quite the start to the 2018 campaign running his third full-time season. Even though the 20-year-old hasn’t quite captured the checkered flag yet, he is second in the championship standings and has finished inside the top 10 in all seven races — becoming a master of consistency.

“Justin has won four races, we are fast, the No. 2 (Coby) is fast, they are just pretty dominant cars overall,” Dowling said of the LFR operation’s efforts so far this season. “When you unload, you have to be a top five car, and then you can tweak on it from there. It’s all in the preparation. The guys that we have with our cars… we are lucky to have the crew guys with us. It’s a big combination.”

HAMPTON, VA – JUNE 23: Chase Dowling, driver of the #15 15-40 Connection Chevrolet, looks on from his car during practice before the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour WhosYourDriver.org 150 at Langley Speedway on June 23, 2018 in Hampton, Virginia. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/NASCAR)

Dowling doesn’t just drive the cars for LFR, but, he also helps build and wrench on them during the week, working as an employee. He’s fully invested in helping the company be successful.

“I like working on them, I’ve been working on cars my whole life,” Dowling said. “It was cool to help out Ryan Stone and the Ken Massa group over the winter and help be a part of putting their car together. It’s a good feeling when you can have the cars go out there and win.”

Even Bonsignore, who has been watching Dowling closely all season, is appreciative of the fact that one of his closest competitors actually has helped build the cars he is having success with this season.

“Chase works there, so when our cars were starting to be assembled, Chase, Rob and everyone were chipping in and going all hands on deck to make our cars were complete,” Bonsignore said. “All of them were so willing to help get our program off the ground.”

Even though the LFR competitors are hoping to visit Victory Lane not once — but twice — over the course of the two days of competition this weekend, they know it isn’t a given. Competition is heavy on the Whelen Modified Tour, and one of the closest challengers is Troyer Chassis, led with a furious fight from Ryan Preece and Timmy Solomito, among others.

The success of the chassis department doesn’t just stem from the Northeast, either. Down south, veteran racer Burt Myers, who sprinkles in select starts with the car in Whelen Modified Tour action, has been dominant at Bowman Gray Stadium, and was one of the first to find the success the car has.

“I was basically the first guy to run the car, Rob had the first one, and my brother and I had the second and third. I won like nine of the first 11 races I ran with the car,” Myers said. “From 1998-2016, I drove the same car at Bowman Gray Stadium, and I won six championships, but the last two-and-a-half years, I’ve been racing the LFR car, and I have 13 wins and two championships so far.

“It was time for some new technology, and some of the designed features that they have, they were the new wave that came through in modifieds.”

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Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.

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