By Doc Lehman
Popular dirt Late Model star Chub Frank, affectionately known by his multitude of fans as ‘Chubzilla’, is currently at home recuperating from a recent hospital stay after the World of Outlaws Late Model Series ‘Dirty Dozen’ member recently under went surgery on his knee. Frank will be on crutches and recuperating for up to three weeks according to his surgeon. Frank, 42, of Bear Lake, PA drives the Lester Buildings, Allstar Performance, Corry Rubber, Slavic Custom T-Shirts, Rocket Chassis Monte Carlo #1*. Frank underwent the surgery on November 17.
“There is a piece of cartilage and calcium building that was growing in there and getting lodged under my kneecap and it got pretty big, big as a half dollar,” explained Chubzilla. “I had it operated on 20 years ago and they drilled holes in it and the cartilage or whatever grows back through. I’m not a doctor and I don’t know too much of the technicalities (laughs) but I know it takes longer to heal when they do it the way they did it to me. They were supposed to do it with a scope and they ended up having to cut it to get that piece out. So instead of being a couple days on crutches it looks like three weeks.”
“I was going to go to the PRI Show if I could get healed up but I don’t think I will be able to do that now since they had to cut it. The swelling hasn’t gone down yet.”
With his new shop under construction and with time off to recuperate, Frank will have a busy time until February rolls around and the team heads south to Florida.
“Right now we’re just trying to get my new Lester Buildings garage done and the cars done for Florida,” revealed Frank. “That and get the hauler done. It’s down at Wildside right now getting fixed. The side of it got damaged in the shop fire we had so they’re fixing the damage to that. There is a lot of stuff going on actually.”
“The new shop is coming along great, it’s getting there. All of the insulation is in and we’re putting the sheet metal on the walls. We haven’t got the floor in but that’s the next step. The garage doors are coming this week so once they are here it will all be enclosed and we can actually put some heat in there and do the floor.”
“With Lester Buildings, it’s definitely a big thing having them on board this year. After putting this building together it’s definitely a lot easier than some of them I have seen. And they are really stout. Everyone has been pretty impressed with how stout it is. It is very strong.”
Despite the upcoming holidays and his recovery period Chubzilla is also looking ahead to the 2005 season. After a 2004 season that was full of peaks and valleys, including the sudden passing of his Mother, Janet Frank, and the fire that destroyed Chub Frank Racing’s shop, Frank is ready to put it all behind him and focus clearly and squarely on his 2005 campaign.
“Looking forward to 2005 actually,” stated Frank. “2004, you know how that was (laughs)! It was good and it wasn’t good. Once we get this shop done and get back to racing in February it will be better. We’re actually looking forward to going racing.”
Frank is also looking at 2005 as one big, clean slate.
“We’re definitely going to be giving it 110%,” proclaimed Frank. “I’m looking forward to it because I know our team can perform better than it did this year with all the stuff that went on. I am looking forward to next year because I think we can win a lot more races and have a better year although this year we did win a few races and the WORLD 100 but there was so much stuff going on we couldn’t concentrate fully on racing.”
With a sixth place finish in 2004 World of Outlaw Late Model Series points Chubzilla is getting primed and ready to take a run at the championship with both barrels blazing.
“I’d like to do that,” understated Frank. “I told Scott (Bloomquist) I’d like to give him a run for his money with the World of Outlaws championship. I don’t think our point deal was too good this year, we had way too many DNF’s and that is not our style. One thing our team strives on is not to have any DNF’s. We ran a lot of Renegade deals and ran all the laps and we just didn’t do that this year, we had too many DNF’s and a lot of it was the adversity the team went thru.”
Chubzilla was also adamant about getting a particular message out to his many, many race fans and sponsors.
“With the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays coming up I just want to say, in all sincerity, that not only myself, but Mary and the entire team would like to again extend our sincerest thanks to everyone who supported us and stood behind us this past season,” commented Frank. “I will never, ever be able to thank everyone and let them know what it meant to have so much support this past year when I lost Mom and we had the fire. Even when we won the WORLD 100, those same people were right there backing us up every inch along the way. So to all of the fans, and our generous and terrific sponsors, our thanks to you and we want to wish everyone out there happy and safe holidays. We hope everyone has a great Christmas season with their families and we hope to see them all at the tracks soon.”
Chubzilla fans will be able to read more about him in the new December 2004 issue of DIRT LATE MODEL magazine written by Al Martin III where readers will find Chubzilla the subject of the cover story. For information on the magazine visit: www.mompub.com
For more information on Chub Frank and Chub Frank Racing visit his website at: www.chubfrank.com
-Prepared by Lehman Motorsports Services/Farr Motorsports
Popular dirt Late Model star Chub Frank, affectionately known by his multitude of fans as ‘Chubzilla’, is currently at home recuperating from a recent hospital stay after the World of Outlaws Late Model Series ‘Dirty Dozen’ member recently under went surgery on his knee. Frank will be on crutches and recuperating for up to three weeks according to his surgeon. Frank, 42, of Bear Lake, PA drives the Lester Buildings, Allstar Performance, Corry Rubber, Slavic Custom T-Shirts, Rocket Chassis Monte Carlo #1*. Frank underwent the surgery on November 17.
“There is a piece of cartilage and calcium building that was growing in there and getting lodged under my kneecap and it got pretty big, big as a half dollar,” explained Chubzilla. “I had it operated on 20 years ago and they drilled holes in it and the cartilage or whatever grows back through. I’m not a doctor and I don’t know too much of the technicalities (laughs) but I know it takes longer to heal when they do it the way they did it to me. They were supposed to do it with a scope and they ended up having to cut it to get that piece out. So instead of being a couple days on crutches it looks like three weeks.”
“I was going to go to the PRI Show if I could get healed up but I don’t think I will be able to do that now since they had to cut it. The swelling hasn’t gone down yet.”
With his new shop under construction and with time off to recuperate, Frank will have a busy time until February rolls around and the team heads south to Florida.
“Right now we’re just trying to get my new Lester Buildings garage done and the cars done for Florida,” revealed Frank. “That and get the hauler done. It’s down at Wildside right now getting fixed. The side of it got damaged in the shop fire we had so they’re fixing the damage to that. There is a lot of stuff going on actually.”
“The new shop is coming along great, it’s getting there. All of the insulation is in and we’re putting the sheet metal on the walls. We haven’t got the floor in but that’s the next step. The garage doors are coming this week so once they are here it will all be enclosed and we can actually put some heat in there and do the floor.”
“With Lester Buildings, it’s definitely a big thing having them on board this year. After putting this building together it’s definitely a lot easier than some of them I have seen. And they are really stout. Everyone has been pretty impressed with how stout it is. It is very strong.”
Despite the upcoming holidays and his recovery period Chubzilla is also looking ahead to the 2005 season. After a 2004 season that was full of peaks and valleys, including the sudden passing of his Mother, Janet Frank, and the fire that destroyed Chub Frank Racing’s shop, Frank is ready to put it all behind him and focus clearly and squarely on his 2005 campaign.
“Looking forward to 2005 actually,” stated Frank. “2004, you know how that was (laughs)! It was good and it wasn’t good. Once we get this shop done and get back to racing in February it will be better. We’re actually looking forward to going racing.”
Frank is also looking at 2005 as one big, clean slate.
“We’re definitely going to be giving it 110%,” proclaimed Frank. “I’m looking forward to it because I know our team can perform better than it did this year with all the stuff that went on. I am looking forward to next year because I think we can win a lot more races and have a better year although this year we did win a few races and the WORLD 100 but there was so much stuff going on we couldn’t concentrate fully on racing.”
With a sixth place finish in 2004 World of Outlaw Late Model Series points Chubzilla is getting primed and ready to take a run at the championship with both barrels blazing.
“I’d like to do that,” understated Frank. “I told Scott (Bloomquist) I’d like to give him a run for his money with the World of Outlaws championship. I don’t think our point deal was too good this year, we had way too many DNF’s and that is not our style. One thing our team strives on is not to have any DNF’s. We ran a lot of Renegade deals and ran all the laps and we just didn’t do that this year, we had too many DNF’s and a lot of it was the adversity the team went thru.”
Chubzilla was also adamant about getting a particular message out to his many, many race fans and sponsors.
“With the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays coming up I just want to say, in all sincerity, that not only myself, but Mary and the entire team would like to again extend our sincerest thanks to everyone who supported us and stood behind us this past season,” commented Frank. “I will never, ever be able to thank everyone and let them know what it meant to have so much support this past year when I lost Mom and we had the fire. Even when we won the WORLD 100, those same people were right there backing us up every inch along the way. So to all of the fans, and our generous and terrific sponsors, our thanks to you and we want to wish everyone out there happy and safe holidays. We hope everyone has a great Christmas season with their families and we hope to see them all at the tracks soon.”
Chubzilla fans will be able to read more about him in the new December 2004 issue of DIRT LATE MODEL magazine written by Al Martin III where readers will find Chubzilla the subject of the cover story. For information on the magazine visit: www.mompub.com
For more information on Chub Frank and Chub Frank Racing visit his website at: www.chubfrank.com
-Prepared by Lehman Motorsports Services/Farr Motorsports
