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Your Pit Guide reporter recently got the opportunity to meet with 2008 Toledo Speedway Sportsman champion Jim Froling and the entire Wolverine Motorsports Inc. team at their race shop in Monroe, Mi. Just like 2007, the championship battle between Jim Froling and Ron Allen went down to the very last race as those two throttle jockeys finished 1 & 2 for the second straight year. Unlike 2007 however, when Ron claimed the crown, last year's season title was ultimately won by Jim in his bright orange #46 Ford Fusion. At first glance, Jim seems like just another of those many drivers that just quietly like to get the job done without a lot of drama and theatrics, but since that barely scratches the surface of his personality, I wanted to give everyone a little more insight to what really makes him tick. He currently works for Ford as a cylinder head engineer, and lives in West Bloomfield, Mich., with his wife Amanda, and daughters Kate and Kara. When not racing, he enjoys spending time with his family, and for relaxation, he somewhat reluctantly admitted he enjoys playing the piano.

From his earliest memories, Jim wanted to be a race driver. He finally got his first taste as an entrant in the Soap Box Derby in his home town of Lancaster, Pa. He had to put his racing aspirations on hold while obtaining his Mechanical Engineering degree at Penn State, but spent as much time as he could hanging out at some of the Pennsylvania dirt tracks. His first race after moving to Michigan was in an Enduro race at Flat Rock, and after experiencing the thrill and excitement of wheel to wheel racing with over 100 cars on the tight quarter mile, he was hooked. Jim thinks the Enduro cars are the perfect starting place for someone interested in racing.  They are inexpensive and offer the opportunity to truly determine if racing is going to be a profession or a hobby.

He then moved to Street Stocks after a couple years and eventually tried Super Late Models, the ShortTrackTruck Challenge, and an occasional foray into the ASA series. Jim was very successful in his two years in the ShortTrackTruck series, ultimately winning five races and the 2003 championship at a variety of tracks throughout the area. When the Toledo Speedway Sportsman series was re launched in 2000, Jim and the Wolverine Motorsports team decided to concentrate on the fast high banked Toledo half mile; they think Ron Drager, Roy Mott, and Scott Schultz have done a great job with the facility, and plan on competing there for the near future.

Jiin is focused and confident, but he is also humble enough to recognize the valuable contributions of each of his fellow team members to their team's overall success. He will be the first one to tell you that he is privileged to have a great group of volunteers in the crew, and they're the ones that deserve most of the credit for his performance.

The Wolverine Motorsports team consists of; crew chief and spotter Bob Hoffman and his wife Nancy, team manager Sandy Monaghan, tire expert Chip Lane, and master fabricator/engine builder Karl Ketchum, who fits the true definition of being a doer and not a talker. Jim says they really enjoy the ARCA Sportsman series because the racing is great and the costs are affordable. He explained to me that since they use a treaded spec. tire with a small rear spoiler, it causes the cars to slide around a little, making it a great driver's series, and he especially enjoys it when the track gets a little slick. The ARCA Sportsman rules allow two different engine packages, giving you a choice of either using a crate engine, or a built race engine with cast iron heads and a 2 bbl. carb.; however the nice thing is that both engines seem to be very close in performance. Jim's team chose the built engine which is assembled by team member Karl Ketchum using the iron heads and a 2 bbl.

Jim says he gets the most satisfaction out of racing when he can set someone up for an outside pass, and then blowing by them like they are standing still. He says he normally tries to drive smart and focused, and not be overly aggressive unless he has to go from the back to the front, then all bets are off! Team manager Sandy says, when Jim has to race from the back to the front like that, the whole crew just likes watching the show. With his engineering background, he really enjoys continually improving the car with some of his own innovations, however, as Jim admits with a smile, since Wolverine Motorsports has built the car exactly as he wants, that he now has no one else to blame but himself.

One last anecdote about Jim is a great story about how fate can sometimes play a big role in what we do. Many years ago, Jim was taking a flight to Atlanta, and was hoping the seat next to him would remain empty, but at the last minute someone boarded the plane and sat down. As they made small talk, they both decided to pull out racing magazines, and soon discovered they shared an interest in racing. Jim pointed out Flat Rock Speedway as they flew overhead, and invited his seatmate to visit the track as his guest. As they exited the plane at the end of the flight, they exchanged business cards, and Jim noticed his new friend was the president of the Farmer Jack supermarket chain. As fate would have it, Jim received a phone call a few weeks later, asking him if he was interested in a sponsorship deal, which ultimately ended up lasting eight years! The lesson to be learned is that the next opportunity may very well present itself when least expected, and you just never know where a casual conversation might lead.