Inspired by the "Track Ready" session at LMN Motorsports I sat down with Lutzo to hear some great stories. Let's start with work history. Lutzo started working on Porsches and Volkswagens in 1969 with his father. He stayed with his father until 1984 when he started a job with a Porsche dealership in Pittsburgh. After five years with the Porsche dealership, he worked with Ferraris and Lamborghinis until 1991. Why Ferraris and Lambos? For the experience, of course! In 1991, Lutzo came to Virginia Beach and Checkered Flag. He moved over to Eurosport in 2001 where he remained until LMN was born in 2006.
I was very curious to hear about his racing career as a crew chief. It seems his first race was in 1979. He worked with Formula Vee and Super Vee before racing with Porsches. His first Daytona 24 hour race was back in 2000. He was the crew chief for Turbo Performance Center; they placed 7th in the GT class that year. He returned to the Rolex 24 Hour race at Daytona every year until 2008. In 2007 he won the GT class race with Allegra Motorsports. This accomplishment was followed with some bad luck in 2008 where both cars were destroyed. The first car of the pair was brand new but suffered from wiring harness problems. The second car crashed under
the green flag and was hit four times by other cars! Lutzo has a pretty cool quote about that demolished car: "Remove rear view mirror, replace car."
While working with crews for the Rolex GT class, Lutzo also worked with both the Koni and Continental Challenges. He has met some amazing drivers while working within these series. Some great drivers he spoke of included Randy Pobst, Spencer Pumpelly, Craig Stanton, John Morton, Fred Baker, and Darren Law. He of course notes how much these drivers taught him. Working in rookie racing is fun, but rookie drivers are not always able to communicate problems with the car to the crew chief. Experienced drivers know their vehicles and know how to explain what they are feeling and what they expect. I was so curious about his experiences with both
people and places. I asked about an interesting race he would like to elaborate on, and Lutzo recalled a 2005 race in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The cars and trailers had to be transported to the island by boat. This was unusual because the teams were not allowed to bring a truck. The trucks were provided by the Dominican Republic government.
Apparently this means these were not the best trucks on the island. A lot of gear was damaged! The positive side to the government taking an active role was the security detail for the cars at night. The government was kind enough to provide military personnel wearing flak jackets and carrying machine guns. I had to ask what the current challenges of his career are. On the racing side it is the rules of the Continental Challenge.
BMW and Ford are stronger competitors because they are built up with tons of horsepower at the factory. Porsches come stock and then have to be modified. This puts other car brands at an advantage, making Porsche drivers push that much harder.
This would all be very stressful except that Lutzo now acts as an advisor to teams. LMN is his priority with racing as a passion. His passion allows him to stay in touch with teams, attend schools, keep up on technology and stay trained on new advancements. Porsche is not making life easy, though.
The manuals and updates cost massive amounts of money. Porsche is required to make these manuals available, but it comes at a price that is tough for small shops. The economy is affecting everyone and dealerships are not exempt. A dealership becomes a competitor with small businesses, and Porsche is trying to tip the scales in the direction of the dealerships according to Lutzo.
Anyone who works on cars for forty years must be excited about the work. Lutzo is no exception. He enjoyed his time working at dealerships but prefers his time running a small business. Porsche dealerships mainly see cars that fall under warranty; Lutzo sees new cars, old cars, race cars, and project cars. One day he's rebuilding a transmission, the next day he's changing oil. He enjoys problem solving and knowing his customers and building relationships with people that last years. (Of his three children, he has a son who excels at mechanical problem solving.) He currently works with the military, but knows that LMN will be waiting for him especially if Lutzo decides to retire. I enjoyed sitting down with Lutzo and chatting about cars and racetracks. He does have some pretty cool stories to tell!
| Next > |
|---|
