Introduction and Origin Story

We won my first championship from here. You could even park a truck on it. I did a lot of things in that old bathtub. come on. Yes Yes. And Mark Donohue had a hand in it too. We've been molding ever since. So, we're at Randy LaJoie's shop, 'The Joy of Seating,' and we'll learn how he got started making seats for race cars and how he does it. Quite amazing. They have all kinds of old interesting things here. I am very excited about this. Yes, he has a cute dog too. What's going on? How are you? Very good. We're here to learn safest seats around. It's not as easy as you think. But I'll give you a little glimpse into why we do it. Yes. First of all, to save lives. First I wanted to save my life. Now it belongs to my children , and now it belongs to everyone else's children. I used to be a crash test dummy. And I used to bump into things, and my dad bought this seat from the late Mark Donohue. Really? He was not deceased then , it was in 1971. Have you heard of Mark Donohue, who used to drive for Penske? He had this seat in his Camaro with which he won the Trans Am championship in 1970-71. And me , my dad, and my brother went to an auto show in Hartford, and my dad got into Mark's car. And Mark said, " Hey, you're the same size." " Sit in this seat." And my father said, "I like it." "I want one." So, Mark said, " I'll sell you one. " So, then they did just that. So , man, that was in 1970. I did n't start until 1979. So, when I started , my father said, "Just use that seat." "That's good." am. Ok. So, I did that , and then the more you do it , the more people want you to drive their cars. He would say come drive my car. Come drive my car. Ok. I soon discovered that everyone else's seats weren't very comfortable. You know, she did n't hold me by my shoulders and hips. I was used to sitting in a good seat. My shoulders used to fit , my waist used to fit. And then suddenly I was sitting in a milk crate with only my ribs to hold onto. There was nothing on my shoulders. My upper body would sway from side to side and I would have trouble controlling myself in cars and I would wonder, "How do these people do it ?" So, I usually took my seat with me. And so, I'm using this seat. And people used to make fun of it because in the old days it was fiberglass , and it had no cover. And when it was made, it was white when it came out of the mold. So, I never painted it. And he said, "Man, that looks like a bathtub." I said, "Yeah, okay, no problem." One night I did a lot of…