Mike Nuchols in the Warrior shop
As has become the custom each December in east Tennessee, Warrior Race Cars hosted an open house at their Knoxville shop on Saturday. A number of products and cars in various stages of readiness were on display in the Sanford Goddard maintained facility that has produced many feature winning Dirt Late Model race cars.
Longtime Warrior employee Mike Nuchols was on hand offer assistance to existing customers as well as working to lure new patrons as well. The setup guru took time out of his busy day to discuss Warrior’s 2016 season with Seymour, Tenn. driver Ryan King behind the wheel of their house car as well as all the services that company can offer to racers who might also consider racing that brand of chassis.
“It went very well,” Nuchols said of King’s time in the driver’s seat of the No. 1G machine. “We took him to a lot of new places he had never been to. He also gave us a young guy to get good feedback from who had never been in our cars, so he’s kind of raw. He hasn’t raced very long, but he gives you good feedback because he’s not weathered and doesn’t have bad habits. He’s still young and you can mold him around and teach him how to do new ways and he can teach us new ways as well. It worked out really good for us.”
According to Nuchols, a chassis builder can benefit greatly from racing their own house car as well as taking in feedback from their other customers.
“Oh, it’s tremendous,” Nuchols explained of the Warrior house car efforts. “We can give our customers more accurate feedback week-to-week. And it helps too that we went and raced everywhere so we were able to give customers in Georgia feedback as well as customers in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. It’s huge.”
The Warrior house car
And having their own race car in an era in which there essentially is no off season allows Warrior to keep pace in the hustle and bustle world that is modern day Dirt Late Model racing.
“Guys want stuff faster,” Nuchols said. “They want it ten times faster now because we raced Thanksgiving weekend and we turn back around and race again in two weeks at 411. We could be racing this weekend at the dome(Gateway Nationals in St. Louis), but we took it off to be here with you guys. I mean I’ve got a pile of shocks back there ready to do because guys want to race at the Ice Bowl(January at Talladega Short Track) and 411. It’s tough nowadays.”
Although it may seem like an obvious statement, but racing is a sport in which those who stand still get passed by. In other words, it is essential for those who build Dirt Late Model machines to keep up with the latest trends and technology for the benefit of their customers.
Nuchols believes that having King as his organization’s driver along with Brian King and numerous capable crew members who have worked with the young driver throughout his career has done nothing but add to Warrior’s depth of knowledge and ability to get things done.
“That’s where having the Kings has helped us,” the shock specialist and fabricator said. “Before, the house car driver wouldn’t be in house, he’d be wherever he lived and maybe hours away. Having Ryan here in the area and his job allows him to pop in and out so when I’m needing some stuff done, he can be doing my research for me in the shock room that I might not be able to do that day because I’m working on a customer car. And he can be on the phone talking to guys and finding out new things. Also, he’s very personable. He can talk to a lot of people throughout the pits and try to help us stay up on all the latest technology that way.”
Warrior boss Sanford Goddard(left) chats with Brian & Ryan King at last year’s open house
The ultimate purpose in all of the activity that goes on at the Warrior Race Cars shop is to sell race cars. Nuchols believes his company offers more than just a package of frame work and accessories.
“We offer very good customer service. I’m able to talk to every customer that we have. No one is overlooked. We have a small customers base, but it’s a very good customer base, and that helps us do that. Since we only build twenty to thirty new cars a year, I can remember every customer that bought a car that year, and even the older customers. That’s what our big selling pitch is, customer service. We have very good cars that win races all throughout the year across east Tennessee, the southeast, and all across the nation, but our biggest pitch is customer service.”
