Over the last ten years in racing safety has grown to become one of the biggest concerns for everyone involved.  One person who has been on the forefront of many of those innovations is former champion Randy LaJoie.

The 1996 and 1997 Busch Series (today’s Nationwide Series) champion is now retired from the sport and spends his time manufacturing custom fitted seats for drivers of all ages and sizes. Since founding The Joie of Seating in 1995, LaJoie has revolutionized the racing seat industry and protected many a driver from serious injury. 

“The reason I started building my own seats was in 1992 NASCAR outlawed fiberglass seats,” LaJoie told HardcoreRaceFans.com.  For most of the early stages of his career, LaJoie used full containment form fitted fiberglass seats with a cage around it.  When NASCAR banned fiberglass seats, LaJoie was forced to seek an aluminum seat that did him justice.

Working with Steve Richardson, LaJoie built a custom form-fitting aluminum seat.  “It was a lot more work than he anticipated and he did not want to build another one,” LaJoie added.  “I needed a couple seats.  I had a job and I needed some seats, so I went to Brian Butler – supposedly the other industry leader.”

Butler, who owns ButlerBuilt Systems, was seen as the best in the business when it came to manufacturing race seats.  After Richardson was unwilling to produce another form-fitting custom seat, LaJoie then turned to Butler with unanticipated results.

“He kind of rubbed me the wrong way, was not very polite and downgraded the seat I was using and winning with for 10 years,” LaJoie explained.  “I had driven in all makes of cars and all styles of seats and most of them were his.  I found out they were very uncomfortable and they didn’t hold me in the car good enough.  So, when he made some rude comments about my old fiberglass seat I took it to heart and decided to go build my own.”

After meeting someone in Ohio that could form-fit his pieces, LaJoie made the decision to start his own business.  Concentrating on providing a safe and comfortable product, he created The Joie of Seating in 1995.

“You don’t wear a square helmet,” LaJoie joked. “Nine out of ten of us race car drivers have been told where our heads are at some time.  So that means our butts must be really round if our helmets fit up there.”  

Utilizing a patented sizing feature, LaJoie has been able to provide safe form-fitting seats to drivers of all sizes and ages, “From Mark Martin to Michael Waltrip,” LaJoie pointed out.  

Since 2001, LaJoie has not had to make any changes to his NASCAR Cup level seat and it is the only aluminum seat that currently passes the 2010 SFI spec that NASCAR has in place – a true testament to his product.

In addition to producing seats, LaJoie has also focused on bringing big track safety to short track racing.  Through the Safer Racer Tour, which he created in 2007, LaJoie works directly with short tracks across the nation to educate their competitors and ensure their equipment is as safe as possible.  

As a part of the program, LaJoie travels to local short tracks and inspects every competitor’s seat.  Once the inspection process is completed, LaJoie then issues a safety report to the track owner, the driver, as well as keeps one for his own files.  Trying to reach as many drivers as possible, LaJoie visited forty-six short tracks in twenty-six states over the course of 2008.  

Along with the Safer Racer Tour, LaJoie has also implemented a program specifically designed towards younger racers.  After building three seats in one summer for his son, LaJoie realized that young growing racers would require seats more often than anyone.  While this may have been good for Randy the business owner, as a parent this was seen more as a burden and an unnecessary expense.  Putting practicality before profit, LaJoie created a program in which parents pay full-price for a seat and have the option to trade the seat in once the child outgrows it at a minimal cost.

Since his retirement from the sport in 2006, LaJoie has devoted his time and effort to his business.  Serving drivers from the top-tiers of NASCAR, to the local short tracks, to the young racer getting his start in go-karts, LaJoie is doing all he can to ensure that racers have safest and most comfortable seats possible.  A proven winner on the track, LaJoie is a true champion in every sense of the word.