When Randy was driving full time there was no one in the racing seat business who would build a seat that suited him. He wanted, and needed, a custom form fitted seat, like the Mark Donahue design that Don LaJoie, Randy’s father, purchased and retro fitted to a modified car and made out of fiberglass. NASCAR outlawed fiberglass in 1992. No one in the industry would build a custom fitted formed seat – not a square seat. Eastover Manufacturing does all of the forming via stampings to the only 'really custom race seats'. “The energy absorptionis better with my seat if you do get in a crash,” stated Randy. “It’s not only more comfortable, but I’ve done stuff with my stampings to make it very strong. I’ve learned myself, because I’ve been a 'crash test dummy' for quite a few years, and I know I feel a whole lot better on Monday mornings since I started stiffening my seats than when I would bounce all over the place.” “Once you start looking at the videos from crashes, you can see how much movement you have in the car.”Once Randy got NASCAR’s attention, he started hitting up the local short track drivers. In 2007, Randy hit the road, a “Safer Racer Tour” in which he would go around the country preaching the value of safety to drivers and track operators. “I started going to go to these tracks and was talking about all kinds of safety issues, such as properly mounted seats and belts” LaJoie said. “I am going to stand there as these cars go through inspection. Some of these guys may not like me much. But, I’m going.” “When I read about somebody getting hurt or killed while racing, it makes me sick.” Youth Racing Seats: “We’ve got kid seats patterned after my kids when they were 11 years old,” said LaJoie, who has two teenagers racing. “We have a Race Seat Lease Program, because one year I had to build my 11 year old three seats because he had outgrown them. According to Randy “It’s not really fair for the parents when kids outgrow the seat, they have to buy another one. With our lease program, you can trade it in for a bigger seat with minimum costs.”These days Randy can be seen at local tracks, on ESPN, commentating a race, or you can listen to him on Sirius radio. Check out our calendar to see if he’s coming to a town near you.