When it comes to NASCAR racing, the difference between winning and 40th may be the slimmest of margins.
To ensure that those small details are all correct, one team of engine builders is turning to the L.S. Starrett Company. Roush Yates Engines recently formed a partnership with the Athol-based company, and this local business is making a big name for itself on the grand-daddy of all racing stages.
It makes sense that Starrett would form a partnership with an engine company. Starrett has been around since 1880 and it’s a well-known maker of precision tools, gages, measuring instruments and saw blades. It even boasts the title “World’s Greatest Toolmakers.” The company has 16 locations worldwide, including six in the United States, and employs nearly 2,000 people, of which it’s been estimated that 600 live in Athol.
Bj Guerin worked in the Starrett factory in Athol for 23 years. If you attend high school sporting events, you may know him or recognize him as a soccer or basketball official or baseball umpire. The Athol native got big news in September when he was offered a promotion to become the Product Specialist in Motor Sports and Education for Starrett. One of his jobs is to oversee Starrett Racing, which began two years ago when Starrett began sponsoring a car in the Whelen Modified Series. It was an easy acceptance for the longtime NASCAR fan.
Starrett’s first real partnership with auto racing came when the company decided to sponsor the “Mystic Missile” modified car, which is among the more popular cars in the Whelen Modified Series, which is the only open-wheeled division of NASCAR. In prior years, the Whelen Series was broken into subcomponents, so that the smaller teams did not have to travel so far. There was a southern series and northern series. Beginning this season, the two have been unified into one series, which features 17 races and two other non-points races at two of the East Coast’s historic tracks, including New Hampshire Speedway.
The Mystic Missile is best known for setting the longest consecutive starts streak in Whelen Modified Tour history (starting every race from 1989 through 2014), and last year Starrett became its primary sponsor, which meant the car was known as the No. 4 Starrett car. This year, Starrett will be sponsoring a different car and driver, and that announcement is set for Monday.
It was through the Mystic Missile that Starrett hooked up with Roush Yates Engines. One night, the Mystic Missile was having engine trouble during a race and Dave Lewis from Roush Yates Engines came over and helped the team out. A couple of weeks later, NASCAR was racing up at New Hampshire and Guerin, who was on hand when Lewis helped out the Mystic Missile team, went over and to Lewis and thanked him again.
Lewis introduced Guerin to others from Roush Yates engines at that time and a conversation started about how Roush Yates Engines had been using Starrett tools for over a decade. Word got out and soon Guerin was approached by Roush Yates about setting up a technical partnership. The company signed on in December.
“I’m very excited to have been part of the partnership with Roush Yates Engines and looking forward to continuing to build the Starrett name as the World’s Greatest Tool Makers,” Guerin said. “And if you know how competitive I am, I am looking forward to winning races.”
It’s a pretty big deal for the company because Roush Yates Engines provides every Ford NASCAR team with engines. The Roush-Ford partnership began in 2003 and in 2004, Kurt Busch won the season title driving a Ford. There are five Ford teams and 10 cars in NASCAR’s premiere division, which will this yea be called the Monster Energy Series this year after changing from Sprint Cup. The list includes drivers from Roush Fenway Racing (Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.), Team Penske (Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski), Stewart Haas Racing (Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Danica Patrick, Kurt Busch), Richard Petty Motorsports (Aric Almirola), Go Fas Racing and Front Row Motorsports.
The partnership makes sense for both companies. Starrett now provides Roush Yates Engines with all the precision tools used in their engine shops, and Starrett can use Roush Yates for marketing, and all the ties to NASCAR. Roush Yates also has information about the Starrett partnership on its website.
There are other perks for Starrett as well. While the name will not be on any of the Monster Energy Series or Xfinity Series cars, the Starrett logo will appear on the uniforms of the Roush Yates engine technicians at every race.
Another area that Starrett is benefitting is on social media, where it has not had a huge presence in the past. Over the past year, Roush Yates social media presence has increased by 135 percent, which will only help the Starrett company on that platform. Having the Starrett name synonymous with auto racing seems to make sense for the company, which signed a one-year agreement but could remain in partnership moving forward if the deal is worth it for the company.
So every time you see a Ford engine in the winner’s circle this year, you will know that a tool company in our neck of the woods had a hand in the victory.
Jason Butynski is a Greenfield native and Recorder sportswriter. His email address is jbutynski@recorder.com. Like him on Facebook and leave your feedback at www.facebook.com/jaybutynski.