CHAS "THE FORKLIFT" FRALICH
Chas, man, so glad you agreed to participate in this crazy thing I am doing. Thank you, man!
If you’ve ever seen the Green Mile and remember Michael Clark Duncan’s character this would pretty much sum up Chas the FORKLIFT Fralich. A Mountain of man with the heart of gold.
The TORC off road seasons of 2013-2014 for myself and the GUNK Racing team was pivotal for us. We were fairly low budget by other team’s standards and in need of desperate and reliable help. Reliable here being the key word. Everyone and their uncle wants to go racing, wants be on a race team, tells you about all the dreams and aspirations they have and how they must be a part of the “big show!” Until it comes time to put in the work. Then crickets, your phone stops ringing your so-called buddies start screening your calls, and only seem to come around after the cooler has opened. Going into to season I was fully aware of the race help paradox, but still desperately needed someone good to count on and help us out. Arie reached out to a fellow racer, who lives and grew up in the northern Wisconsin area, and recommended this guy Chas, and gives us his phone number with the instructions of, he is a good solid dude, and trust me if things go sideways, or you need something stupid heavy moved, you’ll be glad he’s on your team. I forget where I was at the time, but it was pretty late back in Crandon when I called, like 10 o’clock or so, coupled that with the fact that I have a Northern California phone number I totally expected to have to leave a voicemail. Which, made me nervous… we were racing in Chas’ town in a week, and most guys have to check with work, or wives or someone, and typical call back time in these situations always seemed like it was average of about 4 days. Cutting it way to close to drive 9 hrs. to race on a wing and prayer for some track help. But no!! this guy answered the phone!!! He Actually picked up! I was shocked, and truthfully it left me a bit unprepared, lol.
So, I asked him the same basic questions, of skill sets, and history of what he had done, and who he raced with, standard issue questions. He seemed good, sincere in his love of the sport and honest with me in his skill set abilities. See the other problem you run into is a lot racing is guys want to get in so bad they blow smoke and puff up the old resume in order to try and fool you into thinking they’re are something they are not. And it was amazingly refreshing to hear someone give you the straight truth, and even down play their abilities a bit. Chas was a straight shooter from the get go. Huge points in my book. I didn’t and still don’t need a guy who “thinks” he can build the Taj Mahal but never has and will tell you did. All I want is a guy who is teach able, can teach me a thing or two when he does what he does, and someone honest enough to tell me he doesn’t know when NIETHER of us has a clue what to do. And calm enough to sit back and help figure it together. That was, and still is Chas, day in and day out. Solid as the rock he was built out of.
I know when it comes to racing, and getting things done, I am not to easiest guy to work with. I put unrealistic expectations on myself, and thus high standards on the guys around me. And Chas Buddy, I apologize now for some of those days when I let the stress get to me, and I was super quiet, or tended to be short and over concise with my answers. But this is where I get back to Michael Clark Duncan from the green mile, here is Chas, and absolute monster of a man, could easily crush my head and throw my 275lb frame across the pit if he wanted to. But when the pressure was on, we as a team where put under the gun, he remained chill, calm and collected, he picked up the pace and hustled without hesitation. He could read and feel the urgency in the situation. Which always calmed me down a touch, took some of the pressure away from me having to worry if things will get done in time. And best of all he was teachable, if I had a specific way of doing something he never questioned why, except to learn and ask questions about the how and why I wanted something done a certain way so he could understand the mechanics of it all. Which calmed me down even further in the crunch times. Here is a guy who already knows most of what I am already telling him, but wants to learn the team’s way of doing things. Wants to learn period. You know it’s really hard to be a teacher when the clock is always ticking, and the next race is right around the corner, sometimes it’s easier to just say forget it and do it yourself. But watching him out of the corner of my eye while on the other side of the car, Chas made me a better racer, and better crew chief, it taught me patience, patience because he deserved it, patience because he cared. He made learn to slow down and articulate my thoughts better, he taught me better planning and delegation skills because as fast as he would grow into a new roll in the team he equally as fast grows out of it, taking on more and more responsibility and asking for more each day. And the more we worked together the closer we became as friends. A strange thing happens when you throw a bunch of people into over stressful situations lasting for days on end. You either grow into the best of friends or kill each other, there’s no middle ground, and luckily for me, we grew together.
Almost anyone who knows me knows I work like mad man at times, and if I give my word something will be done, it will be done, end of story. What that means in racing is, a lot of sleepiness nights. I don’t just mean a few nights where you might get 3-4hrs of sleep, I’m talking shop sessions to make a race turn around where you might have to stay awake for 48-72hrs before you hit the road. This can bring the biggest and toughest guys and turn them into sniveling little children, begging to go home, or worse turn them into angry aggressive I don’t give a fuck how this gets put together monsters. But Chas, Chas handled that stuff like the champion he is today. Never once complaining, or asking when we were leaving the shop. There where multiple times, when I see him start to “bonk” and I had to make him leave to go shower up and catch a few hours’ sleep, and he refused!
“Chas, why don’t you go ahead and run up to the house man, get a good shower on you and go sleep for a bit.”
“oh, ok, are we done for night? What about….? And …..?, we going to finish those up tomorrow?”
“No, we gotta get those done to tonight to stay on schedule.”
“Yeah, I figured, so what are you going to do?”
“stay and work for a while.”
“Fuck that, if you’re not leaving neither am I, were a team, and I’m staying till we get this done!”
I hadn’t had much of that in the guys I had hired locally to come help me at the shop here at home. I wasn’t quite sure how to take that level of commitment from a guy. On one hand, I knew if I made him leave we wouldn’t make it on time. On the other hand, I took it as my duty to look after my guys, and make sure I didn’t burn them out, or put them in unsafe situations of exhaustion. But how could I deny someone as committed to cause as I was any chance to be the reason for success, which was the fairer thing to do, be friend and look after his physical wellbeing, or let him run himself to the ground in pursuit of something great? Chas was a winner to the bone. Knows the amount of hard work and commitment it takes to get to the top and is willing to take it all on. And that’s exactly what he did the next year.
Being as I said earlier, by standard racing practices, we were a smaller budget team. And thus, could only afford to pay Chas for a week or two per race date. And as you’ll read later his mother is the most important person in his life, and my god what a sweet giving woman! Love you Chas’ mom! I hope I’m not over indulging here, but Chas always showed just greatest amount love and support and respect for his mom. Always trying to make sure she had everything she needed and didn’t have to worry about anything. And I know he always spoke of the personal goal of making sure he could provide well enough for her that she never had to work and how much he wanted to return the favor to her, for her sacrifice of giving him so much to him growing up. I don’t know if I have ever met someone so away of the sacrifices other people have made for them, and burning desire to return that favor. (Such a noble humble selfless cause he is constantly working for). And when offered a full-time position with his lifelong friend and home town local racer there was no way to fault him for leaving, after talking to him later, I explained I was excited for him to move on and the possibilities that lie ahead for him. His level of passion for the sport, dedication to learning the intricacies of a race truck and the pursuit to make it a full-time job, ended up giving him exactly what all his hard work and selfless dedication deserved. A TORC OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP, working with one of the best drivers in the series of Keegan Kincaid. And Chas will forever be able to hold on the memories and go down in the history books with his family as the true Champion he is. You are a part of something great that we all are chasing and it’s something no one can ever take away from you Brother!
Chas “Forklift” Fralich, you Sir are the embodiment, of selfless sacrifice to others, and an the utmost example of loyalty. And I, as well as many, many others are proud to call you my friend! I Salute you, and cheers you to many more years together! I love you man.
People that selfless and dedicated to another person are almost impossible to find. I cherish our time working together and try to become the level of selfless giving you seem to make look so easy!
12 QUESTIONS WITH CHAS:
Chas, man, so glad you agreed to participate in this crazy thing I am doing. Thank you, man!
If you’ve ever seen the Green Mile and remember Michael Clark Duncan’s character this would pretty much sum up Chas the FORKLIFT Fralich. A Mountain of man with the heart of gold.
The TORC off road seasons of 2013-2014 for myself and the GUNK Racing team was pivotal for us. We were fairly low budget by other team’s standards and in need of desperate and reliable help. Reliable here being the key word. Everyone and their uncle wants to go racing, wants be on a race team, tells you about all the dreams and aspirations they have and how they must be a part of the “big show!” Until it comes time to put in the work. Then crickets, your phone stops ringing your so-called buddies start screening your calls, and only seem to come around after the cooler has opened. Going into to season I was fully aware of the race help paradox, but still desperately needed someone good to count on and help us out. Arie reached out to a fellow racer, who lives and grew up in the northern Wisconsin area, and recommended this guy Chas, and gives us his phone number with the instructions of, he is a good solid dude, and trust me if things go sideways, or you need something stupid heavy moved, you’ll be glad he’s on your team. I forget where I was at the time, but it was pretty late back in Crandon when I called, like 10 o’clock or so, coupled that with the fact that I have a Northern California phone number I totally expected to have to leave a voicemail. Which, made me nervous… we were racing in Chas’ town in a week, and most guys have to check with work, or wives or someone, and typical call back time in these situations always seemed like it was average of about 4 days. Cutting it way to close to drive 9 hrs. to race on a wing and prayer for some track help. But no!! this guy answered the phone!!! He Actually picked up! I was shocked, and truthfully it left me a bit unprepared, lol.
So, I asked him the same basic questions, of skill sets, and history of what he had done, and who he raced with, standard issue questions. He seemed good, sincere in his love of the sport and honest with me in his skill set abilities. See the other problem you run into is a lot racing is guys want to get in so bad they blow smoke and puff up the old resume in order to try and fool you into thinking they’re are something they are not. And it was amazingly refreshing to hear someone give you the straight truth, and even down play their abilities a bit. Chas was a straight shooter from the get go. Huge points in my book. I didn’t and still don’t need a guy who “thinks” he can build the Taj Mahal but never has and will tell you did. All I want is a guy who is teach able, can teach me a thing or two when he does what he does, and someone honest enough to tell me he doesn’t know when NIETHER of us has a clue what to do. And calm enough to sit back and help figure it together. That was, and still is Chas, day in and day out. Solid as the rock he was built out of.
I know when it comes to racing, and getting things done, I am not to easiest guy to work with. I put unrealistic expectations on myself, and thus high standards on the guys around me. And Chas Buddy, I apologize now for some of those days when I let the stress get to me, and I was super quiet, or tended to be short and over concise with my answers. But this is where I get back to Michael Clark Duncan from the green mile, here is Chas, and absolute monster of a man, could easily crush my head and throw my 275lb frame across the pit if he wanted to. But when the pressure was on, we as a team where put under the gun, he remained chill, calm and collected, he picked up the pace and hustled without hesitation. He could read and feel the urgency in the situation. Which always calmed me down a touch, took some of the pressure away from me having to worry if things will get done in time. And best of all he was teachable, if I had a specific way of doing something he never questioned why, except to learn and ask questions about the how and why I wanted something done a certain way so he could understand the mechanics of it all. Which calmed me down even further in the crunch times. Here is a guy who already knows most of what I am already telling him, but wants to learn the team’s way of doing things. Wants to learn period. You know it’s really hard to be a teacher when the clock is always ticking, and the next race is right around the corner, sometimes it’s easier to just say forget it and do it yourself. But watching him out of the corner of my eye while on the other side of the car, Chas made me a better racer, and better crew chief, it taught me patience, patience because he deserved it, patience because he cared. He made learn to slow down and articulate my thoughts better, he taught me better planning and delegation skills because as fast as he would grow into a new roll in the team he equally as fast grows out of it, taking on more and more responsibility and asking for more each day. And the more we worked together the closer we became as friends. A strange thing happens when you throw a bunch of people into over stressful situations lasting for days on end. You either grow into the best of friends or kill each other, there’s no middle ground, and luckily for me, we grew together.
Almost anyone who knows me knows I work like mad man at times, and if I give my word something will be done, it will be done, end of story. What that means in racing is, a lot of sleepiness nights. I don’t just mean a few nights where you might get 3-4hrs of sleep, I’m talking shop sessions to make a race turn around where you might have to stay awake for 48-72hrs before you hit the road. This can bring the biggest and toughest guys and turn them into sniveling little children, begging to go home, or worse turn them into angry aggressive I don’t give a fuck how this gets put together monsters. But Chas, Chas handled that stuff like the champion he is today. Never once complaining, or asking when we were leaving the shop. There where multiple times, when I see him start to “bonk” and I had to make him leave to go shower up and catch a few hours’ sleep, and he refused!
“Chas, why don’t you go ahead and run up to the house man, get a good shower on you and go sleep for a bit.”
“oh, ok, are we done for night? What about….? And …..?, we going to finish those up tomorrow?”
“No, we gotta get those done to tonight to stay on schedule.”
“Yeah, I figured, so what are you going to do?”
“stay and work for a while.”
“Fuck that, if you’re not leaving neither am I, were a team, and I’m staying till we get this done!”
I hadn’t had much of that in the guys I had hired locally to come help me at the shop here at home. I wasn’t quite sure how to take that level of commitment from a guy. On one hand, I knew if I made him leave we wouldn’t make it on time. On the other hand, I took it as my duty to look after my guys, and make sure I didn’t burn them out, or put them in unsafe situations of exhaustion. But how could I deny someone as committed to cause as I was any chance to be the reason for success, which was the fairer thing to do, be friend and look after his physical wellbeing, or let him run himself to the ground in pursuit of something great? Chas was a winner to the bone. Knows the amount of hard work and commitment it takes to get to the top and is willing to take it all on. And that’s exactly what he did the next year.
Being as I said earlier, by standard racing practices, we were a smaller budget team. And thus, could only afford to pay Chas for a week or two per race date. And as you’ll read later his mother is the most important person in his life, and my god what a sweet giving woman! Love you Chas’ mom! I hope I’m not over indulging here, but Chas always showed just greatest amount love and support and respect for his mom. Always trying to make sure she had everything she needed and didn’t have to worry about anything. And I know he always spoke of the personal goal of making sure he could provide well enough for her that she never had to work and how much he wanted to return the favor to her, for her sacrifice of giving him so much to him growing up. I don’t know if I have ever met someone so away of the sacrifices other people have made for them, and burning desire to return that favor. (Such a noble humble selfless cause he is constantly working for). And when offered a full-time position with his lifelong friend and home town local racer there was no way to fault him for leaving, after talking to him later, I explained I was excited for him to move on and the possibilities that lie ahead for him. His level of passion for the sport, dedication to learning the intricacies of a race truck and the pursuit to make it a full-time job, ended up giving him exactly what all his hard work and selfless dedication deserved. A TORC OFF-ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP, working with one of the best drivers in the series of Keegan Kincaid. And Chas will forever be able to hold on the memories and go down in the history books with his family as the true Champion he is. You are a part of something great that we all are chasing and it’s something no one can ever take away from you Brother!
Chas “Forklift” Fralich, you Sir are the embodiment, of selfless sacrifice to others, and an the utmost example of loyalty. And I, as well as many, many others are proud to call you my friend! I Salute you, and cheers you to many more years together! I love you man.
People that selfless and dedicated to another person are almost impossible to find. I cherish our time working together and try to become the level of selfless giving you seem to make look so easy!
12 QUESTIONS WITH CHAS:
- Please provide a brief history of yourself, where you were born/grew up. Or anything else relevant to your unique path that will help people understand where you came from.
- WHAT LED YOU TO CHOOSE THE CAREER/LIFE THAT YOU LEAD TODAY?
- WHAT MATTERS MOST TO YOU, WHAT WOULD YOU FIGHT FOR WITH YOUR LAST DYING BREATH?
- GROWTH OFTEN COMES FROM PAIN, WHAT PAINFULL SITUATION ARE YOU NOW MOST GRATEFUL FOR? OR – WAS THERE A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE LEADING YOU TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW
- WHAT DRIVES YOU OUT OF BED EACH DAY? WHAT REALLY MOTIVATES YOU TO DO WHAT YOU DO?
- FEAR CAN BE AN EQUALLY GOOD MOTIVATOR, IS THERE ANYTHING IN LIFE YOU ARE CONSTANTLY WORKING AWAY FROM? (I personally strive and work to keep myself away from mediocrity and the fear of blending in with the masses)
- IN THE QUITE MOMENTS ALONE, WHERE DOES YOUR HEAD/HEART GO? WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING YOURSELF IN YOUR PURSUIT?
- IF TOMORROW WAS YOUR LAST DAY, WHAT WOULD YOUR LASTING LEGACY BE, WHAT DO YOU HOPE IT TO BE? DO YOU HAVE ONE RIGHT NOW?
- WHO IN YOUR LIFE HAS HAD THE GREATEST IMPACT?
- WHAT ARE YOUR CORE VALUES? EVERYDAY LIFE IS TOUGH, AND WE’RE CONSTANTLY FACED WITH DECISIONS. WHAT FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS GUDE YOU?
- LASTLY, IS THERE ANYTHING LEFY ON YOUR LIST OF TO DO’S? WHAT IS THE BIGGEST ONE YOU NEED TO ACCOMPLISH? WHATS LONG TERM FOR YOU?
- USE THIS SPACE TO PROMOTE ANYTHING YOU ARE INVOLVED WITH, SUCH CHARATIES AND ORGANIZATIONS. OR ANYTHING YOU FEEL WENT UNASKED YOU NEED TO GET OFF YOUR CHEST
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