Winners

CJ RAYBURN HAS TENTH ANNUAL CLINIC AND BANQUET

C. J. Rayburn, along with his family, staff, customers and friends, celebrated twenty-five business years with their tenth annual banquet.  C. J. said the occasion was to learn, to thank, to celebrate and to enjoy.  It was an overwhelming success!

The “Fall Chassis and Racing Clinic” ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  An open house and reception followed and gave attendees an opportunity to wander through the shops, talk to staff and visit with others. The banquet followed with a buffet, racers hi-light video, C. J.’s summary of the year’s events and achievements, plus award presentations.

Emcee Army Armstrong introduced C. J. and his family, including C. J.’s mother. Rayburn is truly a family business and the banquet a family event.  All are involved in making this annual event successful.  All are involved in the business—some full-time and some less than full-time.

Army pointed out that Rayburn builds over 300 cars per year. Results of one 2005 Late Model series shows that Rayburn cars won more than ten times the number of races won by the second place builder.  Army believes that C. J. has an edge over other builders because he is “a car builder with a racer’s mentality and a racer with a builder’s mentality.” For example, C. J. still gets in cars to test--thus builder and driver.

C. J. said they strive for perfection. ”We are never satisfied with what we are doing. If we won every race but came in second in one, we would try to find out why we got second.”

“C. J. Rayburn will talk to you.”  C. J. related this comment from a driver and believes this access to be a big contributor to his business success.  One way that C. J. and his staff “talk to you” is by having open phone lines each morning.  He pointed out that this is a big commitment of time because calls may start as early as 6:00 a.m. and last into late morning with calls from western time zones. Of course we also see C. J. visiting tracks on a regular basis to visit with drivers.

C. J. and others in the family gave a lot of credit to their competent and dedicated employees who often work long hours and go beyond expectations. A walk through the shop and conversations with employees confirms that credit to be deserved. 

No doubt all the things mentioned above contributed to record attendance at the full day “Fall Chassis and Racing Clinic.”  C. J. estimated attendance at 275 and believes that to be the largest ever for anyone’s clinic.

Chris Pohl, C. J.’s son-in-law, again captivated the audience with his annual music video of racing highlights by C. J. Rayburn cars.  Highlights represent wins in most areas of the United States and are growing in number each year.

C. J. and his family gave several awards again this year.  Photos of those who received awards and other photos from the event can be viewed by clicking on the links below.  (I intended to list all award winners in this article but lost the list trying to work my new recorder.)

Click here to view photos in Special Events on LuvRacin.com and a link to all photos from the event:

http://www.luvracin.com/00_pics/11/zCJ_Rayburn.htm

Ron Singleton, LuvRacin.com

r.singleton@insightbb.com