Chris Paulsen

Chris Paulsen

C&R Racing

http://www.crracing.com/

Chris Paulsen
President, C&R Racing Inc.

At the age of 13, Chris Paulsen began working on sprint cars and supermodifieds. Chris traveled throughout the West working on race cars for the next 4 years. In 1978, he moved back to the Midwest and started working on several top sprint car teams including those of Rich Vogler, Billy Vukovich, Bruce Walkup, and George Snider. In 1980, he went to work for Nance Speed Equipment in Wichita, Kansas, one of the nation’s leading fabricators and suppliers of sprint chassis and components. While at Nance, Chris designed and built the sprint cars driven by Sammy Swindell. Sammy won two (2) World of Outlaw Championships while driving the Nance sprint cars.
 
Chris’s first exposure to Indy Cars came in 1979 when he worked for “shoe string” Indy entrant and sprint car graduate, Roger Rager. While they missed the show in ’79, they returned in 1980 and were successful in qualifying for the race. Their stock block powered car contained the famous “school bus” engine; the block actually came out of an old school bus from a junkyard.
 
In 1982, he began working full time on Indy Cars, signing on as Chief Mechanic for Alex Morales Autosports and Team Manager, John Capels. He has been Chief Mechanic for several top drivers including Al Hobert, Kevin Cogan, Pancho Carter, Didier Theys, Howdy Holmes, PJ Jones, Donnie Beechler, Gordon Johncock and 3-time Indy winner, Johnny Rutherford.
 
In 1988, Chris left Alex Morales Autosports to form C & R Racing, Inc. a specialty machine and fabrication shop serving the Indy Car industry. He capitalized on his skills as an Indy Car Chief Mechanic and engineer as he ran teams for the 3-500 mile races; Indy, Michigan, and Pocono. Chris did this through 1998 for Stoops Racing, Granatelli Racing, Hemelgarn Racing, Pagan Racing, Greenfield Racing, and Cahill Racing.
 
Besides being the largest supplier of custom-built radiators for NASCAR Sprint Cup, C & R Racing builds parts for all professional forms of auto racing. C&R has become one of the largest design and manufacturing companies in professional racing and has grown to 60 employees with 2 locations. The Indy facility is 35,000 sq. ft and the C&R South facility is 30,000 sq. ft.
 
In addition to building his company, Chris still found time to race sprint cars from 1980 to 1991. He occasionally does consulting work and works as an Indy Car Chief Mechanic on a limited basis during the Indianapolis 500 in May. He also participates in off-road races like the Baja 1000. During his time off, Chris restored and built several vintage Indy cars from scratch. In the late 90’s, he built a replica of the 1963 Indy 500 winning Watson roadster for Parnelli Jones, which can be found in Parnelli’s museum California.
 
In recent years, while operating C & R Racing, Chris was inducted into the Indy 500 Old-timers Club in 1998 and is a lifetime member. He is also on the nominating committee for Indy 500 Hall of Fame. He served as Chairman of the Board for the Indiana Motorsports Association from 2004 to 2012. IMA is a motorsports trade association working with the governor’s office.
 
In November, 2008, Chris formed Performance Events Promotions. PEP was the parent company for the International Motorsports Industry Show (IMIS). IMIS was a hard core racing trade show that showcased the latest racing technology by the leading manufacturers in motorsports. By the 4th show in 2012, IMIS had grown to using 400,000 square feet. That year IMIS was sold to SEMA and consolidated with PRI. The new PRI/IMIS consolidation will take place in Indianapolis, In. where it will stay for many years.
 
Chris is familiar with the hard work and dedication it takes to run a race team. With this experience, he has created the “True Grit” award at IMS. This award acknowledges a dedicated mechanic or crew chief for the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400, both held in Indianapolis. For each race, a $10,000 cash award is given to honor a colleague who goes above and beyond.
 
In March of 2015, the PWR Group, based in Queensland, Australia, bought C&R Racing. PWR is a global leader of cooling for upper end professional racing and has quickly become a primary core manufacturer for C&R.
Collectively C&R and PWR are the world leaders for motorsport cooling solutions, creating the largest, most comprehensive motorsport cooling company in the world. They dominate F1, WEC, WRC, DTM, Indy Car, NASCAR, LMP, Tudor Series, Off Road, and short track racing in America. Chris will remain President of C&R Racing, Inc. and C&R will continue engineering and prototype manufacturing, allowing lasting creative diversity in racing.
 
 
Chris Paulsen’s Accomplishments:

  • Built sprint cars and modifieds that won several championships, including 2 World of Outlaw championships.
  • Indy Car Chief Mechanic with race wins and many top 5 finishes.
  • Founded C&R Racing Incorporated in December, 1988.
  • Lifetime member of the Indy 500 Old Timer club.
  • Started the True Grit Award in 1998.
  • Member of the Indy 500 Hall of Fame nominating committee.
  • Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist in 2006.
  • Founded the Indiana Motorsports Association with Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana, in 2004. Chairman of the Board for 8 years.
  • Founded the International Motorsports Industry Show (IMIS) in 2008.
  • Sold IMIS to SEMA/PRI in 2012, creating the largest hardcore racing show in the world, held in Indy each year. Currently a $47,000,000 economic impact to Indy.
  • Consultant to PRI for the annual show in December.
  • Technical writer for National Speed Sport News and many other motorsport related publications.
  • Currently commissioned and writing a technical book on high performance cooling systems for Car Tech Books.