K&N Filters Goes Racing With Jay Leno's Big Dog Garage General Manager Bernard Juchli
- Sep 16, 2013
Launching his lifelong love for speed in Switzerland as a downhill racer, Juchli recounted, "When my parents moved me to Santa Cruz, California at 15 years old, I got introduced to car racing by my high school auto shop teacher, Richard Stump. We built a Formula V racecar. I eventually got to drive it and was hooked for life.
From there, Juchli started racing the Formula V with SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) and then progressed to Formula Ford. Later on, he started racing for AFM in northern California where he raced a 250 GP bike as well as a vintage Honda 400-4. "In 1984," Juchli explained, "I started racing a 1963 Jaguar XKE Coupe with the Vintage Auto Racing Association. I was very successful with that car and won four club championships. In 1998, I sold the Jag in favor of a Chevron Formula Atlantic car. I am currently racing that car with SVRA [Sportscar Vintage Racing Association] on the West Coast." When asked whether he preferred the confines of a racecar to a motorcycle, he beamed, "I still race the motorcycles with AHRMA [American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association], but in addition to the two bikes, I got involved in sidecar racing. I now have a fairly modern F1 Sidecar that I race with SRA-West [Sidecar Racers Association]."
Juchli's experience both behind the wheel and under the hood made him the prime candidate to oversee the operations of Leno's garage. Assigned with keeping Leno's collection in top running condition, Juchli explained, " When I started working for Jay Leno, I again called on K&N to supply us with some filters for some of the most unusual applications. "I first became aware of K&N when I needed a special air filter for my Jaguar race car and they were able to supply three filters that I could incorporate into the cold air box. It was a beautiful thing. "I like the design of the filters. The low restriction to the airflow, the ability to clean and reuse the filter and the many universal filters they have available. I know there are many vehicle specific applications but in our case, with all our "unusual" cars the universal filters seem to be a very good fit." |
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