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ContactDesign and DevelopmentJay Novak 330 Elmwood Dearborn, Michigan 48124 313-445-4047
Production and SalesDave Piontek Piontek Engineering 734-437-3014
About JayRacecar
designer Jay Novak has enjoyed a long and illustrious career in auto racing,
professionally and personally. His enthusiasm for the sport started years before he got his driver's license, when his mother took him to his first race at age 12. Novak began as a driver, but ended up getting his degree in mechanical engineering from Lawrence Technical University so he could make a living and still pursue his passion. The Detroit native joined Ford Motor Company in 1978 in hopes of making the Ford Racing team. He started as an experimental mechanic and worked his way up to NASCAR Manager for Ford Racing. During his eight year stint with Ford Racing Novak was the NASCAR Chassis Technical Specialist for four years and the NASCAR Winston Cup Manager for the other half of his tenure. He made many significant contributions to the technical advancement of Ford Racing’s support program, including contributing to a Winston Cup driver's championship, two manufacturers' championships and 42 Winston Cup wins in his four short seasons as NASCAR Manager. Novak also designed an advanced NASCAR chassis that is now the basis for a significant percentage of NASCAR chassis. The engineer just retired from Ford as a Vehicle Dynamics Technical Specialist for North American Car. Now Novak will be able to devote his life full time to amateur racing, something he has pursued up until now only in his spare time. Over the years Novak has created and built ten road racing car designs and more than 25 cars that have won hundreds of SCCA races as well as numerous championships with many different drivers. Novak has been awarded three patents for automotive suspensions and is in the process of getting his fourth. He created and developed the Ford ride “DNA” test method that is used in North America to objectively measure the ride of all of Ford’s and competitors' vehicles. Novak was also the lead project engineer on the design, development and implementation of the Ford Kinematics & Compliance Laboratory and the Ford Mass, Moment of Inertia (MMI) Laboratory. He co-authored three SAE papers on the uses of the MMI lab and was nominated for the prestigious Henry Ford Technical Excellence Award three times. Novak is married and has three children. See the Links page
for a path to some of the work and papers mentioned above.
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