SHARON Fitzgerald building Olympic bobsleds

Derek Fitzgerald believes his creations can win at the Olympic level.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- A Sharon-based billet aluminum manufacturer whose business primarily produces parts for race cars has an Olympic dream.
Derek Fitzgerald wants to win an Olympic bobsled event.
He doesn't want to ride in the sled himself. He's more into designing and building the things.
"I got into this because I felt we could made a difference," said Fitzgerald, president of Zero Error Racing Inc.
Fitzgerald, 40, an Augusta, Ga., native now living in Akron, said he's been involved in racing all of his life.
He raced soapbox derby and sprint cars as a kid, and soapbox derby cars he's built have won 15 national championships and four world championships.
Was GM of Mico
He was the general manager of Mico Racing Inc. on Wheeler Place in Sharon from 1994 to 2001, and the Mico racing team won four grand nationals in quarter midget races during that period.
He bought Mico Racing on Sept. 1, 2002, renamed the company Zero Error Racing Inc., and has expanded its operations to include manufacturing aluminum parts for gopeds (motorized scooters), soapbox derby cars, quarter midget and midget race cars and Olympic bobsleds.
Billets are round bars of solid aluminum.
Fitzgerald said he and lifelong friend Bruce Finwall, an aerodynamics specialist, decided to work on building Olympic bobsleds four years ago.
Bought Horvath's sled
"This is a huge project," he said, noting that the first sled he owned was purchased from Ron Horvath of Youngstown.
Fitzgerald rebuilt it and put his stepdaughter, Ruthie Shuff, who had outgrown her years as a soapbox derby competitor, in the driver's seat in 1999.
He said she and her teammate were good enough to make the USA 5 team in World Cup trials. Unfortunately, the United States could take only the top two teams to the World Cup.
She'll be back at the World Cup trials in Lake Placid in January, he said.
Fitzgerald and Finwall then designed and oversaw the building of both a two-man and a four-man sled, not following the conventional rules of design and construction, but relying primarily on their racing background and Indy Car technology to build aerodynamic sleds.
Teamed with Trevis
Horvath and another Youngstowner, Ron Trevis, built the chassis based on his and Finwall's drawings. Panoz G Force Indy Cars of Atlanta and Mark 1 Composites of Indianapolis put the bodies together, Fitzgerald said.
The result was a state-of-the-art product that outperformed a current top USA sled in wind tunnel tests at the University of Maryland, he said.
The first set of sled runners he built were used by a team that placed third in World Cup competition, Fitzgerald said.
His expertise got him a trip to the 2002 Olympics as a mechanic for the Trinidad-Tobago team, he said.
Fitzgerald said he didn't get into bobsled building as a commercial venture, however.
"The goal is to win the Olympics. I'm not stopping. I want a USA team," he said.
He'd like to do it with a local team, he said, explaining that he's looking for local athletes who would like to get involved in the sport.
The Netherlands interested
The wind tunnel tests on his sleds were good enough to interest The Netherlands bobsled team, which wants to try them in World Cup competition this year, Fitzgerald said.
The first race will be in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in November or December and then it's on to Lake Placid and finally Germany for the world championships.
The big problem now is drawing the support of a sponsor who can foot the bills for a racing venture.
Fitzgerald said he has until the next Olympics in 2006 "to get it all together."
He still hasn't given up his interest in soapbox derby racing.
His company is a sponsor for Boardman soapbox champ Jenny Rodway, he said.
Jenny, at 14, has several years of eligibility left in soapbox derby racing, but she also is interested in bobsleds, said Janet Rodway, her mother.
gwin@vindy.com