Michael R. Chapman has tapped into an entrepreneurial adage: Do what you love.
Chapman is owner and president of Woods Cross-based Chapman Racing Heads, which designs and manufactures racing ports and cylinder heads for makers of race cars.
The company is the culmination of a love of racing that Chapman discovered at age 6 at a car show at the Lagoon amusement park. At 8, Chapman promised himself he would make it to the Indianapolis 500 someday. At 12, he bought a class kart and started racing.
But as Chapman got older, he realized he lacked the financial resources to become a racing driver. So he channeled his love of the sport into making ports and cylinder heads. By 21, he was in business for himself.
Chapman Racing Heads has several advantages in a fiercely competitive business. First, the company is the largest racing cylinder head manufacturing and design plant of its kind in North America, using computer technology to take a product from conceptual designs through development and final testing.
Second, because the company is far removed from auto racing hubs in the South, it is able to retain employees and develop new designs in relative stealth. Most employees are Utah natives, and Chapman ensures that they will stay by cultivating a family-like atmosphere.
Chapman Racing Heads covers 100 percent of its employees' health and life insurance benefits and holds regular parties and retreats. Chapman's shop was designed for employees, with skylights, a large lunchroom that includes a pizza oven and a "toy room" filled with snowmobiles, race cars, four-wheelers and motorcycles, on which employees can practice new ideas.