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In the drama of drag racing,
drivers are the stars and engine builders are the
extras. I understand why the Best Actor at the Academy
Awards gets his picture on the front page while the
camera operator gets a mention in the final paragraph.
After all, no one interviews the winning engine after a
final round; it's the drivers who get (and deserve) the
glory.
But engine builders, crew
chiefs, sponsors and chassis builders have one night in
the limelight. For 35 years, the Car Craft All-Star Drag
Racing Team has recognized the men and women who work
behind the scenes. The stars and planets must have been
aligned perfectly when this year's winners were
announced during the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals because
Reher-Morrison Racing Engines won the All-Star Awards
for both Pro Engine Builder and Sportsman Engine
Builder. I was truly surprised and genuinely grateful to
accept these awards on behalf of the 23 people who work
at Reher-Morrison and the hundreds of customers who use
our engines. To be chosen by the fans and racers who
vote for the members of the All-Star Drag Racing Team
was a highlight of our 30th anniversary celebration.
Looking at those two
miniature Christmas Trees that are displayed in our
shop's break room stirs memories of years past. Buddy
Morrison and I accepted five straight Pro Stock Engine
Builder awards in 1982-86. Can it really have been 16
years ago? It's difficult to comprehend all that's
happened professionally and personally since then. I
only wish that Buddy and Lee Shepherd could have been
with me on the stage again this year.
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It's a sign of the times that
there are now two engine builder awards. There was no
recognition for building sportsman engines back in the
'80s. Although sportsman motors have been the foundation
of our business since Buddy and I built our first Chevy
small-block in 1972, there was a line that divided
sportsmen from the pros. Now, however, with the advent
of fast brackets, Quick 16, Top Sportsman, Fastest
Street Car and similar high-horsepower categories, the
distinctions between Pro and sportsman motors are
blurred. In fact, the technology and components in many
of our Super Series sportsman engines would have been
considered state-of-the-art in Pro Stock not long
ago.
As I write this column on a
Sunday afternoon, the wail of a big-block Chevy is
reverberating through my office. Racing is a 24-7 job
these days; if we're not testing an engine on the dyno,
racing it down a drag strip, or making new parts on the
CNC machining center, then we're thinking about and
talking about what we're going to try next. I used to
think that technology in racing trickled down from the
top classes to the weekend warriors - but now with the
instant communication of the Internet and e-mail,
information moves more like a flood than a
trickle.
A case in point is
short-block development. We are constantly working on
improving cylinder sealing while reducing friction and
parasitic losses. You might think that after 30 years,
we'd have learned everything there was to know on the
subject - and yet every season
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