{"id":100678,"date":"2025-05-01T11:07:46","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T18:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=100678"},"modified":"2025-05-01T12:00:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T19:00:41","slug":"ed-pink-an-appreciation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/ed-pink-an-appreciation\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Pink – An Appreciation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ed Pink at Nitro Revival7 – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s tough when your heroes die. Ed Pink, commonly known as the \u201cOld Master\u201d for his ability to tweak an engine with as much horsepower as it could accept, has died at 94 years of age. A massive influence in the drag racing world, Pink was first exposed to hot rodding as a teenager growing up in Los Angeles. It was an addiction he wouldn\u2019t give up, he couldn\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n

A member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America since 2012, Pink\u2019s influence in the world of engine building spanned nearly his entire life. After an Army tour serving in Korea, Pink formed Ed Pink Racing Engines (EPRE) in Van Nuys in 1961 at the age of 30, specializing initially in drag racing machines, and touting \u201cTV\u201d Tommy Ivo as one of his initial clients. He went on to build engines for all the big guns in drag racing, including Don \u201cThe Snake\u201d Prudhomme, Ed \u201cThe Ace\u201d McCulloch and many, many more.<\/p>\n

Pink realized that he could do more than build drag racing engines, and after making the 426 Hemi engine top dog in Top Fuel and Funny Car racing, Pink turned his attention to the United States Auto Club (USAC) Midget series. His Ford, MOPAR, Garrett (Chevrolet) and Toyota midget engines garnered more than 100 National event wins and helped drivers like Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne and JJ Yeley to victory in EPRE-powered race cars.<\/p>\n

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Ed Pink, Steve Lewis, Dave Steele and Toyota reps celebrate the first Toyota USAC Midget win in Phoenix – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2007, I was assigned to write a story about EPRE\u2019s Toyota Midget engine, which won its debut race at the Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway in February 2006 with Dave Steele at the wheel of one of Steve Lewis\u2019 Nine Racing midgets. That was a momentous time for Toyota, which wisely chose to work with Ed Pink and his general manager Frank Honsowetz. Toyota points to that time as it commemorates its 20th season of USAC racing in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cToyota wanted to expand its grassroots racing,\u201d noted Gary Reed, now retired vice president of Special Racing Projects for Toyota\u2019s racing division, TRD USA, \u201cand we were able to apply the TRD NASCAR truck cylinder head to USAC racing. So we met with Steve Lewis and Ed Pink and Ed Pink Racing Engines was able to assist in designing the block. The rest was history. We had no idea that it would remain as competitive as it has been for so many years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Ed Pink signed copies of his book at Nitro Revival7 – courtesy Bones Bourcier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visiting the EPRE 15,000-square-foot manufacturing facility near the railroad tracks in Van Nuys to write this story, I was struck by the variety of engines arrayed throughout the workshops and the energy in the shop. Pink\u2019s work ethic was notorious and his ability to keep the coveted workers in his shop happy to return over years and years was evidence of that work ethic.<\/p>\n

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The TRD-EPRE USAC Midget engine is still exceptionally successful – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While his engines regaled racers and fans across all motorsports activities – from nitro-based drag racing behemoths to USAC Midgets, Can-Am machines, NASCAR V-8s and the V-6 Buick engine that catapulted Eddie Cheever to his sole Indianapolis 500 victory – Ed Pink was a master at engaging racers to \u201cThink Pink\u201d and succeed with his power mills. While he was quietly convincing mechanical pieces not to fall apart or fail under his watch, Pink\u2019s prowess at the work bench and dyno were what made Ed Pink Racing Engines a true force in the racing world.<\/p>\n

After 50 years in business, in 2008 Pink sold his company to Tom Malloy, who had been using EPRE engines in his own vintage racing machines and is the owner of Trench Shoring Company. \u201cIt\u2019s funny how things happen,\u201d Malloy mused. \u201cI became acquainted with Ed\u2019s operations and EPRE was rebuilding a big block engine for my Can-Am car. I noticed the attention to details and the ability to do all the work necessary in-house. That impressed me,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ed and Sylva Pink at Nitro Revival6 – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite selling the shop, Pink would still come in and work.\u00a0 <\/span>He was that kind of guy. It\u2019s said that he continued to build engines until about two years ago. While he was quite frail, Pink always considered Steve Gibbs\u2019 Nitro Revival get-togethers a must-do with wife Sylvia. They\u2019d be in the tent area where fans lined up for his signature on a variety of mementoes and would later show up for the closing Line of Fire to see, hear and smell the engines started up in unison.<\/p>\n

There have not yet been notices of any memorial service or salutation for Ed Pink, but rest assured, when one occurs it will be loud and proud.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anne Proffit pays tribute to hero and hot rod racing and engine building legend Ed Pink.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":100682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,3699,5029],"tags":[11836,11839,10352,621,11811,11837,11838,38,7,73,3828],"class_list":["post-100678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-other-racing","category-racing","tag-tv-tommy-ivo","tag-buick-v-6-indy-engine","tag-don-the-snake-prudhomme","tag-don-garlits","tag-ed-pink","tag-ed-pink-426-hemi","tag-ed-pink-racing-engines","tag-funny-car","tag-nhra","tag-top-fuel","tag-usac"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Ed-Pink-Nitro-Revival7-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-qbQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100678"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100689,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100678\/revisions\/100689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}