![\"Race](\"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/race-1-family.jpg\")
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When you call Race 1 to talk engines, you\u2019ve come to the right place. It has been in business since 1990 and like other speed shops in what began in trying to get a good deal on some parts is what led Brad Hibbard to go into the high performance business of selling and rebuilding crate engines and the rest is history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning Race-1 had quite a few adventures into different things as at one time we owned a shock company that was successful for about seven to eight years,\u201d said Hibbard. \u201cThen came along the crate program and it completely took us over. We sold the shock business and now we\u2019re 100 per cent General Motors crate engines.\u201d
\nAfter Race 1 sends out an engine, the performance package is added by the race teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re basically not a race engine shop,\u201d said Hibbard. \u201cWe have been in the engine business since before Race-1 existed. I\u2019ve been partners with this machine shop my entire life. We do a lot of restoration work, we do a lot of dealership work, and stock rebuilds, industrial work, things of that nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the crate program came along, it just fit us. These are not performance engines. We look at them through in a different light now and can consider them performance, but in reality they come right off the production line. We\u2019re asking the engines to do quite a bit. They are production engines with a few modifications from General Motors to fit into the application.\u201d<\/p>\n
Race-1 crate engines are shipped throughout the country under the scrutiny of different sanctioning bodies and the teams that are authorized to participate in the different forms of motorsports.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are an authorized repair rebuild facility for the N.E. Smith racing series, the RUSH Racing series, and then FASTRAK Racing Series, and then we have NASCAR affiliates and that is not the NASCAR sanction, but it\u2019s the NASCAR affiliates that have authorized us completely,\u201d said Hibbard. \u201cWe also have two racetracks that we completely service and no one else is permitted to service them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re servicing is the specific sealed engine program. In our program, we have to deal with the way to which GM builds it. We\u2019re not allowed to modify it in any way. Truthfully, a very large percentage of our business is directly sealed engines from General Motors. We are an authorized repair facility for most sanctioning bodies and we do the repair here, but we have to stick to the GM specifications. You can\u2019t veer from that one bit. So, when the engine leaves our shop, it\u2019s exactly the same as a brand new engine someone would purchase from General Motors. They are all the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where do you see yourself in the racing industry in the overall picture of motorsports?<\/p>\n
\u201cI see us in the racing industry as an associate to General Motors and the crate racing world,\u201d said Hibbard. \u201cWe\u2019re in this for the long run. We\u2019ll help a person who doesn\u2019t even buy anything from us. I will spend hours on the phone with a guy who hasn\u2019t spent a penny with me. We need those people to help the program survive. The success of the program overall is what is going help us. It\u2019s how we\u2019ve been doing business forever and that was how I brought up.\u201d
\nWhen a competitor sends their engine back for repair and refurbishing, they get returned with the exact specifications they began with and can proceed from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do send us broken engines and worn out engines,\u201d grinned Hibbard. \u201cWe are 500 deep on our rebuild list and all those 500 engines are the same. We are probably a thousand deep in our new engine sales. They are the same as our rebuild or repaired engines. The perception out there in the racing world is differences in these engines, and it just isn\u2019t so. If you have an engine that is down on power, there\u2019s a specific reason. Typically, they are all the same.\u201d
\nOn occasion, when Hibbard gets a call with a question concerning performance out of their product, he\u2019s there to assist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work real hard talking with everybody to instruct them the best way to take care of it and operate their engine,\u201d said Hibbard. \u201cYou can make up a million spec sheets, write a ton of books and put all kinds of notices on a website, message boards, and guys will still call you up only to find out they shot themselves in the foot. There are some common issues and we really try to push on those. We\u2019re trying to reiterate that other people have made a mistake. On the most part, people appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the sealed crate engine world, technology is constantly evolving and although change is inevitable, Race-1 has a specific program they go by and will not fluctuate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my sealed engine world, the engine itself can\u2019t be manipulated and certain things around the engine that also carries specifications,\u201d said Hibbard. \u201cObviously, everyone is looking for the last little bit of edge. As far technology goes, we\u2019re always looking, always trying, but we have to do it within a specification sheet. The engine itself, we\u2019re not allowed to manipulate one bit. That has to stay the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pieces that surround the engines, absolutely, we\u2019re always looking and trying. That\u2019s part of our strength. We have such a vast associate bank to pull from. We\u2019ve developed relationships all across the world. We consider our customers as associates. When they have a problem, they call us. We may not have the answer for it, but we\u2019ll get on the phone who we think is the best person to ask that question to and then at that point, we\u2019ve help everybody.\u201d
\nSince Race-1 goes by their strict guidelines it creates better racing on the track with all things being equal and all competitors are all starting from the same point.<\/p>\n
\u201cParody is the best thing we could have,\u201d smiled Hibbard. \u201cYou don\u2019t want one engine to stand out from another engine. That\u2019s the concept. These guys can actually work on their race cars and show their driving abilities. Not how much horsepower you have under the hood. When someone does find an edge, we all go to work and try to find the same edge to maintain that parody. Every little thing does make a difference and everything you do does make difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
The size of the facility compared to the amount of work produced is marginal as they do it with a small of amount people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have two facilities,\u201d said Hibbard. \u201cOne we called the dumping zone and we\u2019re installing a new dyno at that facility now. The second is a pickup and drop off point, parts counter and parts inventory. We have a machine shop there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as employees, there are four of us in the machine shop and here at the dump zone, it\u2019s just me. We try to put people on who want to work. Now that we\u2019ve struck a very strong relationship with PACE Performance and Sweeney Buick, we\u2019re leaning on them for some personnel. We\u2019ve used some of their people from time to time. We don\u2019t let people pressure us into just getting the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Race-1 is a very busy place and has the proof with the amount of fully prepared crate engines they release each week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may have as many as 10 new engines leave,\u201d said Hibbard. \u201cAs far as rebuilds, it takes us a solid week and a half to do a rebuild. We\u2019re backed up with some 20 engines right now. Just since 2006, we\u2019ve done over 500 rebuilds.\u201d
\nWhat\u2019s ahead for the crate engine program of Race-1 is anyone\u2019s guess, but the product has proven reliable and Hibbard knows what it is going take for the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of eggs in the basket,\u201d Hibbard said looking at what lies ahead. \u201cI am a little concerned the engine we\u2019re currently using for this project is old. I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s even in a production vehicle anymore. So I wonder where General Motors is going, but we\u2019ll follow it. The program is big enough that they are not going to drop it completely, but rather at that time replace it. The crate racing world has grown so big I don\u2019t see how they can possibly even change it. Change is evitable, always. Even if GM would quit making this type of engine, it would be years before it would be completely gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are usually swamped and have grown so quickly, that we\u2019re not looking at the future, we\u2019re looking at getting done today our commitments that we\u2019ve made. Honestly, we grew too fast. In just the last two years, we\u2019ve really, really grown and we couldn\u2019t keep up with personnel wise. We\u2019re in a situation where we can\u2019t make a mistake because we under the scrutiny of that specification book. You never want to make mistakes where you have failures. If we made a mistake outside the guidelines of General Motors specifications, it would mean the end of our business as we know it. These engines are constantly being protested at race events and torn down. If there is one single piece that is out of specification, we\u2019re done. That\u2019s why we have to scrutinize our work. Take all the time it takes to make it correct.\u201d<\/p>\n
With questions and inquiries, information can be found on Race-1.com or contact Brad Hibbard at (330) 540-7223 or via email at brad@race-1.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you call Race 1 to talk engines, you\u2019ve come to the right place. <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7101,"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":[3470],"tags":[151,66,1132],"class_list":["post-7100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-crate-engine","tag-general-motors","tag-race-1"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/race-1-family.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-1Qw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7100","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7103,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7100\/revisions\/7103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}