Five years ago, the IHRA Pro Stock division relied on two major engine builders to service as many as twenty to thirty Pro Stock teams. If you ran a Ford, you had Jon Kaase horsepower. A Chevrolet or GM meant you relied on Sonny Leonard for your engines.

Today’s IHRA Pro Stock division stands prepared to reach for the next level with in-house engine programs.

As many as four prominent teams have embarked on exclusive engine programs. The IHRA’s Pro Stock division has always been considered a less expensive alternative to the highly-complex 500-inch NHRA programs. 

Pete Berner, 2006 IHRA Pro Stock world champion, became the latest to announce such a program. He will partner with former Pro Stock racer Jerry Janota.

Five years ago, the IHRA Pro Stock division relied on two major engine builders to service as many as twenty to thirty Pro Stock teams. If you ran a Ford, you had Jon Kaase horsepower. A Chevrolet or GM meant you relied on Sonny Leonard for your engines.

Today’s IHRA Pro Stock division stands prepared to reach for the next level with in-house engine programs.

As many as four prominent teams have embarked on exclusive engine programs. The IHRA’s Pro Stock division has always been considered a less expensive alternative to the highly-complex 500-inch NHRA programs. 

Pete Berner, 2006 IHRA Pro Stock world champion, became the latest to announce such a program. He will partner with former Pro Stock racer Jerry Janota.

Berner joined 2007 champion Robert Patrick, Robert Mansfield and Elijah Morton, all who branched out of their own since 2004. At least two of the four have NASCAR connections.

Each team, when queried why they went this route, agreed a desire to keep research and development secrets as a major factor. They all had other reasons to add.

“You want to be able to control your own destiny and when you get your own program going you certainly have got it and you keep it so therefore once you get ahead, you stay ahead,” Morton said.

 

I think we're in a better situation than with the guys with the in-house programs. Sonny and Kaase both have a lot of customers each, but they can try things on different cars, they can try one camshaft in my car, another in someone else's car and come to some type of conclusion of what works best in their applications. To me if they've got 7 or 8 customers each they are at an advantage over the guys that only have the one customer. - IHRA Pro Stock point leader John Montecalvo

For Berner, the decision to step up with the engine program didn’t necessarily mean he wanted to dominate the IHRA mountain motor market. He’s using the experience to eventually test the waters of the 500-inch market.
”We're not going to go any farther if we can't compete with the Mountain Motors because there's just a lot more technology involved with the 500-inch guys,” Berner admitted. “They live, breathe and do everything they can to make horsepower in 500 inch racing. You basically have to have that same discipline. We're going to see if we can retain that discipline.”

Patrick’s insatiable desire to distance himself from the rest of the front-runners started with a desire to join up with Ingles on his program prior to the 2005 season.  

“The way I felt about it was when you had two engine builders that had 85% of the field they could kind of control what was going on because as long as one of them didn't get too quick they kept everybody running the same then they didn't have to do a lot of work,” Patrick said. “I know they were trying to make their stuff better but they were happy but it looked to me when I was involved was in finding one or two little updates and then giving that to everybody for the next year and that's it. Then once the season started basically they didn't try to find power, because they had so many customers they were just busy trying to keep everybody's motors running.

Mansfield’s program began in 2004 when he left Sonny Leonard to join forces with Ron Hutter, a known figure in NASCAR engine technology.

Not every IHRA Pro Stock racer believes having an in-house program is the best route to travel. Current points leader John Montecalvo has been a longtime customer of Leonard’s and he’s content to remain that way for a long time.

“I think we're in a better situation than with the guys with the in-house programs,” Montecalvo said. “Sonny and Kaase both have a lot of customers each, but they can try things on different cars, they can try one camshaft in my car, another in someone else's car and come to some type of conclusion of what works best in their applications. To me if they've got 7 or 8 customers each they are at an advantage over the guys that only have the one customer.”

Montecalvo believes such a move does nothing more than increase the price on competing in the class.

“It means taking your dollars to the next level,” Montecalvo added. “It would definitely cost a lot more money, at least now the r&d with the Sonny's people and Kaase's people the data is shared among 5,6,7, or 8 customers. I think that we have an advantage that way, I think it cost us less money and I think we get better results.”

One of the positive byproducts, Morton adds, is the opportunity to recoup some expense through engine lease programs.

“There’s so much money invested in building your own engine program and when you consider there's people calling everyday wanting to lease an engine, that day is coming,” Morton said. “We're not quite to the point where we want to do that yet. Once it does get to the point like the NHRA Pro Stock lease engines get to, there's big dollars there just to lease your engines. It saves the racers from spending the money to develop their own, and they get to ride fast and enjoy it.”

Morton said the lease engines could be one year away from coming out.

 

THE COST OF RACING IHRA PRO STOCK - Patrick left the IHRA’s mountain motor format to run in the NHRA’s 500-inch

program in 1995. The defending world champion eventually returned in 2003 after the spiraling costs of remaining competitive didn’t jibe with his financial bottom line.

He says the cost is getting comparable in today’s IHRA Pro Stock division.

“We're spending about the same right now to race as we were back in the late 1990's in NHRA,” said Patrick. “I think you're going to see all that come to a head with the way the economy is going, the diesel fuel price and the fact the purses aren't going up. The costs of racing the motors are 50% more than they were 10 years ago. The tires costs more, clutches costs more, transmissions are a third more than when I started racing. The purses really haven't gone up, so there comes a point when you got to say hey you know this is a business and if you can't make a profit at it, you know you're going to have to fold your tent down and go home.”

Patrick is just one of a handful of IHRA Pro Stock teams who have invested in an in-house engine program. His program is headed up by championship assembler Bob Ingles.

“This could all change if the IHRA ups the purses,” Patrick said. “I think you could see Pro Stock reached that next level but who’s going to go out there and invest another half-million dollars in an engine program when the purses are staying the same. That just doesn't make good business sense.”

With the complexity of today’s U.S. economy and the spiraling costs of diesel fuel, Patrick and other teams are carefully plotting the balance of their travel schedule.

“Right now looking at the next two races honestly to see where I'm at in the points and if I'm not up where I need to be, I'm not going to go to Edmonton. I can run a Ford race an hour and a half from the house that pays the same money. I'd love to go to Edmonton and support IHRA and if I'm in the points I will, but basically if you don't go to the final out there you're not going to break even for the trip.

“You're looking to spend $5000.00 in fuel to go out there and the national average of diesel fuel is $5.66 a gallon, it's hard to justify driving 50 hours and airline tickets, food and everything else and you're going to walk away with a measly few grand for qualifying.”

 

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