Though Tom Hammonds Enterprises, LLC (THE) took a small sabbatical from
drag racing, the team never stopped working towards building a premier
engine program. The results of the NitroFish car driven by Richie
Sevens and powered by a THE engine for the Brainerd, Minn. and Reading,
Penn. events gives credence to that.
"Although we have not been at the race track competing for the last few
events, we have really been working hard on our engine program," said
Tom Hammonds, owner/driver of THE.
Headed by 30-year engine builder Jim Oliver, THE's engine program is in
its second year, and this season has leased engines to Kenny Koretsky
and Jim Yates, with both drivers resulting in qualifying.
"Up until the time we leased an engine to Koretsky in Las Vegas this
season, we did not know where our program was," explains Oliver. "All
we had was an engine dyno, which gives you a number, and it's just a
number unless we had one of the top players' engines on the same
machine. We can say wow their engine is 30 horsepower better than ours,
but until then we just had a number."