Mahle-Clevite Engine Builder Showdown

Get ready as the top engine builders of NASCAR face off in a contest of mind bending, speed and skill. It's a battle to the finish and it's all right here on horsepower.

Hey, welcome to a special edition of horse power.

I know some of you have to get a kick out of the fact we can build an entire engine on television in just a few minutes. Well, that's thanks to the magic of editing,

but there's no magic tricks in the competition you're about to witness. It's a contest of both speed and accuracy among the top engine guys in NASCAR.

Yeah, and only the best of the best is left standing at the annual Mala

Clevite engine builder showdown

from its humble back road beginnings to a multi billion dollar super sport.

NASCAR'S

stars have always been the drivers

with little attention going to the heroes behind the scenes.

We like the guys who build the motors that make a driver's car fast, reliable and worthy of winning.

You know, when you watch them on the weekends, you, you, they interview the drivers and uh they talk about the pit crews

and uh

usually, unfortunately when they talk about the engine builders a smoke coming out of the tailpipe.

Finally, the top engine builders of stock car racing have a race of their own all thanks to Malla Cle.

It's a tiered four round test of speed and skill. Starting with 19 teams. It's now down to

four

that

one out of the

way

vying for $26,000 and the ultimate honor among their peers.

Teams from Hendrick Motorsports, Ralph Yates,

Phil Davis racing

and pro Motor Engineering.

Of course, you can't just throw a couple of guys together and have a team that's competitive. It takes years of practice and team work here in the real world for that to happen.

This is the headquarters of Promotors, the only engine company represented in the showdown without a race team.

They basically build engines for their own team. We have to build engines for independence and maybe lower funded teams to where

it doesn't put us in the limelight as them. So this is a,

it's a pretty good feather in our cap. If we can do

Dennis Forum and Darryl Hoffman are semi finalist, determined that history won't repeat itself

the last year. You guys got pretty close. Uh What, what was the story on that?

Uh

I tell him

it, we, we fired it off and, uh,

it, uh, it run for about five seconds and just died

and then it, uh, it

fired right back up and, um, went on, we don't,

we don't know exactly what the problem was.

We lost about four seconds, but

hopefully that won't happen again.

Their opponents come from Ralph Yates, renowned builders of engines for eight Ford Nextel Cup teams. Although in the showdown, the engine building drill will be a lot different from the real world.

Yeah, work. I mean, we have, you know, real meticulous methodical on the parts, respect the parts here. There's no respect for parts. You just slam and go last night. I only got an hour and a half to sleep. I probably built that motor 500 times last night.

The venue for this event is NASCAR

Technical Institute

where students can study everything from building race cars

to working on the pit crew.

Meanwhile, inside judges from Malla

Clevite have laid out the identical parts and tools for the first semi final race to build and run a pair of next L cup 357 cubic inch Ford Motors.

So it's got to run one full minute

when that 10 full

minutes up.

They're done, right.

They can work on it during that one minute.

They'll be tightening bolts and checking bolts and everything. But once we shut the motors off games over

set,

these engine builds are won and lost by guys putting the tool back where they found it because they're gonna need it again. Not throwing their tools around talking to each other.

Yes

and not making a mistake.

The team from promotors is ready

and the team from Ralph

Yates is ready. Well, hopefully that is

when we were practicing last Friday.

And, uh, we got halfway through the build and I turned to get the cylinder head and I

popped my right knee, um, twisted it and I couldn't even stand on it and it hurt so bad on our routine. We changed a few things. Uh, Mike's doing a little more lifting.

Um, so I don't, I don't hurt my leg. The only struggle I think I'm gonna have is the crank shaft because it weighs probably a third of what I weigh. So,

um, I'm not used to picking up that much weight at once. We've talked about our procedures and, and what we're gonna do and you just stick to

stick to your plan. Uh You may have to modify the plan a little bit but it's the end result won't change.

Well, it's almost time for the first round of the semifinals. Hey, man, I'm glad we're not one, these teams with all these parts, 100 and 84 fasteners. These guys are under some serious pressure. Got that right. But when the last team standing, well, they take home $26,000 all the bragging rights of NASCAR and

the Randy Dorton Memorial trophy.

We better get out of way. Let's go.

Fortunately for the Ralph Yates team, Mike is able to manhandle the crank in place

and move on to the timing change while Jim forgetting his injury spins away on the main bowls.

You all right.

On the other side, the Promotors team works like the well oiled machine they're building,

they know what comes next. Who does what? And, and

they keep up with the tools along the way.

It all saves precious seconds for Dennis and Darryl,

Mike and Jim keep up a decent pace. No major foul ups or slow downs.

However, when it's time to turn over their motor

here comes,

they appear to be at least a minute behind their opponents.

Yeah,

other than a drill to prime the oiling system, there are only regular hand tools used.

I'll get the rock.

You're talking now,

by the way, last year's team from Hendrix Motorsports set a new record of 16 minutes and 54 seconds.

By now, it was obvious a new record time was well within the reach of Dennis and

PL wires,

plug wires.

There you go.

Tell

me

that

1637. If I'm not mistaken, that may be a record, right? Do you feel pretty good about every boat being tight and everything?

We spend a little extra time, make sure that everything's tight

because, uh,

we can, we can, we can get a better than that.

Of course, as the Great Yogi Bear once said it ain't over until it's over

here. It ain't truly over until the

judges dismantle the motors

and make sure no points are to be deducted.

We have now checked all the fasteners that have to be finger tight,

you know, aren't

torqued. We've checked all those so we'll strip all that stuff off and then we'll double check all the torque fasteners. Finally after minutes of anxious waiting, Dennis and D

will hear those favorite three words.

Ok. This engine's clean.

So the Cinderella team in the making moves on to the finals.

Congratulations.

However, it's the defending champions of NASCAR engine competition. Hendrick Motorsports against Bill Davis racing

in round two of the big showdown.

Mark

seven.

No,

welcome back to around two semi finals of the Mallock

Clevite

engine builder showdown. Now it's down to three teams, six guys,

all automotive athletes shifting their engine building skills into overdrive

in hopes of winning this incredible contest.

Now, one team comes from Bill Davis racing where engines are built for several race teams including a couple of Nextel cup cars.

The engine Matt Fogel

builds later today along with partner Robert Scott will be one they've already built in preliminary rounds even more times in their minds.

Some of the things we have to avoid

is is not losing track of where our tools are at

and don't forget where we're at. I, I noticed like when we were looking at our videotape from the

um last build,

I'd stop for a second and

what's next?

We could count at least a minute of time that we spent just looking for tools. So if we get that under control, I think we'll do pretty good.

Their opponents are builders at Hendrick Motorsports where engines are built for Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson and Kyle Busch.

It's also the former home base of the late Randy Jordan, respected engine developer whose name appears on the trophy

engine builders, Scott Vester and his teammate, Kevin Weber will face the Bill Davis duo hoping to make it two in a row for the Hendry Gang.

Have you guys been doing any practicing? Have you done any kind of routine to get ready for that?

Um No, actually, um at the beginning of this competition was the first that Kevin and I had even worked together

after our first build. We were a little ugly in some parts of the building and we talked about it, what we could do better and we knocked three minutes or more off our next time.

Set

goats.

I can't find the boat there. It is

a few minutes into the build up. Scott gets out of sync, installing pistons

and here pulls the ring compressor before the pistons in the hole, but his opponents have similar troubles.

Run

upside down upside down.

Go.

Come in for the kill.

Sorry about that

good

pro

on get to him

here right here.

I

know

that.

I know.

Oh I ain't got hit this fork over here

because my F

go,

I'm gonna kick myself.

Oh

dear,

dear.

So

grab the manifold, put it on

the,

you got

two years

over here

and then there were 42 teams left to fight it out in the finals just ahead.

Yeah, I'm really excited that uh Clevite

puts on this event because it's a chance for the teams to actually get some recognition, some more recognition that they deserve because they work so hard.

A record 19 teams struck. 10 NASCAR shops competed in this year's Wallach

Klea

engine builder showdown

after battling their way through elimination rounds

in the ultimate high pressure, test of speed and skill. Two teams are left staying

Evan Weber and Scott Vester from Hendrick Motor Sports

and the Cinderella team, Darrell Hoffman and Dennis Forum from Pro Motors.

And it all comes down to this, the finals and by the way, Jeff has agreed to provide some unbiased color commentary and soon we'll know who's the champion of this year's engine builders showdown,

but the other team has consistently been a little bit faster. So,

you know, I think our, our definite game plan is just

trying not to make the mistakes we made last night,

just, you know, even if you have to slow down a little bit to go faster. Me and Dennis together feel like we're the best two engine builders here in uh North Carolina. Well, you've got something that you have to have to build an engine. So go ahead and put it in your mouth.

Can't, can't win without that. Can you, I gotta hit my go.

So with a crowd of Spectators packed into the NASCAR Technical Institute, it's time for the last and final round of this year's showdown.

No,

once you get your adrenaline pumping up, as you, you anticipate the start of this, you just, you have to tell yourself to

kind of start slow, start, calm and start smooth and as you get, uh you know, maybe five minutes into the builder, so you'll find that your nerves start to relax and you kind of get a routine with your partner.

Yeah, go ahead

while Dennis tightens the mains. Darrel installs the pistons with perfect timing and accuracy.

A little later, Scott has trouble with his, which cost the Hendrick team a few precious seconds.

Ok. That sound of the oil pan going on now, Scott and Kevin, neither one of them looked at it but they know exactly where the other team is at compared to where they're at. They've heard their oil pan sit on the engine.

They know they're a little bit

on their team now is just to remain calm. Stay on their pace

faster. Here is not always better.

Get away

an

one,

just give him a little pop.

We're good.

We can have a very fast time, but the key here is penalties. I mean, some fasteners are two minutes, some fasteners are a one minute penalty. So

very, very key to have all the fasteners installed in tight.

We're doing what we're supposed to.

Right.

Good.

Arrow loses a few seconds for his team when he starts installing rockers before torquing the bar that

at the time we got it, we got it.

You got it, Darl. You got it.

No,

go ahead. He said, go ahead.

And the key thing here is to keep working and keep getting here.

Fastener's type gets your engine assembled because even though they started before you two things, the engine has to run for one minute,

uninterrupted once it starts, if it shuts off any time during that one minute, it

will have to reset the clock there and have to start and run again for, for one minute.

Our goal is to win, but, uh, that topped it right there. Well, last night, I was pretty stressed out trying to make it to tonight, but tonight it was just,

just do your thing and see what happens.

So we're just trying to put on a good show for the people.

A

good show for sure.

And a well deserved moment of glory for the guys from Promotors.

Everything fine.

The little engine company that could and did win the big bucks

and the bragging rights of being the fastest engine builders of NASCAR,

at least for a year.

We're ready. We'll be here,

we'll be back.