: Do you think $4.00 a gallon gasoline will effect your customers as far as race scheduling and traveling, etc?
At $4.00 a gallon, my customers aren’t really affected. Most of my customers make six to seven figures. If a cross country trip costs them a couple hundred dollars more, it’s not going to affect their race style. If most of my customers were the normal kind of guy that makes forty to sixty thousand a year, then it would affect them. I think it will affect more of the spectators at the race track than it will the car count.
: How many gallons of fuel does your typical engine swill on a lap?
During the burn out, staging and running the quarter-mile wide open, it’s about a gallon. The burn out and staging takes up about 1/3 of that.
: If EFI were allowed, would you use it?
Yes, I’ve been trying to get it into IHRA Pro Stock for 5 years. They say they’re going to allow it and then they don’t. The initial cost would be a little bit higher, maybe $6,000 over a carbureted engine, but what you’d save in a year would more than pay for that. Some guys have 3 to 6 sets of carburetors that they paid $6,500 to $7,500 for per set. Buyingcarburetors to test typically costs a serious guy in IHRA Pro Stock $50,000 to $60,000 and a top NHRA team $100,000. There’s that, plus you wouldn’t have to wear your engine out going up and down the track during testing to make the carburetors perform better.
: How did Sonny’s come about?
I worked at a Chevrolet dealership and built engines, rear ends, headers, installed camshafts and whatever for my buddies. I’d work 10-15 hours for a six-pack of beer
because I was doing it for fun. Then I decided to go into business for myself. I was doing both stock and high-performance engines. It was a very hard road for years and years, but I guess I succeeded pretty well.
After four years, I started buying machine shop equipment because we had to travel sixty miles to have any machine work done. I wrecked my car back in the early eighties and couldn’t afford to build another so I had to sell it. I sold the engine to another guy. I promised him how quick it would go and it did that. He ran real well with it. I kept building engines for different people.
It took me about three years to get over not driving, but it doesn’t bother me now. I just enjoy watching them going fast and winning
: What did you race when you were a punk kid?
My first car was a ‘52 Oldsmobile. I won a couple of trophies with it when I was 15 or 16. When I went to work for myself, my first race car was a ’68 Chevelle. I ran that for a year, then put it back to stock and sold it for a down payment on a house.
: Who were your heroes when you were coming up?
Years and years ago, it was [Pro Stock racer] Lee Edwards. Later on it was Bob Glidden and Warren Johnson. I know Lee isn’t doing much now, but I know that Glidden and Johnson are still wide open and probably will be until they’re pushing up daisies. I don’t think they’ll ever slow down unless something really happens to them health-wise. Once it’s in your blood, it’s hard to get it out.
: Are you a self taught engine builder?
I would say yes. When I was growing up there were no trade schools to go to. I guess I’m self taught through trial and error and reading a lot. After I went into business for myself, I did go to machine shop school at night. Of course today there are four or five good schools.
