SUN VALLEY (Dec. 17)- Although most top level racing series use fuel injection for their motors most of the series belowt still use carburetors. This is especially true at the grass roots level.
Bob Oliver holds a restrictor plate and spacer he hopes will even the playing field between those running open and crate motors in IMCA racing.
There is a lot of precision work needed to work on a carburetor.
Before any carburetor leaves his shop, Bob Oliver puts it on a test motor has at his shop Competition Carburetor.
Shawn Natenstedt tested Bob Oliver’s restricter plate at 95A’s two-day show this fall.
Robert Miller is one of the area IMCA drivers joining the crate motor group even though he’ll have a open motor handy.
Three time American Valley Speedway track champion Erica Harmon-Buhr uses an open motor and has talked with Oliver about his restrictor plate’s potential but is still undecided.
And Competition Carburetion of Sun Valley is one place many racers go to have their units serviced or rebuilt. Owner Bob Oliver, a veteran racer himself, keeps all types of carburetors running, no matter if they for a muscle car, vintage car or racer, modern racecar or sprint car.
He got his start in racing when he was growing up in Southern California.
” I raced go karts, traveled around the country and had some pretty good success with it,” he said. “I hooked up with a guy, through the go kart success, who owned a stock car at Saugus Speedway.”
His first time in a stock car was in 1983 at a mechanics race when the car owner gave him the chance to drive one.
“I just remember getting into a stock car for the first time because I had been a fan forever. But I was used to driving a go-kart, which is a precision piece of equipment then I get into this big old stock car that shakes, smells, vibrates and you can’t see nothing,” he said. “It’s dark I can’t see the track but I loved it and was hooked. Then the car owner says, ‘would you like to drive for me?'”
Oliver was 19 at the time and the next year, 1984, he raced both his go-kart and the stock car. Unfortunately in Arizona he had a bad crash in the go-kart and broke his leg
He figured how to drive both types of racers by taking his cast off but the break didn’t heal until a bone graft was used.
He continued racing, then when NASCAR came to Saugus he won six main events in the Sportsman division. His start to the carburetion business came in 1987 when he began to rebuild them for racers.
Over the next few years he married, welcomed two daughters into the world and split his time between his day job repairing fax machines and copiers and raced until 1989.
He added that after working all day he’d then start working on carburetors in the evening. In 1992, after Rodney King riots in the Los Angeles area, Oliver and his wife decided to move here.
“We decided before that as my wife and I said our two daughters are not going to go to a Los Angeles Unified School,” he said. “My wife and I came up through that and it was just horrible.”
Previously Oliver had visited this area, liked it and his wife had friends and family in Carson City. She was a nurse at a V.A. hospital and was able to transfer here.
They liked the schools and both girls would attend Wooster High School and then go through UNR on millennium scholarships. Now their daughters have followed their mother into nursing while their younger brother is a mechanical engineering student at UNR.
His wife’s job allowed the couple to buy a home while Oliver switched into full time mode with his carburetor business.
“The move up here was pretty aggressive because you just don’t have an idea of how it’s going to work out. When we moved up here in ’92, I just jumped off and said I was going to make it happen,” he said. “So in February 1992 Competition Carb came to Nevada and that’s what I’ve been doing every since.”
He explained that in racing carburetors are still needed.
“It’s mandatory, a lot of the divisions you build for they’ll even tell you what carb you have to use,” he said. “Has to be a 4412 like the Spec Sprint deal, has to be a two barrel and you have to use a “no-go,” gauge, which if it goes through not legal. In NASCAR trucks and Nationwide that’s a spec 3 carburetor, they no-go the top and bottom and it has to be all cast Holly parts, which are checked as well.”
A no-go is a special took that is used to make sure the throats and openings in a carburetor are the right size and legal to the rules.
Even in drag racing there are many classes that still use carburetors. While Pro Stocks can run fuel injection they don’t feel there is that much of an advantage so they stay with carburetors.
As the business was building Oliver did some racing in a Legends car.
“I ran a little bit at Carson but I loved those cars on the dirt. It was quite a challenge, those tires with that short wheel base and tread width, it was a handful on the dirt and in 2000 I won the championship at Fernley,” he said.
In 2001 a broken rear end gear on the car dropped him to fourth in the final point standings even though he won several main events.
He used this time to help build the business. To this day Oliver still works on a bunch of Legends carburetors but the customers are in other places as those cars aren’t raced in our area.
“By racing I found a way to build the business up through the Legends deal,” he said.
After Fernley stopped running Legends cars Oliver bought 3/4 midgets for his three kids and they raced over at Rio Linda, Calif. for the next three to four years.
Advertising in a national magazine was another method Oliver used to build the business. For 18 years he was an advertiser in Circle Track then he switched to Speedway Illustrated.
“I thought it would be a better fit so I talked with those guys and got involved with them,” he said. “And what was really nice I did three articles the first year in Speedway Illustrated and have done plenty since.”
Two years ago he used his contacts at the magazine to help the family of Dave Richardson, who perished along with Leroy Kay in a Dwarf Car wreck at Fernley 95A Speedway.
“I was there that night working on a pro stock so the next week I was trying to figure what’s going on here. One had two daughters and now he’s gone so they have no dad and he was the breadwinner,” Oliver said. “So potentially the kids lives could end at that point as far as education.”
With the assistance of Dwarf Car racer Joe Frock he helped set up an education fund for both Richardson girls. And Speedway Illustrated used that in an article they published about the wreck.
“We set it up like a mutual fund and basically it’s used for education. Doesn’t have to be college, it can be a trade school and if so it is tax free,” he said. “It’s really important to have your affairs in order when you race a car because it can happen at any time.”
He added that 95A had a memorial race to honor both drivers this year and raised $1,600 for the girl’s education fund.
Like most business owners, especially the small ones, he took a hit during the economic meltdown of 2008.
” Well ’07 was amazing and ’08 was doing spectacular,” he said. “That’s when this shop came around as I had been looking to purchase a building for quite some time.”
Due to the welding, fuel and test engine he had to find an unattached building with less than 3,000 feet or a fire suppression system would have been required. So when his current location popped up he took it and on August 15, 2008 moved the business from Sparks to Sun Valley.
He also had to put in mandated landscaping as well as insulating the building and adding air condition as it can get quite hot in the summer.
August is usually a busy month but when he transferred his phone it went silent even though he checked to make sure it was still working.
“August 15 of ’08, after I signed the papers and moved into this darn place, which by the way I still had about three months left on the other place so I’m paying two rents, and it stopped,” he said.
Despite this 2008 was still good, ’09 was a bit better and ’10 was still a bit better. As a result Oliver felt he needed to diversify so he began to advertise in Hemming’s Muscle Machines every other month.
“I thought I had better as the racing thing is really tanking,” he said. “It has been improving slowly since but it was brutal, that was really hard. And of course I had made the big step, the one I lost sleep over when I had money.”
Depending on the season the percentage of where the work comes from changes. During the winter is when muscle machine owners are the largest group of customers but once February arrives racing takes off and can account for about 85% of the business.
He also does more street business, which is a change because in 2007 he literally didn’t have time for projects like that. But now that he’s survived the meltdown and its consequences the business has leveled out a bit.
Currently he’s dealing with the challenges the crate motor, or sealed engines, have brought to IMCA racing. These motors are a bit lighter than the open ones and those using crates get a small spoiler to help their car’s handling.
The first full year of the program was in 2013. And there was another change drivers had to deal with as well.
“The biggest thing was the tires as IMCA told the manufactures to put in more plastic in the rubber,” he said.
When the tires go through a heat cycle, heating up, cooling down and heating up again, the plastic comes to the top and glazes the tires resulting in less traction. Many times between heat races drivers will be grinding this glaze off their tires.
A driver using the crate motor with less horsepower tends not to abuse their tires and will have more traction. However those using an open motor, with more horsepower will probably abuse their tires just do to the amount of get and go their cars have exiting the corners.
After much thought Oliver felt a restrictor plate on an open motor might level the playing field. While those running open motors aren’t mandated to use a plate he felt this was the way to go.
About this time championship driver Shawn Natenstedt was questioning if he should even continue as he was unable to keep up with the likes of Cory Sample and Riley Simmons, who use crate motors.
“I called him up and said what if we put a restrictor plate on it,” Oliver said.
They did alter the timing a bit and used stiffer springs when Natenstedt began using the plate.
“When you pick up the throttle you’re not fully advanced,” he said. “So it’s a slower advance curve, which doesn’t shock the tires. And Shawn, who’s a pretty trusting soul said, ‘if you say it’s going to work it will,’ and I said, ‘well I feel pretty confident.'”
The plate goes under a spacer below the carburetor but the problem was how big should the holes be. He called motor builder Harold Long in Carson City and got a plate from him.
Oliver gave Natenstedt two plates, with different sized holes. That way they could see which would lower the horsepower but leave enough to still be competitive.
Natenstedt, for his part, found he had to learn how to drive with the plate but now he’s competitive.
Oliver is also concerned about the long term effect the crate motor program will have on competitiors.
He explained that many people still like to build their own motors and enough parts to do this. Oliver feels the crate program will stifle these people and they might start leaving.
The crate motors are made in Mexico and only few engine builders are certified to work on these. And every time a crate motor is worked on it receives a seal, which IMCA charges $500 for.
“This is what freaks me out the most, you have engine builders all over the country. This crate thing gets involved you’ve now taken those guys out of the picture,” he said. “What ends up happening is these guys that are making their living making race engines and now you’ve taken away their livelihood.
Companies that make engine parts are also feeling the effects as none of their products are used in the crate motors.
“American companies spending their revenue in America, now it’s all going to Mexico. Those motors are all made in Mexico and the only parts I’m aware of that are made in the United States are the bare heads themselves,” he said. “The crate takes away business from people that have been involved in this sport for a really long time.
He also pointed out that if someone has to go through a crate motor it costs $2,000 and then the sticker that says IMCA is another $500.
“To me that is spooky as we’re taking away jobs from America and giving it Mexico. Jeez if there is one thing American it’s stock car racing,” he said.
Looking down the road he can envision people that have been involved in this type of racing dropping out. And their kids that are growing up in the sport won’t get the experience that building and working on motors gives them.
“As for IMCA the future is right now, their stock is good as for $500 for a seal but in 10-years I think it’s going to brutalize the sport. That’s my problem with it,” he said. Yes I’m making money now, I’ve been doing this for 27-years, I’m 50 years old and want to do this for another 20 years.
“I honestly think in 20 years, in the circle track thing, the numbers are going to drop.”
He feels unless the restrictor plate program works there will be a lot of people saying, “If I can’t build my own engine and can’t compete I’ll go and do something else.” As result he’s not very optimistic about the impact on the sport the crate engine program is having.
He also worries about the impact on the tracks if many of those that race modifieds quit. Fortunately for him diversification has worked and is bringing in more customers and changed this small business into a national one.
“I am optimistic for the future. I’m a small shop, which helps me a lot, its building back up and I do a ton of stuff back east, the big block modifieds for example. Some months I do more work in New York than I do in Nevada,” he said.
He’s also is building a customer base in places like Pennsylvania and the Northeast. And he’s also getting customers from those that race vintage cars.
“The muscle machine and the spec sprint thing is doing really well. I build blower stuff, twin turbo stuff but I had to diversify however my love is stock car racing on little tracks, pavement and dirt,” he said.
So his small local business now has a nationwide customer base as well as a regional one. For Bob Oliver the future is getting brighter and brighter.
For further information please check his website at, www.competitioncarburetion.com.
