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UMP American Late Model Star Jon Henry Wins Again at Attica Raceway Park

27 May 2011

#15 UMP Late Model Racer John Henry

Jon Henry has found a home. The UMP Late Model star recently won four straight races at Attica Raceway Park and looks primed to capture another Sunoco American Late Model Series championship. The Ada, Ohio native and 2009 UMP National Rookie of the Year, as well as American Late Model Champion, is off to his best start yet, and the team is showing no signs of slowing down entering the summer months.

John Henry's #15 Wide Open Graphics, K&N Filter's late model car takes the lead.

"We have a solid car and continue to be consistent," Henry said. "As long as I keep the car in one piece, we should continue to be competitive."

Henry and his team are also planning on running some UMP Summer Nationals races this season. But for now, the team remains focused on the American Late Model Series. The winning streak at Attica has the team more confident than ever. "Four in a row is impressive, but to be honest, I didn't even think about it until we got beat," Henry added with a chuckle. "Every time I get in the seat, I have the same game plan; 'keep the nose clean and finish.' I haven't won four consecutive championships or multiple races in a row by not finishing. If you finish, you always have a chance to win."

John Henry recently won four straight races at Attica Raceway Park

Henry's car is one of the most respected throughout the northeast. It has even been featured in Eldora's Prelude to the Dream, where Travis Pastrana competed in the JHR Late Model. With over 30 wins under his belt and track championships at Eldora and Limaland, everyone knows to watch out for #15 Wide Open Graphics, K&N Filter's entry. While Attica has been nice to Henry, he says it's just the teams style that has led to their recent success there.

"Attica is a racers track, and the driver really does a lot, but I think when you're as comfortable as we are, you can make small changes and run well anywhere," he added.

When it comes to performance, Jon Henry Racing only uses one filter on their cars, K&N. "A very important part to dirt racing is keeping the motor clean. K&N products are first class when it comes to keeping dirt out of our motors. I'm shocked every time I use the K&N Power Cleaner to wash out a filter after a race, and I see how much dirt particles the filter keeps out of my engine. The Power Cleaner really works!"

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Black Stallion Racing and Michael Vaters Monster Truck Motorsports

27 May 2011

Michael Vaters and his wife Denise

You hear it all the time; racers saying it's a "family sport" or racing is "my life." But rarely are they being literal. And then there is Michael Vaters. The founder and owner of Black Stallion Racing and Vaters' Monster Motorsports has lived and breathed Monster Trucks since he was 18. For 29 years, the now 47-year-old Maryland native has raced all over the United States, competing at every major event in the country, and capturing countless trophies.

The Black Stallion Monster Truck stands tall for the crowd

"We work 7 days a week," Vaters said when talking about the family business. "It's rare that we take a day off. Our vacations are in the city we are racing in at the time."

It all started with Mike's first truck, a 1982 Ford F-250. After creating his own lift kit, the truck grew too much. It became illegal, and the only place left for it was the Monster Truck circuit. Vaters was a pioneer in the early days of organized Monster racing, campaigning his original Black Stallion before building the world renowned Boogey Van. But the Black Stallion remained his passion, and in 2000 it reappeared. Now, Vaters runs a three truck team, with Stallion joining Iron Warrior and the brand new Higher Education. While most big name trucks are either owned by major promoters or are backed by factory sponsors, Vaters' team is completely funded out of pocket. The sponsors on each truck provide product, but all of the teams financial expenses come out-of-pocket.

Michael Vaters taking photos near his Black Stallion Monster Truck

"We are frugal with our travel expenses. Instead of hotels, we stay in our hauler, which has full living quarters. We also prepare most of our meals in the hauler, instead of eating out," Vaters added. "We repair broken parts if possible, where most teams would just throw them out. We also complete all of our work in house. We built all three trucks from the ground up, from fabrication to paint to the mechanical work."

The team recently invested in two jet-powered quads, Kamikaze and Psycho, which has provided them with an opportunity to earn more income by booking all three trucks and both quads at each event. The quads require minimal maintenance and take up relatively little space in the teams second hauler.

Vaters also founded his promotion company, which last year was voted as Promoter of the Year by the Monster Truck Racing Association. The promotion company allows Vaters to stay busy during the off-racing season. But racing is where Black Stallion thrives. Earlier this month, Vaters' team cleaned up at the Thunder Nationals in Wichita Falls, Texas. The team captured 2 racing wins, 2 runner-ups, and two wheelie competition victories. Other trucks at the competition included Grave Digger, Blue Thunder, Captain's Curse and Madusa, each of whom has competed at the Monster Jam World Finals in the last two years. The weekend reminded Vaters of why he loves the sport so much.

"It's a great feeling when all of your hard work pays off. It's a two-fold victory, especially looking around you in the pits and seeing all the big money backed corporate trucks that you beat. The best part is bragging to our sponsors about it after. They get to see what type of value they are getting in return."

At an age where most drivers would start thinking about retiring, especially with a successful promotion business to manage, Vaters is thinking about how to improve the team. The day-to-day grind isn't easy, but it's all he knows. "It's hard, but the word quit isn't in my vocabulary," he added. "This is all I know, I've been competing since I was 18 and I have no desire to stop any time soon."

Black Stallion Racing has forged a solid relationship with K&N throughout the years. "K&N is a tremendous help to our team. They have gone above and beyond for us over the years, and we really appreciate it. We use K&N's wide selection of products in all of our equipment. We use them in all three of our Monster Trucks, as well as our toter-homes and tow vehicles. We even use K&N Fuel Filters in our jet powered four-wheelers. In my 29 years, I've used or had experiences with similar products to those K&N produces, but nothing else can compete with the quality, endurance and performance of K&N products."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

Five-Time Defending Civil War Champion Andy Forsberg

27 May 2011

The F&F x1 Sprint Car in Victory Lane

2011 has proven to be just another year for Andy Forsberg and his multiple Sprint Car teams in Northern California. The five-time, defending Civil War champion wasted no time getting into victory lane this season, and with a full plate of racing in front of him, chances are Forsberg will be hoisting more trophies as the season progresses.

Andy Forsberg and his A&A #92 410 Sprint Car

Forsberg already has a victory at Chico raceway in his A&A #92 410 Sprint, and he also picked up a win in the Civil War with his F&F X1 team. His private Forsberg Racing #92 also has a pair of top-5 finishes in non-wing USAC shows.

"I don't think a season ever goes as good as you want it to, but in all actuality, 2011 is going pretty good for us so far," Forsberg stated. "We plan on running every Civil War event, plus all of the Placerville points races, along with various points shows like the Trophy Cup and the National ASCS races."

Forsberg will also be running full-time at Chico in the Friday night 410 points series, and when he has an off weekend, expect to see the family-owned operation at a track somewhere on the west coast. Forsberg's biggest challenge in 2011 will be defending his Civil War championship. Forsberg is five-for-five when he runs the whole series. In other words, if he starts every Civil War race, he has never lost the championship. When faced with a question of whether or not the pressure gets greater or worse with each championship, the second-generation racer couldn't decide.

"It's a little of both, actually. There's a sense of pressure that I have to win it every time, but on the other hand, I try to remind myself that I have won the Civil War five times, so in the back of my mind I just try and enjoy myself, and if I get beat I get beat."

With all of the success Forsberg has had out west, one might wonder why he's never gone racing with the World of Outlaws full time; Forsberg has run a few WoO races on-and-off throughout his career, with a career best finish of 3rd. He calls that finish his "claim to fame."

"When I was younger I wanted to race with the Outlaws, but now I'm older and wiser, and I know it's really not an option. I have a family, home and business in Auburn, California, and traveling ten months out of the year is really not possible," Forsberg added.

With three different teams and 82 races on Forsberg's schedule this season, the veteran racer pointed toward budget as the biggest challenge this season. "Hopefully none of the teams get burnt out. As long as I don't tear up too much stuff, we should be fine."

Forsberg noted that the support he has from K&N helps immensely.

"K&N Filters are the only filters that my dad ever used and he passed that onto me. Racing on dirt, keeping the motor clean is very important. We try to get as many shows as possible out of our engines and K & N Filters help us accomplish that. We hope to maintain a relationship with them throughout my racing career."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

K&N Sponsored Benjamin Mahan Ready to Leave His Racing Mark on 2011

27 May 2011

Mahan's driving skills have continued to grow exponentially every year since his first half-scale Sprint Car race in 2003.

At age eight when most kids are still content practicing endless rail-slides on their skateboards, Benjamin Mahan was already running laps full-tilt-boogie in a half-scale Sprint Car. When Ben was five, Mike, his dad, took him to his first race at a local dirt track where they raced Speedway Sprints.

At an age when most kids are hoping for their learners permits, Ben Mahan is looking for sponsorships so he can be even more competitive on the big-tracks.

A woman in the stands noticed his excitement and asked him if he wanted to sit in one of the cars, Ben was all smiles. After the race Ben and Mike visited the pits where the woman made good on her offer. Ben was immediately hooked, and every day after he'd ask "Dad will you buy me a racecar?" Three years later Mike bought him the very same racecar he had first sat in.

Ben's first race came at the end of 2003. "He went out to practice for the very first time and took to it like a proverbial duck to water," said Mike. "The track promoter asked me if this was Ben's first time because he was really doing great."

Ben finished that race in third place and then went on to win his next two races. The following year, as the need for speed intensified, Ben moved up to the Intermediate Division, where the drivers were more experienced and the racing was faster. Ben won five races in that division, narrowly missing winning the championship by a two points. Clearly this was no passing fancy, this kid showed some serious chops.

In 2011 Ben has already logged three top-ten finishes, including a seventh and an eighth place at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.

"We then made the decision to move on to the Mini-Stockars and race on bigger tracks on pavement," Mike tells K&N Race News. "He took to these cars right away too, and raced them for three years, earning Rookie of The Year his first year, and then won the Championship the next two years in a row."

At 12-years-old the promoter of the Orange Show Speedway offered the young Oak Hills, California racer an opportunity to kick it up to the Factory Four Division, racing a full-sized car against adult drivers. The only prerequisite was that he pass a driving test. Ben raced in that division for the next two years, once again earning ROY honors in his first season. In his second season Ben won four races, had a handful of top-five finishes, and once more missed the championship by a couple of points.

Ben's next step up to a Late Model followed at age 14. Mike adds, "We decided to go to Irwindale and run in the Open Comp Division on the 1/3 mile track. Ben won two of the three races, becoming the youngest driver to win in a Late Model at the speedway on either track. NASCAR made a change in age requirements and Ben convinced me he could run on the very fast 1/2 mile track."

Last year Ben ran a couple of races on the big track to get accustomed to the speed and competition level, he did well, and couldn't wait for the 2011 season to start. So far in 2011 Ben has raced to three top-ten finishes, including a seventh and an eighth place finish.

"Ben is gaining experience with every race, as is our team, and we look forward to getting more top-tens and working on getting top-fives. We are currently pursuing sponsorship opportunities in order to keep Ben racing. We have plans to make as many races as we possibly can. He is a very talented young man and would be a great person to represent sponsors, like the great people and products of K&N."

Throughout his young racing career Ben has continually proven he has a deep passion and exemplary talent for racing, as he consistently displays his rare versatility for being able to adapt and excel in different cars, both on dirt and asphalt. Clearly, Ben is the ideal candidate for an education in higher racing.

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.

K&N's Bruno Massel Nails His First NHRA National Event of Season in Comp Eliminator

25 May 2011

Bruno Massel WINS NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway

Woodridge, Illinois resident, Bruno Massel put together quite an impressive weekend at his first NHRA National Event of the 2011 season during the NHRA Southern Nationals held at Atlanta Dragway.

Bruno Massel'S Autogeek.net/K&N 2008 Chevy Cobalt

With a weather shortened amount of qualifying sessions, Massel had already easily placed himself at the top of the sheet in Competition Eliminator during the very first of what would only be two sessions in his Autogeek.net/K&N 2008 Chevy Cobalt when he ran an enormous .726 under his DD/AT class index. Thanks to an uneven amount of entries, that number one spot netted Massel a bye in round one where he made smart pass under full power to only the thousand foot mark to get all the info he needed and not hurt his index for round two.

"It was a pretty big deal," noted Massel of the bye. "Conditions had changed a ton and it was at night so some people had lost some index to get out of that round. It was huge for us to start the weekend clean going into Sunday."

Bruno Massel put together quite an impressive weekend at his first NHRA National Event of the 2011 race season.

One would have never guessed that Massel entered the event with a brand new motor and not a drop of testing, let alone any time on a dyno. "There is so much that goes into these motors," he said of his turbo entry. "We made some tweaks over the winter and kinda took a shot on something and well, it paid off. It was really even a better outcome than I anticipated."

While Massel had enjoyed earning the first round bye, by doing so had aligned himself with a pretty tough list of customers on his side of the ladder and right off the bat on Sunday, he met up with Vinny Barone in round two. "He's a tough competitor all day long," he said of Barone. "He's just a total class act. I caught him early in the run and rather than him wearing me out and trying to hurt my index, he shut off and let us get by the round clean. A lot of guys won't do that for you, but we've become pretty good friends and he's just a stand up guy."

It helped, of course, that Massel had a monstrous six hundredths of a second starting line advantage over Barone to move on to round three.

"We were running a guy named Lonnie Johnson who had been hitting the tree pretty good," Massel said of his third round opponent. "He was in a situation where he could have used us up, but he has some problems on the starting line and had to shut it down. So things were really just starting to fall our way."

"You just really have to take advantage of those situations and when you look at the semi-finals, it myself, Arnie Martel, Sal Biondo and David Rampy and that's a pretty fearsome four, I would like to think, of racers so there were no slouches there," he added.

Out of the four remaining cars, Massel was set to square off with Arnie Martel. Martel was running a little behind getting to the lanes and appeared to be a little down on power. That added with Massel still not having to carry any CIC made Martel go for it on the line and just missed the tree, going .006 red and sending Massel to the final.

Over on the other side of the semifinal matchups, K&N powerhouse David Rampy continued his trek and made his way to his 127th NHRA National Event final the final after Biondo put up the .008 redlight.

"So now in the final I have the winningest driver I sportsman history," smiled Massel. "David is as good as it gets and we are actually pretty good friends. We make a conscience effort to try and stay on the opposite sides of the ladder or at least away from each other."

"David was down six hundredths [CIC], so he was like fighting with one arm," he explained. "I'll take any advantage I can get all day long against David Rampy. The breaks or luck we had been having all day, went away in the final. I figured he would be twenty or better on the tree and two [hundredths] left in performance and he did exactly what I thought. The problem was, I let go of the transbrake button and the car didn't move. And I thought, 'Oh dear Lord this is not the time for this to happen'."

"We had a situation last year where it cost me two races, where I was having a mechanical malfunction that caused me to go from twenty and thirty on the tree to one-twenty and it was something erratic, so it didn't happen every time," he pointed out. "Realistically, I should have been able to drive the finish line blind and still make it out of the final clean, just because of the handicap that David had. When I got to halftrack, I thought about shutting it off, but then I thought the only thing worse that losing index would be losing this race."

That thought to keep his foot in it wasn't necessarily from the little voice in his head, but the little voice he spoke to on the phone just prior to the final round.

"Daddy, you have to beat Rampy," Massel smiled as he repeated the words of his four year old son. "See, he knows everybody and who they are. I told him I was going to try and he said again, 'No Daddy, you have to beat Rampy'."

Even though Massel took a three hundredths hit on his permanent index, he did the best he could to not take any more stripe than needed to seal the deal in an all K&N Comp Eliminator final for his fifth NHRA National Event victory and made it 2-0 against Rampy in NHRA finals.

Massel utilizes several K&N products not only on his championship race car, but speaks highly of the new HD K&N air filter on his tow rig. "The new K&N air filter for large diesel trucks and RV's that we have started using has helped us pick up not only fuel mileage but I really feel we have picked up some more horsepower, as well."

Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world.