County’s Prestige Rides Along in Indy 500 : At Least Dozen Firms From World’s ‘Racing Capital’ Represented

When the green flag flashes next Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, at least a dozen Orange County companies will be watching closely.

That’s because engines, airfoils, suspension parts and other components made by these companies will be flying around the 2 1/2-mile oval at better than 200 m.p.h.

Racing is big business in Orange County, and the profusion of racing teams and shops that turn out high performance engines and parts has made the area one of the undisputed centers of speed.

“This is the racing capital of the world,” said George Striegel, owner of Clay Smith Cams in Buena Park. Striegel’s company builds custom engines for all types of racing in addition to racing cams and high performance engine parts. And like every other racing equipment shop owner, Striegel says his shop is “busier than ever.”

Getting a precise figure on the size and scope of the racing industry in Orange County is difficult, but there are at least 35 professional shops and garages in the county. In addition to building muscular engines, sleek frames and racing parts and components of every description, area companies also make roll cages for off-road racers, straighten bent race car frames and perform every conceivable service on just about every wheeled vehicle that races.

Drawn to the Climate

The industry developed here because many of the race car teams were drawn to Southern California’s climate. “Most of the people who are into racing live here,” said Tim L’Ecluse, owner of Costa Mesa-based D.T. Rollcages, which supplies cages for all types of racing cars.

And now there are so many suppliers and machine shops located in Orange County that most garages can get parts and supplies within hours, shop owners say.

Most racing shops and garages are relatively small operations, like Marc Bahner Racing in Anaheim, whose five-man work force turns out racing chassis, suspension systems and airfoil parts for several different types of race cars.

Automotive Development in Orange, which services and supplies parts for Formula Fords, has three workers in addition to owner Paul White.

“Racing is on the uptrend,” said Eric Heisler, a partner in Burns Fabrications, a Costa Mesa shop that specializes in stainless steel exhaust systems for race cars. “Orange County is a good place to be because the money is here.”

And money in vast quantities is the fuel that drives competitive racing teams.

Consider these examples:

- A stainless steel header exhaust system for a Trans Am race car, for example, will cost between $1,600 and $3,000, Heisler said. Stainless steel must be used, he said, because the composite steel on a typical street car exhaust system will not withstand the 1,700-degree heat a racing engine develops.

- A new Formula Ford, an entry-level road-racing car, costs about $20,000. Budget an additional $2,000 for each race, advises White.

- Equipping an Indy car with stainless steel hoses and fittings costs $18,000 to $21,000, said George Spiller, sales manager for Torino Motor Racing Ltd. in Orange, which specializes in “competitive plumbing” for race cars. Because so many racing teams live in Southern California, Orange County is “an ideal location” both to get supplies and to deliver finished products, Spiller said.

- Nitromethane, the fuel used by dragsters, apparently has not followed regular gasoline’s price descent. The fuel, which is described as “basically liquid dynamite,” costs $30 a gallon and a drag-racing car will use 10 gallons on a single 200-plus m.p.h. quarter-mile run.

Dan Gurney’s Operation

But those expenses are merely hood ornaments on a multimillion-dollar racing industry in Orange County.

Andial Racing and Dan Gurney’s All American Racing, both in Santa Ana, are perhaps the largest racing operations in Orange County.

Except to say that the company “manufactures Indy race cars,” All American refused to discuss the company’s operations.

Andial, which is owned by three German immigrants, builds engines for all eight Porsche racing teams that compete in the International Motor Sports Assn.’s Camel GT circuit. The racing sector of the company’s business is a $700,000 annual enterprise that keeps several mechanics constantly busy during the 18-race season, which stretches from January to December.

The constant quest for more speed means the racing business is as intensely competitive as the races. Company loyalty lasts only as long as the car is competitive, said Al Springer, one of the partners in Andial. “You have to keep doing it better or someone else will come along with something better and poof, they’re gone.”

Short and Expensive

Like most racing engines, a six-cylinder, 700-horsepower Porsche racing power plant has a useful life shorter than a loaf of bread.

The engines, which cost about $45,000 new, typically must be overhauled after each race because even the microscopic amount of wear on the engine parts can reduce compression and thus speed. Depending on the extent of the overhaul, rebuilding a Porsche racing engine can cost as much as $18,000, Springer said.

Sometimes, the great stresses on racing engines can grind pistons and valves to scrap, and when parts break, “they ain’t going to heal themselves,” said Louie Unser, who has operated a racing engine shop in Orange County for more than a quarter century.

Auto racing costs have leaped ahead faster than a turbocharged race car. In 1965, for example, Unser built a car for his younger brother, Al, and entered him in the Indy 500, all for about $45,000. “Now, without $1 million, you better not even try,” he said.

Neither ticket sales nor television revenue makes much of a dent in the huge cost of putting a racing team on the track. The bulk of the costs are borne by sponsors, whose logos seem to fill every available space on race car, and driver.

Sponsor-Supported

“Professional racing today is mostly an outlet for advertising,” said Ron Pushea, owner of Prestige Motoring Accessories Inc. in Fountain Valley, a high-performance wheel and tire shop. “Race drivers make their money on contracts from sponsors.”

Wynn’s International Inc., a Fullerton-based maker of auto accessories, and additives for engine oil, coolants and fuel, is one of those sponsors. The company declines to specify what it spends backing race cars except to say it’s a “small fraction of what the big sponsors spend.”

But Wynn’s reckons the money it does spend on racing teams is well spent. Although the company concedes it is difficult to gauge the advertising return from having its logo on a race car, an official in the company’s marketing division said Wynn’s considers its racing expenditure “an investment in keeping our name in front of the public. Our products are very high impulse purchases,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. And having the name roll around a track at better than 100 m.p.h. offers “proof that our products do work under stressful conditions,” the official said.

Races also offer an opportunity for merchandizing, Wynn’s said. The company sometimes gets a suite at a race and invites distributors to watch the race, and Wynn’s logo, in comfort.

Without the dollars provided by Wynn’s and scores of other corporate sponsors, professional racing worldwide would come to a skidding halt.

Funny Car Costs

Take, for example, the John “Brute” Force funny car--a high-powered dragster with a modified passenger car body--run by Striegel’s racing team. It costs about $1.5 million to run the car for the 42-race season, and “if you won every race you could not even recover half your costs--a quarter would be more like it,” Striegel said. “Everything is astronomical in cost.”

Despite the huge costs, everyone in the racing business seems to envision growth for the business-sport in Orange County.

“Interest (in racing) is growing tremendously,” said Judy Kawell, who along with her husband, Dave, owns Kawell Racing Engines in Santa Ana.

Not all of the racing is done on tracks.

Although the Orange County Raceway has closed and Riverside International Raceway is scheduled to close after this racing season, some Orange County racing enthusiasts apparently find the freeways roomy enough for great speed.

Burns Fabrications, for example, is installing a racing chassis, hidden roll cage and 1,000-horsepower engine in a Chevrolet Camaro owned by an Orange County man, all at a cost of about $100,000. The owner simply wants to have “the most powerful car around,” said Heisler. “This car will easily do 200 (m.p.h.).”

Pickup Power Plant

A similar street monster is taking shape at Louie Unser’s shop in Fullerton, where a 1,000-horsepower engine, which is at least five times more powerful than the factory installed powerplant, soon will propel a pickup truck along the freeways.

And where will the owners of these road rockets test their engines?

Probably on the freeways, especially in the wee hours of the morning, says Heisler and other shop owners.

“People get to feeling their Wheaties and do it where they think they can get away with it,” said Pushea.

Perhaps no one can put all this thirst for speed in better perspective than Louie Unser. “Everybody wants to go faster. It’s built into you,” explained Unser, whose brother, Al, and nephew, Al Jr., are in the field for this year’s Indianapolis 500.

As Unser recalls it, the Unser brothers “built-in” urge to race was first exercised as children when they raced each other on donkeys in their native Albuquerque. Donkey racing “gets old after a while,” Unser said, and so at the advanced age of 9, he and his twin brother Jerry rebuilt a model-A Ford left to die behind the family auto repair shop.

Jerry was killed practicing for the 1959 Indy 500, and Louie was stricken with multiple sclerosis in 1965. But he says he will be in Indiana next Sunday when the green flag falls and $50 million worth of race cars, many of them stocked with parts made in Orange County, accelerate around the track.