I started street racing on the backroads of Fort Smith, Arkansas when I was 15 years old racing an old flat head Ford. We thought we were fast! Eventually Fort Smith had a drag strip, Razorback Dragway. We became legal racers. I raced a series of old, homemade gasser cars with small block Chevy engines after that.
Paula’s father was raised in the foundry industry and moved to Mena, Arkansas. I eventually went to work for him, and that evolved into the birth of Brodix Cylinder Heads.
In the early 1970s, I started circle track racing on the small dirt tracks in Arkansas. Along came Jeff, Greg, and Jennifer, Paula would go to the races and take a “playpen” portable crib and sit in the spectator area while I raced. I assume this was the catalyst for Jeff and Greg acquiring the racing bug. Jeff tried circle track racing for a while and Greg tried it once, but they really wanted to be drag racers. Their first official drag car was an old, worn out, 1969 Camaro Pro Stock car. After this came a series of roadsters, door cars, and eventually dragsters. Today they still race dragsters and door cars. Family life and a few years have slowed their racing, but in the early days they were very active and still enjoy racing when they can. Cody, a great son-in-law, joined our family. He is a drifter and autocross racer when he can escape family life. Now the grandkids are racing go karts and junior dragsters.
Racing has been a very proficient tool for development of the products at BRODIX. Production goes from the pattern shop to the foundry, then the machine shop to the dyno, but after all this, the products must be proven and perform on the race track. In the process, our association with racers, other manufacturers, and customers has helped the business remain competitive and up-to-date.
Racing can be a wonderful place to obtain an education in life. Learning how to win, lose, and still pick yourself up and stay in the hunt are very important lessons in business and life.