About Us
Like many of you, my passion for cars was ignited early while helping my Dad (RIP) work on the family cars, and intensified after I began working on my own first ride, a 1973 Chevy Impala 4 door. I bought my first muscle car, a 1967 Pontiac GTO H.O. 4-speed, just months before graduating from High School and have been involved in high performance cars ever since. After completing three years of post-secondary courses in automotive mechanics and automotive engine machining, I packed up my ’73 Chevy “Farm Truck” and headed to my aunt and uncle’s in San Diego,Ca. were they owned and operated San Diego Harley Davidson.
 Armed with a list of names gleaned from the pages of Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines, I then headed to Los Angeles, stoping at Venolia, Paw,Speed-O-motive,Gale Banks,Ed Pinks, Reith Automotive before I made my last stop at and was fortunate enough to find my first job in racing at Keith Black Racing Engines in South Gate. I spent all my spare time in the shops out back, which Black rented to some of the biggest names in drag racing: Dick LaHaie’s AA/Fueler, and nitro-burning funny cars such as Roland Leong’s “Hawaiian” and Jim Dunn’s “Fireman’s Quickie”. That’s when I got bitten by the nitro bug; I moved back to Minnesota, and then spent the next twelve years touring with, and working on, nitro-powered top fuelers and funny cars.
 I spent the first two of those years with “Doc” Halladay’s “Telstar” funny car, with Jerry Newman as my first Nitro boss, and then was invited to join the best in the business: John Force and Austin Coil. I subsequently worked with K.C. Spurlock’s “Gambler” F/C with crew chief Ron Swearingen, baseball star Jack Clark’s top fueler with Chuck Schifsky as the Crew Chief and Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen driving, then Lori Johns’ “Jolly Rancher” dragster, again with Swearingen as crew chief. I then worked with Cory Mac for eight rewarding years, the first 2 with the talented Jimmy Prock and the final 6 years with renowned crew chief Lee Beard under the ownership of NFL and NASCAR legend Joe Gibbs.
It should be no surprise that working for Gibbs whetted my appetite for NASCAR. Every time our touring took us to the Joe Gibbs Racing shops in Huntersville, NC, my interest in building Cup engines grew a little bit more. Finally, in 1999 JGR’s head engine builder Mark Cronquist referred me to Dale Earnhardt Inc., where I enjoyed another incredible experience working for the Man they call “The Intimidator”. I spent ten fabulous years at DEI (fondly known as the “Garage Mahal”), where I built engines with Randy Clary for Steve Park’s #1 Pennzoil Chevy before working the next five years with Greg Ollish on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s famous Number 8 Budweiser Chevy.
 I am proud of, and grateful for, the twenty-three adventurous years I spent working with the very best talents in American motorsports, building the most powerful and reliable engines in the world.
Bill Brunker |
