Team Summit Reminisces on Summit Racing's 50th Anniversary

Today’s professional drivers started out like every other drag racer: building cars at home and taking them to the track. And like most everyone else, those drivers got their parts at Summit Racing Equipment.

Since we’re celebrating our 50th anniversary and feeling all nostalgic, we asked racers and crew members to tell us about their first experiences with Summit Racing back in the olden days. Let’s hear what they had to say.

Greg Anderson, KB Racing/NHRA Pro Stock
A four-time NHRA Pro Stock champion, Greg Anderson drives the red Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro for KB Racing. Anderson began his Pro Stock career in 1998, posting his first national event win in 2001 and his first championship in 2003. He has 90 career wins in 150 final rounds. He finished the 2017 season second in the Pro Stock points standings, and won his seventh K&N Horsepower Challenge event at this year’s Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas.

“The first time I heard of Summit Racing was back in my young teen years, working on my dad's 1940 Ford that he would take to the race track. We would go to a race and he would tear stuff up every weekend. The first thing we'd do Monday morning would be to call up Summit Racing Equipment and order parts to fix the car up so we could go race the next week. They kept us going.

“Finding out that we were going to get together with Summit Racing was probably the best day of my racing life. I thought for years about what a dream it would be to have the Summit Racing logo on the side of my race car. It was a very special day when I learned that Summit Racing would be our sponsor. We were an independently funded race team until then, and they took us to the next level. We went on to win championships right away with Summit Racing, and it's been a great partnership ever since.”

Jason Line, KB Racing/NHRA Pro Stock
Jason Line drives the blue Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro for KB Racing. He has three Pro Stock championships to his credit, winning the first in 2006. Line has 49 career wins in 98 final round appearances, including two in NHRA Stock Eliminator behind the wheel of a 1970 Buick GS.

“Back when I started racing my Stocker, we would go to one national event each year, and that was at Brainerd (Minnesota). I lived in a very rural area growing up, and there was no local speed shop. The first time I'd ever heard of Summit Racing was in an advertisement in National Dragster. That's how I knew where to buy parts.

“I was working for Greg Anderson when he found out he was going to be sponsored by Summit Racing. I knew it was a huge deal. But the day I found out I was going to be sponsored by Summit Racing was a really big deal. I understood the importance of representing a company with such a great reputation. It's always been important to me to live up to the standards that Summit Racing has set.”

Rob Downing, KB Racing Crew Chief
Rob Downing is perhaps the consummate Pro Stock crew chief. His professional association with Summit Racing began in the late 1990s when he crewed for Summit Racing-sponsored Pro Stock driver Mark Pawuk. Downing has been the crew chief for KB Racing since 2003, and has presided over all seven Pro Stock victories won by Greg Anderson and Jason Line. In his 30 seconds a year of spare time, Rob works on his own race car, a 1964 Plymouth Belvedere sporting a 426 Max Wedge engine.

“My dad, Lorin, and I had a race car back in the 1980s, and of course we always needed parts. Summit Racing had a nice, shiny catalog, and we were always flipping through it. They had the greatest selection, and you wanted everything in that catalog.

“Being associated with Summit Racing goes back to the Mark Pawuk Pro Stock days for me. It was such a cool deal because we were all right there in Akron, maybe 15 minutes away from the Summit Racing store in Tallmadge, and we spent a lot of time doing things with them. It was more like one big team than a driver with a sponsor. To this day, we still feel like we're one team—we're just a whole lot bigger group than we were back in the beginning.”

Tim Wilkerson, Levi, Ray and Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang/NHRA Nitro Funny Car
In this day of multi-car teams, Tim Wilkerson does things the old-fashioned way. He owns the team, he tunes and drives the car, and has a small, but professional and dedicated crew. Wilkerson has been in the Top 10 in points for the last 10 seasons, and has 20 career wins in 39 final round appearances.

“In the late 1980s we decided to get a Top Alcohol Funny Car. I bought this extremely used car and it needed parts. Until then, I had just used our local speed shop, but we were at the races one day and broke a ring and pinion. I ran into a guy named Kirk Heinbuch from Summit Racing. We got to talking and he said, ‘Well, do you know about Summit Racing?’ I'd heard of them, but that day he introduced me to how Summit Racing works and what they do. That changed everything.

“I feel real lucky that Summit Racing chose us as a partner. They could have gone the route of a multi-car team with 10 cars, but they came to us. We feel like being a one-car team has allowed us to give them a little more exposure than they would get with a multi-car team.

“I was on an airplane recently and was wearing a jacket that had LRS on one side and Summit Racing on the other. A guy kept looking at me, and finally he said, ‘Hey, can you make sure my order got delivered today?’ This guy was a loyal Summit Racing customer. He told me how he got something that wouldn't work on his car one day, and he called them up and they told him to send it back right away for a new one. That gives you an idea of what that Summit Racing logo means to many people.”

Jimmy Alund, FIA European Pro Modified and Pro Stock
With 10 FIA European Pro Stock championships to his credit, Jimmy Alund is probably the most successful European drag racer around. His association with Summit Racing began in 2014 when KB Racing tapped Alund to drive Greg Anderson’s Pro Stock Camaro while he recovered from surgery. He drove for the first five NHRA events that year, and won the Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, NC. Summit Racing has been a proud sponsor of Alund’s Pro Stock and Pro Modified teams ever since.

“When I grew up over here in Sweden I was reading American car magazines like Hot Rod, Car Craft, and every other magazine that had musclecars in them, way before I got my driver’s license. That was the first time Summit Racing’s name appeared in my life. When I started my drag race career around 1986 we bought many “go fast” parts from Summit Racing.

“My relationship with Summit Racing started when Greg Anderson called me and wanted me to drive his car while he was recovering from surgery in 2014. Since then we have won two FIA Pro Stock championships and a Swedish championship in Pro Mod with Summit Racing support, and hopefully we will keep winning races and championships together.”

Marco Abruzzi, NHRA Top Sportsman and Top Dragster
Hailing from the Warren, Ohio area, Marco Abruzzi was a Summit Racing customer from way back. He’s also one heck of a drag racer. He’s won two IHRA Top Sportsman national championships, four IHRA Top Sportsman Divisional Championships, the 2012 ADRL Top Sportsman World Championship, and the 2015 NHRA Top Dragster national championship.

For 2018 Abruzzi will be driving a Chevy S-10 truck and a dragster in “big money” bracket races around the country, and plans to have a new 1968 Camaro ready for Top Sportsman in 2019.

“As an 18-year old kid I couldn't wait to make my weekend trips to Summit Racing at the old Gilchrist Road location. There was no internet back then so we shopped out of the catalog and drove up to the store on weekends. I went from racing my street car at the drag strip to full blown race cars and making my living in the racing industry. Through it all I have always enjoyed the support and great customer service I have received from Summit Racing.”