Blog Archives

Bruce B. Baldwin

A multi-faceted businessman with experience in metals, machinery, engineering and real estate, Bruce Baldwin is the Founder and former President of Oliver Racing Parts, which he started in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1983.

Baldwin began his career working with Dr. Robert N. Hammer PhD, then-Chairman of the chemistry department at Michigan State University. Together, they created and patented a specific series of ultra-high molecular weight, hybrid, linear polymers. Subsequently, Mr. Baldwin formed Belknap Automation, Inc. a manufacturer of custom electronic components and automatic welding apparatus serving the welding industry.

After selling Belknap Automation, Baldwin became Regional Operations Director for Oliver Machinery Company, a job that eventually led to Baldwin purchasing a controlling interest in the company, which was the parent of Oliver Racing Parts.

In 1985, Baldwin became Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Baldwin Precision Industries, Inc., an industrial consortium made up of the firms listed below:

• Oliver Racing Parts, manufacturer of engine components used by the motorsports and aircraft industries. ORP also supplies custom engineering and prototype work for several automotive manufacturers including GM, Ford, Chrysler, BMW and Toyota. (sold in 2013)

• Realvesco De Gamma Corporation, a real estate holding company specializing in commercial and industrial rental properties. (sold in 2013)

• Oliver Machinery Company, Inc., manufacturer of industrial woodworking and metal sawingb machinery whose customers include: schools, rough mills, dimension plants, furniture, flooring and cabinet plants, steel service centers and aluminum extruders, (sold in 1992)

• Straitoplane Corp., makers of industrial woodworking surfacers and planers whose clients include rough mills, dimension plants, furniture, flooring and cabinet plants. (sold in 1994)

• GRF Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of grey iron and ductile iron castings whose customers include machine tool manufacturers. (sold in 2003)

Baldwin has held membership (either personally or through one of his companies) in the following organizations: the National Machine Tool Builders Association (NMTBA), the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), the Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC), the Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers Association (WMMA), Rotary International, the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).

Now, in addition to acting as a consultant to Oliver Racing Parts, Baldwin is a partner with Capital Endowment Consultants (CEC). CEC is a licensed affiliate of Capital Partners Funding Group, a financial services and consulting company working with major non-profit organizations, group medical practices, colleges and universities, and life insurance companies.

He and his wife, Annette, reside in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have three grown daughters.

Click here for Oliver’s Home Page

Ozzie Hutchins

Ozzie Hutchins is the Test Engineering Manager for Roush Yates Engines. Ozzie came to Roush Yates Engines seven years ago after working with Indy Car engines at Honda Performance Development. He has over 16 years of experience working in the motorsports industry.

Originally from Fremont, CA, Ozzie attended Georgia Tech and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. His current responsibilities at Roush Yates include meticulously testing new engine packages for the entire NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series Ford camp. In 2009, Ozzie played an integral part in the release of the Roush Yates Ford FR9 engine, the first purpose-built NASCAR racing engine ever built by Ford Motor Company.

Click here for Roush Yates’ Home Page

 

Brian Kurn

Brian Kurn is a cylinder head expert and has worked as a head porter for teams such as Reher-Morrison, Roush Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. The past 11 years of his 25 year career have been concentrated on highly technical aspects of Performance Engine Optimization. During his 7 year tenure with Hendrick Motorsports, Brian moved from the Cylinder Head Department to the Engine Development Group where he worked with Dr. Andy Randolph. He began working on Engine Simulation and Valvetrain Simulation. He used Spintron and measured in-cylinder combustion data to correlate the models and improve the predicted performance. This process is known as Virtual Prototyping. Brian eventually learned how to model ports in CAD and test the cylinder heads in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software. Few people possess the skills necessary to port cylinder heads by hand and then test the port designs in CFD. Brian left Hendrick in 2007 to join the Toyota team at Bill Davis Racing. While at Bill Davis, Brian concentrated on valvetrain development using Engine and Valvetrain simulation. He gained invaluable experience as he designed the lift curves and then tested the valvetrain himself in the Spintron and then assisted in the dyno testing where he would collect and post-process the in-cylinder combustion data acquisition to assess the changes each new design imposed on the valvetrain. Bill Davis Racing was sold in December 2008 and in January 2009 Brian founded his own company, Four Stroke Design in Mooresville, NC. Over the past four years, FSD has grown from an engine design and consulting business to a manufacturer of high-performance camshafts. Today, FSD provides many different services including Engine and Valvetrain simulation to premier teams in many forms of racing. Clients include NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup series teams, American LeMans Series, Daytona Prototypes, NHRA Pro Stock, Touring Cars in Brazil and Argentina, Truck Pulling and even Supercross.

Click Here for Four Stroke Design’s Home Page

Greg West

Greg West has been involved in engines and racing most of his life. He began drag racing in the 60’s during his high school years. For fourteen years he owned and operated an automotive machine shop business. In 1986 he sold that business and began working at Fel-Pro. Greg has spent his career at Fel-Pro as a Product Engineer working on both O.E. and Aftermarket products. The last fifteen years Greg has been responsible for the design of the gaskets used in the Fel-Pro Performance line. Greg works closely with many of the top NASCAR, NHRA, Circle Track, and Sportsman engine builders and race teams.

Greg has been awarded three patents for head gasket designs and is a member of SAE. Greg has competed in NHRA Sportsman racing, enjoys all types of motorsports, and likes to spend time working on his 60’s muscle car.

Click Here for Federal Mogul’s Home Page

 

Stephen Golya

Stephen Golya is the Principal R&D engineer for Performance Motorsport Inc. Mainly concentrating on piston, rod and crankshaft design, his other functions include applying new technologies benefiting engine performance.

Originally from England he worked for Menards Competition Technologies (MCT-UK) and the Capricorn Group (Perfectbore Ltd). Prior to these he helped start Motorsport Component Forgings (MCF Ltd) which later merged with Perfectbore creating the piston and forging divisions of the company. Throughout his career, Stephen has worked on a variety of motorsports development projects for professional series including Formula-1, NASCAR, NHRA and Japanese GT.

Stephen received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from University of Manchester in 1995 and a Master of Science Degree in Engineering Design from the University of Loughborough in 1998.

After relocating from England with his family in 2007 he has found new and diverse challenges within the US racing scene. Stephen enjoys all aspects of engineering and science. He has started a tutoring program within JE and Wiseco pistons that offers engineers the ability to design and analyze their ideas, further evolving customers designs. So far, Stephen has successfully implemented two patents with JE Pistons and looks forward to pushing the bounds of engineering further benefiting the motorsport arena.

Click Here for Performance Motorsport Inc’s Home Page

Dane Kalinowski

Dane Kalinowski has been a member of the JE Pistons engineering team for over 6 years. During this time, he has focused on application and development engineering for numerous professional racing programs including NASCAR, ALMS, V8 Supercars and NHRA Top Fuel. Dane is experienced in CAD with thermal and mechanical stress analysis for the evaluation of fatigue life, structural integrity and component wear. Dane holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California and resides in Irvine, CA. He enjoys spending his free time designing and fabricating automotive components using additive manufacturing, metalworking, or composites.

Click Here for JE Pistons Home Page

Ben Strader

As the founder and senior instructor of EFI University, Ben Strader manages the quality and flow of information that is taught in the school. He has over 18 years of experience tuning and troubleshooting EFI systems, and has published a book “How to Build and Tune Custom EFI Systems” for CarTech System.

He has worked in many different levels and disciplines of automotive racing, including boats, motorcycles and even EFI converted racing aircraft.

Ben is also a professional corporate pilot in  Pilatus PC-12’s and Citation Jets and owner of a flight school. He also holds an Airline Transport Pilot license for single and multi-engine airplanes and an FAA Certified Flight Instructor license. Ben is always up for any kind of adventure when he is away from work weather it includes land, sea, or air!

Click Here for EFI University’s Home Page

Vince Roman

As Technical Director of Burns Stainless LLC, an engineering and exhaust components supplier in the professional motorsports industry, Vincent Roman consults with engine builders, race teams, and racers to design headers and exhaust systems to maximize performance. Burns Stainless has developed exhaust design and dynamometer testing tools to help its customers finely tune their exhaust systems and maximize performance. In addition to working with various NASCAR Sprint Cup, ALMS, NHRA Pro-Stock teams in header exhaust design, he has also helped design exhaust systems for Pulling Tractors,
experimental aircraft and boats.

Prior to working with Burns Stainless, Mr. Roman had a successful career in research and development and consulting in the area of air pollution control technologies. Mr. Roman was also one of the founders of Carobu Engineering, a boutique firm specializing in the performance modification and restoration of vintage Ferraris.

Mr. Roman earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, at Irvine, and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of California. As a university student, he was the founding member of the first SAE Mini-Baja team. Mr.Roman has had a lifelong passion for automobiles and has a penchant for Porsches.

Click Here for Burns Stainless LLC’s Home Page

Dan Jesel

Dan Jesel started Jesel Valvetrain Innovation as an offshoot of his engine building business in 1980. Early on, Dan realized that the only way to truly improve Chevrolet vavletrains was to install shaft rockers. Dan found the solution was to relocate the rocker’s pivot point with a rocker shaft system, and a thriving business was created.

A pattern quickly developed – analyze the problem, innovate a solution and deliver a new Jesel product to market.  Over the past 33 years Dan duplicated this process many times spawning innovative products such as camshaft belt drives, keyway-guided roller lifters, large diameter camshafts and double roller OHC cam followers.

Jesel products have become the valvetrain component of choice. Every winning NHRA Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock car in 2012 used Jesel valvetrain components. Building valvetrains for Pro Stock and Top Fuel cars offers little room for compromise. Dan decided early on that Jesel’s reputation would be built on quality. Good design is essential, but quality materials and state-of-the-art machining centers are critical components of Jesel’s quality and its success story.

Dan’s quest for better customer service never ceases. Due to the huge proliferation of new aftermarket cylinder heads and complexity of today’s valvetrains, Dan opened the Jesel Custom Shop to provide machining and setup services for its customers. Now Jesel’s customers can take advantage of the most sophisticated machinery available operated by the Jesel brain trust.

After years of putting Band-Aids® on poorly designed engines, Dan has designed a “clean sheet” race engine that eliminates the compromises found in most production-based engines. Some of the ideas are currently being tested in Mike Moran’s Pro Mod Mustang, truly an all billet masterpiece.

The Jesel billet race engine design project totally reflects Dan’s passion for designing and offering the racer the best product possible. Who knows, with a little coaxing he may discuss some of the advanced technology that went into this revolutionary engine at this year’s AETC conference. 

Click Here for Jesel Valvetrain Innovation’s Home Page