JANUARY 25, 2010 –-- This has been a relaxing and productive off-season and we hope your new year is off to a great start as well.

We had both of our chassis from last year, a KPC for the GSC and a Maxim for the Watsonville 360’s, sandblasted and re-powder coated by our friend and fellow racer, Willie Croft. They are back in our shop and Evan has been putting them together for the 2010 campaigns. Evan, in his final year at SJSU has been on winter break and has had time to focus on the cars before his final semester begins. 

We have three of our engines out for freshening right now. For the last year we have been using S&S Automotive in San Leandro and we really like these guys. They are accomplished drag racers from the past and are noted for their precision machine work. They are rebuilding our AllPro Shaver 410 and our GB2300 Kistler 410 and we should have them back in plenty of time for the Tulare WoO race in March. Our Pontiac headed motor is there as well but it appears this old but still very competitive 360 is getting to be a little tired and will need a lot of welding on the cylinder heads. This will now become the back-up to our AllPro Shark 360; hopefully it will survive a few more years in that secondary role.

Each year when planning for the new season we assess the parts and equipment we have and figure which of the “wear parts” we can reuse and what new pieces we will have to buy. Typically the new parts go on the GSC 410 car and the best of the used stuff winds up on the 360 car; the remainder gets “eBayed”. We did not have to buy a new chassis this year but we did purchase one new Winters rear-end, all new hedders and mufflers, all new body work, a Sander wheel or two, some new PRO adjustable shocks and a lot of odds-n-ends. The cars will look just like new and our friend and paint sponsor, Kevin Pylant, owner of Riley Collins Body Shop, really makes them look great with the application our traditional gloss black. Kevin has been doing our paint work for four years now and we can’t thank him enough….he is the best!

This year will be quite a departure from the past in that Evan will have a professional crew chief for the first time. Evan has done all the set-ups to this point but Richard Brown has agreed to come on board for as much as his work and family schedules allow. Richard is a well traveled, experienced sprint car wrench and we are both fortunate and thrilled to get his help. Besides knowing his way around a sprint car he is a very funny and nice guy. Brian Poe will be back with us for his fourth year and both he and Evan look forward to learning from Richard.

Evan notched several quick-times in ’09 and set new track records at Placerville (tie with TK) and Watsonville but failed to win a race. It just didn’t happen. This year, in addition to adding Richard and having had one more year of experience, we are changing wings and will be running TP Wings from Indiana. They have a great reputation so we hope they will be one more piece of the puzzle needed to win.

We plan to make our first race of the year the Outlaw show at Tulare (in spite of the Goodyear tire requirement!) and we hope you can take a minute to drop by the trailer and say hello. Well, thanks for visiting Evan’s site and we hope you check back frequently.

Till then, enjoy yourself….

Suggs Family Racing