E3 Spark Plugs News

Competitive tractor puller Tammie Huenink dedicates her efforts in her White Lightning tractor to breast cancer awareness.

After six years serving as secretary for the Outlaw Hot Rod Tractor Pulling Association, Tammie Huenink decided to get out from behind the desk and climb up behind the wheel instead. It proved to be a smart move. In her very first season pulling modified hot rod tractors, she finished the season fourth in the Colorado Truck and Tractor Pullers Association (CTTPA) and fifth in the Outlaws. She enters her next season as a Team E3 Racing Tier 2 winner.

Her first pull was a bit nerve-wracking, says Huenink, who made her track debut in Mitchell, Nebraska driving her father-in-law’s tractor, dubbed Wild Fire.

“I’m not sure who was more nervous him or me,” Huenink recalls. “I was wondering why in the world I had now decided to strap myself into this mechanical contraption on four wheels with 900 horsepower hooked to a sled to go, hopefully, 300 feet down a dirt track. It seemed insane!”

Perhaps, but there was no turning back now. So, Huenink simply focused on her father-in-law’s words of wisdom – “Keep it between the ditches and don’t let up ’til the red flag falls” – and soldiered on. That was all it took to transform Huenink into a bona fide dirt diva.

From there, Huenink formed her official family team, the Dirt Diva Pulling Team. And it is, indeed a family affair. Husband Jason built her a new tractor. Her father, a U.S. Army veteran, chose the name “White Lightning” for the tractor, which bears the 65th Engineer Combat Battalion insignia as well as an R-9 Racing logo, honoring her father-in-law. But most prominent is the “Tough Enough” pink ribbon logo signifying Dirt Diva’s support in the fight against breast cancer in honor of her Huenink’s mother and husband Jason’s grandmother.

The Dirt Diva Pulling Team’s efforts raise funds to help women facing breast cancer cover costs of traveling to their doctors’ appointments and chemotherapy treatments. As one of just a handful of female competitive tractor pullers in the U.S., Huenink does countless media interviews and fan meet-and-greets, allowing her a public platform for carrying out her team’s message. We here at E3 Spark Plugs are proud to help her do just that.

Kyle LeDuc (center) swept the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series season opener this past weekend, with Adrian Cenni and brother Todd LeDuc taking second and third places.

This past weekend marked the season opening of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series at the Firebird International Speedway in Chandler, Arizona, sponsored in part by E3 Spark Plugs. When the dirt settled, it was Kyle Leduc who took the top podium position, opening the 2012 season in grand style.

Driving for Team Associated, LeDuc came out of the gate throwing blows in Round 1 on Saturday, handily taking the checkered flag and nabbing the N-Fab Fastest Lap award. Adrian Cenni and brother Todd LeDuc took second and third place.

LeDuc continued his merciless on-track rein the next day, snatching up the top qualifying spot and the second row starting spot once an inversion was pulled in Sunday’s Round 2. During the race, he again battled it out with Cenni, at one point eyeballing nothin’ but track dirt out his side window. The podium was a repeat of the day before, with LeDuc loud and proud in first place, Cenni and Todd LeDuc in second and third again. Kyle ended the weekend with a double win and double N-Fab Fastest Lap bragging rights.

Marty Hart, Rob MacCachren and Leduc teammate Robby Woods took the top three spots, respectively, in the Pro-2 class. Team Associated’s Carl Renezeder nabbed the N-Fab Fastest Lap award, but that would be the highlight of his day. Mechanical issues sidelined him afterward.

Twenty-eight trucks took to the track in the Pro-Lite class, setting a record for the class’ largest field to date. Mud flew, metal crunched and smoke billowed. When the chaos cleared and the checkered flag dropped, it was R.J. Anderson, Chris Brandt and Cassie Currie took the podium spots.

Next stop for the LOORRS is the new Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Complex in Lake Elsinore, California April 21-22. E3 Spark Plugs, makers of the patented DiamondFire racing spark plugs, congratulates the season’s first winners and looks forward to the next track battle.

Which would you rather buy: The sleek PAL-V One or the practical Terrafugia Transition?

Terrafugia’s Transition, the world’s first flying plane available to the consumer market, is headed to the New York Auto Show looking to cash in on the as-yet non-pilot market. And another, Holland’s PAL-V One, has logged its first successful flight and is searching for investors.

The PAL-V One took its maiden flight in March and all went smoothly, reports show. It’s a two-seat three-wheeler that’s one part car, one part gyrocopter with a rotor and propeller that can be deployed for flying, then folded away for driving. It typically flies below 4,000 feet, the airspace available for uncontrolled Visual Flight Rules (VFR) traffic. That means pilots/drivers can operate the PAL-V One with no interference from commercial air traffic and won’t be required to submit a flight plan. Speed tops out at just over 110 miles per hour on land and in the air, and it can fly for up to 315 miles depending on the onboard weight. It has short takeoff and landing capability, making it possible to land just about anywhere – no crazy stretch of runway space necessary.

As with seemingly all things Dutch, the PAL-V One sports a sleek, sexy style that makes it look and drive a bit more like a motorcycle than a sedan on the road.

“It is dynamic without being overbearing and delivers elegance rather than extravagance,” the website boasts.

Frankly, we here at E3 Spark Plugs agree. That sexy styling just might give the PAL-V One an edge over Terrafugia’s Transition, which kind of screams “airport shuttle,” style-wise. But you’ll have to wait a while. The PAL-V makers are still looking for investors to help bring it to mass production, while Terrafugia is already taking orders for the Transition, marketing it at a base $279,000 with a variety of equipment options. Plus, with room for your golf clubs and a tablet computer compatible glove box, the Transition wins in the practicality category.

In fact, “We’ve noticed in our order backlog there are actually a fair number of people who are not currently pilots who are putting deposits down to order a Transition,” said Terrafugia’s Richard Dingemanse. Ergo, the New York Auto Show gig.

So, which one would you drop a few hundred grand to buy: The sleek, stylish PAL-V One or the more practical (and near-readily available) Transition? Post your thoughts on the E3 Spark Plugs Facebook fan page. And if you go the New York Auto show this weekend, be sure to post your pics too.

At age 16, Alex Prunty started his own professional racing team.

Nineteen-year-old Lomira, Washington resident Alex Prunty is a third-generation rice car driver revving up for his fourth competitive season behind the wheel – now as a member of Team E3 Racing. Of course, racing is in his blood. He’s the seventh member of his family to hop into the drivers’ seat since Grandfather Doug Prunty ran his one and only season in 1961.

Grandpa Doug’s career might have been a short one, but it spawned a dynasty, as all five sons, Daniel, Dusty, David, Dennis and Dale eventually began racing careers of their own. Now, grandson Alex is burning up the tracks and making a name for himself with his own racing team, Alex Prunty Racing. It didn’t take long. Prunty raced his first season in 2009 in a donated 1990 Nissan Stanza XE that had been turned into a racecar. Despite a host of engine and electrical issues, Alex and his father, Dan, got the car in running condition and Alex drove it to his first feature win in just his sixth race the nearby Slinger Super Speedway in Slinger, Wisconsin.

Alex would finish his first competitive season with five feature wins in the Slinger Bees division at Slinger and a fifth-place points position. He also ran the Red, White and Blue Series at Wisconsin International Raceway (WIR), capturing two feature wins in the three-race series. The next year, he would lock down the Slinger Super Speedway Slinger Bees Track Championship – the family’s 11th. He finished the 2010 season with six feature wins and four fast qualifier awards at Slinger, plus a feature win at WIR.

Alex Prunty, a Team E3 Racing winner, is a third-generation racer.

Prunty since has moved up to the Super Late Model division thanks to the generous donation of a wrecked car from Pete Wiedmeyer, a longtime family sponsor. Wiedmeyer had originally bought the car from Prunty’s uncle, Dennis, and wrecked in the 2008 Slinger season opener. The car spent the next two years in his shed until it traveled back to the Prunty camp and, like Prunty’s first donated car, was resurrected into a sleek, strong racing machine. In that car, Prunty finished the 2011 season second in point standings and landed the Rookie of the Year title.

Today, Prunty is excited about starting the 2012 stock car racing season, but also spending time off the track and in the classroom at Moraine Park Technical College, where he’s studying Engine Research and Development. No doubt his studies will make him an even tougher competitor to beat on the tracks. E3 Spark Plugs is proud to be helping him do just that this season.

Rachel Veitch in her beloved "chariot," a 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente that just hit 576,000 miles. Copyright Rachel Veitch.

They say the average lifespan of a daily-used car tops out at about 150,000 miles but can hit upwards of 200,000 if its owner really minds the maintenance. Judging by those figures, we here at E3 Spark Plugs think 93-year-old Rachel Veitch, whose 1964 Mercury recently hit 576,000 miles, just might be the best car owner ever.

The last time Veitch bought a car, gas cost 39 cents a gallon, Lyndon B. Johnson was POTUS, My Fair Lady swept the Oscars and The Little Old Lady from Pasadena was tearing up the airwaves. It was 1964 when she fell for a cream colored Mercury Comet Caliente that she quickly dubbed her “chariot.”

Apparently, Veitch was nothing like that little old lady:

And everybody’s saying that there’s nobody meaner
Than the little old lady from Pasadena
She drives real fast and she drives real hard
She’s the terror of Colorado Boulevard…

Well, she’s gonna get a ticket now sooner or later
‘Cause she can’t keep her foot off the accelerator…

The guys come to race her from miles around
But she’ll give ‘em a length then she’ll shut ‘em down

Rachel Veitch bought her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente for $3,289. Today, it's valued at $12,000.

First, Veitch was only 29 when she bought her ’64 Mercury, so she wasn’t a grandmother yet. Plus, we’re guessing Granny’s shiny red Super Stock Dodge didn’t last long, what with all the drag racing and the roadway terrorizing. And while we haven’t met her in person, Veitch seems quite the congenial lady. Her chariot no doubt would say so if steel and wheels could talk. After all, it has served her dutifully for half a century and well over half a million miles. And it’s still going strong.

“I’ve never been a destructive person and I’ve just taken care of everything,” says Veitch. “Except my husbands.” (That’s a whole ‘nother blog.)

Originally bought for $3,289, Veitch’s Mercury today is valued at $12,000. It’s seen 18 batteries, eight mufflers and God only knows how many oil changes and car spark plugs. She’s only parking it now because macular degeneration (age-related loss of vision) has made it unsafe for her to drive. Her beloved chariot next will make an appearance at an antique car show in Wisconsin and Veitch is considering calling up her friend Jay Leno to see if he’s interested in buying it. She appeared on Leno’s The Tonight Show in 2010 and he called her the “Car Lady”. But one thing’s for sure – the chariot won’t stay in the family. When asked if any of her four children, nine grandchildren or 11 great-grandchildren have expressed interest, she snapped back, “It wouldn’t matter if they did, they’re not going to get it. They couldn’t take care of it like I did.”

Perhaps there’s a little bit of Granny in Veitch after all.

E3 Spark Plugs is giving you the chance to see the tracks from behind the wheel of one of these. Enter to win a trip to the 2012 E3 Spark Plugs Utah Off Road Nationals Presented By Toyota at Miller Motorsports Park.

Itching for a change of scenery? How about the wide open expanses of Utah? And how about seeing it from the behind the wheel of a Baja Challenge race car? Or a Ford Racing Mustang GT? Or Jerry Daugherty’s new Pro 4 #24 off-road racing truck? Or from the window of the Lucas Oil corporate helicopter.

While all that may sound like a far-fetched dream, E3 Spark Plugs is making it a reality for one lucky winner and a guest of his or her choosing. Winning is easy. Just go to the E3 Spark Plugs Facebook Fan Page and fill out the contest submission form on the Off Road Contest Tab. Tell us why you want to win and who you’ll bring.

Here’s what you get if your name is chosen:

• Airfare for two and accommodations for three nights;
• Two tickets to the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing event at Miller Motorsports;
• A two-hour Mustang Experience, putting you behind the wheel of a Ford Racing Mustang GT;
• A Wide Open Utah ultimate high-performance off-road Baja-style driving experience;
• A ride in the E3 Spark Plugs Daugherty Off-Road Truck;
• A ride in the Lucas Oil Helicopter;
• Two tickets to one of the top Kart road courses in America.

Make sure you read the rules first. You must be at least 18 years of age and a resident of one of the 48 contiguous states or District of Columbia. The contest runs from March 31st, 2012 till May 25, 2012 and you’ll take your trip June 21-23. Good luck!

Team E3 Racing winner Stephen Kildahl is the youngest competitor on the Super Boat International Offshore Boat Racing Circuit.

Estero, Florida’s Stephen Kildahl is, quite literally, an exception to the rule. That’s why he’s one of the inaugural class of Team E3 Racing Tier 1 winners.

Kildahl has been racing speedboats since age 16, when he received a special dispensation to compete on the Super Boat International Offshore Boat Racing Circuit. The rule book said competitors must be at least 18 years old, but Kildahl’s talent and skill were clearly beyond his years. And he’s since proven that the move was a good one.

In just four years, Kildahl has racked up 14 career wins, one world championship, two national championships and three Florida championships. And at age 20, he remains the youngest full time driver on the circuit by at least 10 years, regularly going deck-to-deck with racers boasting many more years of experience on the water. That’s quite an accomplishment, especially considering that many deem boat racing tougher than car, truck or motorcycle racing. After all, with boat racing, there is no solid surface or set course features. Everything changes with the winds, the tides, etc.

Team E3 Racing winner Stephen Kildahl accepting an award from a Cocoa Beach beauty.

“You never know what you are going to get,” Kildahl told a Tampa Bay Times reporter just before the Clearwater Super Boat National/Florida Championship last September. “Every day it is something different. Conditions can change from the beginning to the end of the race.”

Plus, while auto racers handle both the speed and the steering, powerboat racing is a team effort with one team member at the wheel and the other at the throttle. If one sees something the other doesn’t or makes an unexpected decision, it could mean the difference in winning, losing or even finishing the race.

For the 2012 powerboat racing season, Kildahl will be behind the wheel of a 30-foot Phantom with a 525HP racing engine. He and his new team, Scott Free Racing, expect to hit speeds of 90-95 miles per hour. So if you’re on the water, stay out of his way! And be sure to stock your own boat with a set of E3 racing spark plugs. If you’re on dry land, check the E3 Spark Plugs blog and Facebook fan page for updates on Kildahl’s racing career.

A used car can be a great deal if you know what to look for in a vehicle history report. E3 Spark Plugs offers tips.

In the market for a used car or truck? E3 Spark Plugs has a few tips for reading and effectively deciphering a vehicle history report. One clue – it’s not just what’s on the report that’s important. What’s missing may be crucial to your car buying decision.

A good, comprehensive vehicle history report combines information from multiple sources, including states DMVs (Division of Motor Vehicles) or RMVs (Registry of Motor Vehicles), fire and police departments, vehicle inspection stations, auto auctions, fleet management and rental agencies, and auto manufacturers. All that info can seem a bit overwhelming. But a few basic tips will help you cut through the ink clutter and make an informed decision.

1. Devil’s in the description. The first order of business is to carefully read through the vehicle’s name, description and VIN number to make sure everything lines up. This is one way to protect yourself against buying a VIN cloned ride. Fraudsters often use the vehicle identification numbers from legally owned, non-stolen vehicles to pass off a stolen vehicle of a similar make and model. Go through the description with a fine-toothed comb to make sure the car your reading about is, indeed the car you’re looking at.
2. Look for too many trips to the shop. A paper trail showing that a vehicle’s former owner faithfully took it to the garage for recommended scheduled maintenance is one thing. But an excessive number of visits might signal that something’s wonky and that you’ll be paying for lots of repairs.
3. Look for too many owners. If a vehicle has been sold, sold and resold many times, there’s probably a reason – and it probably ain’t a good reason. It’s likely that each owner dealt with a few too many repair bills and decided to cut his losses and pass the car along to the next sucker. Don’t be that sucker.
4. Remember the old adage, “Location, location, location.” Some regions of the country are a bit more auto-friendly than others. For instance, salt can do a number on a paint job and accelerate rusting, particularly in a car’s undercarriage. So watch for vehicles that have spent lots of time in beach towns or in snowy regions where roads are salted during the winter. Excessive heat also can affect multiple car parts and systems including the coolant system, air conditioning and engine.
5. Keep an eye out for what’s not there. If a vehicle’s accident report is clean, yet its body work records show a replaced front bumper, hood and headlights, you might be looking at a car that was crashed and never reported.

Do you have a story about dodging a bad deal thanks to a vehicle history report? E3 Spark Plugs wants to hear it. Leave us a comment on our E3 Spark Plugs Facebook fan page.

"Where the Boys Are" became a massive box office hit and made spring break a mainstream cultural phenomenon.

The spring break season is well underway and college students are headed to the beaches in hoards. The kids these days, they think this annual collegiate-sponsored week of academic and social wantonness has always been around. Truth is, it came to be in the late 1950s and its wild popularity was ultimately inspired by a Michigan State University student with a candy apple red convertible.

It was the writings of an MSU English professor and novelist, and a subsequent now-classic film that helped launched this American cultural phenomenon into the international mainstream. Glendon Swarthout, PhD was teaching an honors English class in 1958 when he overheard a student – the kid with the red convertible sports car – talking up a planned trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida over the university’s spring break. Intrigued, Swarthout, a colorful character who fancied himself a reincarnation of Ernest Hemingway complete with the mustache, began asking his students about their plans for the week. Lo and behold, a group of students invited him to join them and he gladly accepted.

His week immersed in the bikinied and swim trunked coed scene proved an eye-opening experience that gave Swarthout unprecedented insight – and a great book idea. By this time, the professor and novelist had already seen two of his writings turned into films. His novel, They Came to Cordura (1958) became a film of the same name starring Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth.  His short story A Horse for Mrs. Custer had hit the silver screen as Seventh Calvary (1956) starring Randolph Scott and Barbara Hale. His next novel, Where the Boys Are, would become a New York Times best seller and the subsequent movie of the same name starring crooner cutie Connie Francis the defining cinematic touchstone of a generation.

To fully understand why, you’ll have to read the book, in which main character Merritt and her friends set out to enjoy a week of heady fun, all the while wary of the goings-on in the world around them – namely, the Cold War, nuclear bombs and sexual experimentation. As with most screenplays adapted from novels, the film version of Where the Boys Are is a cleaned up, less controversial, commercial product, but it became a record-breaking box office hit.

Literary controversy and commercial film cheesiness aside, what we here at E3 Spark Plugs love about Where the Boys Are is the abundance of vintage rides that get some screen time, mostly 1940s and 1950s convertibles and what appears to be a 1930s-era S&S 12-column funeral coach. Heck, you could fit a dozen of your dearest friends in some of those roomy rides. So which would you pick for a spring break excursion? Post your picks and pics on the E3 Spark Plugs Facebook fan page.

Team E3 Racing winner Rick Hudson is busy reading his ride for the upcoming UMP Modified racing season.

Rick Hudson knows his way around an engine and can certainly tell you a thing or two about horsepower. By weekday, he’s the Lab Operations Group Leader at Cummins High Horse Power Technical Center in Seymour, Indiana. But come quittin’ time on Friday, he’s likely at the tracks racing his Larry Shaw-built modified cart.

A Tier 1 winner in Team E3 Racing, Hudson impressed us here at E3 Spark Plugs with his racing talent, engine know-how and sportsmanship. He has raced go-carts since he was eight years old. Three decades, lots of wins and a few broken bones later, he’s in his eighth season in UMP Modified racing and has landed two fourth-place points positions and two sportsmanship awards.

In an effort to develop the best competition cart possible, Hudson took a set of E3 racing spark plugs he had raced with for a full season to the engineers at Cummins, Inc. where he works. Cummins is a global power leader with multiple business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service and related technologies including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power generation systems. The engineers analyzed the set of plugs and gave Hudson the confirmation he was looking for.

“There feedback was really positive,” Hudson said. “Most years, I would just can last season’s plugs but with [E3 Spark Plugs] I would not hesitate to run them some this year as well. They work.”

UMP, United Midwestern Promoters, is a short-track racing sanctioning body that focuses on dirt track racing and currently sanctions eight different racing divisions on more than 100 tracks in 19 states and a Canadian province. Look for Rick Hudson’s name in the list of UMP champions one of these days. In the meantime, check the E3 Spark Plugs blog and Facebook fan page for updates on Hudson’s career.