Drag Illustrated Issue 127, November 2017 | Page 50
PRODUCTS & PRESS
GOFORTH WINS EIGHTH
CHAMPIONSHIP WITH
SONNY’S POWER
U.S. GEAR & MOTIVE GEAR
SETS FROM STRANGE
Strange Engineering is proud
to offer the full line of 9 ½” & 10”
ring and pinion gear sets from
U.S. Gear and Motive. Based on
the popular 9” Ford design, these
gears are capable of handling the
ever increasing horsepower in
classes such as Pro Mod, Alcohol
dragsters, Alcohol funny cars, and
Radial vs. the world. Gear ratios
range from 3.25 to 5.14 in the 9
½” gears and 3.89 to 6.20 in the
10”. These gears are designed to
be used in the race proven Strange
Ultra Case, Billet case, and top
loader assemblies.
For more information on the
gears and other options, contact
Strange Engineering at (847) 663-
1701 or www.strangeeng.net.
FTI 9.5” BILLET TRIPLE DISC
CONVERTER
FTI Performance is proud to in-
troduce our new SRL9-3 series 9.5”
billet triple disc (8L90E) torque
converter for the 2016-2017 Ca-
maros and the 2015 and up Cor-
vettes with the 8-speed automatic
transmission.
Sticking to FTI traditions, our
new 8L90E billet converter design
is offered in stalls ranging from
2600RPM up to 4400RPM. The
FTI SRL9 -3 series billet torque
converter may also be custom built
for any application requiring the
8L90 transmission. Engineered
in house to handle the power to-
day’s modern muscle cars produce,
this torque converter incorporates
computer aided design concepts
to put your power to the ground.
The foundation of this billet 9.5”
converter is built on a CNC ma-
chined billet front cover, billet lock
up piston, billet turbine hub, billet
sprague race and a billet impeller
hub FTI has furnace brazed and
heli welded each fin for strength.
Triple bearing construction means
no plastic washers in your con-
verter so therefore tolerances can
be held much tighter. With Ray-
50 | D r a g
bestos® Powertrain friction clutch
plates in our triple disc clutches
you can apply lock up at full throt-
tle which is a tuners dream. The
SRL9-3 series converter has been
tested for over 25,000 miles of
driving and hundreds of ¼ mile
runs. The SRL9-3 series billet con-
verter comes standard with the FTI
performance 3-year warranty and
with an additional lifetime war-
ranty available so you can be as-
sured you are covered by the best
warranty in the business. Contact
our knowledgeable sales staff at
1-386-736-5816 to select the cor-
rect converter for your application.
For more information please
visit ftiperformance.com or call
us toll free at 866-726-8358.
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
This season Cary Goforth
secured his eighth Mountain
Motor Pro Stock Championship
across four organizations. All eight
championships came with the aid of
Sonny’s Racing Engines, attesting
the prowess of Sonny’s horsepower
on both the eighth and quarter-
miles.
“I’m proud of this because there
have been a lot of people from day
one when we started this journey
that helped us get started, that
helped us with advice, that helped
us on the team, that were with us
through the years,” Goforth said of
the 2017 PDRA Extreme Pro Stock
World Championship. “I think
about those people. I think about
our families at home, and all the
people that have supported us, like
Sonny and his team.
“What I like about Sonny
Leonard is he does everybody the
same,” Goforth continued. “There’s
so many engine people out there
who won’t give somebody all they
got. Sonny’s not like that. I like the
fairness and honesty of that. When
this is over with, when this is all
said and done, they’re still going
to be great friends. Sonny has bent
over backward and done above and
beyond. And everybody at the shop -
all the guys that work there - they’re
wonderful. To have the opportunity
to have a relationship with a legend
like Sonny and for him to build the
killer stuff he builds, is incredible.
He gets you the stuff that’ll take you
to the top if you’re willing to work at
it. He’s an icon and an inspiration.
So much of it goes above and
beyond building motors. We know
Sonny builds a great engine, but
he also builds a great partnership
and relationship with people. I
appreciate all he’s done for us. To
be a part of some of his success, I feel
really fortunate. He’s very humble
and an all-around good person.
What we’ve accomplished off the
race track means just as much to
me as what we’ve accomplished on
the race track.”
This is Goforth’s second PDRA
championship. The other came
in 2014 when he doubled up, also
winning the IHRA championship
that year. He has two IHRA
championships (‘15, ‘16) back-
to-back ADRL championships
(‘11, ‘12) and the 2010 MMPSA
championship to his credit.
“It does seem like we’ve pretty
much stayed on top over the last
few years,” Goforth said of his
championships, in addition to a
slew of race wins, number one
qualifier awards and records. “Some
people think we’ve had it handed to
us because it’s an easy class or we
have some type of advantage over
the field. But that’s not the case. We
have a lot of people out there that
are working hard and are real fast.
Everybody’s got pretty close to the
same stuff. There’s a lot of good guys
out here.”
Goforth finished out the year at
the PDRA World Finals with a fifth
final round appearance. There he
met fellow Sonny’s customer, John
Montecalvo. Montecalvo cut a
perfect .000 light to get a holeshot
win over Goforth. Montecalvo also
used his Sonny’s power to post a new
record-setting run in the semi-finals,
a 4.020 elapsed time. Montecalvo
finished second in points, ensuring
Sonny’s power held the top two
spots for the 2017 PDRA Pro Stock
championship points.
Fo r m o r e o n S o n n y ’s
Racing Engines visit www.
sonnysracingengines.com.
Issue 127