The shop’ s shirts and website carry the line“ Often imitated, never duplicated,” and Hord intends to make it true again.“ Renewing the faith of the customer base, Don and I have spent a lot of time on that.“ A lot of people copied the things that Bickel had innovated in the last five to 10 years, and we’ re having to reverse that. But that’ s where I think we bring a lot to the party.”
What the new ownership brings, in Hord’ s telling, is engineering – and the whole family carries it. He, his son Ricky, and Chelsea are all engineers by trade.
That shared engineering background has naturally divided responsibilities. Ricky has become deeply involved in production, fabrication, and process improvements throughout the shop, while Chelsea has focused on operations, marketing, customer communication, and modernizing the business systems that support the company. Together, the family is applying engineering principles not only to the race cars themselves, but to nearly every aspect of how the business operates.
“ It starts with just kind of moving from the art to a little more art plus science,” Rick says.“ We’ re trying to bring the science. When I got there, we weren’ t very vertically integrated. If we needed a part that wasn’ t a fabricated part, we bought it somewhere else. Now we’ re beginning to do more and more of our own internal fabrication.”
The shop has added in-house CNC machining capabilities, with more equipment arriving by the trailer-load and a former warehouse being converted into manufacturing space.
“ We made great chassis and great cars, but we didn’ t make great components. Now we’ re going to make great components,” says Hord, who notes that output is already double what it was a year ago.
Some of the most ambitious work he won’ t detail yet – a“ modern engineering platform” and new supply-chain initiatives. But one customer-facing promise is already coming back, and it’ s one Hord clearly cares about. As Bickel’ s health declined, the shop’ s famous wreck-repair turnaround slipped from two weeks to six months, and racers stopped bringing damaged cars home.
“ One of the things that drew me to Bickel that
I was just mesmerized by was the commitment to fixing wrecks,” Hord says, recalling the shop putting Rickie Smith’ s damaged car back on the track a week later in 2016 thanks to a workforce of 35 people focusing on it.“ It’ s a commitment that’ ll be returning in 2027.”
Getting there is largely a matter of headcount – four young apprentices have come aboard in the last six months and two veterans have returned as the team rebuilds toward its previous roster of fabricators, painters, and craftsmen.“ When you’ ve got 35 people inside of a race car factory, you can do a lot of special things,” Hord says.
There’ s even a rolling laboratory now: a shop car, the turbocharged Pro Mod Hord handed over to the team. Though it sports a fresh new JBRC wrap, it’ s the same car Hord had Bickel build years ago. So far, it’ s been put through its paces in numerous test sessions. New components, including a recent switch to RBC bearings, get proven on the company’ s own machine before they’ re offered to customers.“ It’ s one thing to take the manufacturer’ s word for it,” Hord says.“ It’ s another thing to have run it.”
And on the question of where the shop car’ s competitive ambitions end and customer obligations begin, he doesn’ t hesitate.“ Customers come first. There’ s no doubt about that,” Hord asserts.
A year in, Hord is easing out of the day-to-day and into what he calls the coach’ s role. Ricky and Chelsea relocated to the O’ Fallon, Missouri, area last October and now have boots on the ground every day overseeing daily operations from the shop floor to the front office while Rick increasingly focuses on strategy, long-term planning, and mentoring the next generation of leadership.
The name on the building still reads Jerry Bickel Race Cars. The motto still hangs on the wall:“ In the race for quality, there is no finish line.” For Hord, that’ s exactly how it should be.“ The foundation was laid by Jerry,” he says.
“ Now it’ s our job to make it better.” DI
July / August 2026 DragIllustrated. com | Drag Illustrated | 89