PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES SISK, TARA BOWKER, KAITLYN WARD, RICK BELDEN |
The multiplier is the camera. Morris’ YouTube channel has passed 550,000 subscribers and 125 million views across more than 1,100 videos of dyno pulls, teardowns, failures and fixes, functioning as a trade school for builders who will never buy a $ 95,000 engine.“ I have this insane desire to show people how things really work, what happens, what broke, why, how to fix it,” reads his own description of the channel.
Morris was among the most-nominated engine builders in this year’ s balloting, and the reasoning was consistent: he designs the parts instead of assembling someone else’ s, he publishes the results either way, and he drives the same combinations down the highway five days running to prove them. – ROB KING
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Pete Harrell
Pete Harrell’ s shop on Performance Road in Mooresville, North Carolina, turns out engines that show up wherever small tires meet big boost. Harrell Engine & Dyno builds them, tunes them on an in-ground chassis dyno, and Harrell heads to the track to tune what he built.
Harrell has helped his customers achieve their goals in many ways, often adding to the record books in the process. Harrell built the bigblock Chevrolet in Justin Martin’ s 1972 Nova that ran 4.09 at 189 mph at No Mercy 9 in October 2018, the quickest Limited Drag Radial pass in history at the time, with Martin winning the class that same weekend. He built the big block that carried Stefan Gustafsson’ s 1989 Corvette to the overall title at the inaugural Sick Week in 2022 on a 6.677-second average. He put the tune-up in Cleetus McFarland’ s twin-turbo“ Mullet” El Camino for its 2022 World Cup Finals win, a stretch in which the car went from barely breaking into the sixes at 200 mph to low sixes at 230.
What made him a fixture beyond his customer list is his willingness to explain himself in public. His YouTube channel,“ Real Good at
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Doin’ Stuff!!!,” treats detonated engines as case studies, walking viewers through whether a failure was mechanical or a tuning error and what it takes to fix. Several of the nominations he drew singled out exactly that. – ROB KING |
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Scott Duggins
Scott Duggins has spent decades building both horsepower and credibility through PAR Racing Engines. Founded in 1990, the Spartanburg, South Carolina-based operation has powered customers to more than 17 world championships across sportsman and heads-up drag racing, while Duggins has remained a successful racer himself.
That racer-engine builder perspective remains central to PAR. In 2026, Duggins won PDRA Elite Top Sportsman at the East Coast Nationals in his ProCharged, PAR-powered Corvette while son Josh won Elite Top Dragster the same weekend – a fitting snapshot of the family operation’ s next generation.
For more on Scott, Josh, and the evolution of PAR Racing Engines, see the Duggins family feature in this issue’ s PDRA section.
– NATE VAN WAGNEN
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Ryan Rakestraw
Ryan Rakestraw first gained attention behind the wheel, winning the 2007 ORSCA Modified Street Championship while driving for Scott Taber before turning his skills and passion toward tuning. His partnership with the late Keith Berry became an important chapter in his career, with Rakestraw serving as crew chief and tuner as Berry’ s Corvette turned into one of radial racing’ s most recognizable machines across the nation. Together, they were part of back-to-back NMCA Radial Wars championships in 2014 and 2015 and Berry’ s memorable 2016 Lights Out 7 victory.
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In 2013, Rakestraw founded RK Racecraft, which operated out of a small two-bay garage. The Georgia-based business eventually grew into a destination for highend race car fabrication, plumbing, wiring, and light chassis work, producing turnkey combinations for some of the sport’ s top competitors. Rakestraw continued to grow the business, hired additional help, and now operates out of a 5,000-square-foot shop.
A 2016 Drag IllustrateD 30 Under 30 honoree, Rakestraw has continued building on his strong reputation. His expertise remains sought after today, with RK Racecraft heavily involved in competitive Pro Mod and radial programs in 2026. While Rakestraw may prefer working behind the scenes, his wealth of knowledge and talent for building and tuning race cars is visible across the entire drag racing industry. – MADELYN ZARON
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Menscer
Bell
Lambert
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Mark Menscer, Chris Bell, and Adam Lambert
In modern doorslammer racing, few components have become
more critical – or more sophisticated – than the shock absorber. As power levels have climbed and racers have demanded more from increasingly aggressive tire and track combinations, Mark Menscer, Chris Bell, and Adam Lambert
have become three of the most influential specialists in that evolution.
Menscer brought concepts from dirt Late Model racing into drag racing, developing suspension strategies that helped reshape small-tire competition. His Menscer Motorsports shocks became fixtures in radial racing before spreading into Pro Mod and numerous other categories, with the company combining custom hardware with data analysis and extensive trackside tuning. Menscer has described the challenge as using suspension to manage not only traction, but the timing and
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rate of chassis movement during the launch.
Bell’ s Kinetic Engineering has emerged as another force at the highest levels of Pro Mod. During the 2024-25 Drag Illustrated Winter Series, Kinetic-equipped cars occupied the top three qualifying positions at all three events, while customers Kye Kelley, Ken Quartuccio, Lyle Barnett and Steve King accounted for nearly every finalist position. Bell has also built a growing international customer base while emphasizing hands-on trackside support.
Lambert’ s Precision Racing Suspension has similarly become entrenched in premier doorslammer racing. After serving as Penske Racing Shocks’ drag racing market manager, Lambert founded PRS to combine Penske products with specialized setup, four-link, weight-balance and trackside support. PRS customers have excelled in NHRA Pro Stock, Mountain Motor Pro Stock, and numerous Pro Mod categories.
They are competitors, but collectively Menscer, Bell, and Lambert represent how important suspension knowledge has become. The tuners may determine how much power a car makes. The“ shock gurus” help determine how much of it reaches the racetrack.
– NATE VAN WAGNEN
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Jerry Haas and John DeFlorian
Jerry Haas Race Cars has been one of the defining names in Pro Stock chassis construction for
Haas decades, and the partnership between Jerry Haas and longtime shop foreman
DeFlorian John DeFlorian continues to shape the class today.
Haas built his reputation as both a racer and chassis builder, winning the 1980 AHRA Pro Stock world championship while developing a shop that became a cornerstone of the St. Louis chassis building community. Over the years, Jerry Haas Race Cars has constructed nearly 1,000 cars across Pro Stock, Pro
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