FTZ Performance, Inc. , All Rights Reserved

Blog: 30 years

well if experience means anything to anybody…….
July 2015:
  Wow..  30 years ago this very month I started this company…July of 1985. Actually it was originally called FTZ Performance Research until we incorporated in 1988. Seems like a long time ago……. and yet seems like yesterday.. and with many memorable moments along the way, perhaps I could share some here:
 Seems I was just destined to do this stuff – ever since I was 12 yrs old I have been taking some kind of motor apart and trying to make it run better and go faster. I went to work at the local Kawasaki dealer at 16, and at 18 I was already service manager at the local Suzuki dealership. At 20 I found myself in El Cajon, California working in the legendary Don Vesco’s race shop building 2-stroke exhausts.. Most know Don as the motorcycle King of Bonneville, but they also were at the time headquarters of the Husqvarna Desert racing team, and had just been a couple years before, the base of the Yamaha road race team. Big excitement for a gear-head kid from the Midwest! In fact I just remembered the other day it was actually Don who first taught me to tig weld… By that next summer I was back in Missouri, trying to scratch my own racing itch, and again working at the local bike shops….it was then I started modifying motors and frames/suspensions for many of the local motocross racers, and of course my own flattrack equipment..which I had really developed a passion for.. A few years later when flattrack racing morphed from250cc 2-strokes to 500cc 4-strokes, I got on board and built a locally competitive open class bike from a $75 salvage yard motor and a cut up stock frame.. In the quest to keep up with the expensive Rotax engines that I had to race against, I constructed a flow-bench using a industrial blower from a local scrap yard and with homemade manometers. Laid off from my construction trade at the time I spent day & night, for weeks, on that flowbench with everything from flathead motors to Harleys to state of the art 4-valve motors of the day.. doing heads for local racers….and with some kind tutoring from another motorcycle racing legend: Jerry Branch of Branch Flowmetrics I got pointed in the right direction. Jerry had built one of the first flow-benches in the country and had strong involvement with the HD factory racing team- since back in the day when they won with flathead KR’s! I have much gratitude for these folks who took interest in a young man with dreams of being an engine tuner, and took the time to steer me away from the ever present bullshit, and point me the right direction. The rest just kind of evolved from there.. 1985 I started the business just as ATV racing was getting big, and they sought me out… that took off with our engines winning 2 classes at Ashtabula in ’87, then Jackie Meadows winning the 4-stroke Pro class at Boyd, Texas the next year, then Mark Lee winning the 250 Pro class there in ’89 and later two more Nationals in OH & NY. A trip to Garden City, Kansas that August gave us our first Micro Sprint 250 National win with Paul Esworthy winning the 100 lap event, with our Jimmy Brewer finishing 2nd. Seems Paul won the NMMA National Championship the next year, and Jimmy went on to win the Nationals at Sweet Springs in ’91…in the following years we build hundreds of 250’s (and 125’s) and or motors won many NMMA Championships and Nationals & Regionals, but after a while it looked like the sport was obviously heading towards the 600’s, and so in late 1994 we built our first F2/F3 600 motor, using the building tricks & techniques I had learned on the single cylinder machines over the years..(only times 4!) Well Rick King won the NMMA championship in ’95 with that motor, the first of 9 consecutive NMMA National Championships all using our 600 motors… Then 2006 was memorable year with successes we had at the awesome I-30 $10000 to win event, and then our first trip “downunder” when Travis Senter won his first Oval Express series (with a borrowed car and a head and engine parts I brought down in a suitcase!) and then again in 2008. Fast forward to more recent years, with the building of the new shop, the addition of the new dyno, and Nathan Benson winning the 2014 Powri Championship for the 4th time, and it feels like a rebirth has taken place… and I know we are now going stronger than ever..
Please contact us on how we can improve your horsepower program- I am 100% confident that we can..
Thanks for the read, and a BIG THANK YOU to all that supported us over the years,
Jon Fitzpatrick

Blog: 30 years

well if experience means anything to anybody…….
July 2015:
  Wow..  30 years ago this very month I started this company…July of 1985. Actually it was originally called FTZ Performance Research until we incorporated in 1988. Seems like a long time ago……. and yet seems like yesterday.. and with many memorable moments along the way, perhaps I could share some here:
 Seems I was just destined to do this stuff – ever since I was 12 yrs old I have been taking some kind of motor apart and trying to make it run better and go faster. I went to work at the local Kawasaki dealer at 16, and at 18 I was already service manager at the local Suzuki dealership. At 20 I found myself in El Cajon, California working in the legendary Don Vesco’s race shop building 2-stroke exhausts.. Most know Don as the motorcycle King of Bonneville, but they also were at the time headquarters of the Husqvarna Desert racing team, and had just been a couple years before, the base of the Yamaha road race team. Big excitement for a gear-head kid from the Midwest! In fact I just remembered the other day it was actually Don who first taught me to tig weld… By that next summer I was back in Missouri, trying to scratch my own racing itch, and again working at the local bike shops….it was then I started modifying motors and frames/suspensions for many of the local motocross racers, and of course my own flattrack equipment..which I had really developed a passion for.. A few years later when flattrack racing morphed from250cc 2-strokes to 500cc 4-strokes, I got on board and built a locally competitive open class bike from a $75 salvage yard motor and a cut up stock frame.. In the quest to keep up with the expensive Rotax engines that I had to race against, I constructed a flow-bench using a industrial blower from a local scrap yard and with homemade manometers. Laid off from my construction trade at the time I spent day & night, for weeks, on that flowbench with everything from flathead motors to Harleys to state of the art 4-valve motors of the day.. doing heads for local racers….and with some kind tutoring from another motorcycle racing legend: Jerry Branch of Branch Flowmetrics I got pointed in the right direction. Jerry had built one of the first flow-benches in the country and had strong involvement with the HD factory racing team- since back in the day when they won with flathead KR’s! I have much gratitude for these folks who took interest in a young man with dreams of being an engine tuner, and took the time to steer me away from the ever present bullshit, and point me the right direction. The rest just kind of evolved from there.. 1985 I started the business just as ATV racing was getting big, and they sought me out… that took off with our engines winning 2 classes at Ashtabula in ’87, then Jackie Meadows winning the 4-stroke Pro class at Boyd, Texas the next year, then Mark Lee winning the 250 Pro class there in ’89 and later two more Nationals in OH & NY. A trip to Garden City, Kansas that August gave us our first Micro Sprint 250 National win with Paul Esworthy winning the 100 lap event, with our Jimmy Brewer finishing 2nd. Seems Paul won the NMMA National Championship the next year, and Jimmy went on to win the Nationals at Sweet Springs in ’91…in the following years we build hundreds of 250’s (and 125’s) and or motors won many NMMA Championships and Nationals & Regionals, but after a while it looked like the sport was obviously heading towards the 600’s, and so in late 1994 we built our first F2/F3 600 motor, using the building tricks & techniques I had learned on the single cylinder machines over the years..(only times 4!) Well Rick King won the NMMA championship in ’95 with that motor, the first of 9 consecutive NMMA National Championships all using our 600 motors… Then 2006 was memorable year with successes we had at the awesome I-30 $10000 to win event, and then our first trip “downunder” when Travis Senter won his first Oval Express series (with a borrowed car and a head and engine parts I brought down in a suitcase!) and then again in 2008. Fast forward to more recent years, with the building of the new shop, the addition of the new dyno, and Nathan Benson winning the 2014 Powri Championship for the 4th time, and it feels like a rebirth has taken place… and I know we are now going stronger than ever..
Please contact us on how we can improve your horsepower program- I am 100% confident that we can..
Thanks for the read, and a BIG THANK YOU to all that supported us over the years,
Jon Fitzpatrick

2023 is 38 years of making winning horsepower!

Some Highlights:
Brady Bacon wins the 2020 Tulsa Shootout NW class! 300+ cars!


Brady Bacon wins the 2016 Tulsa Shootout Outlaw winged class! the first race out for the new FTZ Electronic Injection system! **and once more finishes 2nd in 2019- with 196 cars entered!

 

Paul Esworthy, 2004 NMMA AAM 600 Champion (making it 9 years in a row FTZ motors won this National Championship series)...
 
Top AMA Pro-Rider Darin Ogden on his ultra fast FTZ TRX450r- circa 2005.

ATV's "roots racing" superstar Jackie Meadows on his FTZ TRX250r during his impressive 2002 "Comeback Tour".


3-time Powri 600 Champion Derrick King won 30 features in 2003, locking in the NMMA AAM National Championship with his FTZ Honda 600.


Suzuki mounted Mark Lee #111 250 Pro class at Pine Lake GNC.

 

FTZ Performance, Inc.

From humble 1985 beginnings in a 10' x 20' basement workshop, to our awesome new multi-level facility, we have had a simple mission to provide only the best motors and products for each type or class of racing that we've been involved in.
We like to think we use a mixture of high technology- equally blended with artistic craftsmanship...and also steeped in "old school" ethics: For us the quick & easy way is never the best way..

600cc Micro Sprint Engine Building

Make no mistake, 27 years after building our first national championship winning 600 engine, we are the 600cc Micro engine experts. Don’t settle for less than the best.

Benson motor

Whether it is a fully modified “Outlaw” motor, or one of the Stock class motors, we feel like our 600 motor packages are in a class by themselves as far as making power and staying trouble free. Most people don’t realize all that we do to these motors, and the extent that we fuss over them during the porting work, valve work, and engine assembly. This old school craftsmanship takes a lot more time, but this is the biggest reason why these motors run harder, and hold up so well.
We think the FTZ built 600 motors are one of the biggest bargains in auto racing!!....especially considering all that is put into them. There are shops out there that will charge you less- but end up “doing” even more "less". Don’t fall into that “just as good” trap!
Also you can rest assured that all our motors are built to the same specs, everybody gets the same quality work done here, as soon as something new is proven, then we offer it to all.
Please remember that yes, it takes some money to build one of these things to this level but the real value comes if it gives you that power edge, lasts a long time, and maintains a good resale value..
Please feel free to call us or email us to see how we can help with your race program.

See the Hot Micro Sprint page above for our new FTZ EFI system for 600's!

*Hey did you know?? FTZ was the 600 engine builder of choice for sprint car legends Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell when their sons Kraig and Kevin first entered into micro sprint racing…