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Race Teams of the RSWC Program - 6 Top Organizations / 30 Teams

The race team a developing driver gets hooked up with EACH YEAR is CRITICAL.  If a race team lacks any key element … like good race cars, trained crew people, good shop, proper organization, adequate resources, a talented Crew Chief, etc … no driver is going to do well.  A young driver can have a bad year and recover, but you can’t have too many of them. 

There are only few "top" teams in each series.  Never take that for granted.  There are many teams out there that Jimmy Johnson & Kyle Busch couldn't win with. The race series and type of cars to go into ... lead to two important questions of “What series is best for your driver's age ... and your budget?” and "Can you get with a winning team?"

During the formation of the RSWC program, Ron got clear that working with the top teams in each race series would be critical.  Drivers "in development" need to step into a series with a good team that knows the tracks, set-ups, competitors quirks, officials, etc ... ramp the driver up & win races ... then move the driver onto the next series & new race team each year. 

So obviously, the choice of race team for a young driver is critical.  Should you pick the team with the most wins? Not necessarily. Winning is critical, but it is only one key.  The most important thing ... the highest priority ... needs to be developing your young driver to become "capable" of winning car races ... then winning. There are good race teams that rent cars capable of winning with veteran drivers.  But are they the best "driver development" team? Often not. It is important to understand the difference between good race teams and good driver development race teams.  Most are not equipped, staffed, trained, experienced or focused to develop drivers.

RSWC prides itself on being the top "Driver Development" race teams, providing constant, on-going driver coaching, specific on track training, condensing experience, utilizing data acquisition and proven methods to teach and develop young drivers.  Our staff is best at teaching young drivers ... new to race cars ... how to give awesome feedback so the crew can tune the car into a winner ... and mastering strategies, techniques and secrets of veteran racers to become a consistent winner in whatever cars they race.  

Any time a young driver goes into a new series, there are a huge amount of critical things to learn and master before expecting to win races. They need to master the feel of that type of race car, specific pitch & roll feedback, along with handling results, for the crew to be capable of tuning the car optimally and be fast enough to win races. Next is learning the racecraft, race strategies, veteran tricks and wisdom ... to win races against veteran adult racers.  RSWC is best at this.  Besides being amongst the top winning teams in their series, RSWC teams are  tops at training, coaching and developing young drivers.

Of course, each year, as the young driver steps up, they need to be with the top team in that series. Over the first four years of creating RSWC, Ron formed alliances with West Coast race teams that were the top team in each series. Today the alliance consists of six top notch racing organizations fielding up to 30 teams for RSWC drivers. 

All of these teams are proven winners.  When a driver is selected into our program, we work out which series, types of cars they need to be in, and facilitate getting the driver with a winning team in the RSWC alliance. Below is information on each of these teams in the RSWC Driver Development Race Team Alliance.

NASCAR Late Model and K&N Pro Series Stock Cars:
Bill McAnally Racing (BMR) is one of absolute top teams on the West Coast.  What used to be known as Winston West, then Camping World Grand National, is now known as the K&N Pro Series West. BMR has won the Championship a record five times, more than any other team.  They consistently field winning cars of championship caliber in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and NASCAR Late Model series. 

In years past, BMR has been the official Driver Development Team for Richard Childress Racing, a top winning NASCAR Drive for Diversity Race Team and has fielded winning stock cars for RSWC Drivers since 2006.

Bill McAnally fields three to four NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race teams and as many as four NASCAR Late Model race teams. The BMR 22,000’ state of the art shop facility is based in Antelope, California. Their massive, well equipped shop contains an in-house fab shop, pull down rig, body shop, service bays set-up plates, etc. 

This allows the BMR crew to be self contained in just about every aspect of fielding competitive race cars. 

Bill McAnally has been a leader at recruiting and keeping top crew people. That include NASCAR K&N Pro Series & Late Model stock car veterans Duane Knorr and Chris Nelly, that oversee the RSWC Drivers racing in BMR cars.


NASCAR Limited Late Model S2 and Late Model Stock Cars:
High Point Racing (HPR) is Tim Huddleston’s dominating NASCAR Late Model team, based out of their 5000’ shop in Agoura Hills, California.

The High Point crew fields immaculate, well prepared, race winning NASCAR Late Models at the famous Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. 

Having won a multitude of races at the famed high banked 1/2 mile track ... including six championships ... the High Point cars are contenders to win every race. Tim initially expanded to a four car operation to be assist the RSWC Driver Development Race Team Alliance.

Today, they are a powerhouse running 4 NASCAR Late Models and 4 NASCAR S2 Limited late Models.  Having a alliance with top race car builder, Jeff Schrader, of the RaceCar Factory keeps them on the cutting edge.

Of course, having a veteran crew is key to success. Crew Chiefs Brett Barnett and Kevin Stephens oversee the NASCAR Late Model Stock Cars and the new lower cost spec Limited Late Model stock car known as "S2" for RSWC Drivers. 

Past NASCAR Late Model Champion Travis Thirkettle is the Team General Manager with father, Jim Thirkettle, shock specialist & all around tuning guru.

NASCAR Modifieds:
Ron Sutton's Winner's Circle Modified Team was started with help from NASCAR Modified veterans Jim Miller with 48 wins and four championships, Kevin Harding with 30 wins and two championships and NASCAR veteran Scott Rodgers, past Busch Series Crew Chief for Brad Kesolowski.  

The Team was created to be a stepping stone into NASCAR Late Models and consists of three NASCAR Grand American Modified Teams housed at the expansive RSWC Race Shop in the Sacramento, California.

This facility covers over 16,000 square feet with all the amenities to build and maintain winning race cars.  The spacious shop has a machine shop, full fabrication shop, tire shop, warehouse, office space, a crew break area and work stations for ten race cars.

The RSWC Modifieds utilize 410" Dart block & aluminum heads, roller valvetrain, shaft rockers, belt drive, small block Chevys producing 550+ hp with a two barrel !  At only 2550 pounds these Modifieds are rockets with a power-to-weight-to-tire ratio similar to Cup Cars.

Today the RSWC Modified race team is led by racing veteran Jason
Houghtaling, originally from the East Coast. Jason spent time in Dirt
Late Models, NASCAR Whelan Modifieds, Busch East & Craftsman
Truck series ... and has an impressive list of wins ... as both driver and crew person. 

Jason and the RSWC Crew continuously develop and advance the RSWC Modified Race Team performance ... and prepare RSWC drivers for the next level.

The RSWC Modified team utilize state of the art equipment ... pull down rig, shock dynos, tire sidewall raters, computer programs, GPS data acquisition and more ... to develop winning cars & drivers.  But folks that know Team Manager Jason Houghtaling, say his passion for winning and commitment to do the work it takes, are his real tools to success.

The RSWC Modified race team teaches drivers how to drive today's set-ups that utilize soft spring/big bar, bump stops and coil bind front end set-ups, along with rear end set-ups, similar to today's K&N, ARCA, Truck & Nationwide Stock Cars.

Along with our own Engineers & Data Acquisition Team, Jason teaches RSWC drivers what it really takes to drive top tier Stock Cars with these special set-ups.



USAC Pavement Sprint Cars:
Long time friend of Ron Sutton and famed West Coast tuning guru, Louie Gennuso runs Kaplan-Gennuso Racing in the USAC Pavement Sprint Car series based out of their shop in Fresno, California. RSWC Drivers have won races and a Championship with KGR in 2007-2008.

Today, Tony Hunt Motorsports (THM), is RSWC's alliance for USAC Pavement Sprint Cars, led by partners & crew Tony Hunt, Mike Phulps and Kerry Fasig.  Together they are five-time USAC Champions.  Tony Hunt is positioned as the winningest Feature (30) and Pole (35) winner in the USAC Western States Sprint Car Series.

Tony grew up racing quarter midgets and karts, then went on to excel in formula cars and later in Stock Cars. Today, Tony continues to race primarily in USAC Sprint Car and Midget divisions.

When not in the cockpit, Tony works as an instructor and driving coach where he has taught at many of the formidable road course and stock car racing schools nationwide. Sharing his expertise and techniques as a one-on-one coach for the Ron Sutton’s Winner’s Circle development drivers has proven to be fundamental in teaching them the skills and disciplines needed to win on the track and guiding them into their professional careers.

Racing with Tony Hunt Motorsports offers a built in driver coach for
the RSWC Sprint Car drivers. In 2011, Tony Hunt is leading the USAC
Pavement Sprint Car Championship series ... again. 

USAC Pavement Midgets - All Genres:
Ron Sutton's Winner's Circle Midget Team is a race team within the RSWC Driver Development Race Team Alliance owned by Ron Sutton.  The winning operation, fields multiple cars at all levels of the Midget genre of race cars from USAC Young Guns Midgets for 12-16 year old drivers ... USAC Ford Focus Midgets for drivers 14+ ... to full USAC Western Midgets for drivers 16+.

The USAC Young Guns Midgets are the fastest nationally recognized full size race cars for drivers age 12 & up.  Young Guns Midgets are real race cars, about a second a lap faster than Legends and are slightly faster than NASCAR Late Models & Modifieds at tracks under a half mile. The Focus Midgets, with 50% more horsepower than the Young Guns Midgets, are often the fastest cars of the show for most short tracks,
running 1/2 to 3/4 second faster than NASCAR Late Models & Modifieds.

In the early stages of the RSWC program, Cup Teams suggested to Ron that the Midget series and especially the Focus Midget series would be excellent training grounds for young drivers. The challenge? There were no independent teams in the series to form an alliance with and place RSWC drivers.

At that time Ron Sutton's Race Teams had a 28 year history, with almost 400 wins.So Ron started this team with one car led by West Coast legendary crew chief Louie Gennuso and achieved much success with driver Bobby Grewohl.

The Team expanded to three Focus Midgets in 2005, winning 8 poles & 5 races ... including Benny Moon winning the prestigious Turkey Night Grand Prix Focus Race with RSWC. The RSWC Midget team has won races every season since.

RSWC driver Nik Romano won the 2009 Focus Western Pavement championship, RSWC Midget drivers won 4 more championships in 2010 and leading 4 championships for 2011. 

While this team has won a lot of USAC Focus & Young Guns Midget races, their priority is on developing young drivers skills. Winning is key to building an impressive resume for young drivers and RSWC knows how to coach & develop young drivers, over time,
to learn, develop, progress ... and then win.

The race shop is led by General Manager, Randy Chastain.  Randy is a 25+ year racing veteran of Sprint Cars, Midgets and Super-Modifieds and the lead Crew Chief on the Focus Midget Team. Full time employees Chris Saldana, Jason Rutherford  and the crew of 16 service, set-up and field six Midgets.

Engineers Kamal Amer, Kevin Welling & Kevin Kiaski head up the Data Acquisition, Race Engineering & Analysis programs.  We utilize satellite based, full sensor and video equipped, Data Acquisition on all of our race cars that our Engineering team designed & built. 

Yes ... we have our own in-house Race Engineering department. Our team of three Engineers custom designed a data acquisition system for the RSWC driver development program and manufacture it in-house. It is one of our team's proprietary tools to develop drivers quicker, better and more thoroughly.

Drivers communicating with Engineers is key in today's top forms of racing.  Our Engineers train RSWC Drivers on how to use data acquisition, how to read it and what it means. RSWC drivers can see exactly where to improve, what to change and how to get better, faster and more consistent. Our Crew Chiefs & Driver Coaches utilize the key information from the data acquisition system to improve the driver's skills, racecraft and racing results.

Today, the RSWC Midget team is based in the 16,000’ Race Team Headquarters in Sacramento, California, with full chassis shop, tire shop & machine shop. The RSWC staff have built a facility that allows them to service and set-up race cars like pro teams. 

Our sister company, Star Racing Supply, is on site.  Star offers racers a full line of chassis, suspension parts, tires, wheels, fuel, hardware and more.  For the RSWC teams, it is a huge plus to walk next door and get what they need to service or repair the race cars.

Road Racing:
Porter Racing fields Formula Fords, Formula Continental/F2000 road race cars for RSWC Drivers on a race by race basis or full season championship assaults.  Road Racing makes up a small percentage of what RSWC driver do.  But when we do ... we place our drivers with Porter Racing ... and they win in dominating fashion.

Neil Porter has been building and preparing winning Formula Ford and Formula Continental race cars since 1979. Porter Racing is multi-time Regional Champions and 3-time National Champions. The last four SF Regional Champions ... and the 2009 National Champion in SCCA Formula Fords were with RSWC drivers and Porter Racing.

Neil's attention to detail, wizardry with shocks, aero & chassis tuning put his cars head & shoulders above the competitors.  Porter Racing prepares state of the art race cars, capable of winning every time.  Porter Racing is based in a 7,000’ shop out of Merced, California. 

At their well equipped shop, the Porter team builds, repairs, performs service and sets up the cars for each race. Neil Porter is the tuning Guru, overseeing all set-ups and tuning changes to the race cars.  Several full-time employees, and occasional part-time crew, field the cars on race days.

Dirt Oval Track:
Cory Kruseman Racing fields winning dirt Young Guns Midgets, Focus Midgets & Sprint Cars out of their Ventura, CA shop.  About two-thirds of the drivers RSWC selects from each year's Shoot-Out come to RSWC with dirt oval experience.  For the one-third that doesn't ... they get dirt experience with Cory Kruseman, winner of over 400 dirt main events.

RSWC works with Cory Kruseman each off season to train new RSWC drivers with pavement only backgrounds ... how to drive dirt.  Not for improving their dirt skills ... but rather to learn the car control and throttle control that only dirt racing can offer.  This helps them tremendously when they are back on the pavement.

For most of our older drivers that need to be building their pavement resume, this off-season training is the only dirt track training & experience they'll get.  Occasionally we have decided to put younger drivers on dirt for a whole season, to master driving a loose car, throttle control and more, that only dirt racing can teach.  Result ... 2009 USAC Young Guns National Championship.

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