12 Questions With Matt Patrick, CPG Product Manager

[CPG Marketing]

Name: Matt Patrick
Job Title: Product Manager

Matt Patrick is probably best known in the COMP Performance Group™ as manager of the ZEX™ nitrous product line. As Product Manager, he is involved in everything from coordinating marketing programs to developing new product lines. But Patrick also handles special products and industrial accounts, where his duties can extend into helping to develop engine components large enough for ocean-going freighters or small enough for weed whackers. His extensive history in the automotive aftermarket industry makes him the perfect fit for such a diverse role in the COMP Group™.

Matt Patrick

What is your background in the industry?

It really started when I was sixteen years old when I started working at an automotive part store. With the exception of my first job ever as a bagel baker, which taught me I never wanted to do food service, I’ve always had an automotive related job. So my background has always been automotive. I did parts sales. I worked on the engineering side. I did software testing and development, when I was in college, for an automotive aftermarket company that did a lot of specialty tools and diagnostic electronics and things like that. So I worked for them throughout my college years, and then really, COMP Cams® hired me out of college. I worked for COMP® for two years as a research and development engineer. Then I left and started my own business, and I manufactured crankcase evacuation systems for racing engines. Basically I developed and designed performance parts for racing engines. I did that for a couple years, and then I came back in 2001 as the Product Manager for ZEX™.


What do you like best about the job?

I’m a passionate car guy. I love cars and I love anything that goes fast. I’m an absolute nut for cars. I love drag racing; that’s probably the motor sport that I’ve always been most interested in. So I think it starts with a passion for cars. I just love hot rods. I don’t care if it’s a muscle car or a new Mustang or Camaro. Whatever, I just love fast cars. That’s probably the first part of it.

I also love the size of our industry. In relative terms, it’s a fairly small industry. It allowed me, at a young age coming out of college, to really take on a lot of responsibility quickly. I wasn’t at some huge corporation where I had to put my twenty years in before I could really get a position where I had the responsibility and the option for trying to do something big. In this industry, where you can establish yourself as a standout that is willing to push hard and be creative, there really are huge opportunities for someone like that. And that’s where COMP® really gave me an opportunity. They allowed me to kind of run free and do crazy stuff. Some of it failed. But thankfully, most of it succeeded. Once you do that, you build a certain trust with the owners and they give you more and more freedom. I like that. Because of the size of our industry, somebody that’s young and aggressive and really has an eye for doing things can really go out and make a big splash in the industry fairly quickly. Whereas I don’t think you get quite that much freedom in a more mainstream corporate environment.


What is your all-time favorite or dream car?

That’s a good question. I don’t know. I haven’t really ever put myself in that position because I just like cars in general. But if money wasn’t an issue, what would I want? You know, it changes. If I was a younger guy in my 20s, I would have told you an NHRA Pro Stock car would probably be my dream race car. Now that I’m in my 30s, a little older, I think I probably would appreciate something a little more refined. I’ll throw out a Lexus IS F. I’ll throw out a luxury hot rod. It shows you I’ve changed over the years.


Do you have past racing experience? If so what kind, and do you still race?

Yeah. My first race car ever was a ’72 Camaro with a big block Chevy, and I raced that when I was in college. That sort of cut my teeth into learning what it meant to be a racer and how to race, how to build cars and engines and stuff like that. That was my first foray into serious hot rodding. After that, I made a switch over, and I built probably my most serious racecar. It was a 1989 Honda CRX. What was unique about it was that I actually built it for a Heads-Up Class drag racing series. That car made about 700 horsepower. It was a turbo charged, nitrous injected 4 cylinder. It ended up running like 1030s at 148 miles an hour. So it was a pretty fast little car. It was a purpose built Street Class Heads-Up race car. I campaigned that for about four years and had some really good success with it. Out of the thirteen final rounds I went to in that car, I think I won eleven of them. So it was a very competitive car while I raced it.

Matt's 1989 Honda CRX

That would be the extent of my personal racecar experience, but I’ve also been a crew chief. Actually, Chuck Gleaves, one of our employees here, used to race a ‘63 split window Corvette Pro Street car. We raced the NMCA series. That was what’s considered a Nostalgia Pro Street car. I was the crew chief for him, so we kind of raced it as a team. We did that for three years and did fairly well with it, traveling all over the country with it.

So, I’ve built and raced my own cars and I’ve also been a crew chief. Now, I’ve got a 2005 mustang. That’s my current hot rod that I play with. I occasionally go to the race track with it, but it’s a street car. I just enjoy it and I hot rod it and do all that kind of stuff. That’s my current toy.







What is your proudest moment in racing?

My first national event win. My first race that I ever won was in Englishtown, New Jersey. That was definitely my proudest moment, so to speak, in my racing career. It was that first national event win. That was my second year in racing. First year was nothing but blown up engines and failure. You know, it’s like you learn that first year what not to do more than what to do. In that second year I finally got some success. That for me was probably the most satisfying.


Who is your favorite racer and why?

Warren Johnson. Just from the standpoint of, if you look at his accomplishments and how he approached engine design and racing for the NHRA Pro Stock category. I think in his heyday, he was absolutely the man. They call him The Professor for a reason. He really thought through is combinations and was really able to develop unique engine combinations that beat everybody, and were really the lead in the class. And so I think in my formative years in the industry, early on in my 20s, he was just the man. I think I probably respected him the most.


What is the best career advice you ever received? Who gave it to you?

I don’t know if it was so much advice from one person, but I think I’ve heard it said by many people in the industry as I’ve learned and grown in it. And that is, be passionate about what you are doing. If you’re a passionate car person, then develop that passion and always have that. When you stop having that passion, and it really doesn’t apply just to our industry, but when you stop having passion for what you’re doing, go find something else to do. I don’t care if you’re into golf or cars or whatever. I’ve always believed that far too many people just consider their job as a way to get a paycheck. I think if you don’t love what you do, find something else to do. Life is too short to just do a job and pick up a paycheck. I think you need to find what you’re passionate about and pursue it. That’s where your natural talents, skills and desires will be. I think it’s hard for someone not to be successful when they’re going after something they love and have passion for.


What advice would you give a kid who wants to go grow up to be a racer or work in the industry?

I would say get involved in the industry as early as you can. What I mean is, get involved with car clubs, and go to your local race track. I can remember that when I was sixteen years old, I didn’t really have anyone at that time in my life that was in to cars or drag racing. I would borrow my parent’s car and drive two hours to go to a drag strip. I would just hang out for the entire day. I would watch and listen and smell and see how racers acted and what they did. I’d ask questions of racers who were often times very helpful. Car guys love talking about cars, so it’s usually not an issue for someone to learn. I think if you just get involved in it, even if you can’t afford to have a hot rod car. I was sixteen. I hadn’t at that point bought my first hot rod, but I was passionate about it. I loved cars. I just soaked everything up, and I did it by getting involved in the industry. I think that’s what you have to start with.

If you have a passion for cars and you want to develop it, you have to understand the people that are in the hobby. You know, this is, for the large majority of people, a hobby. This is what they love to do. This is what they spend their disposable income on. To be successful, I think you have to understand the people who make up this industry – this hobby that we have. So I think if you want long term success, whether you’re going to be an engineer, whether you’re going to be in management or whether you are going to be a racer who has to understand, what do my sponsors want? Ultimately, even a professional racer is a vehicle for sponsors to sell and promote products through. So it’s still important for even a racer to understand, ‘I need to help my sponsor sell whatever he makes. I need to understand what he is trying to accomplish and what those goals are.’ Understanding the people that are into cars, understanding people and what motivates them is an important part of learning the industry. So just get involved. That’s all. Get involved and just eat it up. Learn everything you can about it.

Matt Patrick Hard At Work

What are your hobbies outside of racing and the industry?

Outside of cars, it is radio controlled airplanes. That’s my second passion.


What is your favorite type of music to drive to?

You know, I’m not a huge music fan. I’ll just hit seek and find something I like listening to. It depends on the day. It could be techno, it could be symphony. I would say anything but country or rap. Those are the two things that I absolutely refuse to listen to. Maybe that’s a better way of answering.

In the next five years, what do you think will be the most important advancement in performance automotive technology?

I’m going to say, and it’s already well under way, but the conversion of our entire industry over to fuel injection. I think that will fundamentally affect virtually every one of our customers or potential customers. I think it’s in the process of being a major change because even twenty years ago everything was carbureted. Just the goofballs were starting to mess around with fuel injection. Now, it’s a major percentage, and it’s quickly changing over. Right now, if I had to throw a number out there, I’d say probably 50 percent plus of performance enthusiasts are modifying fuel injected vehicles – whether that’s a converted carbureted type vehicle like an old muscle car with an EZ-EFI® or XFI™ system, or it’s a newer Camaro or Mustang where the guy already has fuel injection and he just modifies the factory system.

That technology is going to take over because people now have gotten so used the drivability of fuel injection. We have entire generations now that have absolutely no idea how a carburetor even works. They’re used to getting into their brand new BMW, Chevrolet or Ford and just turning the key and car fires up and runs perfect. You know, twenty or thirty yeas ago when we all had carburetors, I mean, they sucked. You had to fire it up, and it would never run right. You had to pull chokes out and wait until the engine got some heat into it before it would run right. I mean, they were a pain.

So I think people have gotten spoiled. We’ve gotten so used to the drivability of factory cars now days that we’re demanding that same level of quality of drivability in our toys, in our hot rods. And that has really raised the bar for manufacturers of fuel injection systems to make fuel injection so user friendly and so good, from a drivability standpoint, that you can’t tell the difference between a factory car and a hot rod. That is a technological challenge, but it’s been a good thing for our industry. It’s forced those of us involved in the fuel injection industry to raise that bar and get a lot better at what we do. Whereas I think initially, just ten or fifteen years ago, fuel injection systems were fairly crude, but we figured, ‘That’s good enough. It’s better than a carburetor.’ But now we have to go beyond just being better than a carburetor and really have to get as good as OEM level drivability.


What is the one thing you couldn’t live without?

Coffee, I’ll just say coffee.