Engine Builder Profile - Rayvon Clark

[jjamros]

Over in the hotbed of racing in North Carolina, there is an engine builder who is quietly compiling one of the most impressive resumes of “big race wins” in the country. This engine builder is Rayvon Clark, and his business is Clark’s Automotive Race Engines, located in Reidsville, North Carolina. Rayvon Clark’s credentials reach back to an earlier era of NASCAR short track racing when he competed as a driver in both the Modified Touring Series and the NASCAR Winston Racing Series.

Jake Crum used Clark Automotive power to capture the 2008 UARA championship and driver development opportunities in NASCAR’s upper divisions

It was during Rayvon’s competitive years that he learned everything about racing, chassis tuning and engines. As his racing career wound down, his life as an engine builder was ramping up, and he found himself working with Tony Branson of Tar Heel Motorsports in North Carolina.

The two of them developed reputations of being superior engine men, building engines for the likes of Dick Trickle and Todd Bodine. Then, in the late nineties, Chrysler came knocking on their door to hire them to work for Ray Evernham Motorsports and help re-launch Chrysler back into the NASCAR Cup series.

Branson took the job with Evernham, but Clark took another path. In August of 2000, he founded Clark’s Automotive Race Engines. Today, the business is a thriving enterprise that primarily specializes in engines for competitors in the NASCAR Whelen Late Model Stock Series and the UARA racing series.

During each of the last five years, Clark’s engines have made it into the winner’s circle more than fifty times a year. That fact by itself is impressive, but when you couple it with the fact that he only builds around 100 engines a year, it demonstrates that the winning ratio of his engines is amazingly high. Clark has worked with some of the best drivers in the business throughout his career, including rising stars Jake Crum and Alex Yontz in recent seasons. In fact, Crum’s on-track success helped propel Rayvon Clark to the UARA Engine Builder of Year award during the 2008 race season.

Alex Yontz utilized Clark Automotive engines to capture victories in the UARA series and big money late model stock events such as the Bailey’s 300 at Martinsville

Clark takes a great deal of deserved pride in the powerplants that come out of his shop. When he talks about the reasons his engines are so good, he points to his well trained staff and to the high-end components that go into his engines.

In speaking with Clark, he said, “Building engines is a team effort, but without the right parts, our engines wouldn’t be powerful and reliable. We do a lot with COMP Cams®. Their cams and valve train parts have a lot to do with our success. We trust them, and they’ve been a big player in our winning recipe of racing engines.

“Our engines have been in the race cars that have won the Bristol UARA race twice in the last three years and Bailey’s 300 at Martinsville three times in the last four years.

“I worked for years with Gordon Holloway, and now I work with David McCarver at COMP®. They’ve both been great at working with me and helping me make power.

“I’d recommend COMP® to anyone that wants a powerful and reliable engine.”

Source:
Clark's Automotive Race Engines
3686 NC Highway 87
Reidsville, NC 27320
336-349-4348