Winning has always been a tradition at COMP Cams®

By Kimberly Hyde, NASCAR

From NASCAR to NHRA to Pro Kart racing, Memphis, Tenn.,-based COMP Cams® has ventured into every imaginable type of racing, designing products for a multitude of engine combinations.

And they've never forgotten that performance is defined by results, trust and confidence.

Jerry Hailey is a valve train engineer at Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines.

Just ask Jerry Hailey, valve train engineer at Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines, a company which employs more than 130 professionals dedicated to building the best high performance racing engines for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series teams campaigned by the two companies.

Hailey, whose competitive fire has flamed ever since he transformed a Volkswagen Beetle into a dragster in his parent's basement at age 15, doesn't second guess performance—he requires it.

In his 18-plus year career at Richard Childress Racing, Hailey's been a machinist, engine shop foreman, R&D valve train development specialist and even a weekend warrior for ten years as the front tire carrier on the famed No. 3 Chevrolet driven by Dale Earnhardt.

Today, Hailey solely concentrates on engine and valve train development. He's worked with COMP Cams® and their products ever since his first day on the job.

He says ECR Engines and COMP Cams® have developed a true, win-win technical partnership over the years.

"It's an open book relationship," Hailey noted. "We have access to all of their designs and they have access to all of our dyno data as it relates to value trains."

The partnership goes a long way. COMP Cams® helps ECR Engines in their efforts to branch out and develop different types of racing engines outside of NASCAR. ECR Engines has developed a specific value train for their NASCAR program that COMP Cams® applies back to their hot rod engines and Saturday night racing technology.

Throughout the years, one word has defined the key to their long partnership: Trust with a capital T.

"It's a big trust factor between the companies that we've built up over the years," Hailey said. "We trust each other with a lot of valuable information. The relationship between ECR Engines, RCR and COMP Cams® has grown from not just one or two of us working together, but entire companies working together."

TECHNOLOGY AND PEOPLE ARE KEY

The basis for COMP Cams® longevity, success and winning ways has always come down to superior engineering—and employing the industry's most highly trained engineering staff using the most sophisticated manufacturing processes in the world.
Enter Kenny Arendale, a Memphis native and an original COMP Cams® employee since the company opened back in 1976.

2009 marks Arendale's 33rd year as a camshaft grind specialist at COMP Cams®.

A former drag racer, Arendale has gone 180 mph in a 7-second zone. But, ask many, that's nothing compared to what he can do with a camshaft.

"Once upon a time, Kenny Arendale was the only one allowed to produce a camshaft for RCR," Hailey said. "Kenny has a skill level that's above anyone we've seen to dial a camshaft in on a cam grinder. He makes sure everything is perfect before it leaves his hands and he's trained others to do the same."

As a premier camshaft grind specialist, Ardendale utilizes CNC machines, state-of-the-art computer programming, measuring equipment, materials and production processes to turn a raw casting core into a cam complete with four key ingredients: power, torque, consistency and reliability.

COMP Cams® internal R&D process translates to engineering success on the track.

"Our R & D department is equipped with Spintron computerized equipment, so we can actually facilitate a true race and spin a valve train to initially find out its weaknesses," Ardendale said.

While the COMP Performance Group™ has grown to multiple companies and hundreds of employees, they still retain the competitive spirit and desire to be the very best that has positioned COMP Cams® as the absolute leader in valve train components.

"The majority of people here at COMP Cams® are speed enthusiasts," Ardendale said. "We have a great engineering department with many intelligent people in it. It's the ability to take a usable load, make power and not break parts and that what we've been able to do all these years."

Hailey agreed.

"The people in the COMP Cams® shop, those guys are true race fans, and they take a lot of pride in what they do," he said. "They have a true passion for racing and their end-product shows it."

TOP PERFORMANCE—ON TRACK AND STREET

Because of their wide scope of applications, technologies developed for the highest levels of NASCAR find their way into COMP Cams® products for street machines, too.

It's a true transfer of track to street technology. Several of the same technical applications that COMP Cams® engineers work with ECR Engines to develop are able to be applied to street consumer products.

Do-it-yourself street rodders, weekly racers and the like benefit from the partnership with track-tested products and expert technical assistance.

"If a NASCAR fan calls up the COMP Cams® helpline, they're going to get access to the information on the latest technology that was developed in a NASCAR team shop, so anyone can buy the correct camshaft for their car." Hailey said.

With the modernization of the NASCAR Cup engine program, both ECR Engines and COMP Cams® are looking to the future and adapting newer, greener technologies. Through their partnership, ECR Engines and COMP Cams® are working together to be the leaders globally on green technology that will make race cars more fuel and energy efficient. Manufacturers will benefit and so will average motorists and high-performance enthusiasts as COMP Cams® will be able to provide them with the technology to build more energy efficient automobiles and hot rods.

Trusted on the track for years, last year COMP Cams® extended their NASCAR relationship, inking a 10-year deal to make their camshafts officially licensed "NASCAR Performance" products and also extend their Prize Money & Decal Program (contingency) partnership in all NASCAR series.

Competitive drive, superior engineering and cutting-edge technology, COMP Cams® continues to define winning. Check them out at www.compcams.com.