As reported in MoparMax’s race coverage, using Gibson Racing Wheels, Super Stock racer Charlie Westcott Jr. was #1 Qualifier and set Low ET at the 4th US Nationals Hemi Challenge last weekend.  Despite being quickest with an 8.46, his weekend was fraught with daunting circumstances, including an ill-time engine failure, which paved the way for his dad, Charlie Westcott, Sr. to claim the event title.

As MoparMax put it: “The Westcott family, of Parma, Mich., pulled off another victory tonight in the Mopar® NHRA HEMI® Challenge at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Charlie Wescott, Sr., did it this time, in his 1968 Hemi Barracuda, besting David Barton, of Robesonia, Pa. Westcott needed an emergency engine swap between the semi-finals and the final round to get the win. He got that done thanks to his Son and his fellow Hemi Challenge competitors. This was a great example of camraderie that drag racers demonstrate when the situation arises.”

CompetitionPlus.com’s Jon Asher documented Westcott’s dilemma — and triumph — this way: “After his son’s engine suffered internal damage Charlie Westcott, Sr’s engine did the same, necessitating a complete change prior to the final round.  This is a far more difficult task with a car with fixed fenders, but they managed to get it done in time for the car it to make the starting line against David Barton’s Cuda.”

Westcott Jr. uses Gibson Racing Wheels, and is a fine exemplum of the gritty, persistent and forward-thinking racers we love to have as customers.

In the words of Drag Racing Online: “He picked up right where he left off last year with a stellar 8.491/158.07 that leads the qualifying for the SS/AH class by a bunch.”

Here is a 964 shod with the new ultra-stealth Gibson Road Racing Sports Car Wheels. (Image c/o Gibson Racing Wheels)

Porsche 964 on Gibson Wheels

(more at gibsonwheels.com)

A native of Mobile, Alabama, Gibson started drag racing with the acquisition of his uncle’s 1951 Ford 2-door coupe (originally purchased new by his Grandfather), Gibson’s first car. Building custom backspace rear wheels for that car was Gibson’s first exposure to wheel construction. Gibson progressed to a 427 ’66 Corvette coupe, drag racing around Louisiana, and Alabama. He moved to California in 1984 with wife Karen and immediately went to work for chassis builder Don Long. While working at Long’s shop, Gibson attended UCLA and in 1990 earned a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. At UCLA he built a glider aircraft that won the annual California Engineer’s Week flight competition 2 consecutive years, and was elected president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) his Junior and Senior years.

Upon graduation from UCLA in 1990, Gibson worked for two years for TRW Space and Defense on ICBM aerodynamics. In 1992 Gibson started working for Dan Gurney’s All American Racers, working first on the IMSA Championship winning Toyota GTP program, which was undefeated from March ’92 to Jan ’93. It was the 1993 IMSA GTP World Champion, also winning the 1993 IMSA Manufacturer’s Championship and the 1993 IMSA Driver’s Championship. Later Gibson worked on Dan Gurney’s motorcycle known as “The Alligator”, and the AAR Indy Car, along with other projects.

In 1998 Gibson left Gurney’s to go back to primarily aerodynamics, first for Roland Leong at Don Prudhomme’s and later for Wes Cerny at Joe Gibbs Racing. Both of these involved extensive work in the GM wind tunnel in Warren MI. In 2000 Gibson started working for John Force Racing. With the Force team sponsored by Ford, Gibson enjoyed working for Austin Coil, and worked extensively in the Lockheed wind tunnel outside Atlanta, and with Ford in Dearborn, on adapting their new Mustang to drag racing. “Not many people have as much quality time in the Lockheed wind tunnel as I do”. Gibson did aerodynamics for John Force Racing through 2006, designing all of their bodies and aerodynamic systems and working on other projects.

Besides the wins and records the car achieved, a possible measure of Gibson’s success is that a large segment concerning bodies and aerodynamics of the NHRA Funny Car rule book was written because of Gibson’s work at John Force racing. “It would seem there’s a lot of room for improvement in the rules in the fuel classes”. Force is currently running an updated grill version of the last body Gibson designed. In his “spare time”, Gibson, working with Bill Miller, designed the Gibson-Miller Supercharger and Fuel Injection systems, currently in production and available through BME.

From 1995 to 2001 Gibson drove the BME (Bill Miller Engineering) Top Fuel dragster, with a best time of 4.59 sec. with speeds consistently over 315. From 2000 to 2003 Gibson also drove the MasterCam front motor vintage Top Fuel car owned by Tom Shelar and Frank “Root Beer” Hedge. Gibson is the only person in NHRA history to qualify and race both a mid-engine TF car and a front-engine TF car at the same race (NHRA 50th Anniversary at Pomona). Gibson also had the opportunity to drive in the Skip Barber open-wheel road racing series at Laguna Seca. Gibson wrote articles for Cole Coonce’s Nitronic Research web site entitled Top Fuel Diary, contrasting the differences between driving a mid engine contemporary TF car vs an old school Front Motor TF car, and road racing. From 2002 to 2007 Gibson drove Dave and Rex Stevens TF car on a part time basis.

In 2007 Gibson had the opportunity to purchase the machinery that had been Kinesis Racing Wheels in Vista, CA. The name Kinesis, along with its inventory and designs, were purchased by Lexani Wheels. Gibson and his cousin Lee Crim refitted the CNC machines, built all new tooling, and started manufacturing, testing, and sales of billet front wheels for drag racing in February of 2009 in Gibson’s shop in Huntington Beach, CA, Gibson Wheels.com. “ Testing is an essential factor in design. You can do a lot of sophisticated FEA, but in testing is where you see the correlation to the theoretical work.” Gibson is also currently introducing his new sports car/road race wheel, with other wheel designs to follow.

Wheels can be a big factor in the way a car performs. “As a driver I was always impressed by how much effect the front wheels have on a dragster when they touch down. It’s not uncommon that front wheel spin-up will cause an upset to the car, whether it’s causing it to spin or shake or both”. The force used to spin-up the front wheels, no matter where they eventually touch down during the run, is created by the engine’s horsepower. So the heavier the front wheel the more horsepower is being used to spin that wheel up to final trap speed. The actual effect is not primarily the weight of the wheels, but the rotational inertia of the wheels. With rotating objects, i.e. heavy wheels, you in effect carry the weight twice. You have to move the weight, and you have to spin the weight. The spin-up effect is dramatic. Anyone who has experimented with different weight flywheels on their engine can understand the difference. The higher the rotational inertia of the wheels, the more horsepower is being wasted in accelerating them to trap speed.

Another way horsepower can be wasted is with wheels that are not round and/or concentric. In an extreme case, imagine trying to roll an elliptical, oval, or even square shaped wheel down the track. Machine tooling is critical to producing a round, true, low run-out wheel. Most wheels are machined using a standard axial compression jaw type chuck and a center hold down fixture, which due to their compressive and bending forces, can easily cause distortion during manufacturing. Our custom made tooling is designed to maintain precise concentricity and have no compressive or bending forces acting on the wheel at any time. This tooling eliminates any run-out caused by residual stress, metal removal, or induced stress.

Regarding one element of safety, many front wheels don’t have proper safety beads. Common on motorcycle wheels, these are beads that the tire fits over to hold the tire on the rim in case of deflation. Without safety beads, if a tire experienced low air pressure for any reason, the tire could easily slip off the bead seat and fall into the “drop-in” area, which could cause the tire to come off the wheel. Our wheels have safety beads as specified by US Tire and Rim Association specs.

Hobbies are: besides drag racing, motorcycles, flying, and tennis.

(Originally published at http://www.gibsonwheels.com/Biography.html)

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Gibson Racing Wheels. Lightest. Strongest. Safest. Top Fuel Dragsters. Nitro Funny Cars. Sportsman Drag Racing. Road Racing. Sports Cars. Motorcycles. gibsonwheels.com. 714-891-6500.