The McGee name continues
The McGee family retains its connections with motor racing in the USA, aside from sponsorship and mechanical support of numerous competitors in a wide variety of disciplines, though it now operates (since 1998) as two separate businesses.
In the late 1990s the McGees became heavily involved in building components for Junior Dragsters (quarter-scale dragsters powered by small single cylinder flathead four-stroke engines raced over an eighth-mile by children – in Australia aged eight to 16). Originally these were all built around Briggs and Stratton engines, but in 2003 Phil received NHRA approval to build aftermarket versions. He made 1800 of those over the following few years and he has handed that business over to Chris, who still makes them today. Because of their wealth of knowledge with non-rocker arm camshaft profiles, they elevated the performance of these flatheads.
With the Junior engines Phil and Chris helped many future champions including Shawn Langdon, JR Todd, Christopher Dodd, and Justin Lamb. Also many young Australian champions like Shane Tucker, Aaron Turner, the Donnellys, Dale Duffy and Toby Austin to name a few. Chris continues to build engines and also services Phil’s customers.
The McGees had a wealth of knowledge with non-rocker arm camshaft profiles including Offenhausers, the McGee Quad Cam and motorcycle engines. It was only natural that their cams would become popular with flathead engine builders. Soon the product line expanded to heads, manifolds, alky carbs and eventually McGee blocks. In fact the rapid increase in horsepower drew the attention of flathead pioneers Ed Iskendarian and Vic Edelbrock Jr, who have marveled at the 1.7 hp/cubic inch attained by the McGees.
For the past 20 years Chris has been the leading Junior Dragster engine builder in the US. Thanks to his experience racing with daughter Kaitlyn and several other young champions he has been able to offer complete, turn-key winning combinations to newcomers. This reduces their learning curve plus Kaitlyn has mentored many of the younger drivers. Chris regularly consults with rule makers for guidance on technical issues.
With Chris’ deep involvement in the manufacture of components for Junior Dragsters and Junior Comp, Kaitlyn McGee, now 29, became a fixture in California competition, won 26 “Wally’s” (the NHRA’s championship trophies) and three NHRA Pacific Division Championships and was voted “Racer of the Year” in 2007.
After graduating from Juniors Chris steered Kaitlyn away from a professional driving career. She drives a 180mph Super Pro and Super Comp dragster. Her 12 victories with this car added to her earlier wins in JD and Junior Comp has made her the winningest driver of all time at California Dragway in Fontana.
”It’s funny – I have a draw full of lifters, rocker arms, and pushrods in our trailer for our big block Chev with Dart heads! I’ll run an overhead cam again sometime with Kaitlyn,” said Chris.
Phil McGee is today the head of McGee Racing, in Missouri. The business also employs
one of Phil’s three sons, Briar, who handles much of the engineering on the company’s output, while Luke, the youngest son, runs his own engine building business nearby and also grinds all the company’s cams. Phil’s stepson, Justin, who has just finished 13 years with the John Force race team, has now become crew chief for Justin Ashley’s Top Fuel program.
Phil now describes his business today as a ‘big small company.’ McGee Racing manufactures camshafts, fuel pumps, injectors, regulators, filters, billet distributors, engine management systems, throttle bodies and other fittings around the fuel system.
That same basic fuel injection which the McGees were marketing in the 1970s has just been relaunched in the US and sales indicate that it’s going to be as successful now as it was in 1978. With Hilborn and Enderle out of business these days, the market is wide open to McGee Racing and its updated fuel injection systems.
“Now we’re just trying to restart the business from where we were 35 or 40 years ago,” says Phil. “But it’ll be successful. We are back-ordered and having trouble meeting the demand. I just want to set it up for the kids so they can carry it all on.”
Visit mcgeecams.com and mcgeeracing.com for more.