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Question - What do the following champions have in common:
When Steve Burns founded VP Racing Fuels in 1975, he cut his technological teeth in drag racing. Early on he met a young drag racer named Warren Johnson, who became his first paying customer and remains perhaps his most faithful customer to this day. In fact, the 6-time NHRA Pro Stock World Champion has never won a Pro Stock race without a VP fuel in his tank. "My son, Kurt, and I have spent years working with Steve Burns (VP's founder and President) to develop fuel," said The Professor. "Before Pro Stock went to a spec fuel, it seemed like VP would have new fuels for us every year. Seems like every fuel manufacturer wanted us to try their new fuels as well, and we did. But no one ever outperformed VP. I'm convinced their technology is the best in the world."
"Prior to our development of a Spec Fuel for Pro Stock at NHRA's request, we spent 25 years developing the best fuels to keep our drivers in the Winners Circle," said Burns. "In fact, it's now been 31 years since an NHRA Pro Stock Championship was won without a VP fuel in the tank. More recently, we've applied much of the technology from our drag racing efforts to motorcycle applications, where we've been working with all the major factory teams-Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and KTM."
"VP's association with Japanese factories gives them access to some of the most sophisticated engine tech anywhere," Johnson pointed out. "They've leveraged these relationships very effectively in many different racing disciplines."
Mitch Payton has worked with VP for 17 years. "Steve and VP's chief chemist, Duane Minazzi, come here pretty much on an annual basis to do fuel development work," said Payton. "MX isn't drag racing and power isn't everything. We value consistency and throttle response just as much. There are so many variables in MX, I can't be concerned with fuel. Fuel selection is as critical as my tires, shocks or engine components. I have people ask me to dyno other fuels all the time and we look at everything. VP has always shown me the most power and best performance-which is why every one of our 20 championships was won with a VP powered machine."
"We do virtually all forms of racing all over the world-drag racing, MX, off road, circle track, even airplane racing," Burns points out. "One of our strengths is the ability to draw from the experience gained in all these different disciplines. I've been asked several times how I thought of something and the answer usually is I was working on the same problem last month in a totally different program. In other cases, the technology developed for one discipline doesn't have to be changed to be a benefit elsewhere. An example of that is our Late Model Plus fuel, designed to run at cooler engine temperatures in 50-100 lap races for dirt Late Models. We subsequently discovered it also offered superior performance in off road racing where 250-1000 mile races placed the same high premium on cooler engine temps."
Most recently, VP has reversed its earlier automotive-to-motorcycle trend with its work in motorcycle applications now leading to technological breakthroughs for automotive. "Fuels for motorcycle racing aren't just focused on power," Burns said. "Chemicals that improve a fuel's burning speed and vaporization and by extension, its throttle response, are critical in this arena. Some of what we've achieved there has recently been transferred to our newest automotive fuels-for example VP113-particularly for circle track. The technology yielded performance gains, but just as important, the gains have been achieved at a competitive price."
"The technology emerging from our motorcycle work has been used successfully not only here in the U.S. but also is helping us develop markets in Europe, the Middle East and even Russia," added Burns. "So technology originally developed for NHRA drag racing is still paying dividends-in different disciplines and different countries."
"What's demanded in fuels is not just power, but consistent quality. And consistent quality comes from expertise in chemistry, sourcing materials and blending; quality control in terms of what comes into and out of our facility; clean new lined drums, etc. It's a comprehensive team effort."
"Today, VP's role in NHRA Pro Stock drag racing is consistency," Johnson added. "NHRA runs VP's C25 fuel through a GC Mass Spec, essentially the same instrumentation used for Olympic drug testing. It has to be absolutely perfect and VP always has been. No one knows race fuel technology like VP."
Just as racing translates to any language, so too does VP's technology and performance. "We've been well established in Canada and Mexico for years, as well as Australia and Europe and more recently the Middle East," Burns said. "Of all the opportunities spawned by the thawing of the Cold War, who would have foreseen racing as a significant growth market in Russia? We're on the forefront of this phenomenon as well, with our newest Moscow-based distributor servicing rally and off road racers, along with drag racing, motocross and motorcycle road racing. With our ventures there and elsewhere, VP intends to maintain and solidify its position as the true World Leader in Race Fuel Technology for years to come."
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