Pro
Motor Engines will again appear in the championship round as they take
on Hendrick Motorsports in the 11th annual MAHLE Engine Builder
Showdown Thursday afternoon.
Mike Maiwald and Scott Vester of Hendrick Motorsports will face off
against Pro Motor Engines 2009 showdown champions but with two new
teammates for 2010 Josh Hypes and Matt Jackling. This is the fourth
consecutive year a team from Pro Motor Engines has made an appearance
in the championship round.
The finale of the MAHLE Engine Builder Showdown will be held at 5:30
p.m. tonight during “NASCAR Rev’d Up,” an event during NASCAR All-Star
Week. It will be held on the side stage between 3rd and Mint Streets in
Uptown Charlotte, N.C.
Former NASCAR Crew chiefs Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds will host
the finale of the MAHLE Engine Builder Showdown, which is a tiered,
three-round competition designed to recognize the knowledge, skill and
speed of professional engine builders who assemble special performance
engines for NASCAR teams.
In Tuesday’s second round in which teams had to build a complete
Chevrolet R07 race engine in the fastest time and successfully run it
for one minute, Hendrick Motorsports (19 minutes, 28 seconds) defeated
the Roush-Yates Engines Team 2009 runner up by only 22 seconds to
advance, while Team Pro Motor edged out the competing Penske Racing
Engine team with a record-breaking time of 18 minutes, 11 seconds.
“The MAHLE Engine Builder Showdown is always an exceptional event to
watch,” said Bill McKnight, team leader training for MAHLE Clevite.
“And this year it will be interesting to see if the Pro Motor Engine
team can keep up the momentum in the final round, or if Maiwald and
Vester from Hendrick Motorsports will rally to win the title and become
the 2010 MAHLE Engine Builder Showdown champion, win the cash prize and
have their names engraved on the prestigious Randy Dorton Memorial
Trophy.”