TRACTION PRODUCTS, INC.
WEISMANN TRANSMISSIONS
WEISMANN MARINE, LLC.

2002 EVENTS

TECATE SCORE BAJA 1000

(Nov. 22th, Baja California, Mexico)

Weismann 6 Speed Semi-Automatic Transmission wins the SCORE Trophy Truck Championship!

For the first time in the 35 year history of the SCORE's open class, we have proven two things; It can be won with a with a semi-automatic transmission and it can be won with a 4WD truck!

A.J. Martin and the Herbst brothers Ed and Tim, piloted the truck to the overall lead and at the 470 mile mark they pitted for a flat tire. Dan Smith passed them while they were stopped. Though the Ford powered truck ran flawlessly throughout the entire race, they suffered 8 flat tires and got caught in the coastal fog after San Ignacio. The Terrible Herbst truck narrowly lost the race to defending champs Dan Smith and Dave Ashley, who got thru before the fog rolled in.

After a little over than 18 hours and 1017 miles, the truck rolled into La Paz in 2nd place in class and 3rd overall. Out of 234 starters, 3rd place overall was not too shabby, but the team expected 1st.

"We just got beat. I really wanted to win the big one this year. We came close and the truck ran perfectly. It was out of my hands."-Mike Smith.

Last year, the Terrible Herbst 4WD Truck lost all their races due to automatic transmission failures. Mike and A.J. came to us and we designed and manufactured within 3 months one to win races and championships. What a difference a year makes! They are not so terrible on the race track now!

APBA OFFSHORE CHAMPIONSHIPS

(Nov. 17th-26th, Key West, Florida)

Nigel Hook outraced the competition and loses the Championship!

After some last minute negotiations, the two Vortec Weismann Super Vees Lights became legal again to race in the two race World Championships. In the first race at the drop of the green flag, Nigel Hook and Craig Archer sprinted into the lead.

At the first buoy, Nigel and Craig got there first and to their surprise, they were in front of the Super Vees as well! Fearing that he might be banned, he tucked in the drives and backed off a little.

Still not wanting to give any ground, Nigel's Lucas Scarab took the second buoy flat out. The boat skipped thru the turn and unknown to them at the moment, they burst a power steering line in the boat. Midway down the straightaway, all steering was lost and the boat flat spun while at full throttle.

The boat never attempted to roll and turn over, a true testament to the safety of our innovative, low cg packages. Unfortunately for them though, the race was over and so was the championship.

The Ettore Vee never had a chance as a loose spark plug wire caused one of the motors to be down on power and they had no choice but to put around to 4th place.

In the second race, Nigel and new co-pilot Tim were determined to make up for the first race. In the milling area before the start, the Lucas Scarab ran up the back of Steve Mikilos' boat, damaging a prop and drive skeg. The were able to continue and again at the drop of the green flag, they rocketed out front. Steve's boat was unable to continue.

During the race, a boat spun out in front of Nigel and he stopped to make sure they were all right. They were ok and Nigel resumed the race dead last. Quickly Nigel and Tim passed up thru the field into 2nd place. They were having trouble getting around a Super Cat Light when the motor let go. It was sad to not even finish this race, but everybody leaving the Worlds knew that the Weismann MKII driven Scarab was the boat to beat.

The Ettore Vee of Jim Richardson and Dennis Sigalous had another disappointing race. They were under-propped for the conditions, and they had to run on the rev-limiter all day. They finished a distant 4th place.

(Oct. 26th, Wichita, Kansas)

Weismann 3 Speed Drag Transmissions wins the PMRA Funny Bike Championship!

Gene Langley defeated 18 competitors over the course of the 2002 season to win his first and our first PRMA Funnybike Title. This rather unorthodox looking, yet very effective bike is the one Brian Bennett built to win his 2 Funnybike Championships. Gene bought it last year and wasted no time in besting his competitors, winning 3 of the 7 rounds to secure the crown. His transmission is the KZ3, a 3 speed over-riding automatic that Brian purchased in mid-season 1999.

World of Speed

(Oct. 19th, Bonneville, Utah)

Al Teague broke another World Speed Record in what might be his last run in the Speed-O-Motive Streamliner. The conditions were near perfect, but unfortunately the return course was shorter than the first courses and he was not able to duplicate the quicker run. He averaged 389 mph over the two runs, besting the previous record by 15 mph.

(Oct. 12th, Montgomery, Al.)

Weismann Funnybike Transmissions wins back-to-back AMA/Prostar Championships!

Chip Ellis secures his first Funnybike Crown early after narrowly missing it last year. All Chip had to do was qualify. The new champion breezed through his elimination rounds into the final round to meet former champion Gary Clark. Chip got the hole shot with a .409 to Gary's .466 and led until about the 1000 ft mark.

"The track has always been run as a 1/8 mile track and it wasn't in any condition to be run as a 1/4 mile. Chip hit this rise in the lane and it launched him across the center line and he lost run."~ said Rice

Steve Rice's 600hp ZX1100 has been running our ZX3 since 1994 and was our first Drag Bike customer. With 656 points, Chip secured the title with one more round to go. Second place Gary Clark has 462 points.

Our ZX3 and KZ3 transmissions have won 3 of the last 4 AMA/Prostar Funnybike Championships.

(Oct. 16th-20th)

JEEP ICON

At the Anaheim Convention Center this week is the most radical SUV in the world.

The Jeep Icon is a 12 speed semi-automatic 4WD and was the last great idea of Peter Weismann. From his conceptual layout, we designed and made the working prototype in 4 1/2 months with the help of a lot of talented people.

It's unique rear suspension design has inspired several similar versions by SUV manufacturers.

Gary Smith and his awesome Predator dominated the Havasu Fall Heatwave Poker Run. With 165 entries, the 46' Skater was the first boat through all 5 check points and first boat back home. Gary's has the fastest pleasure boat on the West Coast, reaching in incredible 160 mph 4 times during the event.

"There were broken drives everywhere. Prop shafts were gone, twisted right off with the props. Three of them like that!"
"Ours were perfect. We didn't have any problems. They were flawless!" ~ Gary gleamed.

(Ventura, Ca. -Sept 30th, 2002)

Weismann MKII Drives wins first Championship!

Nigel Hook and Joey Skrocki rocketed across unusually smooth waters in Ventura for their 3rd win in a row securing the Pacific Offshore Triple Crown and the POPRA Super Vee Light Championship!

"It was nothing like Ventura usually has. You can usually count on Ventura being rough, but this was the calmest I have seen it," said Hook. "The boats are able to go faster, but it is less exciting in a sense. I like it rough because it is a really big challenge."

"Bummer that Ettore broke so we had no one to play with! - Joey

The Ettore Vee lost a water hose and they had to shut one of their GM Vortec engines down while running second to the fleeting Scarab.

Thanks to Nigel Hook for having faith in us, we have won our first championship with our revolutionary inline engine~transmission~drive package and our MKII surface drives.

(Primm, Nv - Sept. 14th, 2002)

Ed, Tim Herbst and A.J. Martin finally win one!

The SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 and the seventh race of the year was the charm for the Herbst Trophy Truck and our Weismann 6 speed semi-automatic transmission. This historic win is the first ever for a desert race vehicle with a semi-automatic computer-controlled transmission.

Loosing time early on due to flat tires, the truck was running in 3rd place and 4 minutes down at the end of the 1st lap. But on lap 2, they were up to 2nd and only one minute behind leaders Dan Smith and David Ashley. By the end of the 3rd lap, Ed had chased them down in the start/finish area and forced them into making a big mistake, rolling their truck.

The Herbst Duo were though into 1st place and they quickly pulled away. They lost 15 minutes from 4 tire punctures, stopped once to check on their broken down teammates, and still won by over 20 minutes! In the closest finish ever in desert racing, they were second overall to Mike Julson and Bob Lofton's Class 1 buggy, loosing 1st place overall by just 1 second after 4 hours and 44 minutes!

This awesome truck is paving the future of desert racing. The next and last race of the season is the Baja 1000 in November.

(Mont Tremblant, Quebec - Sept. 14th, 2002)

Eric Curran and Darin Brassfield win!

Woodson Duncan's Sky Blue Racing Mustang won the AGT class in the 6 hour endurance race in Canada. After taking the pole in the class, Eric and Darin cruised into victory circle. This is the second American Gt class race for our classic "Shuttle" trans and already it has it's first win.

(Sept 8th, 2002)

Weismann MKII Drives finish 1-2 in Pittsburgh!

For the second race in a row, Nigel Hook and John Harris beat the rebuilt Ettore Super Vee Light to the finish. But the race belonged to Team Ettore. They led for most of the race until a strange engine gremlin caused the engine ecu to limit engine rpm. They lost speed and Nigel ran them down and passed them for the win!

This is the 2nd win toward the Pacific Offshore Triple Crown.

(Sept 8th, 2002)

Weismann ZX3 wins 3rd straight!

Chip Ellis' 4th Funny Bike win in Atco, New Jersey was one of the toughest yet. The organizers limited the strip to just an 1/8 mile run because of poor track conditions and riders were scrambling to find grip.

The final round came down to Chip Ellis and Mark Oliver. Mark set an ET of 4.471 sec. while Chip was a .003 of a sec slower at 4.474 sec. But Chip's quicker reaction time of .424 sec was .041 of a second quicker than Mark's .465 sec RT.

Chip extended his lead to 568 points over Mark Oliver's 384 points.

(August 31 - Sept 1st, 2002)

Weismann Manual 4WD soars to wins the CORR PRO-4 Championship!

Johnny Greaves secured his first and our first Pro-4 Championship by racing intelligently for the final two rounds in Crandon, Wisconsin.

In Friday's qualifying for the Borg Warner Cup on Sunday, Johnny picked the 28th starting position out of 30 trucks. On a dry and dusty track, Johnny won the pole position with a lap 2 seconds quicker than everybody else!

Leading by 12 points over Kurt LeDuc going into Round 13, Johnny had to keep Kurt behind him. But Kurt did what he had to do and finished in 2nd place while Johnny finished 3rd, retaining a slimmer 10 point lead.

Round 14 the last race of the season and LeDuc got a great start for the lead, while Johnny avoided trucks all around him in the first turn and started moving up thru the field. He then received a penalty for passing two trucks in a yellow flag zone that he never saw. Johnny came in for the penalty and regained the race at the back of the pack.

Determined to win the championship, Johnny charged back up to 4th, good enough to win by two points over Kurt LeDuc!

The Borg Warner race is the big money race at the end of the year. Pro 2 trucks and Pro 4 trucks get to compete against each other . With the championship won, it was Johnny's first chance of the weekend to race.

With the Pro 2’s getting a 80 yard head start, Johnny rounded the first corner in 4th place and quickly passed thru the pack. Ahead of him still was Pro 2's Scott Taylor, Carl Renezeder and Curt Le Duc.

Le Duc was trying desperately trying to keep Johnny behind him and ended up giving Johnny a flat front tire as they banged bumpers several times. Le Duc tried to pass Renezeder and Johnny squeezed past both of them and took second place!

He caught Scott Taylor, then his tire came apart and tore the off brake lines. Johnny still pushed hard and won a hard earned second place.

Johnny Greaves has two of our transmissions, and he raced the whole year with one Weismann 5 Speed 4WD! This is the second consecutive year he has raced it.

We are pleased to be working with his professional team!

BONNEVILLE SPEED WEEK

Al Teague added 4 more runs over 400 mph, increasing his total to 13. The track was too bumpy and he had a few runs blown out, so he never got a good chance to set a record time. He is hoping the officials will give him a couple of extra miles in September. He hit the traps twice at 395 mph and increased to 410 mph out the back of the timed mile!

Al has always used our original Weismann 4 speed longitudinal Transaxle.

Smokey Alleman and Tom Roberts have broken their previous record of 167.422 mph with a pass of 174.4 mph in their F/Gas Roadster.

Smokey used our classic "Shuttle" Transmission

(August 18th, 2002)

5 boats, 3 wins, and 2 places!

Under overcast skies in Huntington Beach, 5 boats using Weismann Drives and Transmissions dominated the 3 classes of POPRA Offshore racing.

Coby Klein in the Kidstuff/Ettore Super Cat using our Weismann #6 drives easily led the whole race. 2nd place Craig Ferguson, who is now running our Weismann #6 drives, is now trailing Coby in the championship.

In the Super Vee Light class, it was another 1-2 finish. Nigel Hook's Scarab led every lap to beat the rebuilt Ettore's Vee. They are the only two boats in the world using our radical new inline engine layout. The new GM Vortec engines are coupled to Weismann FNR transmissions and the MKII surface drives.

Rique Ford has returned to boat racing and is running the ex-Ettore Extreme with Weismann Drysump #6s. He easily won his class, leading every lap.

(August 11-12th, 2002)

Johnny Greaves wins again and extends his championship lead!

With the CORR Pro-4 Championship in sight, Johnny decided to race like he has never raced before. He played it safe. In round 11, Johnny made a descent start and raced just hard enough to stay in front of his main competitors for the title. Johnny cruised home to a 3rd place behind the Baldwin brothers.

Round 12, and Johnny again decided to race for the championship. But he got a good start and found himself in second behind Scott Douglas who got the hole shot. Half way though the first lap, Johnny got a break.

"There was a triple jump and over the last jump, Scott pushed a little wide. I flew over the last jump low so I could take a good line for the turn and was able to get inside of him. He rubbed up against me a little, but I pushed through and I was gone!", said Johnny.

Johnny never looked back and came home to win his 3rd race of the year and increased his lead to 12 points over Curt Le Duc. Scott fell back to third and came away with 5th place in the Championship.

(August 11-12th, 2002)

Tommy Bahama doubles in Cleveland!

Tommy Bahama, fitted with Weismann Transmissions, beat their own existing kilo record by 6 mph on the smooth water in Cleveland, Ohio. Averaging 136 mph, the super cat easily beat the rest of the field, despite being the only boat penalized 300 lbs for being too fast!

Sunday's race was all but over for the rest of the APBA Super Cat field at the drop of the green flag. Tommy Bahama easily pulled away from them, led every lap, and recorded it's second win of the year! 19 seconds behind, Team Virgin finished second and Drambuie on Ice was third.

(August 10-12th, 2002)

Chip Ellis wins Indy!

Championship leader Chip Ellis inched ever closer to his first Funny Bike championship sunday by beating rival and former Champion Gary Clark. Chip ripped off a 6.821 s run at 200.98 mph in the final round as Gary suffered mechanical problems and rolled across though the traps at 90 mph.

Defending champion Robert Giard was beat fair and square in round 1 at the tree. Despite running a quicker pass, his reaction time was slower and he lost the race and his second place in the championship. With 3 races to go, he has his work cut out for him if he is to catch and beat Chip. Chip has 470 points, Gary has 342, and Robert has 307.

(Bark River, Mi.- July 13 - 14th)

ROUND 8

Great weather, 80 to 90 degree temperatures, a wet track, and a land rush start to the first corner. Many trucks slid out off control in the first corner and Johnny was hit and carried head-on into the wall. Forced to pit to change a blown tire, he found himself back in the race, dead last.

Scott Douglas hung back going into the first corner surviving the mayhem and quickly moving up to the 2nd spot behind the leader Jason Baldwin. The racing line quickly became a one groove track and Scott hounded Baldwin thru every turn to the finish. Scott had to settle for 2nd and a boost in the championship standings. Johnny came home in 7th.

“I have to give Jason a lot of credit. We put ourselves in position to capitalize on any mistakes he made, but he drove almost flawlessly,” Douglas said. "We felt like we had him a couple of times, but our truck got out in the fluff and lost some of its traction.”

ROUND 9

The start was a cloud of dust and Johnny was into 2nd place thru the first turn. Scott squeezed thru into 6th place and started after the trucks in front of him.

Johnny pitched the truck perfectly into the inside of the leader going in turn 3, and our Weismann 5 speed manual 4WD transmission accelerated past the automatic transmission into 1st place!

Scott was eating mud and fighting his way up thru the field into 3rd place. He was making his move into 2nd place when the battery lost power and the Rancho Ford ground to a halt.

The Potowatomi Toyota pulled out a commanding 13 second lead and Johnny cruised home to a well earned win and the championship lead!

ROUND 10

The temperature was pushing 90 and the third race was just as hot! Johnny, starting from the outside, jammed into 3rd place with Scott Douglas running right next to him thru the first 3 turns! Johnny edged past Scott as they screamed up the hill.

The track was really soaked and Johnny was getting pelted in the face by the two trucks in front of him. He was hit so hard by the flying mud that his goggles broke out and flew off his helmet!

Blinded, he drove off the track and Scott was into 3rd and after the leaders. Johnny was forced to pit and rejoined the race in last position. Scott quickly dispensed with the truck in second and took off after a fleeing Jason Baldwin.

Scott was all over Jason like Oprah on a baked ham. Just like the first race, the dry groove formed quickly and Scott again had to be satisfied with 2nd place. Johnny made up for lost ground and passed his was up to 7th place.

A rear view of the Weismann 4WD in Johnny-s truck.

After 10 rounds our two trucks are in the top five and in the championship hunt. With four races to go, Curt LeDuc has 141, Johnny Greaves has 139, Carl Renezeder has 130, Scott Douglas has 119, and Jason Baldwin 118.

HENDERSON TERRIBLE 250

Henderson, Nv. (July 10-14th)

The Herbst Trophy Truck has had the worst luck this year! For the fifth race in a row, the truck was leading only to suffer problems and loose the win. This time the truck had 6 flat tires and broke the third member. They still managed a hard fought 2nd place, 20 minutes down on the race winner Mark Post.

Ed Herbst, "It's amazing that we had six flats in the first three laps and we're still leading. The truck was just running amazingly. I think we all underestimated how tough this course really was."

Tim Herbst, "Ed started and did three laps - he did a good job getting ahead of traffic. We lost the power steering and rear pinion. We drove in on just the front wheels. I had one flat - everything just fell apart in the last lap and a half."

The good news is our reliable Weismann 6 speed semi-automatic transmission has another race under it's belt!

Norwalk, Va. (June 30th, 2002)

Chip Ellis takes the win and the championship lead!

Chip Ellis dominated the opposition and recorded his second win of the year. Chip eliminated Gary Clark in the final round with a pass of 6.826 s at 200.26 mph! Chip leads the championship with 362 points over Robert Giard and his 261 points. The two championship leaders fought for the championship last year with Robert prevailing over Chip in the final round. Both riders use our unique 3 speed drag transmissions.

(Washougal, Wash. - June 9th)

Ty Davis wins his 3 race in a row!

""This is my best win this year!" - Ty

Davis got the hole shot and lead the first lap, but the in the technical section on the second lap, Ty looped out the bike and had to go back down to the bottom of the hill to try it again. This time he nailed it and set after new leader and championship rival Mike Kiedrowski.

I got caught out by the technical section and fortunately for me, I got it right for the rest of the race." - Ty

Unfortunately for Mike, he had trouble in the same tough section the on lap three and Ty got through and opened up a 30 second lead overall to the finish.

"I usually don't race in the forest, so this was good for me to come back and win!"

Ty Davis leads Mike Kiedrowski by 6 points after 4 races in the World Off Road Championship.

Cape Cod, Ma. -(June 9th)

1st National APBA win for the Weismann MKII Surface Drives!

Nigel Hook teamed up with a new driver up from F2 class for the second race in the new Wellcraft - Vortec - Weismann Super Vee Light.

The seas where very rough, with 4' waves braking across the hull of the boat into the cockpit before the start of the race. Nigel took it easy in the first few laps to get adjusted with his new co-pilot without radios, then started reeling in the pack.

"We were getting some pretty good air out there. We hit this one wave and it got quiet enough that I could hear the new guy screaming over the engines!", Nigel said.

They quickly made their way to the front and Nigel passed the leading Pier 57 Fountain on the last lap, got passed, then passed back into the lead on the final turn lead to win!

Pier 57 tried in vain to catch the tougher W-V-W Vee and broke down on the final straight away!

We have packaged the new GM Vortec engines in the same inline configuration we did for Ettore last year into Nigel Hooks' 38' foot Wellcraft. Craig Archer rigged the boat in less than a week!

(Antigo, Wi -June 8 - 9th)

3 races, 3 wins!

Scott Douglas dominated Round 3!

With his Rancho Ford on pole, Scott screamed away from the Pro-4 field leaving them in his dust! Nobody even got close enough to challenge Scott. Douglas scored his first win of the year and 4th of his CORR career, beating Kurt LeDuc by 16 seconds.

Johnny Greaves wins Round 4!

Beating Kurt Le Duc and Josh Baldwin to the finish, Greaves' Potowatomi Toyota also scored his first of the year and his 4th career win.

Scott Douglas slid his way to 4th place with some bad tires.

Weismann 4WDs 1 - 2 in final round!

In Round 5, Scott first had to fight off Jason Baldwin, then he had to hold off a hard charging Johnny Greaves to win his second race of the season!

Scott vaulted from last to 4th in the championship with 62 points and Johnny extends his lead in the championship to 77 points!

(Price, Utah - May 26th)

A grueling 6 mile lap, a 2 hour offroad race, and another race win for Ty Davis!

After running 2nd for the first lap, Ty passed into the lead on the 2nd lap and pulled out a sizable lead over 2nd place when he got a flat on the front tire the last lap! Not wanting to alert the second place rider to his predicament, Ty rode the bike light on the front - virtually riding a wheelie for the whole last lap.

This incredible win firmly moves Ty into the lead of the World Off Road Championship. Ty is currently leading two different motorcycle championships!

(Edmeston, N.Y. - May 24-25th)

Johnny Greaves leaves New York with the lead in the championship!

The first two rounds of the Championship Off Road Racing series took place this past weekend and Johnny Greaves and Scott Douglas were back competing in the Pro-4 Trucks with our 5 speed 4WD manual transmissions.

The first race went bad for Scott before he even started the race! A freak brake failure doomed him at the drop of the green flag and he had to run the whole race with the front brakes locked, eventually finishing 7th!

"Our crew found a malfunctioning pin valve in the hand brake after the event... that's some kind of bad luck." Douglas said.

Since Johnny won the last race last year, he had to start from last place. Johnny quickly passed everybody on his way to the front and was leading the pack when he ran wide onto a berm and popped a tire. When Johnny's tire finally came off five laps later, Carl Renezeder was able to get by Johnny on the last lap to win.

Sunday's race was over for Scott Douglas in the first turn of the first lap as a result of Jason Baldwin and his old tactics. Jason veered right into Scott off the starting line and caused a multi-truck pile up which caught everybody but Kurt Le Duc who started on pole.

Johnny was also involved in the crash as he was hit from behind. He stalled the motor and by the time he got it started again, Kurt already had a half a lap lead. Johnny reeled Kurt in, lapping 3 seconds quicker but unfortunately ran out of time and had to settle for another 2nd place.

After the race, Corr officials reviewed the race and imposed a 5 point penalty and a two race probation for Baldwin who was black flagged twice during the race as well!

The next race is in Antigo, Wi on June 8 and 9th.

AMA National Hair and Hound

(Jericho, Utah - May 10th)

Ty Davis wins his 2nd straight!

Ty led from start to finish, 1m 40 s ahead of fellow Yamaha rider Russ Pearson and the rest of the pack.

This season Davis has finished 2nd twice and now with two wins, Ty moves into the championship lead.

Havasu Poker Run

Lake Havasu, Az. (April 28th, 2002)

Gary Smith has the fastest pleasure boat on the West Coast!

Gary had started dead last, 15 minutes behind everybody else and still beat all the boats to all 5 Poker stops to win! The boat over 160 mph en route to catching and passing the entire pack! Details of the race will be in the next issue of Hot Boat and Poker Runs of America.

Gary is using Weismann Drysump #6's coupled to 2 blown Whipple big blocks!

Silverstone Race to the Sky

Queenstown, New Zealand (March 30-31, 2002)

Rod Millen is finally 'King of the Mountain'!

After finishing 2nd for the last 3 years, Rod Millen wins the Silverstone Race to the Sky 'King of the Mountain' title!

He set the fastest qualifying time of 8.51.66, then Rod bettered his time in his final run with a time of 8.43.76 to win. Defending title holder Possum Bourne hit a hole in the bottom part of the course, puncturing a tire and ruining his chances to beat Rod.

"I'm glad it took that long to finally win it. We have come down here and enjoyed our times here. If you had won the first time then you perhaps wouldn't have been around to keep trying.", said a smiling Rod.

The top ten qualifiers competed in a sprint shootout to decide their start places in the race and Millen was a clear winner thrilling the crowd with the huge air over the jump. His time of 1m 15 was two seconds faster than the second placed Bourne.

Rod is using a Weismann 4WD 5 speed.