Renowned engine builder and standout NHRA Sportsman driver Todd Patterson’s career path has led him to a great opportunity this weekend.

Patterson, a former NHRA Pro Stock and Pro Stock Truck competitor, is competing in Pro Stock at the ANDRA Castrol EDGE Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland, Australia Thursday through Sunday. Queensland is 16 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

“We’ve been trying to put this deal together for the last year with Peter Ridgeway, who is a past four-time Australian Pro Stock champion,” Patterson said in a cell phone interview from Queensland. “Ridgeway has been in retirement for about the last four or five years and he had a car built at Don Ness’s shop about two and a half years ago, he has been waiting to debut. I’ve been working with him on his engine stuff and helped supply him a lot of components for him to build his engine. Then, about three months ago, this opportunity came up to sell an engine to Chris Solditos who had bought a Don Ness car and had it shipped over to Australia. Chris bought the engine, but he didn’t know if he was going to be able to drive the car and Peter (Ridgeway) said why don’t you let Todd come out and drive the car? That’s how the deal got started once Chris ordered the engine.”

Renowned engine builder and standout NHRA Sportsman driver Todd Patterson’s career path has led him to a great opportunity this weekend.

Patterson, a former NHRA Pro Stock and Pro Stock Truck competitor, is competing in Pro Stock at the ANDRA Castrol EDGE Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland, Australia Thursday through Sunday. Queensland is 16 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

“We’ve been trying to put this deal together for the last year with Peter Ridgeway, who is a past four-time Australian Pro Stock champion,” Patterson said in a cell phone interview from Queensland. “Ridgeway has been in retirement for about the last four or five years and he had a car built at Don Ness’s shop about two and a half years ago, he has been waiting to debut. I’ve been working with him on his engine stuff and helped supply him a lot of components for him to build his engine. Then, about three months ago, this opportunity came up to sell an engine to Chris Solditos who had bought a Don Ness car and had it shipped over to Australia. Chris bought the engine, but he didn’t know if he was going to be able to drive the car and Peter (Ridgeway) said why don’t you let Todd come out and drive the car? That’s how the deal got started once Chris ordered the engine.”

Patterson is campaigning Solditos’ new Pontiac GTO machine in Queensland. The Patterson Racing Performance Warehouse is based out of Augusta, Kan., near Wichita.

Patterson arrived in Queensland last Tuesday and he and his family and the team will depart from Down Under this coming Tuesday. Patterson did some test runs last Thursday and Sunday in his Pontiac at Willowbank. According to Patterson, there are two qualifying runs Friday and one Saturday. The first round of eliminations begin Saturday afternoon and the rest of the eliminations take place Sunday.   

“We’re taking a car with the ingredients, but it is unproven,” Patterson said. “It’s no different from being in the United States. All these guys over here have a number of runs under their belt. They know the gear ratio and clutch set up they will need. We feel if we can get everything in line from a set-up standpoint, we’re going to have a chance to be competitive and go some rounds. Whether we can win the race remains to be seen.”

Patterson’s crew chief is fellow United States Sportsman racer Tim Freeman. Allan Patterson, Todd’s father is tuning the engine.

“I had been in discussions with Tim (Freeman) who I raced with at Lee Sharp the last couple of years,” Patterson said. “Tim showed some interest with the way the Pro Stock class is set up over here (in Australia). The Pro Stock class in Australia has a lot of appeal to it because the cars are running with 400-cubic inch small block engines, with five-speed (transmissions) at 2,300 pounds with the driver. The fastest run to date in one of these cars is 7.04 seconds, so they’re knocking on the door to get in the 6s. We do not have anything like this class in the United States right now. It’s either NHRA Pro Stock, which is 500-cubic inch, or you have to compete in the Sportsman classes or run some kind of Outlaw format.”

Patterson also says there’s no shortage of Pro Stock competitors at the Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway.

“There are 20 cars entered this weekend to run for 16 spots,” Patterson said. “There also are approximately 25 to 28 cars here that have been imported from the United States. Whether they’re brand new chassis built by (Don) Ness, (Jerry) Bickel, (Jerry) Haas or RJ, or  they’ve bought old Pro Stock cars and converted them to small block. It should be a very competitive field.”

Patterson believes trying his hand at Pro Stock in Queensland made good business sense.

 “Pro Stock racing in Australia appealed to use because of the small-block engines; that’s what we’re known for in the United States,” Patterson said. “This is another market for us to build and sell parts in. I think it is like anything else, if you patronize your customers and you get out and race with them, you show them you’re one of them. The benefits for Patterson racing (by racing in Australia) could be huge. I started doing stuff for racers in Australia in the late 1980s and I met Peter Ridgeway approximately 15 years ago at the U.S. Nationals and he was just in awe of my Don Ness 1995 Firebird. He liked the car so well, he ordered one for himself and our relationship kind of took off from there. He is a highly-respected tuner and a lot of the guys over here (in Australia) look up to him. It has allowed us to sell a lot of engine components through him over here (in Australia) the last 10 years and it has kind of escalated the last couple of years with these engine sales. Hopefully, if our product loo
ks good on the race track this weekend, it will benefit us and allow us to ship more engines down here in the future.”

In the United States, Patterson campaigns a super modified car in the Comp Eliminator ranks, and he doesn’t see that changing.

“At this point, the way the economy is in the United States, it is not easy for someone to jump into NHRA Pro Stock right now,” Patterson said. “That takes a budget of at least a couple million dollars a year to do it correctly, and you have no guarantee you’re going to win even if you have that kind of money because that class is so competitive. With this format (in Australia) there would be a lot of NHRA racers and Sportsman racers who would die to have a format like this in the United States right now.”

Depending on how this weekend goes, Patterson says he might do some more racing in Australia in the near future.

“We may get the opportunity to come back over here in September and race in Sydney, and if I get that opportunity, I’m sure I will take advantage of it,” Patterson said. “If we race in Sydney, it will be in the same (Pro Stock) car I’m driving this weekend.”