This season Cary Goforth secured his eighth Mountain Motor Pro Stock Championship across four organizations. All eight championships came with the aid of Sonny’s Racing Engines, attesting the prowess of Sonny’s horsepower on both the eighth and quarter-miles.
“I’m proud of this because there have been a lot of people from day one when we started this journey that helped us get started, that helped us with advice, that helped us on the team, that were with us through the years,” Goforth said of the 2017 PDRA Extreme Pro Stock World Championship. “I think about those people. I think about our families at home, and all the people that have supported us, like Sonny and his team.
“What I like about Sonny Leonard is he does everybody the same,” Goforth continued. “There’s so many engine people out there who won’t give somebody all they got. Sonny’s not like that. I like the fairness and honesty of that. When this is over with, when this is all said and done, they’re still going to be great friends. Sonny has bent over backward and done above and beyond. And everybody at the shop – all the guys that work there – they’re wonderful. To have the opportunity to have a relationship with a legend like Sonny and for him to build the killer stuff he builds, is incredible. He gets you the stuff that’ll take you to the top if you’re willing to work at it. He’s an icon and an inspiration. So much of it goes above and beyond building motors. We know Sonny builds a great engine, but he also builds a great partnership and relationship with people. I appreciate all he’s done for us. To be a part of some of his success, I feel really fortunate. He’s very humble and an all-around good person. What we’ve accomplished off the race track means just as much to me as what we’ve accomplished on the race track.”
This is Goforth’s second PDRA championship. The other came in 2014 when he doubled up, also winning the IHRA championship that year. He has two IHRA championships (‘15, ‘16) back-to-back ADRL championships (‘11, ‘12) and the 2010 MMPSA championship to his credit.
“It does seem like we’ve pretty much stayed on top over the last few years,” Goforth said of his championships, in addition to a slew of race wins, number one qualifier awards and records. “Some people think we’ve had it handed to us because it’s an easy class or we have some type of advantage over the field. But that’s not the case. We have a lot of people out there that are working hard and are real fast. Everybody’s got pretty close to the same stuff. There’s a lot of good guys out here.”
Goforth finished out the year at the PDRA World Finals with a fifth final round appearance. There he met fellow Sonny’s customer, John Montecalvo. Montecalvo cut a perfect .000 light to get a holeshot win over Goforth. Montecalvo also used his Sonny’s power to post a new record-setting run in the semi-finals, a 4.020 elapsed time. Montecalvo finished second in points, ensuring Sonny’s power held the top two spots for the 2017 PDRA Pro Stock championship points.
For more on Sonny’s Racing Engines visit http://www.sonnysracingengines.com/.
This story was originally published on October 26, 2017. 
