KTR Drag Racing has launched KTR-U, a tuning education program run out of the company’s Thomson, Georgia, facility, with the first classes set to roll out in the coming weeks. Founder Stevie “Fast” Jackson announced the program on the latest episode of the Shake and Bake Show, with additional details to follow in the days after.
Jackson has spent most of his racing and engine-building career holding KTR’s process and data inside the building. By his own admission, he refused for years to teach what he knew because he was afraid of training his own replacement. That stance is now gone.
“I used to very much covet our process and data to the point that I would never teach anyone how to do anything in drag racing because you’re fearful that you’re going to teach somebody smarter than you that’s going to replace you,” Jackson said. “Well, KTR is taking a 180-degree backdoor back swing on that. We’re going the other way.”
The opening curriculum centers on the two ECUs most common in the Pro Mod and outlaw pits: FuelTech and Holley. Jackson said KTR plans to run roughly one course on each platform every month, then gauge demand from there.
According to the KTR-U website, courses include a course workbook, a KTR backpack and merch, lunch both days of the class, and discounted accommodations and the local Hampton Inn. Graduates will receive a KTR-U Certificate of Completion.
Advanced courses come next, with a higher bar to enter. The advanced material is where KTR-U starts to look unlike any tuner school the sport has produced. Jackson said the program will teach traction control, O2 correction, wheelspeed management, and the math behind blower-overdrive ratios. Students will need to complete a beginner course before they are eligible.
Eventually, Jackson said, the program will move from the classroom to the racetrack. KTR-U plans to rent track time, bring out 10 to 20 cars at a time, and put students in real tuning situations on real combinations.
The instructors are not just Jackson. He said KTR will use multiple instructors across the program and assign whoever is sharpest on a given subject to teach it. Jackson cited his prior involvement in the launch of the tuner school at Hennessey Performance as the template.
“The more people that we can get to tune cars, the more race cars we can get,” Jackson said.
That line is the business case. Drag racing’s growth ceiling is increasingly capped by talent. There are more drivers and teams looking for crew chiefs and tuners than there are qualified people to fill those roles. Jackson’s own staffing pipeline benefits if the school works. So does every other team trying to hire.
“We don’t want to just teach you how to do it,” Jackson said. “We want to make your car better. Make it where I can hire y’all to run cars for me.”
For a tuner who built his reputation on what he would not share, KTR-U is a public bet that giving the playbook away is now the better long-term move – both for KTR and for the sport.
This story was originally published on June 4, 2026. 
