HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Founded in 1976 in Memphis, Tennessee, Competition Cams (COMP) has roots dating back over 50 years. It all began in the early ‘60s when three drag racers bonded over their love of tinkering with Oldsmobile engines. Ivars Smiltnieks, Bob Woodard, and John McWhirter discovered the art of head porting and trick valve jobs to unlock hidden power and became very successful in NHRA’s Stock and Jr. Stock classes.
As other racers increasingly sought their services, they created a new company to meet the demand. In 1967, Racing Head Service (RHS) was born in the basement of Smiltnieks’ home with the purchase of a head resurfacing machine, a dip tank, and other vital equipment. Soon, they rented a real shop at the corner of Union and Marshall, which happened to be Sun Studios, where Elvis was discovered. By 1969, RHS was a full-on speed shop machining and building engines in the back while selling speed parts up front.
The three continued to win on the track and in business. RHS quickly outgrew the tiny Memphis facility and moved to a bigger building near the airport on Hangar Road. Meanwhile, they expanded to open two more shops in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Jackson, Mississippi.
A CAM IS BORN
Recognizing the need to supplement its cylinder head work with proper camshaft technology, RHS recruited talented Memphis cam designer Mark Heffington and Crane Cams shop foreman Tom Woitesek from Florida to form Cam Dynamics in 1972. Ivars’ brother Russ also joined the group, and local racer Scooter Brothers became a minor owner in RHS then.
In 1975, ownership disagreements saw the partnership between RHS and Cam Dynamics dissolve, with Cam Dynamics eventually going to Crane Cams. Meanwhile, Competition Cams was formed by six partners: Ivar Smiltnieks, Bob Woodard, John McWhirter, Tom Woitesek, Russ Smiltnieks, and Ron Coleman. COMP officially began production in 1976 out of RHS’s warehouse.
Business was booming. RHS eventually evolved into one of the first mail-order parts warehouses and one of the first to offer complete turnkey “crate” engines. COMP grew quickly, especially in the drag racing market. By 1979, it needed its own facility, at which time Bob Woodard sold his stake in the company.
THE 1980'S
The Memphis area dominated drag racing in the late 1970s and ‘80s. Envelope-pushing racers like Bob Glidden made names for themselves using Memphis-based equipment. NASCAR eventually grew to accept the superior hardware coming out of Memphis, and names like Labonte, Yarborough, Wallace, Childress, and Earnhart became household names with their help.
While COMP was winning on the track and in business, the same couldn’t be said for RHS. By the mid-'80s, things started to decline at RHS with a general change in how people bought parts and the introduction of GM’s crate engine program. They were forced to slim down, eventually closing their warehouses. At this time, parts of the company were moved to the Democrat Road location in Memphis.
THE 1990'S
A significant change also took place in 1988. Ivars Smiltnieks and Scooter Brothers made a deal to change companies. Scooter traded his stock in RHS in exchange for a small stake in COMP, and Ivars took ownership of RHS. His brother Russ was bought out a short time later. Unfortunately, Ivars’s health began to decline until his untimely passing, and RHS fell into dormancy in the ‘90s.
Now labeled the COMP Performance Group, Scooter would go on to lead the newly developed R&D department, hiring the first engineer and installing computer design capabilities. COMP continued to thrive into the 1990s, and Woitesek retired in 1995, leaving ownership to Coleman and Brothers.
THE EXPANSION
The two men decided to invest heavily in the future in technology, people, inventory, and equipment. Early on, they acquired tool manufacturer Powerhouse Tools. Then, in 1999, they introduced VThunder for motorcycles and GoParts for karts. In 2001, they purchased automatic transmission company TCI and formed FAST Electronics and ZEX Nitrous Systems.
Expansion continued in 2002 when they revived the RHS name to create cylinder heads once again and formed the ProRacing Sim software company. In 2007, they purchased Inglese Injection, while clutch company Quarter Master was bought in 2008. Even the economic downturn didn’t slow COMP Performance Group's progress.
THE EDELBROCK GROUP
After 44 years of ownership, Coleman and Brothers felt the time was right to sell COMP Performance Group to operations-focused private equity firm Industrial Opportunity Partners (IOP), which already owned Edelbrock, LLC. The Edelbrock Group™ was created in 2020 with the merging of the two performance-aftermarket legends.
COMP CAMS TODAY
COMP Cams is headquartered in Olive Branch, Mississippi, along with the distribution center for the Edelbrock Group family of brands, including Edelbrock LLC, FAST - Fuel Air Spark Technology, TCI Automotive, Russell Performance, and Lunati Power. COMP Cams' manufacturing facility and R&D center are still on Democrat Road in Memphis, Tennessee.
