Studebaker Performance Team One was begun and is the continuing major effort of Ted & Mary Ann Harbit.  Since 1961, Ted and Mary Ann have been campaigning their Studebakers, sometimes even their daily drivers!  In fact, here's Ted's version of the beginning years........

The Stock Years

"In 1961 the National Hot Rod Association held their National meet in my home city of Indianapolis. At the time I owned a 1951 Commander convertible, "The Teachers Pet", so named because I was a teacher at the time. We entered the car in the '61 Nationals and lost the final round by 3 feet to a 1950 303 cu in. Oldsmobile. That fall we went on a hunt for a lighter Starlight coupe since the convertible was 300 pounds heavier than needed in it's class. When we found one we named her the Chicken Hawk since there were so many Studebakers using the Hawk name at the time."

"During the next ten years the Chicken Hawk won seven National Class Championship. In the 11th year NHRA dropped the class for older cars and if we were to run, it would have to be against cars in the next higher class. We decided to go ahead and enter, and this had to be the sweetest of all---winning the eighth National title against cars a class above where we should have been. The best the little 232 cu.in. did in stock form was a 15.40 at a little over 87 MPH. The next year the NHRA dropped even more classes, so we were done running in stock form."

The Modified Years

"The Chicken Hawk became pretty much a daily driver for the next several years, and then about 1984 we found a totaled '63 R 2 Super Lark. We bought the engine and by this time ET bracket racing had become popular so we dropped the R 2 into the Chicken Hawk and starting racing her again. With the stock R 2 engine running 9 lbs of boost we were running in the 12's and 113 MPH. We then added a second supercharger and slowed them down a bit for reliability and picked up the boost to 14 PSI. (7 pounds from each blower running them in series). With the two Paxtons we were able to run a best of in the 11.50's at over 116 MPH".

"We soon realized that we were at about the limit with the twin Paxtons and decided to experiment with twin turbos. Along with the turbos came R 3 valves and a home made dual quad tunnel ram with two R 2 Carter AFB's and an intercooler to cool the incoming air from the turbos. The best time to date is a 10.43 at 132.55 with 20 pounds of boost. The speed at the end of the quarter mile is getting a little scary in a 50 year old car with stock suspension and steering, etc., even though it handles beautifully at this speed. We did add large disk brakes on the front to aid in stopping from high speed."

On to the Present.........

The Chicken Hawk isn't the only Studebaker racing endeavor that the Harbit family maintains. Currently, they race their pristine1962 R2 Lark, "The Stude Tomato" in the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags. 

They are also building a 1963 Avanti, strictly for the drag strip. 

And if that isn't enough, Ted is the main wrench and main PSMCD pilot of George Krem's pristine 1964 R3 Challenger, "The Plain Brown Wrapper". In fact, due to the Herculean efforts and tenacity of the current members of Team One, the "Tomato" and the "Wrapper" have become rather famous and well known as very tough PSMCD competitors. 

Getting national fame for Studebakers is one tall order. However, and because of Team One's accomplishments, during the 2003 PSMCD races, the television show "My Classic Cars" with Dennis Gage as host, came to Stanton to film the event. Not just the event, but especially the featured main event, a three round shoot-out between the "Wrapper" and a 427 Yenko Camaro. What was the outcome of this seemingly "David & Goliath" match? Watch for more all about it right here on Racing Studebakers! 

The efforts of Team One have not gone unnoticed by Studebaker aficionados. Each year when Team One arrives at Stanton, Michigan for the PSMCD they find more and more inspired and eager Studebaker entrants. 2003 was banner year for the number of Studebaker people and the number of Studebaker accomplishments, (but more on that later.....)

Speaking of Team One members..... Currently, Studebaker Performance Team One consists of primary members Ted and Mary Ann Harbit, George Krem, Bob Palma, and Dale McPhearson. Also, I'm sure that the primary Team One members couldn't accomplish as much without lots of support from their respective families.

All Team One members have busy "other" lives in addition to their accomplishments on the race track. Ted & Mary Ann have a Studebaker parts, machine shop and Paxton supercharger rebuild business. Bob Palma has his own car sales business and is a Technical Advisor for the official Studebaker Drivers Club publication, "Turning Wheels". Dale McPhearson, (alias "Lark Parker"), has his own stainless steel trim repair business. 

June Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags Results

Team One raced only the R3, "Plain Brown Wrapper". 

From Ted.........

With only one car, it was a lot more relaxing or maybe it was because we didn't have to constantly be trying to correct things (blower belts, hopping, etc.). BIG thanks to Nimesh and Nelson for solving these two headaches.  No (or very little hopping) and boost held 8 pound to the finish line.

We only had two problems:  One was the usual traction problem but was the best we've had, at least on an average.  Most of the 60' times were 2.0's to 2.15's except for one 2.305 The other was the clutch slipped going to fourth on the last run of the shoot out but fortunately had a big enough lead to hang on and win it.

Friday, did not get out of the 13's until the last run and it did a 12.857 (but have to admit we didn't beat on it very hard).  Also had a best speed there of 111.35.  Had a head wind both days from about 2 mph up to about 15.

Saturday morning one test run and did another 12.857.  Drew a '69 396/375 Nova in the shootout.  First race, he was ahead and was gaining on him and think would have passed him anyway but he missed fourth gear.  He did run awfully strong plus had a 1.998 sixty foot time.  His time for qualifying was 12.887.  Second run, he had an even better sixty foot time of  1.975 but we were able to make up for it on the start as he had a bad light.  Had this one won easily until the clutch slipped  in fourth.  Had to let off to about half throttle for it to catch up but was able to beat him.  His speed was 108.93 and ours 110.83.  He had an et of 12.832 to our 12.852.  Had the clutch not slipped on the last run, it would have been 12.7??.  Made up  my mind I wasn't going to back out of it on that run.

Ran a total of 10 cars and won 9 of them.  I heard them announce at one time on Friday there were 10 cars in the 12's so if that held we were in the top 10 out of 72 cars.  Car that beat us was a 440 six pack and he red lighted on the run but ran 12.527 @109.75.  Ours was 12.857 @ 110. 28.

From Bob Palma.....

A fellow named Steve Clay owned a portable dynamometer on the premises and was charging to have your car rear-wheel "dyno'd" if you wanted...but he was so taken with The R3 Plain Brown Wrapper that he asked us to bring it back and he would "dyno" it for free! The whole procedure and readout are more complicated than it would appear.

The R3 really strained at the Plain Brown Wrapper's tethers [to the dyno] and produced 365.1 HP MEASURED AT THE REAR WHEELS with a fully "loaded" drive-train at 5830 RPM! Mind you, this is for an engine that Studebaker rated at 335 HP @5300 RPM on the test stand. (I don't think all the sandbags in the northern part of Indiana are in The Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan...some must have made their way over to South Bend to the Engine Data Recording Center in Studebaker Engineering...or Santa Monica CA at Paxton Products.)

Plain Brown Wrapper performed flawlessly; absolutely no belt slip, breakage, or traction problems other than a little wheel spin, depending on how Ted launched. PBW also set two new quarter-mile records for itself: 111.35 MPH and 12.85X ET.  Excellent weather, save a little headwind.

Best of all, Ted and The PBW WON their 2-out-of-3 shootout in the first two runs, beating a dead sharp, 1969 396/4-speed Nova Coupe that is Certified Stock. The Nova has run as fast as 12.47 at this event...but not today, and not against The PBW. No need for a third

September Pure Stock Muscle Car Drags Results

Team One raced only the R2, "Stude Tomato"

From Ted.....

Left Tuesday for Michigan and Wednesday morning took the car with the head, intake and exhaust manifolds off.  Everything checked out ok.  Had some to spare:  Head cc minimum was 67.7 and ours was 71.0; deck minimum .019" and ours .029"; cam lift was right on (.2833" lobe lift) on the intake and about .004" short on the exhaust; bore and stroke right on; valves were about .001" smaller than specs; intake, carb, etc., all checked ok.  When head was reinstalled, they did a compression check on both heads to be sure the other head did not have too much compression and this turned out to be about 10 psi less than it
could have been so everything was fine.

Went to the strip Friday morning and found we had a miss in fourth gear about 5500 and tach jumped around.  Figured it was points but after cleaning, resetting, putting in another condenser, coil, etc., nothing helped.  Times were all in the 13's except one that was 14.3 when let off knowing the miss was still there.  Best and qualifying shootout time was 13.64.  We were paired in
the Saturday shoot out with a '68 400 cu. in. Ram Air GTO as his time was 13.60.

We also had trouble getting a decent 60' time (as we knew it would be).  Best was the first one at 2.18 and rest were 2.2's to 2.3's. 

Friday night back at the hotel, Nelson Bove and I (along with Tim Kobernic) took the Delco window distributor, cap, wires, coil, etc., out of the truck and put in the Tomato and the dual point Prestolite in the truck.  Worked good in the truck but with the weak advance springs, the truck sounds like a bunch of
pop bottles rattling in low speed pulling so set the timing back.

The Delco has the Pertronix Ignitor and coil and Saturday morning the miss was gone and the tack was steady now but it still "flattened" out about a 100 feet from the finish line.  May be due to the supercharger belt slipping.

In the shoot out we got real lucky as the rpm and clutch feathering must have been about right as it got a 2.14 sixty foot time.  Power shifted it as felt we would need all we could get to stay with the GTO and won the first round but was amazed when looked at the et slip that read 13.37.  Best it had done before
in the PSMCD was 13.41.

Second round we were just as lucky as got a 2.12 sixty foot time.  Decided to stay in it again to see if it would run that good again.  Usually don't run all out if have the other car beat but since we went to the trouble of having it certified, decided to let it go whatever it could.

Won that round with a 13.30.  This was more than .3 better than the qualifying time and this forfeits the win to the other car.  The GTO pulled into the pits and we followed him to tell him he won because of this and told him we could go a third round if he wanted.  He said he wanted to so we went back to the staging lanes he had fouled on the second run and they said that beat him before the ''break out" so they would not let us run a third round.

We waited to load up  hoping we could do some more racing when the shootouts were completed but time ran out and they had to clear the track for the local Saturday racers.

Best speed was only a little over 102 so if we can get the flattening cured, it should do better speed and et both. All in all, we were happy with what it did and really pleased it did it after
being certified. 

Dennis Gage was there and did a segment on the car.  He really seemed impressed with it and someone said he was on top of the tower/press box on the first shootout run so  hopefully, we will get some good PR for our Studes.

Congratulations AGAIN for your accomplishments Team One! As usual your awesome efforts make us proud. Hope it never ends. Thanks a million Team One!

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, Studebakering people everywhere, our teams need your support. The easiest way to give them support is to simply attend the events where they are racing our beloved Studebakers. Nothing is so exciting or compares to the unique sound of a Studebaker under full throttle, unless it's TWO of them! Please support Studebaker racing by supporting our dedicated, hard working teams when ever you can. Thanks!

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