ABOUT BRUNKER'S VINTAGE GARAGE
Like many of you, my passion for cars was ignited early while helping my Dad (RIP) work on the family cars and intensified after I began working on my own first ride, a 1973 Chevy Impala 4-door. I bought my first muscle car, a 1967 Pontiac GTO H.O. 4-speed, just months before graduating from High School and have been involved in high-performance cars ever since. The summer of 1982 was the first year I took over my parents' garage after blowing up the engine in my Mariner Turquoise metallic GTO.
​
After completing three years of post-secondary courses in automotive mechanics and automotive engine machining, I packed up my ’73 Chevy “Farm Truck” and headed to my aunt and uncle’s in San Diego, CA., where they owned and operated San Diego Harley Davidson.
​
Armed with a list of names gleaned from the pages of Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines, I then headed to Los Angeles, stopping at Venolia, PAW, Speed-O-motive, Gale Banks, Ed Pinks, Reith Automotive before I made my last stop at and was fortunate enough to find my first job in racing at Keith Black Racing Engines in South Gate. I spent all my spare time in the shops out back, which Black rented to some of the biggest names in drag racing: Dick LaHaie’s Top Fuel dragster and nitro-burning funny cars such as Roland Leong’s “Hawaiian” and Jim Dunn’s “Fireman’s Quickie.” That’s when I got bitten by the nitro bug; I moved back to Minnesota and then spent the next fourteen years touring with, and working on, nitro-powered top fuelers and funny cars.
​
I spent the first two of those years with “Doc” Halladay’s “Telstar” funny car, with Jerry Newman as my first Nitro boss, and then was invited to join the best in the business: John Force and Austin Coil. I subsequently worked with K.C. Spurlock’s “Gambler” F/C with crew chief Ronnie Swearingen, baseball star Jack Clark’s top fueler wheeled by Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen, then Lori Johns’ “Jolly Rancher” dragster, again with Swearingen as crew chief. I then worked with Cory Mac for eight rewarding years, the first 2 with the talented Jimmy Prock and the final six years with renowned crew chief Lee Beard under the ownership of NFL and NASCAR legend Joe Gibbs.
​
After my first visit to the JGR cup shop/engine shop, I knew that I wanted to move to North Carolina and get involved with the NASCAR engine shop.
​
Every time our touring took us to the JGR shop in Huntersville, NC, my interest in building Cup engines grew a little bit more. Finally, in 1999 I was referred to Dale Earnhardt Inc., where I enjoyed another incredible experience working for the Man they call “The Intimidator”. I spent ten fabulous years at DEI (fondly known as the “Garage Mahal”), where I started in teardown and then worked my way up into engine assembly, building engines for Steve Park’s #1 Pennzoil Chevrolet and then working the next five years with Greg Ollish on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s famous Number 8 Budweiser Chevrolet. This also gave me the opportunity to build a detached Garage behind my house and start collecting and rebuilding Muscle cars since I was not traveling anymore. I then spent the next year working on classic cars in my garage before going back to JGR and spending the next eight years in their engine shop. This is when I decided to build a custom- 6,000 s.f climate-controlled Vintage car Garage for my future after racing.
​
I am proud of and grateful for the thirty-two adventurous years I spent working with the very best talents in American motorsports, building the most powerful and reliable engines in the world.
​
The collector car auction business was next, and again I was fortunate to learn from the very best in the business, industry icon Gary Bennett. From 2019-2020, I had two great years of learning the business from Gary and Muffy Bennett and the team at Leake/Ritchie Bros. collector car auctions!
​
Onto my final chapter of automobiles, I have turned my passion for Muscle cars into a full-time business and offer my services related to all aspects of the collector car world, including Preservation, Restorations, Engines, Buying and Selling cars at auctions, inspections, Storage and enclosed Transportation. Send me an e-mail and describe which service I can help you with.
​
Thanks for visiting; keep those Vintage vehicles alive and running!
Bill Brunker
