 Matt
Bieneman has 20 years experience in cylinder head research, design and
porting, ranging from Top Fuel & Pro Stock Drag Racing to NASCAR Cup
and Busch Racing. Working for the likes of multiple championship ring winners
Joe Gibbs-NASCAR & NFL, Dick Lahaie-NHRA Top Fuel, Connie Kalitta-NHRA
Top Fuel, Tim Richards-NHRA Top Fuel & first Funny Car to run in the
4’s and John Medlin-NHRA Funny Car has instilled in Matt the belief
that winning championships is the only option. There is no room for second
place.
This belief manifests itself in the company that bears his
name, Matt Bieneman Enterprises. Your engine program can benefit from Matt & MBE’s
philosophy of continuously striving for improvement with non-stop R&D
and close attention to quality.
At 8 years old, Matt began going sand drag
racing with his dad, Dave. At 13 he was spraying gas in the injector
of Dave’s Nitro Funny Car and starting it on his own. When Dave started
racing in the Top Fuel Dragster class Matt worked on the car during the
week and at the races on weekends, while still finding time to build a
406” powered 1978 Camaro and going to school. His first job was at
Gianino Racing Engines owned by Pro Stock racer Sam Gianino. Working for
Sam, who was uncompromising about details, he learned the fine points of
cylinder head machining & design while they worked on Winston Cup heads
for Tim Richmond, Buick heads for the GM Indy Car program and Pro Stock
Engines for Sam’s car and others.
Matt then worked on Chuck Etchell’s
Fuel Funny Car whose crew chief was the legendary Tim Richards who had
won numerous Top Fuel championships for Joe Amato and is still winning
with Kenny and Brandon Bernstein. While at Etchell’s they ran the
first 4 second Funny Car run, a history making 4.98. During his 4 years
with Connie Kalitta he worked under master tuner Dick LaHaie, winning two
Top Fuel championships with Scott Kalitta driving. From Jim Becker, head
of Kalitta’s machine shop and prior head of Dart Machinery’s
cylinder head division he learned more secrets of cylinder head porting
and repairing. He is still crewing part time for the Kalittas when they
need help on one of the four Top Fuel cars they field at NHRA national
events.
Matt then headed south to Joe Gibb’s NASCAR Winston Cup Team,
where Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart were driving. He managed their cylinder
head department for almost 4 years before deciding to venture out and start
his own business, MBE Cylinder Heads & Manifolds. He quickly gained
the respect and confidence of many racing teams in NHRA and IHRA drag racing,
NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series, DIRT Series, IMCA and many other types
of racing. Customers of MBE Cylinder Heads & Manifolds have included
drag racers Don Prudhomme Racing, Del Worsham, Kenny Koretsky, Bob Gilbertson,
Paul Mecure, Monty Bogan and oval track racers Dale Earnhart Inc., Evernham
Racing, Ganasis Racing, Ricky Elliot and Matt Hagan, to name a few. |
Dave Bieneman installed a Cadillac engine in
a 46 Ford coupe, his first car, when he was 16 years old. This ultimately
taught him a lot about repairing transmissions and rear ends as the Cadillac
had enough power to break gears almost weekly. He quickly moved on to
a 55 Chevy and a high winding 301 cu in V8. This engine had some of the
most exotic hand ported heads of the era and Dave soon learned to freshen,
update and repair these out of necessity, as there were few people at
that time working with any type of porting. He also found that modifying
the single 4bbl manifolds of the day helped make his little Chevy engine
beat all of the muscle cars of the day, the Hemi’s, GTO’s,
409 Chevy’s
and 427 Corvettes.
In 1965 he started rebuilding automatic transmissions
for a living. This was the most challenging mechanical part of the car
at that time . He eventually opened his own transmission rebuilding business
repairing and modifying automatics, 4 speeds and rear ends for drag racers
and off-road racers. While owning the transmission business he was racing
a nitro Funny Car in sand drags across the Midwest, setting track records
at every track they competed at.
After 3 years of sand racing he decided
it was time to move up to a Top Fuel Dragster and bought his first car
from Dick Lahaie. He won the Last Popular Hot Rod meet with it and ran
a limited schedule, but still managed to win two national events until
racing the entire IHRA schedule in 1997 & 1998 and ending fourth
in points both years. After branching off into chassis and rear end mail
order sales, he sold the business and took a job with Richard Maskin
at Dart Machinery, a premiere supplier of racing cylinder heads and blocks.
Dave gained an extensive knowledge of cylinder heads as Tech Department
manager, working seven years with Dart’s heavy machining facility,
CNC porting dept, foundries and Pro Stock engine department. While managing
the Tech dept at Dart he was still driving a Top Fuel car at limited
events until 2003. At the end of 2004 Dave seized the chance to move
to warmer weather and work with his son at MBE, bringing a lifetime of
skills in management, cylinder heads, engines and racing knowledge to
complement Matt’s expertise in cylinder head and manifold design,
porting and machining.
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Cams / Lifters /Timing Sets
