Huffaker History
In 1962, Mr. Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda Motor company, paid a visit to Huffaker Engineering. This photo shows Mr. Honda and Joe Huffaker, Sr looking over a Huffaker designed and built Genie Sports racer.
Joe Huffaker, Sr. started modifying and then fabricating hot rods as a teenager in Northern California.
Huffaker’s race car building started with the design and construction of the Genie Formula Junior and then Genie Sports Racers in the early 60’s.
The Early Years
An early Genie Mk 10
Joe Huffaker began building hot rods as a teenager in the late 40’s. His first sports car build was a 1954 Austin Healy “Huffaker Special.” This car, driven by Mickey Marston, put Huffaker on the map in the Northern California racing scene.
At about that time, Kjell Qvale was establishing a competition department for British Motor Car (BMC) Distributors in San Francisco. Qvale hired Huffaker in 1958 to run the operation, which became the largest race car manufacturer in North America.
The company initially focused on the Formula Junior class, but then developed a series of mid-engine sports racing cars called the Genie, named after his wife, Jean. The first Genie MK4 was designed with a 1100cc BMC engine. In 1962, the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) was formed and quickly attracted drivers, sponsors and car builders. Huffaker jumped into the fray and BMC Huffaker built a series of Genies fitted with a variety of V8 engines, including Ford, Chevy, Buick and Oldsmobile. Huffaker drivers in this period included Dan Gurney and Pedro Rodriguez among others.
In 1963, to promote the MG 1100 hydrolastic suspension system, a series of Indianapolis 500 cars were produced by BMC, referred to as the MG Liquid Suspension Specials. In 1964, two of these rear engine cars qualified for the Indy 500. One ran as high as second, but finished 13th after a long pit stop. The next year, Kjell Qvale became only the sixth owner to qualify three cars, one qualifying in 10th place. The cars were then sold to different teams and were competitive through 1969.
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Huffaker Engineering Established
In 1966, Joe Huffaker decided to go out on his own and established Huffaker Engineering. He was contracted to build factory sponsored cars for British Leyland and the Jaguar Rover Triumph Group. The cars campaigned included the MGB, MG Midget, MGC, Austin Healey 3000, Jaguar and Triumph TR 7 and TR8. Huffaker was also the factory works team for Jensen Motors.
Over the next decade, Huffaker team cars attained 12 SCCA National Championships and had entries in the Can-Am and IMSA series. The Jensen Healy captured the SCCA D Production Championship in both 1973 and 1974. The MGBs won the National SCCA D Production Championship and finished third in 1980. Three of the Huffaker TR8s finished in the top 10 in the SCCA C Production National Championship that year led by the No. 11 TR8 Roadster in fifth driven by Lee Mueller.
Huffaker won the 1982 Trans-Am Championship with Elliott Forbes-Robinson behind the wheel. Beginning in 1985, Huffaker produced 15 factory works Pontiac Fieros for the IMSA GTU series. Team driver Bob Earl scored 10 wins and 16 poles. In 1985, Huffaker joined with Bruce Qvale to form Huffaker-Qvale Motorsports. They won the Trans-Am Championship in 2000 with driver Brian Simo in the Tommy Bahama sponsored Mangusta.
Huffaker Engineering Today
In total more than 50 Huffaker Genie Formula Junior and Sports Racers were built.
Joe Huffaker Jr. took over Huffaker Engineering upon his father’s retirement in 1991 and the racing success continued. Huffaker cars won three Trans-Am Championships in 6 years. Out of 72 Trans-Am races entered, 52 top 10 finishes and 14 victories were achieved.
In 1991, Joe Jr’s #77 MG Midget was completed and has won seven SCCA F Production National Championships. It has the most wins for a production car in SCCA Runoffs history. Joe also won the SCCA GT5/L National Championship four times driving his Huffaker-designed and built, tube frame, rear drive mini. As a driver, Joe Huffaker Jr. is a ten-time SCCA National Champion, with the most recent in 2018.
David Martin and Chip Fudge, two of the ownership group, celebrating a 1-2 finish at the Sonoma Speed Festival.
As spec racing formulas came to dominate racing, Huffaker turned its focus to the rapidly growing vintage racing scene. Huffaker has campaigned winning cars at the Monterey Historics, Sonoma Speed Festival, and CSRG, HSMA, HSR and SVRA sponsored events across the country.
In 2018, a group of vintage racers bought controlling interest in Huffaker with the intent to build a racer-focused vintage race shop. Our goal is to build the best vintage racing shop on the west coast, one that puts the racer-customer first, to enable vintage racers to fulfill their racing dreams while being part of a fun community.
