412 Tribute I have been a very fortunate man my whole life. I’ve had good times & bad like most, but I’ve had amazing people in my life. The high profile career, 498 wins, 9 race teams & all the success would not have happened without the knowledge & support I received from key people in my life. Family, friends, partners, mentors, teammates & even competitors. I sure didn’t do it alone. My wife Kim & daughter Nikki are at the top. This year will be 25 years of marriage to the kindest, most caring person I know. Tough too. Had to be. Nikki & her family are a big part of our life. We have a very tight knit, loving family … a “Team Family.” Spending more time with them is the reason I decided to stop racing professionally & traveling 100+ days a year. I’ve had a few really close friends in my life. Stephen Monroe died young with brain cancer. True racer & practical joker. Best man at my wedding. Really miss him. Joe Lytle is still winning drag races. Miss you Joe! Almost lost Greg Weld. Thanks Greg for all your friendship, support & humor. Glad you decided to stick around. Randy Chastain & I have been friends for almost 20 years. We used to race against each other, then together. He managed my 9 race teams. He’s up 1 or 2 practical jokes on me. So I owe him. My Dad was my first Mentor. He taught me to seek out wise people to learn from. I did. Dave Riolo, Chris Alston, Dave Morgan, Lee Shepherd, Bill Wheatley & Gary Wheeler were my early mentors in drag racing. I can’t begin to name all the mentors I’ve had in oval track & road racing, but need to thank Larry McReynolds for the education & friendship. The 2500+ test days & 2500+ race days at the track were with a lot of different race teams, crew people & drivers. I appreciate each & every one for what I learned, how I helped & how they helped me. Learned a ton working with Joe Gibbs Racing & Roush Fenway Racing for driver development, sponsorship & race projects. Much gratitude for those experiences. I enjoyed developing young drivers in multiple race series. I’ve got about 40 young friends & families now with a million great memories. I am grateful for the early clients of Ron Sutton Race Technology that came to me with their cool car projects starting in 2013. This was before this catalog where everything is laid out in neat packages & kits. My products were in development, under the radar. We developed each area of their cars that lead to the packages we have today. Too many to name … but thank you. I am here for you ! This wouldn’t be possible without partnerships & alliances. Thanks Bret Voelkel & the team at Ridetech for the Workshop Tour & products we’ve developed. Old friend Mark Cornwell was key to co-developing my StopTech line of brakes. Nicky, Keith, Aaron, Alan & the crew at SDPC Raceshop are perfect engine building partners. Thanks Blake, Jay, Roger & Anita of Speedtech for having me design the ExtReme suspensions. While these are the biggest, there are many, many other collaborations key to RSRT being a one-stop resource center for car builders. I appreciate them all. - Ron Sutton