Paul “Scooter” Brothers, President and co-founder of COMP Cams and chairman-elect of the SEMA board of directors, is a good guy to get to know. Involved in multiple forms of racing for practically his whole adult life, he currently leads a performance parts empire, yet remains one of the easiest guys to talk to in the business. It turns out that the head honcho of COMP has quite a few racing stories that you’d never think a CEO of a major corporation would tell you, but we think you’ll find that Scooter is no ordinary CEO. He’s a racer at heart, always has been, and always will be.

powerTV: OK, first of all, let’s get the question about the nickname out of the way…

Scooter Brothers:The name came from the lady in the hospital the day I was born. I don’t remember it personally, but I’m told that I was “scooting” around in the little basket they put me in, so she named me. And it just stuck. I should probably make us some really noble story, but this is as far as I know, the truth.

PTV: Let’s talk about more recent history. Over the years, you’ve been involved with racing of all kinds and at all levels, so you’ve got a bit of perspective on the topic. Are the more “colorful” part of racing – the rivalries, the shenanigans on and off the track, the personalities – a thing of the past?

SB:The last 20 years or so has been relatively cookie-cutter. When things got more refined and more professional, people got to be less of the “characters” they used to be. In the old days, it was not unusual to have some pretty big-time arguments – things went on that were a lot more cowboy-ish than you’d put up with today. It wasn’t unusual to have somebody threaten somebody else, “If you don’t let my guy win…” There’s just a lot of crazy things that used to happen, and today you can’t get away with that kind of stuff. In the early days you did what you had to do.

PTV: Do you have a few stories that come to mind about the old days? What was it like racing then? What stories can you share?

SB:<Laughing> OK, I’ll tell you a couple of funny stories, and then one that has stuck with me for my entire life that was really a life lesson. I’ll start way back, back in the early days of drag racing in the ‘60’s. Things weren’t very complicated back then, you know. They had very simple drag strips and a lot of things were approximated, and it just wasn’t a real nice setup over all. There were weeds everywhere and racetracks were basically put wherever they could be.

I remember one night where we had stock classes running, and they had big spots and some of the old racing cars were ’50 Oldsmobiles, so they were really slow, and they would get longer handicaps than some of the faster cars. So when they’d leave the starting line and be running down the track there’d just happen to be someone laying in the weeds right at the photo cell at the finish line, and just to “make sure” the cell was working he might’ve reached his hand out to trip the beam before the cars went by.

PTV: Just to make sure?

SB:Well, you know, you never know about those things. We always called it a hot dog wrapper blowing through there. Well, one night it got a little mixed up and the beam light got tripped early and the guy that was racing him saw the win light come on when he was only about 1000 feet down the track. He knew something was going on then! That’s one story that I wouldn’t have wanted to let out of the bag 40 years ago, but maybe nobody is still alive that remembers it happening. We’ll just say that I knew the guy laying in the weeds pretty well.

PTV: So, was it you?

SB:<Laughing> You’ll never know, but I wasn’t fat then like I am now and it was easier to lay in the weeks, I’ll say that!

Article Courtesy of: www.ChevyHardcore.com