Our Racing Heritage

Over the years ATI Performance Products has earned a reputation for its custom-design work, attention to detail, and rigorous testing under race conditions. By staying true to these basic principles, Jim Beattie, ATI's owner and founder, built a loyal customer base that is still with him today. Motorsports has always been a way for ATI to showcase its many products.

Jim started drag racing in the sportsman classes in the mid-1960s. As his skills improved, so did his need for speed. In the early 1970's Jim embarked on building his own top fuel funny car. This project allowed him to showcase ATI's product line and inspired him to move drag racing component manufacturing to the next level. In 1975, Jim's top fuel funny car, the Black Magic, won the Summer Nationals at Englishtown, New Jersey—a feat unparalleled in racing history since the Black Magic made its NHRA national event racing debut only three months earlier. Black Magic went on to make drag racing history. Even through the car was sold many years ago; ATI continues to receive Black Magic fan mail.

As Jim began serious experimentation with engine dampers in the early 1980's, his interest in stock car racing began to grow. By the early 1990's ATI Performance Products became a major sponsor of NHRA and IHRA drag racing as well as the ARCA Remax stock car series. The more Jim learned about stock cars the more he wanted to participate. In 1998, Jim finally had his chance. Jim and his son competed in the PARTSPro Truck series for five races in 1998 and participated in the entire 1999 season. The truck utilized an ATI circleglide transmission and torque converter, as well as an ATI Super Damper. Through hard work and superior engineering, the ATI PARTSPro Truck was able to place third in the national points championship in its first full season of competition.

After a season racing trucks, Jim wanted more. In 2000, ATI continued to build on its reputation for rigorously testing its products under race conditions by becoming a manufacturers sponsor of the American Speed Association (ASA) as well as the primary sponsor of the #09 ATI Performance Products Monte Carlo. Having fulfilled his need for speed back in the 1970's, Jim satisfied his need for new engineering challenges by working on the daily development of the ATI stock car.

Through it all, Jim and ATI have maintained and nurtured a close relationship with racers, both class and bracket, the little guy and the big guy, the large tracks and the small drag strips. With such a strong commitment to quality, ATI has become a household name in the drag and stock car racing world as a respected supplier of automatic transmissions, torque converters, and Super Dampers.