As The Radial Turns: Joey Martin And Gene Hector Debut Plans For RvW

One of the men who cut his teeth in the big tire Pro Modified world and was a driving force in any and all series that he ever competed in is coming back to drag racing with a few familiar faces and much smaller tires. Joey Martin from Milton, Florida has unveiled plans to jump back behind the wheel of a race car, this time, sitting on drag radial tires with the intent of changing Radial vs. The World as the world knows it.

Martin, best known for his time behind the wheel of the Russell family’s LowMad Pro Modified/Pro Extreme entry, has jumped behind the welding mask and his building his very own 2015 Chevrolet Corvette out of his shop, Joey Martin Race Cars. What many people may not know about JMRC is that Joey is a one-man operation — he does all of his fabrication, fitment, tear down and final assembly, all himself.

After six weeks of hard work, the C7’s chassis was fabricated and left the shop to be powdercoated while the body is at Rodney Rosenstiel’s Paint and Body Shop. Martin made the huge announcement that he will be teaming up with Gene Hector from the Small Block Mafia in the new endeavor. Hector is well known for piloting many Pro Modified entries over the years, all being powered by some of the strongest running small-block combinations on the planet Earth. The new C7 will be no different, with an AJPE symmetrical, all-billet small-block engine packing a screw-blown punch to finish off the powerplant. Martin will be relying on Santhuff Suspension components on all four corners, along with other top-tier products to take this C7 Corvette straight to the top with the huge $60,000 to Win purse on the line in early October at South Georgia Motorsports Park.

Martin was quick to point out that he couldn’t do this without the support of Gene and Vicki Hector (RH Well Service), Don Reed and Paul Russell (Russell Specialty Sales) along with David and Sharon Phillips (Down To Earth Mud Racing). There are many more contributors to this build, which will be highlighted in later articles, but each and every one of them have the confidence that even after more than two years out of the seat, Joey Martin still has what it takes to go to the top of whatever class he so chooses. This will be one team and build to be following closely leading into No Mercy 7 in just a few short months.