Snow Brothers
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Macclenny - There's no flashing neon sign. There's no billboard directing potential customers to the business. As a matter of fact, there's no sign at all at Snow Brothers Racing.

Driving past the modest facility, you'd never guess that some of the most successful racing machines in the area begin as some tubing in this shop.

"It will just amaze you sometimes where we get inquiries from," Dennis said. "We don't actively solicit for business. It's just primarly word of mouth and people just find us.

The brothers have sold many cars locally but also have filled orders from South Florida and even as far away as California.

Like many others involved in short-track racing, they were born into it. Dennis said their father, Roy, used to take them to the track when they were young.

"For as long as I can remember, I've always been around racing, and once we got big enough, we knew that was what we wanted to do," Dennis said.
It was Dennis's desire to race that led to the Snow Brothers Racing business. Instead of buying a car from someone else, the brothers decided to build their own for Dennis to drive.

That first effort in constructing a race car and a little fate resulted in success. When they took the car to the track for the first time, Dennis wasn't pleased with his driving effort, so they got one of the local hot shoes to take it for a couple of shake-down laps.

Masters of the art of building race cars, Mike and Dennis Snow don't need signs or much in the way of advertisment to spread the word about their business.

"Rance Phillips took the car out and came back in and told us that the car would fly," Mike said. "That same night, he blew the engine in his car and asked if he could borrow our car to race."

 

Phillips started from the rear of the pack and won the race. He drove the car again the following week and eventually had the brothers build a car for him.

From there the word spread and they began gettting more orders for their race cars. Both were working full-time jobs. Later Mike was laid off from his railroad job.

"It wasn't a real tough decision to make," Mike said. "We had the business going and I got laid off. I had to decide if I could make a living at it or if I would starve."

"I thought we could do it, so in 1977 we officially began building race cars. I haven't gotten rich, but I have been able to make a living doing it."

Dennis raced for about two years before giving up his driving to concentrate his racing efforts on building cars with his brother. He has kept his job with Crowley Maritime, where he has been employed for the past 20 years.

"I kind of found out real quick that I wasn't cut out to be a race car driver," Dennis said. "I just really enjoy going to race tracks and I enjoy building and fabricating cars more than anything now."

Unlike his brother, Mike never had the desire to get behind the wheel of a race car, but would rather build the machines for other drivers.

"I never wanted to drive myself," Mike said. "I just like building the cars and then seeing them win. When we can see our cars running up front and winning races, that makes me feel good."

Mike taught himself to weld and got some of his basic knowledge from Sonny Hawkins. Hawkins taught them how to, "Keep it clean and produce a product without rough edges."

Another person who influenced the Snow Brothers early on was David Roberts, who provided some additional fabrication.

"Sonny gave us the basics and you learn through trail and error," Mike said. "I tell people that the trail and error learning is like post-graduate work. I do a lot of reading and we listen to what the people who drive our cars tell us.

Dennis also credits the drivers who pilot the Snow Brothers machines with helping them keep the edge on the competition.

"We have some people who drive for us who are really smart about cars," he said. "We tell them to try something and they will tell us if it did or didn't work, and they can relate to you this or that to make the car better."

The brothers don't just build cars, they support their drivers and show up at the track and offer advice and help.

 

"We try not to just build them and let them go," Mike said. "We help set them up the first time and then go to the track and help out. I think this support after we build the cars has probably sold a lot of cars for us."

In addition to their technical knowledge, the Snow Brothers may have an edge on the competition: pride and enjoyment in their work.

"I think we are extremely lucky," Dennis said. "We've got something we can do that we really enjoy. There is a lot of work to it, but not a lot of pay. You've really got to like doing it and Mike and I like it or we wouldn't be doing it."

"It takes about two weeks to build a car from scratch to the point where it is a rolling car without the engine and transmission," Mike said.

Just a few of the drivers who successfully campaign Snow Brothers cars on local tracks include Johnny Collins, Terry Witherspoon, David Showers, and Ivedent Lloyd. The most recent Snow Brothers creation was constructed for the Billy Knabb Racing Team and is in the hands of Steve Moran, who drives for the team.

-Inside Trax