Factory Billet Collaboration With Team Parvey In Gear
Though it’s been a few years since it’s happened, the battle for V-bottom top-speed supremacy between the Factory Billet team of Jim Schultz and Mike Faucher and the father-and-son duo of Dennis and Jason Parvey remains one of the coolest storylines of the annual Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. And that’s not just because they tied during the 2017 event in Central Missouri with a top speed of 161 mph and are coming back this year to go head to head again.
If all goes to plan, the Factory Billet and Parvey teams will go head to head for the first time since 2018 at this year’s Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Through their competition, the members of both teams have become friends. They even collaborate in the off-season.
When the Parveys made the move from superchargers to turbochargers for the twin 2,000-plus-hp engines in their 43-foot, open-cockpit Black Thunder in 2017, they tapped the Illinois-based Factory Billet team for help with the transition. In 2020, they added three-speed transmissions developed and produced by the Factory Billet outfit to their drivetrain.
“We’ve always been friends but even more so in the past four years or so,” said Faucher, who handles the engine/propulsion program and throttle duties—Schultz is the boat’s owner and driver—for the team’s canopied 51-foot Outerlimits.”
“They have been good to us over the years,” said Jason Parvey. “We have been talking to them for years. Gosh, I think I sold Mike his first intercooler in late April, early May of 2012. We always stay in contact.”
Now, the two teams are collaborating again. The Factory Billet crew is rebuilding and upgrading the Parveys’ long-out-of-warranty No. 6 drives from Mercury Racing.
Led by transmission-man Matt Faucher, the Factory Billet crew has taken a deep dive into upgrading the Parveys’ No. 6 drives.
“We are updating and rebuilding their drives using things we have learned to make them more efficient and durable,” Faucher said. “Friction-wise, we’re using different surface-finish treatments for the gears. We replaced the aluminum bearing retainers with stainless-steel versions. We went to a different synthetic gear oil with higher viscosity simply because of the sheer load on the gears. And we’ve focused on the bottom half of the drive, where you’re transferring horizontal motion to vertical motion, to make sure they are properly backlashed.
“Our guy Matt Faucher (no relation) by trade is a fantastic transmission guy,” he added. “That’s always been his deal and he’s great at it.”
Both teams are planning to compete on the three-quarter-mile course during the 2022 event, which is scheduled for August 27-28. The two teams haven’t run head to head since 2018 and everyone involved is eager to do it again.
“If you were racing yourself, what fun would that be?” Mike Faucher asked, then laughed. “That’s the whole point, right? Competition. I think Dennis and Jason are chomping at the bit. It’s been awhile since they’ve had a chance to run.
“And we’ll be ready for them,” he added.
Said Parvey, “The boat is pretty much ready. I think we have all the kinks worked out. We’re looking forward to it.”
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