By Dr. Jamie Meyer

After years of competing in a diverse collection of motorsports, Jud Massingill made an interesting observation about himself. He realized that he had become an instructor for the skills necessary to assemble a race engine. He developed this talent from understanding what it took to set national records in NHRA Stock Eliminator, win championships in SCCA competition, and even build motors for a NASCAR team.

His engine shop, Northwest Engine, became a training ground on the weekends, when people would come in from out of town to learn a few pointers on what it took to be the best at machining engines for the upper echelon in competitive motorsports. Once he realized how much he actually enjoyed teaching people how to become better machinists, it was only one more small step before Jud first opened the doors of the School of Automotive Machinists in 1985. His wife, Linda, was put in charge of handling all of the paperwork and billing, and by 1989, SAM became fully accredited and approved by the Department of Education.

From that promising beginning, SAM has served the high-performance community with an amazing success rate. More than 1,000 students have now attended SAM, with the current enrollment around 100 more. Graduates go to work in all of the top areas of motorsports, including NHRA, NASCAR, and custom tuner shops that work closely with automobile manufacturers and racers.