Heads Up Performance began when Scott Horner’s’ motorcycle drag racing hobby expanded and he out grew his garage.  Scott raced whatever motorcycle he had, starting with his 1983 Honda XL600r dual sport bike, then his 1985 Suzuki GS 1150e.  His first dragbike built from the asphalt up was a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Pro Stock legal chassis with a Nitrous Oxide assisted 1395cc engine based off a Suzuki GS 1100.  Scott used this chassis to compete in the NHRA’s USA vs. Japan festival in Japan.  Scott made two trips to the land of the rising sun with his Pro Stock bike, the first, in November 1993. This was the last race for Byron Hines, the engine/tuning Guru of the Vance and Hines team, and the first for current NHRA Pro Stock standout Craig Treble.  Craig rode Scotts’ AMSA Motorsports bike at one of the two events to “get his feet wet” for what would be his natural progression from a heavy hitter in the NHRA bracket racing program to a NHRA Powerade multi-event winner.  Scott used the same bike to make his NHRA debut at the 1994 World Finals in Pomona California.

Scott first opened the doors of Heads Up Performance in March of 1997.  Scott was a “one man band” receiving only several hours a week of volunteer help from his friend Jeff Gugler.  Jeff would work a graveyard shift and come in and help out for a few hours.  Scott has said, “I would not have made it through the early years without Jeff’s donated time”.  Still an asset to Heads Up, Jeff continues to squeeze hours in each week.

Heads Up has evolved and has adapted to the needs of its customers.  Originally planning on building only GS 1100 Suzuki engines, Tom Busch, Scotts’ persistent MAC Tool distributor changed that. Tom became Scotts’ first Yamaha FJ1200 Legends Car engine rebuild and second Suzuki GSXR 1100 Dwarf Car engine, and thus began a relationship with the family of NASCAR standouts Kurt and Kyle Busch. 

Scott has worked on motorcycle powered Sand rails and other four wheeled motorcycle powered vehicles since 1992.   It wasn’t until 1999 when Scott built a turbo Suzuki GSXR 1100 engine for Larry Short of Short Sand Cars that he became well known to the Sandrail community. Since then, Heads Up Performance has become the leading authority on engines and turbo charging systems in the motorcycle powered Sandrail market.   To this day, Heads Up is the exclusive engine builder for Short Sand Cars, as well as Sick Sand Travel and King Sand Cars to name a few.

During the spring of 2001 Vince Tomanio, an accomplished motorcycle mechanic and multi-time motorcycle drag racing champion joined Scott full time.  With the expertise of Vince, Heads Up was finally able to keep up with the demanding workload, allowing more time for the growing turbo charging market.  The new fuel injected Suzuki GSX1300R, or Hayabusa, appeared to be the successor to the GSXR 1100 for Sandrail power plants.  The first turbo Suzuki Hayabusa powered Sandrail left the Heads Up shop in 2002 propelling a Short Sand Car.  Since, we have installed our turbo systems in Sick Sand Travel cars, King Sand Cars, Sand Bullet Cars, Tom Pro Cars and a host of home built cars.