By SEMA Editors
 Richard Petty’s (left) presence at the 2019 PRI Trade Show helped Sunnen set a new record of $120,000 in donations during the Sunnen Engine Charity Sweepstakes. |
Sunnen set a new record of $120,000 in donations during the Sunnen Engine Charity Sweepstakes, held at the 2019 PRI Trade Show in Indianapolis. The previous record of $102,000 was set at last year’s show. A visit from Richard “The King” Petty had a positive impact on sales, as fans swarmed the ticket booth to meet and photograph the NASCAR legend, as well as purchase tickets for the chance to win a high-performance engine.
This was the 31st anniversary of the Sunnen Engine Charity Sweepstakes, and once again, all proceeds went to Victory Junction—a camp for children living with serious medical conditions, founded by the Petty family. The winning ticket was held by Jerry Lavender of Layton, Utah.
For the second straight year, Sonny Leonard and the team from Sonny’s Automotive Racing (SAR) in Lynchburg, Virginia, built a high-performance engine valued at more than $66,000. The custom-built 762-cid, 1,400hp, naturally aspirated, hemispherical head EFI engine can be street and strip driven on 93-octane gasoline.
Over the past 31 years Sunnen, PRI and many well-known engine builders have teamed up to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities within the racing community. To learn more about Victory Junction, visit https://victoryjunction.org/sunnen-sweepstakes.