Meet the 818 Design Competition Judges

Panel of Experts to Review Submissions and Select Winners

We have assembled a diverse group of industry experts who have volunteered to serve as judges for the Factory Five Racing-Grassroots Motorsports Design Competition. In addition to selecting the overall winners (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), each judge will be allowed to pick a favorite submission.

Tim Suddard, Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

A car guy’s car guy, and a racer’s racer, Tim is the Owner and Editor of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine, the recognized leader in amateur road race coverage.  Tim has spent his career not only covering race events, but also participating.  He has driven and built almost every car imaginable and at the helm of Grassroots Motorsports, has helped direct the growth of amateur American racing.

Jeremy Luchini, SolidWorks

Jeremy is the host of SolidWorks online design show called “Let’s Go Design.”  Jeremy is 20 year CAD veteran, designer and mechanical engineer.  He has been an important part of many Factory Five-SolidWorks projects including the all-electric ’33 Hot Rod that debuted at SEMA in 2009.  Jeremy was a design consultant on HorsePower TV’s ’33 Hot Rod build.

Jeremy currently drives his own custom designed/built chopper and a 1967 Jeep Kaiser M715 troop carrier.  Favorite vehicles include: Ford GR-1, Foose Hemisfear, Koenigsegg Agera-R, Bugatti T57-Atlantic, Mclaren F-1, Saleen Raptor.

Murray Pfaff, Pfaff Designs

Murray Pfaff is a highly regarded automotive designer/customizer and has been featured in numerous national magazines.  Murray is a feature artist for Hot Rod Magazine and writes a design column.  His cars have been featured in major displays at the annual SEMA Show and he is currently designing a custom race GTM for Koni Shocks.  His custom car, the Imperial Speeder, is featured in an issue of Street Rodder Magazine.  You can visit Murray’s website at http://www.pfaffdesigns.com/.
Michael Lye, Rhode Island School of Design

Michael Lye is an award winning Industrial Designer and educator teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he is currently Senior Critic. His teaching includes the “Design for Extreme Environments” course where RISD students work with NASA to develop innovative concepts for future spacecraft and rovers. Back here on Earth, he has owned British and Italian sports cars.  He is currently looking forward to spring so he can get his 1972 Lotus Europa back on the road.

Wayne Cherry, VP of Design, General Motors ret.

A graduate of Art Center, Wayne joined GM in 1962, spending 26 years in Europe where he became responsible for the design of all GM European vehicles.
From 1992 to 2004, as Vice President of Design, he was personally responsible for the new design direction of Cadillac and helped to reestablish GM as a design leader with a wide range of concepts from Autonomy to Solstice, and a number of Cadillac concepts including the Evoq, the Cien and the Cadillac 16.
Matt Humphries, Morgan MotorsMatt Humpries is the chief designer at Morgan Motors and runs Morgan Design.  In 2005, he helped introduce the Morgan Aeromax concept at the Geneva Auto Show.  Matt is a graduate of Coventry University.  In his position at Morgan Cars, he is responsible for the design and brand identities for all the company’s cars.  Matt is integral to the relaunch of the classic Lonville Watch.

Tom Salomone, Hewlett Packard

Thomas A. Salomone has over 25 years in the technology industry and is currently the worldwide Mechanical Design Automation and Architectural, Engineering and Construction segment manager for Hewlett Packard (how’s that for a job title!).

Tom has an MS in Computer Science, and a BS in Physics, and is the author of an engineering book titled: Concurrent Engineering, What Every Engineer Should Know, Marcel Dekker, New York, NY 1995.  The photo to the left is of Tom warming up the crowd at SolidWorks World 2010 ahead of guest speaker James Cameron.

Jim Schenck, Director of R&D, Factory Five Racing

Jim is the veteran Director of Research and Development at Factory Five Racing.  He is in charge of all design at Factory Five and also responsible for our national racing series, the Factory Five-NASA Challenge Series.  Jim is a mechanical engineer from Rensselaer Polytech, a member of the American Society Auto Engineers and an Eagle Scout.  Jim has about 10 cars, all of which would never run again if anything were ever to happen to him.  Jim is the consummate car guy.  Jim designed the Factory Five GTM Supercar.

Jesper Ingerslev, Director of Engineering, Factory Five Racing

Jesper is the veteran Director of Engineering at Factory Five Racing.  He is in charge of all engineering at the company.  Jesper is 1996 graduate of Rensselaer Polytech with a degree in mechanical engineering.  He has built numerous Factory Five cars and he has worked on all facets of kit line production and engineering.  In school he managed the automotive shop at Rensselaer, and worked on a Baja race car team.

Latest Factory Five News

Charlie D. Graduates his Type 65 Coupe!

Customer Charlie D. started his Coupe build in Spring 2018, and by the end of the year, he had his first start and was soon go-carting around the neighborhood. Over the next year, he worked on fitting the body. He had to hit pause on the build for several years due to focus on some other projects. But he kept his Coupe dream alive, and once the other projects were finished, he got back to work on his Factory Five. Over the next year, they focused on her treatments, and thankfully, she beat cancer in mid-2025 and has a clean… Read More »

Read More

Sinks Family Garage Build a Mk4 Roadster on YouTube

At Factory Five, we build. We build cars, stories, friendships, and relationships. The story of Rusty and Wyatte S. building a Mk4 Roadster, and in the process, bonding as father and son is the best outcome. Here’s Rusty sharing their story so far: “After 26 years in the Coast Guard and spending my last few years away from home, I knew when I returned that I needed to reconnect with my son, Wyatte, in a meaningful way. I asked him if he wanted to restore an old car or build something like a Factory Five Roadster — and without hesitation, he… Read More »

Read More

The Baker Family Graduate Their ’35 Truck Build!

Customer Tony Baker sent us this letter that is a great reminder of Why behind Factory Five Racing. Tony’s build with his sons is like so many in the Factory Five community, but it is a story that never gets old, and one that the Baker family should be extremely proud of. Congratulations on graduating your Hot Rod Truck build with your sons, and on your big win at World of Wheels! Tony wrote: “I first began researching Factory Five Racing in the summer of 2008, after a friend took me for a ride in his newly built FFR Roadster.… Read More »

Read More
Top