News & Updates

It Takes Drive To Be A Champion

Tenacity is defined as having great determination and it is this tenaciousness that drives the five Champion Power Equipment sponsored athletes to deliver inspiring performances.

We are very proud to have Grant Enfinger, Kaique Pacheco, Shane Lineberger, Jason Lentz, and Casey Currie on our team for their 2019 seasons. (Click each athletes image to view their video)

Grant Enfinger

Beginning in 1996 racing go karts, Grant has steadily climbed the ranks through the years, winning his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in 2016 and qualifying for  the NASCAR Truck Series Playoffs in 2018. The 2019 season had a thunderous start with Grant taking P2 at Daytona, followed by seven other Top 5 finishes, four Top 10 finishes and winning the POLE Award at the Kentucky Speedway in July. As Grant drives the ThorSport Racing truck onto the track, the constant cheer and support of his fans always helps propel him forward.

Kaique Pacheco

The last few years the name Kaique Pacheco has been synonymous with professional bull riding. Kaique started bull riding at the young age of 17, and has since claimed the PBR Rookie of the Year title at age 21, followed by second place wins in the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) World Standings for 2015 and 2016. To further ignite his rankings, Kaique became the 2018 PBR World Champion with a whopping 5,444.16 points.

Shane Lineberger

This year we welcomed the newest addition to our team: Shane Lineberger, a professional bass angler. Fishing in Bassmaster Opens since 2011, his top  performances earned him a spot in the Bassmaster Elite Series for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In 2018 he received an invitation to again compete in the 2019 Elite Series. In one of his best performances so far he finished 16th out of 221 boats at the Basspro.com Open in Lake Chickamagua. As the season continues, Shane stays focused and is ready for more of that biting action.

Jason Lentz

A young Jason Lentz is eight years old when his splits his first log; jump ahead five years where he competes  in his first junior division wood chopping event. In 2010 he makes the leap into his first professional series: Stihl Timber Sports. A fourth-generation professional lumberjack, he’s since earned the world number 1 rank in 2018 and the title of the Tony Wise All-Around Lumberjack. 2019 is off to a steady start with Jason winning his first show of the season and earning several top finishes thereafter.

Casey Currie

Motorsports is not just a trend for Casey Currie, it’s the family business. For over five decades, his family has built rear ends for many off-road and NASCAR racing styles. At just 16, he rode his first race truck and six years later created an eight-truck team for Monster Jam events. In 2017 and 2018, he took champion wins at the  King of Portugal and Baja 500 and 1000 events. He also grabbed his first Rally win in the Desafio Inca rally. Fast-forward to 2019, he’s taken the title of Rookie of Dakar and spot one in the Ultra 4 Class at the Mint 400. “Boundaries” is not a word in Casye’s vocabulary.

These are a collective group of athletes that push the Champion team forward in many ways. They have proven time and again that no obstacle is too great to overcome and we can hardly wait to see what the rest of the 2019 has in store for our tenacious athletes.

If you’ve ever been caught unprepared when a hurricane hit your area, there’s no doubt you’ll have all your ducks in a row the next time hurricane season comes around. We spoke to several people who survived Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina and Hurricane Andrew in Florida to get their recommendations on how to prepare for hurricane season. When we asked them to share their most important hurricane preparation advice, our survival experts came up with these words of wisdom.

1. Gather supplies and prepare a safe area in your home. Make sure you have a first aid kit, medications, batteries, flashlights, and a battery-powered radio, as well as a three-day supply of water and non-perishable food for your family and your pets.
2. Take advantage of technology. Purchase one or two portable phone chargers, and make sure they’re charged up. Download a smartphone app that will notify people of your location and whether or not you’re safe. The Red Cross has a free hurricane app you can download. Check redcross.org and this article for a list of great apps to get you through an emergency.
3. Be prepared to evacuate. Even if you don’t live on the coast, you should still have a plan for evacuating, and make sure that plan includes your pets. Put important family documents in a binder so you can take them with you. Familiarize yourself with evacuation routes, make sure you keep your gas tank full and have your supplies ready to go.
4. Prepare your home and your street. Reinforce garage doors, and board up your windows with ⅝-inch plywood or hurricane shutters. Bring in outside items if they can be picked up by high winds, and check the storm drains in your neighborhood to make sure they’re free from debris. If not, organize your neighbors to get together and clear away any debris that could clog drains and create drainage issues.
5. If you own a portable generator, it’s smart to have plenty of extra propane or gasoline on hand to fuel it, as fuel will be in high demand during and after the hurricane. If your generator has been in storage, follow the instructions in your owner’s manual to make sure it’s ready to provide backup power when the power goes out. Here is a helpful video on how to remove and prep your generator from storage.

Readiness for a hurricane power outage should include a generator. During the hot summer months, going for days without air conditioning is not only miserable, it can be dangerous for you and your family, plus the high temperatures and humidity can damage your home’s interior. Depending on the type and size generator you own, you can have access to your lights, air conditioning, refrigerator, stove, and more, not to mention access to the weather and news.

There are two main types of generators for hurricanes: portable and home standby.

A portable generator is perfect if you only want to back up a few essentials. Portable generators come in different sizes, they run on either gasoline or propane, and they don’t need to be installed.

If you’re interested in powering more than just the essentials, or even your whole home, you may want to have a standby generator installed. Standbys never need refueling since they’re connected to your propane or natural gas system. Your home standby generator starts automatically when the power goes out and returns to standby when power is restored, ensuring safety and convenience for your family during a hurricane power outage.

Following the advice of hurricane survivors to prepare now is smart, plus knowing you have a safe source of power ready to go will provide peace of mind for you and your family during any season.