Shawn Domhoff began learning the family business of building racing engines at age 14.

The 33-year-old Harmony resident runs the business now.

"We build engines for anywhere from 50 to 75 race cars each year," Domhoff said. "We do the machine work for a lot of others who finish the engines themselves."

From drag racing to truck racing, from dirt track racing to asphalt racing, Domhoff builds engines for all shapes and sizes of vehicles.

It was only a matter of time before he got into the game himself.

"I always wanted to do it," he said. "It took me a long time to decide on what type of racing I wanted to do."

His father, Doug Domhoff, was a drag racer for 30 years and set national records in 1994 and 1995. Domhoff grew up at the drag strip while helping his father to race.

When Shawn Domhoff finally did take the wheel of a race car in 1996 at Hickory Speedway in New Castle, it was a Sprinter.

His Sprint racing career lasted all of one night.

"I got through the heat race and about 12 laps of the feature," Domhoff said. "I wrecked the car and it was totaled. That's when I decided to try a division a little more affordable to me."

He began racing an E-Mod in 1997 and has been doing so ever since, traveling around to Hickory, Challenger Raceway in Indiana, Pa., Sharon Speedway, Tri-City Speedway in Franklin and the Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway (PPMS).

From 1997 to 2003, Domhoff won two feature races - one at Hickory, one at Tri-City - both in 2000.

"My race car used to be No. 7, but I wasn't having any luck with it," Domhoff said. "I switched to No. 13 and we actually started to do better."

His sister, Connie, does the lettering on race cars - including his - at their machine shop in Harmony.

Domhoff's luck really began to change when he bought a new E-Mod for the 2003 season.

"We struggled in an old car in 2002 and it was time for a change," he said. "Then, we took nine second-place finishes in 2003 without winning a race.

"It was frustrating, but it was still a good year."

But not as good as this one.

Domhoff raced for points at PPMS for the first time this season and won the E-Mod championship with 698 points.

During the 22-week season at the track, he won six features, had 18 top-five finishes and earned five hard-charger awards.

"Everything just clicked this year," Domhoff said. "We had very few bad nights."

Domhoff might have won the points title at Tri-City as well, but he missed a few shows there and finished sixth in the points battle, winning two features and collecting six top-five finishes.

Domhoff beat out two-time defending PPMS points champion Wayne Tessean by 16. Tessean, from Austintown, Ohio, has won the PPMS points crown four times in the past six years.

Now that he's won a points title, however, don't expect Domhoff to defend it.

"I did what I set out to do this year," he said. "We'll do more traveling next year, hit some of the national, big-money shows.

"I'd like to get into a Late Model one of these years, but not until I'm at the point where I'm getting more sponsorship and can swing it financially. In the meantime, there are more things I can accomplish in the E-Mod division."