This year's PRI Show, December 11-13, 2025, in downtown Indianapolis, is shaping up to be one of the best yet. Attendee registration is now open, so it's essential to book your hotel rooms as soon as possible through Visit Indy, the official housing provider for the PRI Show, as downtown hotels are very popular.

Booking through the official PRI hotel block will also unlock exclusive discounted rates, saving you an average of $100 on your stay in Indianapolis.

Enjoy a seamless, stress-free booking experience with guaranteed savings, prime hotel locations, and added perks—all designed to make your trip easier and more affordable.

Secure your rate today and make the most of your PRI stay! See the list below to see where you can save $100 or more on your 2025 PRI Show accommodations:

 

Book Here

Have Questions or Need Help?

Contact the Visit Indy Housing team:
📧 prihousing@visitindy.com
📞 317-262-8191 (M–F, 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m. EDT)
 

 

PRI Show Hotel Spotlight: The Alexander, a Marriott Autograph Collection Property

 

This year, let art inspire your travels to the PRI Show at The Alexander, now a Marriott Autograph Collection property.

Nestled in the CityWay area of downtown Indianapolis, The Alexander pairs contemporary design with unparalleled hospitality. In every room, lobby, and dining space is a piece of art designed to inspire you during your stay, commissioned or curated from local and international artists. 

Blocks from both the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium, this downtown Indianapolis hotel is just a short walk away from the PRI Show and only minutes from top attractions and local events, including museums, professional sports, numerous dining options and more.  

 

From the luxurious and art-focused guest rooms to the 24-hour business center, everything you need for a successful PRI Show is at your fingertips when you book your stay at The Alexander. 

Photos courtesy of The Alexander, a Marriott Autograph Collection property.

For more than 40 years, Jay Ivey has followed the fortunes of Formula Ford, from portal to professional racing, through serious decline—and on to rebirth as a popular vintage class, thanks largely to parts that Ivey supplies.
 

Ivey Engines of Portland, Oregon, is a major force in Formula Ford and has been since Jay Ivey opened the shop in 1983. Consider the Historic Motor Sports Association (HMSA) season opener at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, which included the first Crossflow Cup race of 2025. The event was still about a week in the future when we spoke to Ivey in March. "I think they'll get another five to eight entries," he predicted, "but right now there are 30 Formula Fords—Club Ford and Historic Ford—and with the other classes that we build engines for, the Lotus twin-cam and Coventry Climax, we'll probably have 45 engines there." That's out of 200 cars, he estimated. "Here on the West Coast, usually about 25% of the entries will be running our engines."

And it's not just engines. Ivey also supplies parts for the Ford "Kent" 1600 and its Cosworth and Lotus derivatives—brand new parts, re-engineered for dramatically improved reliability and longevity. "Over in Europe and the UK, they rebuild their engines every 15 hours," said Ivey. "With our parts over here, we rebuild our engines every 50 hours." 

Now Ivey hopes to expand into the UK. "Historic Formula Ford is really strong," he added. "It's probably one of the strongest classes worldwide."
That's true now—but the class, and Ivey, have seen and survived some very hard times.

OPPORTUNITY IN ADVERSITY

The first time Jay Ivey moved to Portland, he was 17 years old, and it was his 11th cross-country move. As he tells it, he grew up with the nation's infrastructure: "The I-5 corridor, the San Luis Obispo Reservoir, the California Aqueduct. My dad did prototype testing and accelerated-wear testing for Detroit Diesel, and he was sent to these projects."

The 1970s found Sam Ivey at Bonneville with Bill Snyder and his diesel-powered Thermo King Streamliner, which would ultimately reach a record 235.765 mph. Jay met Snyder on the salt, "and one year he sent me tickets to the Indy 500. That was something I always wanted to do. So I was cruising around the little garages, and I met AJ Foyt and talked to him a bit, and I just kind of got the bug.

"I was 20, and I had a street car shop on the Washington Peninsula, but I wanted to get involved in racing. I did a little research and came back to Portland and worked for Arnie Loyning [who sadly passed away in April during production of this magazine], back when he was just getting going building engines in Formula Ford. I was with him for about 16 months, and then I started building engines for Mike Gue and Phil Creighton"—the East Coast importers for Van Diemen—" and I just kind of went on from there."

(Left image) In the 1990s, Jay Ivey developed Formula Ford parts that improved reliability without affecting horsepower, primarily by improving materials: "Going from a cast piston to a forged piston, or a gray iron cast crankshaft to a ductile iron cast crankshaft," Ivey said. Dane Dennison is pictured here working on the crankshaft polisher. (Right image) Ivey Engines builds some 70 engines a year for Formula Fords, plus Lotus twin-cam and Coventry Climax engines for other classes. "Here on the West Coast, usually about 25% of the entries [at a race] will be running our engines," said Jay Ivey. Sebastian Westfall is seen here on the DCM.

Ivey built his business by "working to be good and competitive and to win races—and to get engines into the right cars with the right drivers." 

In the 1980s, as salvage parts for the Kent 1600 became increasingly scarce, he compensated by building 2-liter Fords for Formula Atlantic and Sports 2000. By 1989 he had 10 employees and a new, 7,000-square-foot shop under construction. He built 257 engines that year. "Then with one stroke of a pen, it took a nosedive, and we were down to 60 engines in 1990."

That fateful pen stroke came from the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), changing the rules to allow newer engines and newer technology into traditional Ford 2-liter territory. "They went to an Oldsmobile engine in one part of the country and a Cosworth in another," said Ivey. "It got to be a jumbled-up mess, and they lost lots of competitors. I had just finished the building that I am in now, and it was a struggle. I almost lost it a couple of times. But I had good customers who kept doing business and supported us, while we just kept plugging away."

Ivey didn't give up on Formula Ford, either. "There was an opportunity, I felt, to step in and develop some good parts and keep the class strong, and to keep it at a reasonable price." He partnered with top racing component manufacturers to develop new, bolt-in parts that would improve reliability without affecting horsepower. "Everything we did was with a blessing from Ford and approved by SCCA. The deal was they would let me develop the parts as long as they didn't develop any more horsepower. They didn't want to create 'must-have' parts that would ultimately increase the cost of racing."

With weights and dimensions fixed, improvements came mostly from better materials—"say, going from a cast piston to a forged piston, or from a cast rod to a forged rod, or a gray iron cast crankshaft to a ductile iron cast crankshaft." A critical piece fell into place in 2009–2010, when Ford re-started production of the Kent engine block, similarly upgraded for reliability, and available in different deck heights to accommodate cross-flow and pre-cross-flow applications.

That same winter, however, Jay's wife Susan, who had managed the office from the beginning, needed surgery for cancer. "My wife and I had to leave for a month," said Ivey. "I was just going to pack it in—but my two sons have been working here since they were 10 or 12 years old, and they said, 'We can do this,' and they did, and they have been doing the day-to-day ever since. Cameron is in the office and Colin is in charge of the shop. He builds all the engines, and he knows how every piece of machinery works." Additionally, "we have Sebastian Westfall, who does cylinder head porting and freshening," and Mark Viskov "who's been with the shop a long time," and whose many skills include machining blocks.

Today, Ivey builds 70-plus engines a year. Those engines, plus part sales, more than sustain the business. In fact, Ivey supplies every component in a 1,600cc Kent cross-flow except the rocker arms. 

And why not the rocker arms?

"I'm working on it," Ivey replied.

Aside from the occasional bushing or similarly simple component, however, Ivey doesn't actually make any parts. "We have all the general automotive machine shop equipment to build engines," he explained. "We do valve seat and guide work, and we can hone and surface a block, but we don't have the time or personnel to make parts. So we go to someone who does runs of maybe 500 pieces. For pistons, we go to someone like CP Pistons, or we go to Scat for a crankshaft or rods. We give them the specs, or a drawing, or even a part to reverse-engineer, and start the development process from there.

"It's been good for the competitors. It's why the class is having a resurgence, because the parts are there, and they are reliable, and we always keep a good inventory."

THE FUTURE IS VINTAGE

In four decades, of course, Formula Ford has changed. So have Ivey's customers. "Years ago," Ivey recalled, "Formula Ford was an entry-level class, the bottom rung of the ladder to IndyCar. We were dealing with 18-year-old kids like Jimmy Vasser, Paul Tracy, Greg Moore, Bryan Herta—lots of really talented young drivers who all had aspirations of driving Indy cars or F1. It was more professional, and it was super-competitive.

"Some of our customers are still the same people, who have kept their cars from 40 years ago, and they are still racing, or their sons or daughters are driving.
"There are new people coming in," he added, but they tend to be hobbyists rather than aspiring professionals, "people in their mid-30s or 40s or 50s, who always wanted to do it, and now they can afford to do it." 

A self-described "longtime customer," Ethan Shippert was working for vintage engine builder Dave Vegher when he traded his Formula Vee for a Formula Ford. "Dave was extremely experienced with Cosworth, the Lotus twin-cam, and the BMW M12," but "'Formula Fords are very nuanced,'" he told Shippert. "'You need to look for the last little bit of this, the last little bit of that. You should call Jay Ivey.'

"So I sent my engine up there, and they took good care of me and made sure I had good equipment." Ivey offered Shippert some life advice as well. "I was in the middle of my second or third season, and I was racing and living off my credit cards. Jay pulled me aside and said, 'This will still be here. You need to be smart. You can't just go through all your money.'"

Longtime Ivey Engines customer Ethan Shippert said Formula Ford car counts "are up all over the country. The normal weekend club race will get 25 to 30 cars. That's because of the Ivey's efforts." Here is a group of vintage and club Formula Fords at Pacific Raceways.

 

Today Shippert Racing Services of Sonoma, California, maintains a fleet of 28 vintage race cars, mostly Formula Atlantics but also a few Formula Fords and 2-liter sports racers. "We probably send 40% of our engines up to Ivey," said Shippert, while crediting "massive" improvements in longevity to Ivey's parts. "When I first started club racing, a Formula Ford was a 10- or 12-hour engine. Now they're in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 hours on the bottom end, and we pull the cylinder head every 15 to 20 hours. It used to be that Saturday night you pulled the head, and every Formula Ford racer went to the track with a head gasket." 

Ted Guenther of Paradise Valley, Arizona, first "ran into Jay at the races in the mid-1980s, and he was very helpful. I was running Sports 2000, and then Formula Atlantic. I did a lot of my own engine building, but I would call him and say, 'Hey, Jay, what about this?' And later on, when I got real serious about Sports 2000, he did all my head work, and he'd dyno engines for me. And same thing when I ran Continental, back when they allowed the 2-liter Pinto motor.

"There was a big discussion back in the day about oil pumps on the 2-liters," he continued. One prominent engine builder "was running a 5/8-inch pressure section, to save like an eighth of a horsepower, and you'd come off the track with hot oil at 5 psi. Jay said that was a little over the top, and that's interesting because now when Fast Forward [Components of Sand City, California] builds a 2-liter pump, they are up to an inch on the pressure section."

These days, Guenther restores vintage race cars, currently a Lola Sports 2000 and a Swift DB6. "I source all my Formula Ford parts through Ivey. I've probably bought six or seven sets of pistons, and they have probably done 10 heads for me this year."

Formula Ford, Guenther added, "is a very healthy class. The SVRA people get 20 to 30 cars at a major event, and there's a big contingent of cars down in Mexico that run a Toyo street tire." Additionally, "there's a lot of action now on the West Coast. It's semi-vintage—old DB1s and DB6s running on Hoosier cantilever slicks. In our little series, which is Thunderhill down to Willow Springs, we're getting maybe 15 to 20 cars, and in Phoenix they get 10 to 15. A lot of the guys who run down here have Jay do all their engines. 

"It's a great time to be racing a Formula Ford," Shippert added. "Car counts are up all over the country. The normal weekend club race will get 25 to 30 cars. That's because of the Ivey's efforts." 

WIN ON SUNDAY

Ivey helped set up the Formula Ford series in Mexico City. He and Susan spend winters in La Paz, where he provides technical assistance to a marine biology research center. "I also help the schools down there, because they've realized that not all kids go to college, and some kids don't know how to write code. I help teach them how to use tools and show them that there are opportunities to be passionate about that aren't on your iPhone or computer." 
He returns north for the US racing season and still provides most of Ivey Engines' on-track support. "At some races we might have 50 engines, and a small problem on Friday becomes a big problem on Monday if I wasn't there to fix it," he explained. "So if there's an issue, I don't have a problem jumping on a plane and going to help somebody." 

More often, however, Ivey sends parts and tools "in somebody's trailer" and deals mostly with minor adjustments—"carburetion and ignition, wiring issues, a misfire. It's nagging stuff, never anything catastrophic. The engines are pretty bulletproof. Because we do the job right here, we don't have to do a lot of work at the track. Honestly, when I'm at the races I work more on engines I didn't build than I work on my own."

While he's there, he hands out some swag: "T-shirts, hats, and other stuff that I [also] send off with the engines." Even so, Ivey said that his best promotions are "our engines, our reputation, and how we service our people. If you win races, you sell engines."

 

To read more like this for free, sign up for a digital subscription to PRI Magazine on Zinio here.    

Once you download the Zinio mobile app or are logged into Zinio on a desktop browser, you will gain immediate access to more than a year's worth of content, including "Business Profile" here and more road racing coverage in the July 2025 issue here. 

Formula 1 is planning to celebrate its 75th anniversary later this year at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, in Salinas, California.

The event, planned for August 13-16, will see some of the most iconic cars in F1 history race again and include an exhibition of rarely seen cars that follows the evolution of the sport over the last 75 years.

Twenty-five authentic F1 cars from the 1966-1985 non-turbo era will race daily in the Mario Andretti Trophy race. Fans will see--and hear--the 12-cylinder-powered cars from the likes of Tyrrell, Williams, Ferrari, Lotus and Brabham.

The event will also feature an exhibition of more than 30 historic F1 cars from museums and private collections. This exhibit marks the first time many of these cars have been displayed together in one place. The collection will feature models ranging from the 1956 Maserati 250F, 1966 Eagle Mk1 and 1986 Benetton B186, to more modern machinery like the 2024 Formula 1 World Constructors' Championship-winning McLaren MCL38, driven by Lando Norris.

For more information, visit weathertechraceway.com.

PRI Individual Members can now score 20% off Garmin wearables, smart scales, fitness monitors and more. 

Whether you’re training for race day or just tracking your daily movement, this member perk keeps your goals on track. 

Not yet a PRI member? There's a tier for you! Learn more at performanceracing.com/membership.

PRI is not affiliated with, nor does it sell or thoroughly evaluate the products, services, and companies listed. PRI provides this information to PRI members for their evaluation and consideration and does not endorse or sponsor any company, product, or service. PRI takes no responsibility for, and makes no representation, warranty, or assurance as to the accuracy, quality, reliability, or completeness of the products or services offered.

New registration features make securing a PRI Show badge in 2025 easier than ever before.

Attendee registration for the 2025 PRI Show is now officially open for qualified industry members, and you don't want to waste any time securing you badge.

Set for December 11–13 in downtown Indianapolis, this year's PRI Show is gearing up to be one of the biggest and most impactful yet, delivering three high-powered business days packed with the latest racing technology, world-class networking and exclusive Show features you can't find anywhere else.

New for 2025: Big Improvements to the Registration Process

The PRI Show team has introduced two exciting updates to make registering smoother, faster and more user-friendly:

One-Stop Shop Experience
After confirming membership, attendees will now only need to complete two prompts:

• Profile information.
• Demographic questions.

Single Transaction for Multiple Attendees
Planning to register your entire team? You now can do so all in one transaction. This requested feature eliminates one of the most common frustrations from years past.

Why Attend the 2025 PRI Show?

With a focus on the present and future of racing, the 2025 PRI Show promises to feature all the newest parts, latest innovations, nearly unlimited networking opportunities and access to an unrivaled number of motorsports manufacturers and service providers that can't be matched anywhere else. 

Expect the return of signature Show features like:

• Featured Products Showcase.
• Grand Opening Breakfast.
• Machinery Row with live demos.
• PRI ESports Arena.
• Indoor motorsports trailers exhibit.
• Track Operators, Promoters and Sanctions (TOPS) HQ.
• And much more!
   

Ready to Plan Your Trip?

View the current 2025 PRI Show Floorplan and start mapping out your visit. Book your hotel now to secure the best rates and locations here. As a reminder, PRI Membership is required to attend. Be sure to renew or sign up before registering.

Don't miss your chance to be part of the world's largest gathering of motorsports professionals.

For more information on the 2025 PRI Show, visit here.

 

The Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America will celebrate its 30th anniversary with a coast-to-coast journey from May 1–9, 2026. Applications for new riders open in January 2026.

The Ride will begin at Sonoma Raceway in California and conclude at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina—recreating the route taken during the event's inaugural year in 1995.

"For the 30th Anniversary Kyle Petty Charity Ride, we wanted to make it something truly special and ride cross country once again," said Kyle Petty. "To make it even better, we are starting and finishing in the same area we did for the first Ride. We will be reliving 30 years of memories and making even more along the way."

The route connects two Speedway Motorsports facilities, and additional route details, riders and stops will be released in the coming months.

"The Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America has been positively impacting the lives of children and families for three decades," said Marcus Smith, President & CEO of Speedway Motorsports. "We look forward to kicking off the Ride for Kyle in Sonoma and then welcoming everyone home to Charlotte after a cross-country trek of adventures."

Founded in 1995, the Ride raises funds and awareness for Victory Junction, a camp for children with complex medical conditions. Since its inception, more than $23 million has been raised, supporting over 139,000 experiences for children and families across the U.S. and beyond.

For more information, visit kylepettycharityride.com.

 

The American Rally Association (ARA) has announced plans to establish a national rally training center in Owsley County, Kentucky, through a partnership with Backroads of Appalachia. Located on a 200-plus-acre site near the Daniel Boone National Forest, the facility will include a 60,000-square-foot building with shop bays and classrooms, along with a 1.4-mile off-road course designed for team and manufacturer testing. The center will serve as a hub for training rally officials and supporting the growth of the sport nationwide.

The project is part of the larger "Appalachian Overland Triangle" initiative, a tri-state effort to revitalize rural economies through motorsports and adventure tourism. Funded in part by a $7.4 million ARISE grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, the initiative aims to boost economic development across Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio by leveraging the region's natural terrain and motorsports potential.

"ARA's mission is to advance the sport of stage rally in the U.S.," said Lance Smith, founder of Rally Forward, promoter of the ARA, including the ARA National Championship presented by Kubota. "A big part of doing that is assisting our event organizers in recruiting, training and retaining the people who make it all possible.

"The ARA National Rally Training Center will give us a base of operations to share knowledge, safely practice skills and ensure we have a world-class rally workforce ready to execute events as the sport scales up. We're grateful to Erik Hubbard of Backroads of Appalachia and to the Appalachian Regional Commission and other area leaders for recognizing the economic impact that the ARA Rally already has in many small towns across the country and seeing the potential benefit that we can bring to the Appalachian region."

For more information, visit americanrallyassociation.org.
 

Image courtesy of American Rally Association
 

 

Drag Illustrated and Bradenton Motorsports Park (BMP) in Bradenton, Florida, have confirmed the schedule for the second annual Drag Illustrated Winter Series presented by J&A Service.

Featuring invitation-only, 32-car Pro Modified fields on a 1/8-mile outlaw format, the Winter Series offers more than $300,000 in total purses. Following a successful debut season, the series continues to grow in popularity among racers and fans, establishing itself as a premier offseason destination for competitive Pro Mod racing.

BMP is also undergoing upgrades as detailed by its owner Victor Alvarez.

"We're all about putting on a show and giving fans something to remember," said Alvarez in a release. "Last year was next level, but we're not slowing down. We're making major improvements here at BMP--new infrastructure, upgraded amenities, and more room to move--and we can't wait to show it all off when the circus rolls back into town."

In addition, Elite Motorsports, the NHRA team and racing operation owned by Richard Freeman, has announced a partnership with Drag Illustrated to bring a landmark $1,000,000 bonus award for any Pro Mod driver who can win all three races of the Winter Series. This is an unprecedented prize representing the largest single-performance-based payout in drag racing history.

'25-'26 Drag Illustrated Winter Series presented by J&A Service at Bradenton Motorsports Park

• Snowbird Outlaw Nationals – December 5–7, 2025
• U.S. Street Nationals – January 23–25, 2026
• World Series of Pro Mod – February 26–28, 2026

 

For more information, visit thewinterseries.com.

 

Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR) has announced plans to relocate its operations to Westfield, Indiana, with a new 76,000-square-foot facility at the Grand Park Sports Campus. The headquarters will include professional racing operations, engineering and technical development spaces, fan viewing areas, a merchandise store and a Java House café. It will also feature Grand Park's first city-funded parking garage, improving access to the area.

The new facility will make ECR the only NTT INDYCAR SERIES team headquartered in Hamilton County. Founded in 2011, the team is co-owned by Ed Carpenter, Ted Gelov, Tony George, and Stuart Reed. ECR competes full-time in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES with drivers Alexander Rossi and Christian Rasmussen, with Carpenter joining the lineup for the Indianapolis 500. Construction is set to begin in early 2026, with completion expected in early 2027.

"We are very excited about this project and how it will impact the growth of ECR into the future. The opportunity to build a world-class facility within Grand Park was something we could not pass up," Carpenter said in a release. "The demographic of Grand Park and its annual visitors is not only a great opportunity for our team to reach new fans, but also a great opportunity for INDYCAR itself as we continue to capitalize on the current momentum of our sport. We are very focused on building a unique and best-in-class facility that will support our team and also showcase our brand to visitors each and every day."

For more information, visit ecrindy.com.
 

Image courtesy of Ed Carpenter Racing

General Motors (GM) has named Jim Campbell as VP, performance and motorsports commercial operations.

Campbell will oversee commercial operations for GM's motorsports programs, with a strategic focus on leveraging the Cadillac Formula 1 Team to elevate the Cadillac and GM brands. He will continue to work closely with GM's global motorsports competition, engineering, purchasing, design, Cadillac and Chevrolet teams.

Campbell most recently served as chief product officer of GM China and president of the Durant Guild. He will continue to work with the GM China team to finalize the GM premium import restructuring already underway.

Over his more than 35 years at GM, Campbell has held multiple leadership roles, working with dealers, divisions, retail planning, fleet and commercial operations, product marketing, accessories and performance parts, product planning and export groups. He's also held leadership roles in GM's motorsports operations, including NASCAR, INDYCAR, IMSA, NHRA, FIA WEC and off-road racing.

Late last year, GM announced plans to field a Cadillac Formula 1 Team in the 2026 season as a fully American entry.

"Jim's experience and leadership will be invaluable as we prepare to join the Formula 1 grid in 2026 with the Cadillac Formula 1 team, a uniquely American venture," said GM President Mark Reuss. "While racing is deeply rooted in our history, F1 marks a bold new frontier, on a worldwide stage, and is the pinnacle of motorsports. Having Jim in this position working with our collective team makes me feel even more confident in our capabilities and plans to succeed, and to win."

For more information, visit gm.com.