The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving has entered a unique partnership with the International Motor Sports Ass’n (IMSA) and the new TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

The Bondurant School, celebrating 46 years of training the best professional drivers, has been named the preferred driving school of IMSA. The school will provide the official safety car drivers for the TUDOR Championship, which debuted this past weekend with the 52nd Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening round of the Tequila Patrón North American Endurance Cup. Bondurant instructors will also pace Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge races.

“The Bondurant School has earned a reputation of excellence in driver instruction,” said David Pettit, IMSA vice president, marketing. “Having Bondurant instructors as our official safety car drivers for the TUDOR Championship and the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge fills an important role for our series and places the spotlight on this partnership.”

Darren Law, Bondurant’s chief operating officer, outlined details of the new program. Both he and Johnny O’Connell, the school’s vice-president of global operations, are former Rolex 24 winners and current sports-car competitors. They will be active participants in the new IMSA program.

“This is a unique and great opportunity to join forces with IMSA and to be here for the first year of the united series,” Law said. “The Bondurant School will provide instructors to drive pace cars for all events. We will also be driving a Bondurant-branded 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray in the IMSA Hot Lap Experience program. We will offer tech talks and track talks for the manufacturer car corrals at each race, and we’ll have a Bondurant kiosk and display in the IMSA FANZONE, so fans can get information about the school. Johnny O’Connell and I will be regular guests at the tech talks and track talks.”

The Bondurant/IMSA partnership highlights the school’s long-term contribution to sports car racing.

“Bondurant has a storied history in sports car racing, with Bob Bondurant winning his class at Le Mans and racing at Daytona for Carroll Shelby,” Law noted. “There is a lot of past history, both with Bob himself and with many of the instructors and principals in the Bondurant School. We also have many sports-car drivers who have worked for Bondurant, like Terry Borcheller and Buddy Rice. And a large majority of the drivers at Daytona this weekend have been through a Bondurant program.”

Law believes car and driver development are both crucial elements for a winning team.

“The Bondurant School is really an amazing high-performance professional driving school and we’d like to showcase what we can do,” he said. “Many people are willing to spend money on the car to gain an edge for a lap time. Investing in themselves and working on their personal driver development can give them an even bigger performance boost.”

The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, motor racing’s Cooperstown, has announced that it will move its operations and collection of historic racing machines and memorabilia from the Detroit area to the "World Center of Racing,” Daytona International Speedway by January 2016.

The move coincides with the scheduled January 2016 completion of Daytona Rising, the speedway’s $400 million front-stretch renovation project currently underway.

Plans call for the Hall of Fame’s displays featuring cars, images, stories and bronze sculptures of 209 icons of American motorsports to be located in the Daytona International Speedway Ticket and Tours Building, which was formerly known as the “Daytona 500 Experience.”

Vehicles and artifacts representative of the diversity of motorized competition celebrated by the Hall of Fame, including open wheel, stock cars, motorcycles, aviation, drag racing, sports cars and powerboats, will be exhibited as a regular part of the tours admission at the speedway all year long.

“The partnership between Daytona International Speedway and the Hall of Fame is a match made in racing heaven,” said Ron Watson, president of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. “The Hall gets a home within one of America’s most famous and best-loved sports venues. Race fans and tourists who come to Daytona will have another great attraction to visit throughout the year.”

“Daytona International Speedway is an iconic racing venue and will be a fitting home to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America,” said Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood III. “Having the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America right here will complement Daytona Rising and provide another reason for race fans to visit Daytona International Speedway.”

Hurley Haywood, winner of more endurance classics than any other driver in racing history, was honored by the Road Racing Drivers Club with the 2014 Phil Hill Award.

RRDC president Bobby Rahal presented Haywood with the award at a dinner prior to the running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the season opener of the 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

The Phil Hill Award has been presented annually since 1993 to the person who the RRDC feels has rendered outstanding service to road racing. The recipient may be a driver, entrant or outstanding member of a sanctioning body.

It is named in honor of America’s first Formula One World Champion (in 1961), and is not only a tribute to his masterful accomplishments on the race track, it also recognizes his contributions as a great ambassador for the sport. Hill passed away in 2008.

Haywood, of St. Augustine, Florida, has five Daytona 24-hour, three LeMans 24-hour, and two Sebring 12-hour victories to his credit. He also claimed the 1988 SCCA Trans-Am championship, two IMSA GT championships, and has earned a SuperCar title and three Norelco Cup championships. The Chicago native competed in the 1980 Indy 500, finishing 18th. He also started 18 IndyCar races, four IROC races and campaigned the 1973-74 SCCA Can-Am series.

After retiring from full-time driving in 2008, Haywood returned to the Brumos No. 59 Porsche Riley for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, scoring third place in 2009 and fifth in 2011. The next year marked his final run for the 50th Daytona 24. It was also his 40th Rolex 24 start, appropriately ending on the podium with a third-place finish.

He is Vice President of Brumos Porsche in Jacksonville, Florida, and serves as chief driving instructor for the Porsche Sport Driving School and Brumos Driving Experience. He is a member of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, the Sebring Hall of Fame and Watkins Glen’s “Legends of the Glen.”

“Phil Hill represented everything that was great about the American spirit internationally,” said Rahal. “He was the first U.S. F1 champion and multi-time winner of LeMans. He was a gentleman in the finest sense of the word.

“What a great champion Hurley is,” said Rahal. “He is considered the best endurance champion in North America in the history of the sport. Phil HIll had won many endurance races in his career, and Hurley had a lot of competition in the ’70s and ’80s, including Porsche 962s, Jaguars, Toyotas, you name it. It was tough. Hurley is indeed a worthy recipient of the Phil Hill Award.”

“When Bobby called me up and told me I was going to get the Phil Hill award, I was really shocked,” said Haywood. “Any time you could be in the same sentence with Phil Hill is something that is very special to me.

“Phil Hill was an icon in this sport. He won LeMans three times, was a Formula 1 champion. He was just a class act. If all of us mimicked what Phil Hill was all about, we’d all have a wonderful life. So, thank you very much.”

Officials from the Automobile Racing Club of America have announced the adoption of a revised double file restart procedure for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards 2014 season.

The new rule will be in effect starting with the Lucas Oil 200 presented by MAVTV American Real at Daytona Int’l Speedway Feb. 15.

Here’s how it will work: Following a caution period and pitting cycle, series officials will verify the running order and position cars in proper order. When the starter gives the “one lap to go,” signal, cars will line up in two columns for all restarts in the “double file” format after they cross the start/finish line, unless otherwise directed by ARCA officials. The leader will have the choice of which lane he or she will restart. Previously, ARCA’s double file restart placed lead-lap cars in the outside lane and all lap-down cars in the inside lane with no lane choice for the leader.

“I think it’s a good change,” said Cunningham Motorsports driver and ARCA veteran Tom Hessert. “The goal of any series is to make the races more competitive and more exciting and this will do that.”

The procedure, introduced in other sanctioning bodies within the last few years, has been pioneered by short tracks and weekly racing tours and is now commonplace at the highest levels of the sport.

“The double-file restart for lead lap cars is now a regular occurrence in stock car racing and we felt it was time to institute the procedure in the ARCA Racing Series,” said Joe Wells, vice president of competition for ARCA. “While we expect it will present some challenges at times (with regard to getting the field properly aligned for restarts), the upside should produce more excitement for the fans, and greater competition among the teams.”

ARCA officials announced the change to its teams and drivers Wednesday.

From a driver development standpoint, Billy Venturini, with Venturini Motorsports, likes the move. He said the biggest impact he sees will be at the short tracks. “We are supposed to be prepping these drivers to drive at the next level, so we should be teaching them to drive in the same way they will be driving at the next level,” he said.

“Should make for some exciting restarts; that’s why they do it,” said 10-time series champion Frank Kimmel, driver of the No. 44 Ansell-Menards Toyota for Win-Tron Racing. “You’ve got to think about the fans that pay to see exciting racing.

“On the other side of it, you may tear up some more cars, but that’s part of racing in today’s world. It could really help you at the end of the race if you’re in the preferred line, but on the same token, if you’re not in the right line, you’re going to lose a couple spots. It really depends on which track you’re talking about too. At some places it’ll be no big deal, but in others, it’s going to be a really big deal.

“When you race in a series as long as I have here, you see procedures change and for the most part, they work out for the best,” Kimmel added.

Another aspect of the double-file restart procedure is the wave-around rule. This element allows drivers one or more laps down who do not pit during the caution period and are behind the pace car at the “one-lap-to-go” signal, to pass the pace car and proceed to the tail-end of the field. Thus, lap-down cars will gain a lap back, in some cases returning them to the lead lap and they will then fall into the double-file restart procedure in the proper running order at the tail end of the lead lap.

“Under the previous procedures, lap-down cars were allowed to advance to the front of the inside lane on restarts, giving them a chance to race their way back onto the lead lap,” Wells said. “With the lead lap cars now doubled-up at the front of the field on the restart, the wave-around procedure still provides teams the chance to get back on the lead lap.”

McLaren has unveiled its 2014 Formula One race car, the MP4-29.

Force India and Williams had already shown computer-generated images, but McLaren’s event marked the first team to fully unveil a 2014 F1 design.

The MP4-29 features the anticipated take on the controversial nose design that teams have leaned to under the new regulations, with a narrow protruding section to meet the revised crash test rules without lowering the entire front end.

With McLaren not yet having a title sponsor to replace Vodafone, the car was unveiled in a plain silver livery with basic MP4-29 branding.

Kevin Magnussen, who was promoted from the Formula Renault 3.5 series, will replace Sergio Perez for 2014 to drive alongside teammate Jenson Button. The team hopes to improve on last season which saw the team fail to finish on the podium even once.

Ty Norris, the Michael Waltrip Racing executive who took the blame for orchestrating a team orders scandal last September at Richmond International Raceway, has been reinstated by NASCAR following a four-month suspension.

Norris was suspended Sept. 9 as part of the fallout from the Chase for the Sprint Cup cutoff race, which saw MWR drivers Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers take deliberate actions to change the outcome of the Chase field and help teammate Martin Truex Jr. make the playoffs. The now-former spotter was caught on the radio instructing a surprised Vickers to pit.

Though he retained his title as Executive Vice President of MWR, Norris' duties have changed. He is no longer involved with the competition department and is primarily focused on sponsorships and marketing, a decision announced last year.

He remains on indefinite probation, though the lifting of NASCAR's suspension will allow him to return to the track.

"I appreciate NASCAR's action today and respect their position," Norris said. "I am focused forward and dedicated to the success of Michael Waltrip Racing and the continued growth of a sport that has been my home for the past 24 years."

The Richmond scandal marred the start of NASCAR's Chase and resulted in officials changing the field twice—including adding an unprecedented 13th driver, Jeff Gordon, because NASCAR Chairman Brian France believed Gordon was victimized by MWR's actions.

Further fallout also included the departure of MWR sponsor NAPA, which resulted in the closure of MWR's full-time No. 56 team, the release of Truex and the consolidation to just two full-time teams.

Another action-packed year of DIRTcar Racing is set to kick off soon, with the Northeast’s premier traveling series taking on the region’s most exciting tracks.

The Super DIRTcar Big-Block Modified Series spans from Florida to Quebec, bringing the best of the big-block modfiieds to their classic venues and adding some new ones to the mix.

The DIRTcar 358-Modified Series, DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series and DIRTcar Pro Stock Series are also revving up for one of their busiest seasons in years, boasting more than 60 races among the four DIRTcar Racing Northeast Region series.

The Super DIRTcar Series begins its season earlier than the rest with four races at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., Feb. 19-22.

Once the Super DIRTcar Big-Block Modified Series heads back north it kicks into high gear in spring, returning to Central New York’s Fulton Speedway on Saturday, April 26, for the first 100-lap feature of the season. The Super DIRTcar Series then crosses the border to Brockville Ontario Speedway in Brockville, Ontario, for an early-season special event.

The DIRTcar Sportsman Series gets an early start in 2014 as well, with a Sunday, April 27, opener scheduled at Mohawk International Raceway in Akwesasne, N.Y.

The DIRTcar 358-Modified Series opens in May, with back-to-back races at Cornwall Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 18, and Merrittville Speedway on Monday, May 19. On Sunday, June 1, the DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series and DIRTcar Pro Stock Series invade Cornwall Motor Speedway for a two-series special at the Ontario quarter-mile.

The month of June heats up for the Super DIRTcar Series, with star-studded races set for Tuesday, June 17, at New Egypt Speedway, Wednesday, June 25, at Utica-Rome Speedway, and Sunday, June 29, at Cornwall Motor Speedway. The DIRTcar Pro Stock Series will spend the month in Quebec, racing at Autodrome Granby Friday, June 20, and Le RPM Speedway Saturday, June 21.

In early July, the DIRTcar 358-Modified Series swings westward for consecutive race nights at Humberstone Speedway Tuesday, July 1, and Ransomville Speedway Wednesday, July 2. Ransomville Speedway will also host the DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series for its infamous Battle at the Border. The very next night, the Super DIRTcar Series joins the Empire Super Sprints at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park in Elbridge, N.Y., for a spectacular night of racing action Thursday, July 3. From there, the series roars to the Capital Region for Brett Hearn’s The Big Show 6 on Tuesday, July 8, at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, where once again it will be joined by the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series.

The Super DIRTcar Series returns Tuesday, July 15, to Big Diamond Speedway, marking the first time since 2009 the series has toured the track in Minersville, Pa. The series will then head to Glen Ridge Motorsports Park, in Fultonville, N.Y., on Wednesday, July 16. Both the Super DIRTcar Series and the DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series take a trip north of the border for doubleheaders Monday, July 21, at Autodrome Granby and Tuesday, July 22, at Autodrome Drummond.

Monday, Aug. 4, marks the classic Bob St. Amand, Sr. Memorial for the Super DIRTcar Series at Merrittville Speedway in Thorold, Ontario. Following at the heels is the return of the Super DIRTcar Series to Ransomville Speedway for the 30th Annual Alex Friesen Summer Nationals Tuesday, Aug. 5.

A couple nights later the Big-Block Modifieds will once again light up Weedsport Speedway in Weedsport, N.Y., for the annual Hall of Fame race. The DIRTcar Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will honor the sports best contributors Wednesday, Aug. 6, and the Super DIRTcar Series will take on the history-packed track Thursday, Aug. 7.

The “Mr. DIRT Track U.S.A” at Lebanon Valley Speedway caps off the month of August for the Super DIRTcar Series on Thursday, Aug. 14. The DIRTcar 358-Modified Series carries the DIRTcar Northeast Region to the fall post-season with a Sunday, Aug. 31, 125-lapper at Cornwall Motor Speedway.

While the weekly season winds down, the DIRTcar Northeast series speed up into their final rounds with several action-packed race weekends across the region. Friday, Sept. 5, and Saturday, Sept. 6, the Super DIRTcar Series, DIRTcar 358-Modified Series and DIRTcar Pro Stock Series invade Autodrome Granby, with the first highlighting Friday’s racing and the latter two taking over Saturday. Meanwhile, the DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series is set to take on three tracks in as many days, starting at Ransomville Speedway Friday, Sept. 5, heading to Merrittville Speedway Saturday, Sept. 6, and concluding the weekend Sunday, Sept. 7, at Humberstone Speedway.

The following weekend, all four series trek to Mohawk International Raceway, with the DIRTcar 358-Modified Series and DIRTcar Pro Stock Series charging to the Frogtown Road track Friday, Sept. 12, and the Super DIRTcar Series and DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series arriving Saturday, Sept. 13. Next up, the Super DIRTcar Series heads to “The Track of Champions,” Fonda Speedway, Sunday, Sept. 21.

The DIRTcar 358-Modified Series, DIRTcar Sportsman Series and DIRTcar Pro Stock Series polish off the last of their season before October’s NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week XLIII at Brighton Speedway and Le RPM Speedway. Brighton celebrates Applefest Weekend Friday, Sept. 19, with the DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series and Saturday, Sept. 20, with the DIRTcar 358-Modified Series. Le RPM plays host to the DIRTcar 358-Modified Series Friday, Sept. 19, and, on Saturday, Sept. 20, both the DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Series and DIRTcar Pro Stock Series invade the Quebec track.

NASCAR on Wednesday officially unveiled its qualifying format changes for 2014, switching to a group “knockout” qualifying process in its three national series—Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck.

The premise of the new format—a version of which has been used in Formula One and the IndyCar Series—is elimination of slower cars until the 12 fastest are produced, which will comprise the first six rows of each race.

The change is a precursor to an expected announcement next week of even larger changes to NASCAR’s Chase playoff format, which will include elimination rounds.

Under the new qualifying procedures, NASCAR will use three rounds of qualifying at tracks 1.25 miles in length or larger. The entire field will have 25 minutes to post their fastest single lap and the top 24 will advance.

The second segment will last 10 minutes and the fastest 12 will advance to a final, five-minute round.

At tracks smaller than 1.25 miles, qualifying will be in two segments. The first will be 30 minutes with the top 12 advancing to a 10-minute final session.

“This style of group qualifying has all the makings of being highly competitive and more engaging to our fans in the stands and those watching on television and online,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition.

Nationwide and Truck teams will use the new format next month at Daytona, but the Cup series will retain its traditional qualifying format for the Daytona 500. The Truck series will retain its heat-race format for its annual stop at Eldora Speedway’s dirt track in Rossburg, Ohio. The first qualifying session of 2014 with the new format will be 1:05 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, with the Nationwide Series at Daytona International Speedway.

Although NASCAR considered the idea, it will not award points to pole winners.

Reactions from drivers and track operators was overwhelmingly positive.

“Heck, I’m all for anything that makes it fun not only the fans but the drivers and teams, too!” driver Clint Bowyer said in a statement. “This is really going to shake things up on Fridays—in a good way. I’m all for it.”

With multiple cars on the track at the same time, qualifying sessions at shorter tracks such as Martinsville, Va., and Bristol, Tenn., and the superspeedways of Talladega, Ala., and Daytona—where drafting would be possible—could become almost mini-races.

“Bristol is known for intense, on-track battles, and this new format takes the emotion and energy in the qualifying sessions to another level,” said track general manager Jerry Caldwell. “It’s definitely going to be exciting for our race fans, and as the first short-track on the schedule, it will be interesting to see how it plays out on the high banks.”

Steve Letarte, crew chief for driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., posted the following note to his Twitter account: “Man I think Fridays just got super exciting. Strategy. Speed. Competition. I’m ready.”

Pemberton said the qualifying changes would prove beneficial to all of those with a vested interest in the sport—fans, competitors and sponsors.

“We evaluate a lot of things over time, and we believe that the fans will be receptive to this. The competitors think it’s a great idea. It gives us an opportunity to get two or three rounds of qualifying in per event,” he said.

“I’ve got to believe it’s better for any of the sponsors. It’s going to be a better show for TV and the people at home will have a better opportunity to watch these guys qualify.”

Pierre Fillon, the eighth president of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, creator and organizer of the Le Mans 24 Hours since 1923—the 82nd running of which will be held on June 14–15, 2014—will lower the flag on Saturday to unleash the 67 cars in the 52nd event.

This great honor highlights the indispensable role the Automobile Club de l’Ouest played in the creation of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship, the result of the merger between the American Le Mans Series and the Grand Am Road Racing series, of which the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona is the first round.

Thanks to this union some of the cars racing in the Le Mans 24 Hours complying with the ACO technical regulations, are once again entitled to race on the legendary Florida circuit as well as in the 14 rounds in the 2014 championship. Thus, in the categories that are now accepted, the cars in two of them, LM P2 and GT LM, are eligible on both sides of the Atlantic.

The six LM P2s represented by Morgan, Oreca, HPD and Mazda can now fight for victory in the overall classification reviving history, while in the grand touring category the 11 GT LMs will go head-to-head with the Daytona GTs.

As a matter of interest, the last time a type of car entered for the Le Mans 24 Hours won the Daytona 24 Hours was in 2003 (Porsche 996), and one has to go back to 1990 to find the same type of prototype winning on both sides of the Atlantic the same year—the extraordinary Jaguar XJR-12.

Quite a few of the 67 cars entered this weekend come from teams that enter for Le Mans on a regular basis, as well as for the FIA World Endurance Championship of which the ACO is the organizer and promoter, a role it also plays in the Le Mans continental series. Among them are OAK Racing, Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, Starworks Motorsports, Corvette Racing, Aston Martin, Dempsey Racing, etc.

There are also many drivers (over 40) who usually race in the Le Mans 24 Hours or in the FIA WEC starting with former outright winners in the Sarthe, David Brabham, Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller, the last driver to have won the two greatest 24-hour races in 2010.

Following a successful inaugural event last year, Speedway Motors will host its second annual Racer Appreciation Day on Saturday, February 15, from 1-8 p.m.   

Hundreds of racers are expected to swarm Speedway’s Lincoln, Nebraska, headquarters for this fantastic pre-season open house and sale. Speedway Motors’ Racer Appreciation Day will showcase hundreds of new and exclusive race parts and provide racers with an opportunity to try on new safety gear and take advantage of free shock dyno services and special pricing on parts counter purchases.

Speedway’s seasoned tech experts will offer informative breakout sessions on critical topics like shock tuning and maintenance, driver safety, brake systems and cooling, plus tours of Speedway’s massive warehouse.

As an added bonus, the Museum of American Speed will be open for touring all afternoon.

Guests can also expect free food and refreshments, plus many chances to win great raffle prizes and other giveaways.

“Local racers have been a crucial part of Speedway Motors’ success throughout our 62-year history,” said Clay Smith, President of Speedway Motors. “Our Racer Appreciation Day event is just one way that we can support these loyal customers who share our passion for racing.”

For details on the 2014 Speedway Motors Racer Appreciation Day and directions to Speedway’s campus, visit SpeedwayMotors.com/RacerAppreciation.dlp.

Speedway Motors is America’s Oldest Speed Shop® and has made racing safe, fun and affordable for 62 years. Call today toll free at 800.979.0122 or visit us online at www.SpeedwayMotors.com.