Continuing its commitment to revolutionize sports car racing in North America, the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) announced a 12-race schedule for the 2014 debut season of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship starting with the 52nd running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona on January 25-26.

“We have created a premium schedule for sports car fans, taking our new championship to some of the best road racing facilities in North America,” said IMSA CEO Ed Bennett. “Our event lineup also underscores the cooperative spirit of the merger between the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón (ALMS). The ‘best of both worlds’ approach, our shared guidepost throughout the merger process, is certainly evident when you look at the 2014 schedule.

“We had many interested parties but for 2014, we only considered facilities from our 2013 Rolex Series and ALMS schedules. That was in fairness to our existing track partners, who have been such strong supporters of both series. The first TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season will feature iconic tracks deeply rich in history. We are very proud of this group of 12 facilities which have been selected for the inaugural season.”

Illustrating the post-merger synergy is the fact that the 2014 lineup features four race tracks currently on the Rolex Series schedule, four that are on the current ALMS schedule and four that are on both series’ 2013 slates.
 
In addition, preseason test sessions have been set for November 16-17 at Sebring International Raceway and November 19-20 at Daytona International Speedway. The test sessions will be open to all four classes of cars that will compete in the new championship: Prototype, Prototype Challenge, GT Le Mans and GT Daytona. Session schedules will be announced in the near future.
 
The 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship schedule rundown:
 
·   Jan. 25-26: Daytona International Speedway …The 52nd running of the Rolex 24 will be perhaps the most significant sports car race in the history of North America, as the debut event for the new championship.
 
·   March 15 Sebring International Raceway … The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring fueled by Fresh From Florida – North America’s oldest sports car race – will be run for the 62nd time. … For the first time since 1998, the Daytona and Sebring endurance classics will be part of the same series and under the same sanctioning (IMSA). … Previously the ALMS’ premier event.
 
·   April 12 Long Beach …Longtime ALMS street race again in conjunction with IZOD IndyCar Series. … Prototype and GT Le Mans classes will compete in one of the largest and most important consumer markets (Southern California) for nearly all TUDOR United SportsCar Championship stakeholders.
 
·   May 4 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca … Historic Monterey, California circuit considered hallowed ground for sports car racing. … On both series’ schedules this season.
 
·   May 31: Detroit Belle Isle … Also a companion street-race event to IndyCar. … Will feature the Prototype, Prototype Challenge and GT Daytona classes. … The Rolex Series has raced at Detroit the last two years; previously, the ALMS was part of the Detroit weekend. The “Motor City” is home to many of the auto manufacturers participating in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship plus numerous supplier partners.
 
·   June 29: Watkins Glen International … The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen endurance event in Watkins Glen, New York has been a staple on the Rolex Series schedule. … Event started in 1968 and for many years was part of IMSA’s former Camel GT Series.
 
·   July 13: Canadian Tire Motorsport Park … Historic Bowmanville, Ontario circuit – currently amid a massive renovation project – is retained from the ALMS schedule.
 
·   July 25: Indianapolis Motor Speedway … Brickyard Grand Prix will again join the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekend for third consecutive year, with Friday-at-dusk finish. … Previous two years was part of Rolex Series schedule.
 
·   Aug. 10: Road America … Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin track has been on both ALMS and Rolex Series schedules. … Hosted historic event this season when both series raced there on the same weekend.
 
·   Aug. 24: Virginia International Raceway … Danville, Virginia track has fervent fan following and an ALMS race next month. … Formerly part of the Rolex Series schedule. … Event will have a combined GT Le Mans/GT Daytona race and another race featuring the Prototype Challenge class.
 
·   Sept. 20: Circuit of The Americas … Spectacular year-old road racing facility in Austin, Texas hosted the Rolex Series in the spring this season and is hosting the ALMS and FIA World Endurance Championship this weekend.
 
·   Oct. 4: Road Atlanta … The Petit Le Mans, traditional 10-hour or 1,000 mile ALMS season finale at the storied Braselton, Georgia road course. … Event will retain its status as a link with the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
 
With three circuits (Long Beach, Detroit Belle Isle and Virginia International Raceway) on the 2014 schedule not having all four TUDOR United SportsCar Championship classes competing, each class (Prototype, Prototype Challenge, GT Le Mans and GT Daytona) will race 11 times next season.
 
“This is, without a doubt, the best sports car schedule in the history of North America,” said IMSA President and COO Scott Atherton. “When we announced the merger plans last year, we immediately envisioned a dream schedule, one that our industry and, most importantly, our fans would embrace. Although it wasn’t easy, we feel like we have arrived at just that. There were so many options to consider and we could have added more events, but we had to ensure that we didn’t over-tax our industry. So, we stuck to our plan of going with the ‘best of the best’ and capped the lineup at 12 events.
 
“This lineup will have it all—historic road courses, major market street circuits and two of the most spectacular superspeedways in the world, Daytona and Indy. And it also will have the continent’s new jewel—Circuit of the Americas. Overall, a dream schedule, indeed.”

The stars of the IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights will cap the 2013 season with the Championship Celebration October 20 at Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Universal City, California.

The Championship Celebration will take place the day after the IndyCar World Championships at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, and will be streamed live on www.indycar.com at 8:30 p.m. (ET).

The festivities at Universal Studio’s Globe Theatre, a multi-purpose facility near the entrance of the theme park, will be highlighted by the presentation of the Astor Cup and $1 million bonus to the IZOD IndyCar Series championship-winning team and driver. The Firestone Firehawk Cup will be presented to the championship-winning Firestone Indy Lights team and driver.

“The championship celebration is a time to reflect on all the great competition that has defined the 2013 season,” said Mark Miles, CEO, Hulman & Co, the parent company of IndyCar. “The ornate Globe Theatre at Universal Studios provides the perfect backdrop for IndyCar to celebrate the tremendous accomplishments of our champion drivers and other award recipients.”

National Performance Warehouse Companies will start their FAST Expo weekend with a gala Friday evening, January 10, 2014, on the 14th floor of the private Bankers Club of Miami. Located in downtown Miami, the facilities provide a panoramic view of Biscayne Bay, Fisher Island, the Port of Miami and Bayfront Park. This “Million Dollar Dinner” event is held to recognize NPW vendors in the “million dollar” plus purchase category and to thank them for their efforts to grow NPW revenue.

Last year's event included dignitaries from AAM Parts Pro, Autometer, Bumper to Bumper, Centric, DEA Products, Dorman, Edelbrock, Federal Mogul, Holley, MSD, NGK, Standard Motor Products and several other industry leading brands.  Guests who make the list are presented awards and their names placed on the Company’s Honor Cup for posterity.

Larry Pacey, CEO and President of the company offered these remarks about the “Million Dollar Dinner” and Expo weekend: “Our FAST Expo is the kickoff for our new year and most of our suppliers are already in town. We appreciate the support from all the suppliers and we wanted to do something special for them so we created this Club to honor those at the forefront in sales and hope that we encourage others to make it to the Club level as that benefits our suppliers, our customers and of course NPW. It is really a great event and we hope to keep expanding our Club ranks as we have this year.”

Fred Carrillo, one of the legends of the performance aftermarket, died in mid-September at age 87.

Carrillo was born in Los Angeles in 1926. After serving in the Army Air Corps as a radar operator during WWII, he returned to civilian life and began his career as a mechanic.

The next two decades saw Carrillo climb behind the wheel until an accident on the Salt Flats of Bonneville, Utah, diverted him into mechanical engineering and metallurgy studies at Pasadena City College, and then UCLA.

While he worked for several years afterward as an engineer for Aerojet, Carrillo in his spare time developed a two-cycle engine, followed by the performance connecting rods that would give rise to his legacy.

Carrillo established the company in 1963, originally known as Warren Industries. During the 1960s, he pioneered the development of the traditional H-beam design for demanding race engine applications.

Carrillo’s involvement with Dan Gurney and Jack Brabham helped propel his connecting rod business after winning the Formula 1 World Championship in 1966.

In July 2001, Carrillo ultimately sold his interest in the company to Performance Motors Inc., and in 2008, CP Pistons, a member of Pankl Racing Systems, acquired Carrillo. He was retained as a consultant until the mid-2000s.

“Fred had dedicated his career to building Carrillo into a great company—one of which we all continue to be enormously proud as we celebrate Carrillo Rods 50th anniversary,” said Barry Calvert, CEO of CP-Carrillo. “Fred not only developed enormous respect both inside and outside the company as one of our industry’s greatest innovators who pushed the envelope, but also for those who knew him well, he engendered a sense of affection and loyalty through his candor, openness, and integrity and through his unique sense of humor.”

Fred Carrillo had been retired for the past several years.

Rally Australia's long-term future in the World Rally Championship looks secure following a successful event last week.

The New South Wales rally had been rotating with Rally New Zealand, but has now secured a three-year deal with the WRC promoter and looks set to become a permanent fixture on the calendar beyond 2015.

Despite missing only one year through forced rotation between 1989 and 2006, the loss of Western Australia backing meant the end of Perth as a host city and three years in the wilderness.

The Kingscliff-based event in 2009 was far from WRC standards, but last week's rally, run out of Coffs Harbour, was a significant improvement.

Rally Australia chairman Ben Rainsford said, "We listened to what people said from two years ago, and we moved the rally village into town and made other changes. We are definitely going in the right direction with this event."

Australia's WRC aspirations will be helped by plans to include Sydney in next season's event.

"We did have an objective to do something special in Sydney this year, but we got smashed with our media presence," said Rainsford.

"We had a federal election in the lead-up to this and all the media wanted to talk about was the election.

"One plan for next year is that we finish service at the end of Saturday here, go into parc ferme here, which would be supervised transport for the cars down to Sydney and then a plane ride for teams, event organisers, journalists, the whole circus down to the city.

"We would then do a short stage in Sydney, where we have options like the Olympic Park or Homebush [V8 Supercars street circuit] and then throw an Australian party, a barbecue on the beach."

Upping The Ante: One positive trend we’ve observed of late is a number of big events raising their purses to all-time-high levels. Of note, last month’s famed World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, saw a record $283,910 on the line for an expanded racing menu covering three full nights (September 5–7) of competition.

A few weeks later, the 38th Annual Red Clay Classic at ABC Raceway in Ashland, Wisconsin, offered total prize monies in excess of $80,000 for its two-night season finale, drawing some 200 WISSOTA-sanctioned Late Models, modifieds, super stocks and Midwest modifieds from the Upper Midwest and south-central Canada. Credit these and other like-minded track operators and promoters for creating a powerful attraction for fans and drivers.

Generation Next: National championships typically bring out the best and brightest. It’s no different for young automotive talent, which will be on full display at the 2013 PRI Trade Show in Indy. A partnership with the venerated Hot Rodders Of Tomorrow Engine Challenge will result in more than two-dozen of the country’s top high school teams competing for titles and scholarships December 10–14, in a makeshift pit area in the South Hall Lobby of the Indiana Convention Center.

PRI has hosted regional competitions in the past, but from 2009 on, the final round had always been held at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Not so this year, when the competition will take its place among the world’s largest gathering of motorsports professionals. In addition to the established engine challenge event, which resembles the tear-down between rounds at a drag race, the 2013 edition will feature three new contests: carburetor rebuild competition; ring and pinion challenge; and cylinder head challenge.

This expanded format will help accommodate the program’s largest-ever list of finalists—29 teams representing California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Indeed, more than $2.5 million in scholarship money will be on the line when these talented youngsters take the stage at PRI 2013!

Farewell: A true champion of the industry has left us far too soon. Tracy Winters, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at JW Performance Transmission in Rockledge, Florida, passed away unexpectedly on August 29. She was 46. A memorial by the Drag Racing Association of Women, of which Tracy was a board member, added that she “helped [JW Performance Transmission] grow from a small operation to a global leader in the performance industry.... Tracy was a known advocate for women and children, and will be forever remembered for her tireless work ethic, the many community programs she participated in, and the many lives she touched.” Those of us at PRI who were fortunate enough to have known her couldn’t agree more.

Donations can be made in Tracy’s honor to the Drag Racing Association of Women.

Sports Car Club of America honored its top Club Racing volunteers on Wednesday evening at the SCCA National Championship Runoffs at Road America, selecting nine BFGoodrich Tires Workers of the Year.

One BFGoodrich Tires Worker of the Year award was given to a member in each of the nine SCCA divisions, regardless of specialty. Each of those nine Divisional winners are given a set of BFGoodrich Tires and a patch, plaque and jacket to commemorate the achievement.

To award a grand prize winner, the nine finalist’s names were put into a hat. Gene Peterson, a Scrutineer from the Arizona Region, was selected for the top bill.

The grand prize, a trip to the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway, will include airfare, lodging, tickets, track hospitality, golf cart for use during the weekend and pit and paddock tours, all courtesy of BFGoodrich Tires.

Mark Bingheim, Race Administrator from the Chicago Region, was selected in a second drawing to win a lifetime SCCA membership.

“We’re here tonight to celebrate what makes our Club unique in the motorsports world: our dedicated bunch of volunteers,” Terry Ozment, SCCA VP of Club Racing, said. “Thank you for all of your hard work, time and dedication.”

Previously in the evening, Dayle Frame, representing the Production drivers, awarded 53 workers envelopes with cash totaling $2685 that was donated by racers at the group’s party on Tuesday night.

This year’s winners BFGoodrich Tires Worker of the Year:

Central Division: Mark Bingheim, Race Administration, Chicago Region


Great Lakes Division: Dr. Karen Crider, Flag & Communication, Detroit Region


Midwest Division: Steven Burkett, Race Administration, Southern Illinois Region


Northeast Division: Jessica Honigs, Flag & Communication, New England Region


Northern Pacific Division: Ali Montgomery, Flag & Communication, Oregon Region


Rocky Mountain Division: Christy Hopkins, Flag & Communication, Colorado Region


Southeast Division: Lori Vitagliano, Registration, Florida Region


Southern Pacific Division: Gene Petersen, Scrutineer, Arizona Region


Southwest Division: Brent McNaul, Flag & Communication, Lone Star Region

NASCAR team Michael Waltrip Racing will lose one of its title sponsors at the end of the year in the wake of the recent Sprint Cup race-fixing scandal.

The team was fined $300,000 and general manager Ty Norris suspended after being found guilty of trying to manipulate the finishing order of the race at Richmond, at which the final positions for the Chase were decided.

All three Waltrip drivers—Clint Bowyer, Brian Vickers and Martin Truex Jr—were penalized 50 points, costing Truex his Chase position. Their crew chiefs were also placed on probation.

A statement from sponsor NAPA read: "After thorough consideration, NAPA has made the difficult decision to end its sponsorship arrangement with Michael Waltrip Racing effective December 31, 2013.

"NAPA believes in fair play and does not condone actions such as those that led to the penalties assessed by NASCAR.

"We remain supportive of the millions of NASCAR fans and will evaluate our future position in motorsports."

Team co-owner Michael Waltrip insisted that his team was not immoral following the penalties.

The American Canadian Tour (ACT) has announced that its tire of choice for the next six years will be the American Racer brand from Race Tires America, located in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

ACT and its affiliate tracks will change tire needs from Goodyear to the American Racer beginning with the 2014 season.

“We appreciate the many years of working with the Goodyear Racing Division. They have provided us with nearly a decade of service, and assisted us in the development of new products to meet our tire needs,” said Tom Curley, President of the American Canadian Tour.

American Race Tire has spent the past four months producing and testing a tire to meet the varied and heavy demand of supplying the Late Model teams in the large area that ACT covers.

“We have spent the past 10 months with American Racer developing a program and tire that will fit all the various needs that the ACT network of affiliate tracks requires. We actually began the process with our intermediate division at Thunder Road Speedbowl in Barre, Vermont, this 2013 season and enjoyed outstanding success. In fact, we reduced the division’s tire costs by over 25% and throughout the year only had a couple of tires adjusted, which is outstanding”, said Curley.

“The challenge was to have our engineers develop a special 8” racing slick that would serve the large ACT network of weekly tracks and also satisfy the ACT touring schedules,” said newly appointed Director of Racing for Race Tire America Scott Junod. “The requirements are very different. It was a very interesting project for our engineers and we appreciate the tremendous co-operation we received from a number of ACT teams during the process. We could not be happier with the final results and are looking forward to this long-term relationship beginning in 2014.”

Edelbrock will send consumers $500 cash-back with the proof of purchase on select new E-Force Supercharger systems from April 11, 2013 until December 31, 2013.

"This rebate has been very successful so far. So we decided to extend it until the end of the year to give even more supercharger consumers a chance to take advantage of this great deal," states Edelbrock's VP of Sales and Marketing, Steve Whipple.

Visit the www.edelbrock.com/promo to see the list of Edelbrock E-Force Supercharger systems that are eligible for the rebate and to download a redemption form.

Supercharged Rebate Promotion Details:

• $500 cash-back mail in rebate with valid proof of purchase on select E-Force supercharger systems
• Valid on new E-Force systems purchased from April 11, 2013 until December 31, 2013
• All redemption forms must be postmarked no later than January 31, 2014
• For complete promotion details, visit www.edelbrock.com/promo