Phoenix International Raceway President Bryan R. Sperber, NASCAR and OCESA have announced that the NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series will make its United States debut at PIR during the March 2013 race weekend.

The landmark international event will run on Friday, March 1, as part of the SUBWAY Fresh Fit 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekend at PIR. The race will be televised in the United States, Mexico and Latin America.

“This is a truly significant day in the history of Phoenix International Raceway, we are both humbled and excited to play host to the NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series’ first race in the United States,” said Sperber. “We look forward to welcoming the Series’ great drivers, teams and fans to Phoenix and eagerly anticipate a great event.”

“NASCAR is proud to make this historic announcement with Phoenix International Raceway and OCESA. It represents the next step in the growth of the sport and the international impact NASCAR is making. This is a terrific opportunity to expose our fans in the United States to our exciting series from Mexico and continue to help the series and its impressive array of drivers reach new fans,” said Brian France, NASCAR CEO and Chairman.

The 75-lap event will feature a format that includes a scheduled break after the first 50-laps followed by a 25-lap sprint to the finish.

A full field of drivers from the NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series is expected to participate in this historic race, including current points leader Daniel Suarez, driver of the No. 3 Equipo TELCEL.

The NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series will kick off its 10th season overall and seventh under the NASCAR banner at Phoenix International Raceway on March 1, 2013, followed by 14 races at eight different tracks throughout Mexico.

For more information, visit PhoenixRaceway.com.

The Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park (The FIRM), an action sports facility and performance driving school, has named Scott Kovalik as its new Managing Director.

Kovalik, a former rally board member and steward of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), will manage and lead the continued expansion and enhancement of The FIRM’s facility, and its high-performance driving school, RallyPro.

Kovalik succeeds Kurt Spitzner, who led the six-month transition of the school and facility after it was acquired by new owners earlier this year.

Before joining The FIRM, Kovalik served as member of the National Rally Board of Directors to the SCCA, where he managed and organized the restructuring of its National Rally Program, including co-authoring the SCCA rally rule book. He is also a nationally recognized professional driver who has competed and ranked in numerous national events including those sanctioned by SCORE International, Rally America, SCCA and others. He also served as lead instructor and administrator for PPD Driving Schools.

Kovalik will oversee enhancements to The FIRM’s 400+ acre facility in north central Florida including improvements to its tarmac, gravel and dirt motorsport trails, tracks and courses as well as its classrooms, tuning shop, private garages and firing range.

The facility is also used for both public and private special events and is considered one of the most diverse motorsports parks in the country. Kovalik will also supervise the expansion of The FIRM’s RallyPro high-performance driving school with additions to its fleet of performance vehicles, classes and curriculum and team of professional driving instructors.

Visit www.gorally.com for more information.  

Southwestern Industries is holding an Open House on Wednesday and Thursday, October 3-4, to celebrate 25 years of ProtoTRAK CNC technology at its new corporate headquarters showroom in Rancho Dominguez, California.

The event will include facility tours, guest exhibitors, the latest CNC technology including product demonstrations, food and beverages, and more.    

Southwestern Industries has been an industry leader in innovative products for machinist productivity since 1963.



The company’s engineering, manufacturing and corporate headquarters are housed in 130,000-square-foot facilities at 2615 Homestead Place in Rancho Dominguez, 90220.

For more information, call 310/608-4422, or visit www.southwesternindustries.com.

The Sports Car Club of America continues to take nominations for the 2013 SCCA Hall of Fame class through October 15, honoring those who have made a significant impact on the Club.

The SCCA National Hall of Fame was created in 2004 to preserve, protect and record the history and accomplishments of the Club by acknowledging those members who’ve made a significant impact on the development of the SCCA, be it through service to the national organization, achievements in national competition or bringing national recognition to SCCA.

Individuals may submit candidates for the Hall Of Fame by emailing SCCAHoF@scca.com, faxing 785/ 232-7228 or mailing to SCCA Hall of Fame Committee, PO Box 19400, Topeka, KS 66619.

Each year, the SCCA Hall of Fame Nominating Committee accepts nominations from the membership. Nominations should be kept to two pages or less, and indicate the background and reasons for consideration.

After reviewing the potential candidates, 15 official nominees will be submitted to the SCCA Hall of Fame Selection Committee. The Selection Committee will then conduct additional research on the 15 nominees before choosing the final five inductees, who will be formally announced in December.

The 2013 Hall of Fame class will be formally inducted during the SCCA National Convention at the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, held February 28-March 2, 2013.

Founded in 1944, the Sports Car Club of America is the country’s leading amateur racing organization, with more than 40,000 members across the United States. For more information, visit SCCA.com.

Nineteen races over 16 event weekends highlight the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule.

The expanded schedule includes the return of Indy car racing to Pocono Raceway and the streets of Houston.

With a 400-mile race at Pocono Raceway joining the 500-mile events at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Auto Club Speedway on the schedule, the IZOD IndyCar Series will institute a Triple Crown award, which will pay a $1 million bonus to a driver that wins on all three ovals. A driver that wins two of the three races will be awarded a $250,000 bonus.

Also new for 2013 are Saturday-Sunday doubleheaders scheduled for the street courses at Detroit’s Belle Isle Park, Toronto and Houston, and the implementation of standing starts at those three venues. One of the races will be a standing start and the other a rolling start. Both will have equal points and payouts.

Fourteen of the 15 venues that hosted IZOD IndyCar Series races in 2012 return. Six races—Indianapolis, the doubleheader at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park, the prime-time event at Texas Motor Speedway as well as Iowa and Pocono—will be broadcast on ABC. The balance of the schedule, including the season opener at St. Petersburg and the finale at Auto Club Speedway, will be carried on NBC Sports Network. Race distances and broadcast times will be announced at a later date.

The stars and cars of the IZOD IndyCar Series return for another exciting year of competition Sunday, March 24, on the challenging 1.8-mile St. Petersburg (Florida) street circuit. Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, will host the season finale Saturday, October 19, for the second consecutive year.

Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport claimed the Astor Cup as the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series driver champion in dramatic fashion over 250 laps on the 2-mile oval on September 15.

The 97th Running of the Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for Sunday, May 26. Pole Day is scheduled for Saturday, May 18.

Six oval events on the schedule include four in a row on diverse racetracks—the 1.5-mile, high-banked Texas Motor Speedway; the flat Milwaukee Mile; the .875-mile Iowa Speedway bullring; and the 2.5-mile triangular Pocono Raceway—in the middle of the season.

Pocono Raceway, which last hosted an Indy car race in 1989, will spring to life with the turbocharged IZOD IndyCar Series cars on Sunday, July 7. Mark Donohue won the inaugural Indy car race on the triangular track in 1971 under USAC sanction, and multiple winners include A.J. Foyt (four times), Rick Mears (three times) and Al Unser and Danny Sullivan (twice). Sullivan won the ’89 race under CART sanction.

A 1.7-mile, 10-turn circuit at Reliant Park will be the setting for the Shell and Pennzoil Grand Prix of Houston on October 7-8. Sebastien Bourdais won the last race in 2007 under Champ Car sanction, and Graham Rahal was runner-up.

Full-distance doubleheader races on the three street courses are being introduced to the IZOD IndyCar Series. Details regarding qualifications procedures for the doubleheader races will be announced at a later date.

For more information, visit www.indycar.com.

Circuit of The Americas has announced that it will be one of the new locations joining the GRAND-AM Road Racing series in the coming year, with an event planned for March 2, 2013, at the new purpose-built Grand Prix venue in Central Texas.

Established in 1999, GRAND-AM Road Racing has a US fan base of nearly 20 million adults. GRAND-AM sanctions the Rolex Sports Car Series and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, which deliver professional sports car racing to key markets throughout North America. Both series are televised in the United States and Canada on the SPEED network and distributed globally through ESPN International.

GRAND-AM’s popularity with television audiences has been growing, and it’s enjoyed the highest percentage growth of any major motorsports series on television over the past five years.

GRAND-AM Road Racing showcases emerging and legendary drivers from around the globe and sophisticated racing machines from the industry's leading constructors and the world's top automobile manufacturers. The Rolex Series is also home to some of the best and most recognized names in motorsports, such as Scott Pruett, Max Angelelli, Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty, David Donohue, Darren Law, Andy Lally and more.

Ticket information for the March 2, 2013, event at Circuit of The Americas will be released in the coming weeks.

Marking its 25th year of providing business opportunities to racing entrepreneurs, the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show promises to deliver more race-winning parts, more racing professionals, and more solutions in 2012 than can be found anywhere.  

Over 1000 exhibiting companies and 38,000 racing industry buyers from across the US and 72 countries will come together November 29-December 1, 2012, in Orlando, Florida, for the world’s largest racing trade show.

On display will be the very latest advances in motorsports technology for all types of auto racing, including stock car, drag, open wheel, formula, dirt late model, prototype, off-road, sports car, karting and more.

The show offers unparalleled access and opportunities for racing businesspeople, including retailers of racing components, race engine builders, motorsport engineers, performance WDs, race car builders, race track owners and operators, and professional race teams.

“A trip to the PRI Trade Show is an investment that pays for itself in the coming year over and over again with improved sales and profits, in addition to the competitive advantages that come with knowing the latest advances in racing technology,” said John Kilroy, producer of the PRI Trade Show. “Now more than ever, it’s important to spend time with your industry to find new solutions to your business and the technical challenges in racing.”

Held in the North/South Building of the Orange County Convention Center, the PRI Trade Show is a trade-only event. It is not open to race fans, as attendees must be part of a racing business or professional race team to gain entry. There is no charge to attend.

Register online today and receive your credentials in the mail before departing to Orlando. You'll get a confirmation notice within one business day.

In addition to countless racing components and motorsports engineering solutions, the PRI Trade Show’s famed Machinery Row provides race engine builders the absolute best opportunity to comparison shop precision machining equipment. More than 100 manufacturers of race shop machinery will display their latest products and have them wired for live demonstrations on race engine parts.

“With the massive Machinery Row section, and all the race engine parts suppliers that exhibit, the PRI Trade Show is a race engine builder’s dream,” added Kilroy. “There’s nothing like it anywhere in the world.”

New this year is the High-Performance Computing & Testing Technologies Zone, which is already proving to be a welcome new concept with motorsport engineering companies. Ten companies have thus far committed to exhibit in this special space on the PRI Trade Show Floor Plan.

“There is no other place that professional race teams and motorsports engineers will be able to shop so many of these race engineering and testing firms all in one place, all at one time,” said Kilroy. “The High-Performance Computing & Testing Technologies Zone will be one more ‘added attraction’ for this group of specialized buyers to come to Orlando.”

Companies currently on the 2012 PRI Trade Show Floor Plan in the High-Performance Computing & Testing Technologies Zone include 7-Test Engineering, A&D Technologies, Altair, Chassisim, Function Sim, Mechanical Sim, Michelin/Laurens Proving Grounds, Morse Measurement, OptimumG and SoVA Motion.

Returning to the Show in 2012 is Dave Despain, who will present another exciting live version of his popular Wind Tunnel TV program, which airs on Speed Channel, during the Grand Opening Breakfast on Thursday, November 29. And joining him will be none other than 15-Time NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car Champion and Driver of the Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang John Force, who rewrote the history books of NHRA racing.

Also new this year is the inaugural Race Track Business Conference-2012, presented by National Speedway Directory. Headlined by legendary race promoter Humpy Wheeler and featuring an outstanding panel of presenters, the RTBC-2012 will focus on issues facing motorsports professionals on and off the track, including event operations, marketing, legal matters and more. The conference takes place Wednesday, November 28, at the Orange County Convention Center.
 
Racing entrepreneurs who arrive early for the PRI Trade Show will have access to another all-new daylong seminar on November 28 covering the latest advances in digital marketing. “Winning the eRace” is designed to bring racing professionals up to speed on topics such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Google Advertising, eNewsletters, Setting Up A Virtual Store, Best Practices in Digital Advertising, Managing Forums and Social Media.

“If there is one subject where virtually every racing professional feels they need help, it is digital marketing. Media has changed dramatically, and we're going to help racing professionals catch up,” said Kilroy. “This new event will prove very valuable to those racing entrepreneurs who come early to Orlando.”

Included in the Tech Track of the PRI Show seminars is another NEW offering for 2012: “Winning Setup Strategies For Dirt Late Models” features proven techniques of top dirt late model drivers, as well as a race engine builder, a chassis builder and more in a panel discussion headed by Dick Berggren (longtime NASCAR pit reporter for FOX TV and founder of Speedway Illustrated) and Karl Fredrickson (publisher of Speedway Illustrated).

There is no charge for the seminar, which takes place Friday, November 30, however attendees must be registered for the PRI Trade Show.

The PRI Trade Show is the centerpiece of what is known as Race Industry Week 2012. Several major events co-locate with the PRI Show in Orlando, including:

23rd Annual Advanced Engineering Technology Conference. The most respected and longest running technical seminar series for race engine builders. November 26-28.

Vehicle Dynamics & Data Acquisition Seminar. Claude Rouelle, the renowned race engineer with 30 years of experience, brings racers an in-depth understanding of how, why and how much certain factors affect vehicle behavior, plus the measurement tools to get it right. November 26-28.

Annual Congress of the International Council of Motorsport Sciences. Race safety experts from four continents—surgeons, doctors, medical professionals, sanctioning body and race track emergency personnel, and motorsports engineers—address motorsports safety issues. November 28-29.

EFI University. Two special one-day seminars will focus on EFI for racing applications. The first, FAST XFI, focuses on proper setup and navigation of the FAST XFI 2.0 EFI system. The second, EFI-101, covers the tuning process from start to finish. November 28 & December 2.

For more information, go to www.performanceracing.com/tradeshow. Racing professionals also can register online and make hotel reservations via the PRI website, www.performanceracing.com.

Growing up, I knew car racing was on the TV by the sound of the voice coming out of our family room. If it was Chris Economaki, it was time to watch television. Racing was on.

I didn't experience National Speed Sport News until I started at PRI 22 years ago. One of the first directives to me upon getting hired was, "Read Chris Economaki's column every week." And that was a directive I passed along to every editor or salesperson ever hired by PRI in my time here. Chris told it like it was. There was one place to find the news in motorsports with no spin attached.

Chris' prose reminded me of some of the great newspaper columnists I had come to admire, from the LA Times' Jim Murray to Chicago's Mike Royko. They were all of the people. But they were smart as hell. And it seemed like there was constant fun in their lives. Their copy was incredibly readable, while also being more instructive about the true nature of things than just about any other source of information. Chris belongs right there with the best of the best. We are losing these figures in our media, and they're not being replaced.

I'm saddened by the news of his passing. However, as I've gotten older, I find myself feeling better at funerals as I consider some of the great lives people I've known have lived. In all the people I've ever come across in this world, Chris Economaki is one of the few who wrung every ounce of potential out of this life.

Speaking for the PRI team, we are most grateful for the enormous role Chris Economaki played in making the sport of auto racing so popular. We have certainly benefitted.

And we are most grateful for the zest he brought to us in his writing and in his being.

VP Racing Fuels, Inc. announced Friday that three new distributors have come on board with its retail branding program, including RK Distributing, Inc., Bazco Enterprises, Inc., and Accent Fuels.

“We’re excited to have aligned with three great companies that will sustain VP’s high quality professional standards while bringing the energy and commitment required to expand the VP brand in their respective geographies,” said Alan Cerwick, President, VP Racing Fuels. “In signing on with our program, these companies recognize the vital changes needed in the fuel industry and the VP model as the way to bring them about.”

“We’re excited about partnering with VP Racing Fuels,” said Steve Hanska, Vice President, RK Distributing. “VP allows us to offer our customers a first class branded solution that differentiates them from the competition. VP also makes it possible to offer savings to our customers through considerably lower credit card fees and supplying unbranded fuels to their locations. These monthly savings combined with VP’s additional revenue streams can add hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, to our customers’ bottom line.”

“We chose to add VP Racing Fuels to our family of brands for several reasons,” said Aly Bazzi, President, Bazco Enterprises. “VP’s name in the racing fuel industry is second to none, which will appeal to car enthusiasts.  This following that VP has gained through motorsports is an added value for its brand.  And the quality automotive products that VP offers introduce new revenue streams that will help our dealers be more profitable.”

“Our company was looking for a brand with superior marketing capabilities,” said Mark Coleman, President, Accent Fuels. “Given VP’s status among performance enthusiasts and the integration of its performance and consumer products to support the brand, aligning with VP seemed the logical choice. Plus, with our retail stores located close to several race tracks and a technical school specializing in building race cars, the VP brand will be a destination before, during and after their schooling.”


For more information about VP Racing Fuels and its branding program, visit VPRacingFuels.com or contact:

Southeastern/Mid-Atlantic
Ted Tritt - 210/510-8409 or ted.tritt@vpracingfuels.com

Upper Midwest/Northeast
Matt Schuster - 210/784-6708 or matt.schuster@vpracingfuels.com

South Central/West
Bryan Noonen - 210/289-6000 or bryan.noonen@vpracingfuels.com


Founded in 1977 and based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, RK Distributing is a privately owned distributing company that distributes fuel to more than 200 convenience stores in the Oklahoma City and surrounding area. For more information on RK Distributing, contact 405/752-9619 or rkdistributing@sbcglobal.net.

Family owned Bazco Enterprises, Inc. has been in the industry for 25 years. Operating in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee, Bazco owns and operates 22 corporate stores in southeast Michigan, with a customer base of more than 60 dealers. For more information about Bazco, contact 877/412-2926 or abazzi@bazcooil.com.

Accent Fuels is a third generation petroleum distributor started in 1964 by Harold Coleman as an agent for the American Oil Company. Incorporated in 1976 as a full line petroleum marketer, Accent currently operates three retail stations and delivers gasoline, diesel fuel, home heating fuels and lubricants throughout western Pennsylvania. For more information about Accent Fuels, contact 724/479-9210 or accentfuels@hotmail.com.

VP Racing Fuels is best known as a leader in Race Fuel Technology, fueling champions in virtually every form of motorsports on land, sea and air since 1975. VP is the Official Racing Fuel of NHRA Championship Drag Racing, American Le Mans, World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and Late Model Series and Rally America, among more than 60 VP-sponsored series and sanctioning bodies.

More information is available online at VPRacingFuels.com, VP-SEF.com or PowermasterFuels.com.

Timbren Industries Inc. an industry-leading manufacturer of suspension enhancement systems for trucks and light-duty suspensions for trailers, has acquired the assets of Suspension Technology Ind. (STI) based in Canton, Ohio.

"Adding STI air suspensions to our product mix was a natural since our focus in the trailer industry continues to be on providing premium trailer manufacturers with the best cargo protection available,” said Timbren President Neil Hodgson.

Although best known for its SES products for trucks, the Timbren suspension lines boast the Silent Ride rubber suspensions for trailers, and recently introduced a group of axle-less trailer suspensions for off-road use.

For more information on Timbren Industries, call 888/877-3058, or visit www.ridetheair.com.