ProMedia Events, home of the #1 NMCA Flowmaster Muscle Car Nationals, is gearing up for the largest muscle car event of the year in Indianapolis, Indiana, the weekend of October 11-14, 2012.  

The 11th Annual FueLab NMCA World Street Finals will invade Indy with top heads-up street car racing, including some of the fastest LS-powered cars in the US with the Chevrolet Performance LSX Shootout.  

The NMCA World Street Finals will feature all the cars and all the stars of the NMCA, with racers setting their combinations “on kill” in search of world championships and exclusive Nitto Tire Diamond Tree champions rings and NHRA Unleashed Wallys.  

This special event will showcase everything from 6-second turbocharged Pro Street cars to wheel-standing Xtreme Streeters and everything in between.  

The TREMEC True Street class has averaged well over 100 competitors the past six years and is testimonial to the impressive street-legal performance possible with old and new muscle cars.

This event will also feature the 6th Annual Chevrolet Performance LSX Shootout, the largest LS event of the year and the final event of the LSX Challenge Series.  

Hot rod and muscle car owners will be shining up their rides and filling up historic Indianapolis Raceway Park with bright chrome and vibrant colors in the DuPont Custom Finishes Hot Rod & Muscle Car Show.  

The NMCA World Street Finals also features a huge manufacturers midway and swap meet. In addition, it will feature the flame-throwing 300+ mph jet car exhibitions and the world famous NMCA burnout contest!

For more information on the 11th Annual NMCA World Street Finals, log on to www.nmcadigital.com/in, for information on the 6th Annual LSX Shootout log on to www.nmcadigital.com/lsxshootout, or call 714/444-2426.

Charles Burns, who has worked for IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 12 years, has been named general manager of the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix.

Burns, 44, will oversee day-to-day operations of the event that features IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights races. The 2013 race weekend is scheduled for May 31-June 2.

The Indiana native has extensive operational and security experience, helping to direct 12 Indianapolis 500s, seven Formula One Grand Prix events and numerous NASCAR and MotoGP races. Burns has served the sanctioning body as Director of Security since 2003.

A Marine who was an Indiana State trooper for more than a decade, Burns is experienced in all areas event management.

I was going over my notes from my visits with racing companies in Indiana this past summer, and was reminded of my visit with Joe and Brenda Gaerte, of Gaerte Engines, Rochester, Indiana. I sure enjoyed reminiscing about Earl and all he did for the racing industry. The Gaerte Gatherings of long ago were great fun, and most informative. There was sadness, too, as Joe and Brenda shared the experience of Earl's last days.

While Gaerte Engines no longer utilizes the full facility that Earl built over the years in Rochester, which grew to be quite large, Brenda and Joe are definitely maintaining a race engine machine shop producing competitive race engines. They explained that Joe was managing the business two years before Earl passed away, and the shop has maintainted much of the team of machinists and mechanics that produced the same winning engines as when Earl was alive. Brenda and Joe have had to work through managing the Earl’s estate following his untimely death, but they want to get the word out that they’re dedicated to keeping Gaerte Engines at the front of the pack. From sprint car motors to late model motors and more, they’re ready and eager to deliver. A stop at a sprint car builder’s shop later that day confirmed that he had maintained Gaerte Engines as his source of motors. So, I wanted to pass the word along that Brenda and Joe and the entire Gaerte Engines team are ready as always to compete for your business. They can be reached at 574/223-3016, or visit www.gaerteengines.com.

The Kooks 3rd Annual Kar Show and Kookout will run from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on October 6, 2012, at 141 Advantage Place, Statesville, NC 28677.

The day promises family fun, which includes a car show with trophies, burnout contest, mobile dyno, bounce house and much more; radio advertisements are running on 96.9 the Kat and 99.7 The Fox.

Vendors are instructed to arrive at 8 a.m. for setup; show cars must show up at 9 a.m.; and the show opens for general spectators at 10 a.m.

To register, call 866/586-5665. For more information, visit www.kookscustomheaders.com/index.php.

Paet Hidalgo of Performance Branding, Cardiff, California, knows the racing industry from the inside of a race car cockpit in such series as IndyCar, ChampCar, ALMS, Trans Am, Formula 3000 and SCCA.

He knows race marketing from his years of experience teaming originally with Bob Haro in the mid-1990s, where they collaborated on creating new brands and helping companies find their marketing footing in motorsports, the automotive aftermarket and action sports.

Hidalgo will share his insights into effective marketing in the seminar he’ll present December 1, 2012, at the PRI Trade Show, titled, “Your Racing Retail Store As Your Brand.” It starts at 8 a.m., and there is no charge for attending buyers.

“Your business identity is your brand, and you need to protect and promote it like the valuable brands you represent and sell,” said Hidalgo, who will provide advice for expanding the power of one’s racing business “brand” as a powerful new strategy for growing a retail racing business in the coming years.

“The racing industry competes in a broader market for discretionary spending. The better we all are at marketing racing, the better this industry will do as a whole,” said Eric Jurado, PRI sales and marketing manager. “Paet will motivate racing entrepreneurs on new ways to effective tell their story to potential customers, and he’ll instruct them exactly how to do it.”

The 25th Annual PRI Trade Show takes place Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 29-December 1, 2012, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. To register for the Show, click here or call 949/499-5413.

VP Racing Fuels, Inc. has appointed James Rugg as Business Development Manager-Automotive, Consumer Products to support its growing line of consumer products.

“VP Small Engine Fuel already has established a beachhead in the outdoor power equipment industry with incalculable growth potential,” Rugg said. “VP’s upcoming line of performance chemicals, including a fuel system cleaner, power boost and more, is sure to resonate with consumers already familiar with VP’s talent for achieving superior performance gains...”

Rugg began his automotive career at the NAPA Distribution Center in Kent, Washington, where he progressed through several positions before being promoted to Assistant Sales Manager in 1987.

In 1989 he was promoted to Sales Manager at the Distribution Center in San Antonio, Texas, where he was very successful at growing sales and improving market penetration.

He was promoted to a new position in Dallas in 1992, responsible for training and development of all employees for a seven state region before moving up to Operations Manager for NAPA’s Distribution Center in Houston in 1996.

Acting on a desire to return to sales in 1999, Rugg signed on with Royal Purple Lubricants as National Sales Manager. While with Royal Purple, Rugg covered all areas of the US and Canada, growing sales by opening up and training new distributors and their sales people.

VP Racing Fuels is best known as the world leader in performance fuel technology, fueling winners in virtually every racing category and class 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 racing series and sanctioning bodies.
 
More information is available online at VPRacingFuels.com, SEFfuels.com and PowerMasterFuels.com.

Minoru Hayashi recently stepped down as the president of Dome Co. Ltd. and chairman of the Japan Motor-Racing Industry Association, the JMIA.

Hiroshi Fushida has succeeded to the presidency at Dome, and Kiyoshi Oiwa, TOMS Co., Ltd. has taken over as chairman of the JMIA.

Hayashi will keep contributing to car designing projects at Dome as a special advisor, but has entrusted Fushida with management of the whole company.

Hayashi still remains in JMIA as one of the directors, and makes his contributions to the organization under Oiwa's management.

In explaining his decision, Hayashi released a lengthy statement that said, in part, "If you were in the professional motor racing industry, you would have to get along with a few huge organizations so called automotive companies. In my long experience in this industry, I have found the chemistry between myself and office workers in such large organizations absolutely awful for whatever reason….To make the matter worse, I have openly criticized the way the Japanese motor racing has been organized. As a result of these, it has become obvious more and more that automotive companies are not happy to work with me and that I am the most significant factor retarding the growth of Dome.

"I am an extremist in general, which was the case again this time," he continued. "I completely lost my interests in projects related to the Japanese motor racing quickly. However I still had to remember that there were a few ongoing projects at Dome, that I had responsibility for the employees' lives,
and that it is a serious sin to dump all the skills, know-how, experience and facilities for racecar engineering, which is in danger of extinction in Japan.

"What I would like to stress is I have lost my interests anything related to Japanese motor racing but not in designing cars," he added. "My main job in Dome will be managing car design but I am also actively involved in the sports-car project based in South-East Asia."

Concord Speedway is pleased to announce the arrangements for their 2012 banquet set to honor their track champions and top points finishers at both the Half-Mile and Quarter-Mile tracks.

The banquet will take place at Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, North Carolina, on Saturday, November 3, 2012.

Ticket information will be released at a later date.

Interested attendees are encouraged to mark their calendars for this special date so they can be present as the Speedway honors the successes of several of its talented drivers.

For more information, contact the Speedway office at 704/782-4221 or visit the website at www.concordspeedway.net.

Connect with Concord Speedway and stay up to speed with the action at both the Quarter and Half-Mile tracks on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ConcordSpeedway and by following on Twitter at www.twitter.com/concordspeedway.

Just days after closing the books on a hotly contested 2012 season, the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda is already focused on the future and has announced numerous changes to its National Class program.

Following a partnership last year with SCCA Enterprises which saw the USF2000 category expand to include Formula Enterprises (FE) entries alongside Zetec-powered Van Diemens, the series will welcome only FE cars in the newly renamed USF2000 National Class Presented by SCCA Enterprises next season.



The category is a second-tier, cost-effective alternative program to the Championship Class which features a Mazda MZR-powered Van Diemen chassis and offers its champions a scholarship package to advance to the next level on the Mazda Road to Indy—the Star Mazda Championship—the following season. National Class entries will now be all Mazda-powered Van Diemens. The winner of the National Class is provided with a scholarship package to advance to the Championship Class the following year.





The 2012 National Class Championship came down to a three-way battle for top honors at the season finale last weekend at Virginia International Raceway with 16-year-old Norwegian talent Henrik Furuseth of Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing taking the crown in a season that included seven wins and nine top-three finishes in an FE entry.



As a further extension of the new partnership with SCCA Enterprises, the series will support FE entries at the 49th Annual SCCA National Championship Runoffs taking place this week at Road America with a contingency award for the class winner toward USF2000 entry fees in 2013.

The rules package for 2013 will closely mirror the SCCA General Competition Rules and Specifications (GCR) currently in place and utilized by USF2000 with minor changes including expanding the allowable spring options, permitting an alternate sway bar and the use of wickers on the front and rear wings, and replacing the muffler with a straight tailpipe.

SCCA Enterprises Customer Service Representatives are located throughout the United States and include three USF2000 teams—Robinson Motor Sport, Alliance Autosport and Comprent Motor Sports.



Additional modifications within the USF2000 National Class Presented by SCCA Enterprises include an expansion to honor the top-three finishers in post-race ceremonies and a points calculation revision offering competitors the option to choose their best 10 of 12 races to count in the final championship rankings.



The 2013 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda schedule will be issued in the upcoming weeks. The National Class schedule will be comprised of road course and street circuit venues. Competitors will have a chance to jumpstart their campaigns at the second annual Chris Griffis Memorial Mazda Road to Indy Open Test on October 10-11 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and during the now traditional USF2000 Cooper Tires Winterfest Championship—a six-race mini-series—held in February at Sebring International Raceway and Palm Beach International Raceway.



Drivers and teams interested in the 2013 USF2000 championships are invited to contact Series Manager Michelle Kish at 941/723-3900 or via info@usf2000.com.

In the wake of recent, groundbreaking news that the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón will merge with Grand-Am Road Racing in 2014, the ALMS announced its current class structure will go unchanged for the 2013 season.

The Series’ five categories continuing in 2013 are P1, P2, Prototype Challenge (PC), GT and GT Challenge (GTC).

With the merger of ALMS and Grand-Am on the horizon, ALMS and its sanctioning body—the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)—chose to keep the classes as is, with a goal of minimizing costs for teams.

“We know our teams are already focusing on what shape their programs might take in 2014,” said ALMS and IMSA Chief Operating Officer Scot Elkins. “The last thing we want to do is force anyone to make a substantial investment for 2013 when we are still working out the structure for the new merged series. The current class structure already makes for great racing; continuing this way in 2013 ensures a good show for the fans and consistency for our participants.”

Elkins added that any plan to add a GT-Am category to the ALMS is no longer feasible for the 2013 season. The ALMS’ GT class will carry over in its current form to the new 2014 championship.