Steve Lewis is pulling the photos off his office walls today, and members of the PRI team have been visiting my office to share the emotions of watching him do this. I’m not sure any of us know how to say “Thank you” in a way that truly covers it all.

The PRI adventure is not over by any means. We’re hard on the gas, as we always are at this time of year, laying out plans for new events and new ways to promote the next PRI Trade Show. The art director of 20 years is working on layouts. The expo manager, who’s logged 16 years at PRI, is negotiating with vendors for better prices and improved service for our customers. The top salesperson, who’s been here 14 years, is pounding the phone, providing various marketing solutions for her customers.

This is an A team. Steve developed this team. He picked people carefully over the years, and made sure the ones who perform--no matter what the challenge--stayed. I think it’s the same way he picked people for his race team. There’s only one way to do it if you want to win. And PRI has had a lot of winning seasons. Not coincidentally, Steve’s Nine Racing USAC Midget team won in similar fashion—10 national championships.

I tried to express it today to a friend of PRI’s, who was writing his own tribute to Steve. The word ‘leader’ is used a lot, but it’s a tough concept to nail down. The more you talk about it, the more it seems to get watered down. Words fail. But, you can point to Steve, and you know what it means in the fullness of the word.

Another word to use is ‘fun.’ Let me see. There’s the ‘spin of death.’ It’s a misuse of rental cars that just seems to be a nice tonic before ending the evening. There’s also urban off-roading, another misuse of rental cars. We’ve had PRI folks in multiple rental cars, off-roading together in a vacant lot, until the dust kicks up so much, the scene just basically disappears in a brown cloud. Can you get a limo driver or a taxi driver to spin their cars in an empty parking lot? Steve can. And there’s the PRI salute. It’s often done in fine dining establishments, to which the PRI team can no longer return. It involves loud cheering and swirling of linen napkins over heads.

Any of you who have attended a PRI Trade Show Grand Opening Breakfast know that fun is a big part of the PRI brand. Magicians, jugglers, thrill shows and more have kicked off the Breakfast with the surprising, the amazing, the humorous.

One of Steve’s leadership secrets is that fun wakes people up, after which they are alert and paying attention to your message. Also, put fun into the equation, and business events become incredibly well attended.

Steve never said it exactly, but I think he views a business as one of the greatest social organizations we have in this world, if they’re run right. People came to PRI young and looking for an opportunity, and they were given responsibilities and told to solve problems on their own, right where they were, and they eventually bought a new car, maybe got married, maybe bought a condo or a house, had babies, raised kids, put them through college…PRI did a lot of good for a lot of people, and it’s not by accident. It’s something Steve wants to happen. Good things should happen to good people, and that seemed to happen a lot at PRI the past two decades.

To all the men and women in racing, Steve loves you all. He admires you for going for it the way you do, week in and week out. He appreciates you for being the outlaws that you are. Believe me. I’ve heard the joy in his stories. I’ve seen it in his eyes.

Steve wouldn’t approve of me writing this piece. He’d tell me to get on with the next chapter of PRI, and how the racing industry’s trade show is now protected in the deal he worked out with SEMA. The same dedicated people who put out PRI magazine, and put on the PRI Trade Show, will again be at full throttle throughout 2012. We’ll have greater capital backing, and more resources. SEMA wants PRI to remain PRI. And the PRI team relishes working with the amazing folks in this industry. We’re not changing. We’re not going anywhere. We will work to get ever stronger in promoting buyer attendance, and creating the greatest array of hardcore racing technology—all in one place, all at one time--anybody’s ever seen.

I’ll be calling on Steve in the future for some breakfasts at the Penguin café, to keep him up to date and get his advice.

But, it’s tough to watch his office emptied out. There’s not many like him. We had a lot of fun along the way. Good things happened to a lot of good people because of him. Speaking for a lot of people, across this country far and wide, “Thank you, Steve.”

After 25 years of working in the racing industry and being a part of the PRI organization, it is very important to have you hear directly from me that I have made the decision to transfer ownership of the PRI magazine and PRI Trade Show to the SEMA organization.
 
Being able to work in an industry that I loved and to have been able to make so many friends in the process is more that I could ever dreamed would ever occur.  The SEMA organization will keep the current PRI management team intact, and will keep the company located in Laguna Beach in the same building where the first magazine was published 25 years ago.
 
It has been a true joy working with all of the wonderful entrepreneurial and adventurous people that comprise the dynamic racing marketplace for all these years. Now, my colleague, PRI Editor and Executive Publisher John Kilroy will take the reins at PRI and will continue the themes and ideas that we all have worked to create and implement so the racing industry will continue to receive a monthly publication with insightful editorial offerings and a trade show that truly meets the needs and standards of the exhibitors and attendees.
 
The spirit and culture and driving force behind PRI will continue under the leadership of John Kilroy and ALL the hardworking PRI team members. It was my friendship with SEMA Chairman Scooter Brothers that helped make this transition take place. Scooter knows the racing business and he knows the importance of what the racing industry expects. This ownership change will go smoothly and the spirit and culture that you have come to know in PRI will continue long into the future.
 
You may be wondering what I have ahead of me now that I will be not gainfully employed at PRI. First on the list will be to spend some time with our son Michael who is racing this season in the Formula 3 Euro Series for the renown PREMA Powerteam. Loretta and I will be able to attend a number of his races this season. I also will be spending time on the restoration of my first midget that I purchased from Don Edmunds in 1979, driven by Stan Fox. And, I will be able to go to more races and enjoy what means most to me, which is watching talented drivers compete in great race cars comprised of all the wonderful parts and inventions built by such a talented group of people.
 
Thank you for all the wonderful memories. And thank you for your contribution to the success and growth of this wonderful industry that we at PRI have been able to work with and serve with the magazine and trade show. You are in good hands with John at the helm and the sales team he has in place. I look forward to seeing you at a race soon or this year’s PRI Trade Show.
 
Click here for  the press release that will provide you additional information.

PRI ANNOUNCES TRANSITION AND SALE TO SEMA
 
John Kilroy, with 21 years of’ experience at PRI as editor, associate publisher and vice president, continues to lead PRI.  

SEMA plans to maintain hardcore racing identity and heritage of PRI Trade Show and PRI Magazine.

PRI founder Steve Lewis to focus on son’s racing career.
 
Performance Racing Industry (PRI), producers of the motorsports business magazine and trade show, finalized plans to be purchased by the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA). The transaction is set to close in late March 2012.
 
With 20-plus years of publishing and management experience at PRI, John Kilroy will serve as Vice President/General Manager of PRI and assume day-to-day operations for the group. All the operations, employees and offices will remain intact at PRI’s current location in Laguna Beach, California. 
 
"Steve Lewis launched the PRI concept a quarter-of-a-century ago, as an organization totally dedicated solely to the racing industry," said Kilroy. "It was Steve’s dream that PRI continue to serve the racing community, and to ‘nest’ PRI with an organization that clearly understands PRI’s heritage and the role we play in how the racing industry conducts business. We are pleased to have found that strategic partner in SEMA."
 
Lewis, founder and current CEO of PRI, will now be able to dedicate his time and energy to pursue his lifelong passion for motorsports, which includes management of his Nine Racing midget team and supporting the racing career of his son Michael, 2011 Formula 3 Italia Rookie of the Year.
 
“We carefully considered all our options, and SEMA was the obvious choice to carry on the legacy of the PRI brand," said Lewis. "SEMA is financially sound and has an experienced management team. They bring a long-term outlook to the table, as well as exceptional insight into the trade show business overall. I have no doubt that the PRI brand will continue to deliver value to the racing community, and I know John Kilroy and the current management group will keep the basic business themes that have been established as they continue to work out of the current location here in Laguna Beach that has housed the PRI family for all these years,” he said.

Many current and past SEMA Board of Directors have been involved with PRI through the years as exhibitors and advertisers and bring a keen understanding of how the two organizations complement each other.
 
“We’re very excited about the continuation of the great business offerings for the performance and racing community from this acquisition,” said Scooter Brothers, SEMA Chairman of the Board. “Having worked with the folks from PRI for many years, I know the show and magazine are appreciated and used by the racing industry to further their marketing efforts, and that racing entrepreneurs look upon the PRI Trade Show as a unique event and a valuable voice. The transition will preserve and protect that voice, and the show’s unique character and authenticity. We look forward to the PRI team carrying on the legacy and traditions of Steve Lewis.
 
"We also want to thank Steve Lewis for all he's done for the racing industry, and for creating PRI," added Brothers. "PRI Magazine and the PRI Trade Show have played a key role in the growth of the racing industry over the past 25 years, and we look forward to its continued success."
 
SEMA President Chris Kersting said, “The Performance Racing Industry Trade Show and magazine are great complements to the SEMA mission: they help their customers' businesses to succeed. SEMA looks forward to providing the PRI team the resources and support to continue delivering great value to the racing and performance segment.”
 
Founded in 1963, the SEMA trade association provides services and resources to businesses in the automotive specialty equipment industry. Members include manufacturers, distributors, retailers and marketers of products that enhance the styling and functionality of cars, trucks and SUVs. In addition to producing the premier automotive accessories trade show, where more than 100,000 individuals come to do business, SEMA offers education, research and several publications specifically targeted to the industry. The association also represents its members with a legislative advocacy group.
 
The 25th Annual Performance Racing Industry Trade Show takes place November 29 – December 1, 2012 in the North/South Building of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. It features exhibits by 1,100 racing companies in 3,100 booths, requiring 700,000 square feet to house the event. 38,000 buyers will attend from across the US, and 72 countries.
 
For more information, visit www.performanceracing.com or www.sema.org.

The starting point for the birth of the RaceSaver Sprint Car Series, founded by French Grimes 17 years ago, was to provide a place for the working man to go open wheel racing. “I’m trying to be like Johnny Appleseed. I want to see RaceSaver across the country as a good Sprint Car class,” he continued. “I want it to propagate and continue to be a class that blue collar guys have a chance to race in. They can come and race with us, bring the whole family and have fun, and even if they don’t win, they’ll be treated with respect.”

The series has now grown to 650-plus drivers at 60-plus tracks, and recently partnered with the IMCA for further growth!

There's a lot of acitivity in the racing industry right now in series and racing formats that provide a working man with all the thrills of motorsports at a budget that he could fairly afford as something that's a driving passion in his (or her) life.

Congratulations to French Grimes for his dedication to racing, and his ability to create and grow this series.

There’s a lot of activity right now in various forms of racing and sanctioning organizations that are focused on ‘fun and affordability’ in racing, and offer a way for a regular working guy to go racing.

In discussion on this subject in oval track racing, the POWRi Racing organization comes up in the conversation pretty fast, with its POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series. If you want to look for growth in the racing industry, this is a good place to start.

We spoke with POWRi’ Ken Brown last week, and he shared the “key ingredients” in his successful formula.

First, the tracks are dirt tracks, and they are no longer than 3/8ths of a mile. This format is easier on equipment, allowing budget racers to stretch their budgets and keep racing all year long. More importantly, this format helps level the playing field so talented racers on a budget can compete, run up front and win.

The races are scheduled within close proximity for Friday and Saturday nights. “Drive once, race twice,” explained Brown.

Midget car counts are in the 40s and 50s. The Micro Sprints average between 40 to 65. Over 40 races are already scheduled this year. A POWRi West Series has been initiated.

“It’s mainly grassroots racing,” said Brown, with a sense of modesty. However, we at PRI believe that “grassroots racing” is huge in all of its variations and formats, and the chief way that racing business across the country earn a living.

POWRi is racing designed for guys who work five days a week, many of whom are raising families. Again, at PRI, we would repeat: this market is huge.

Many of the racers start in Micro Sprints, then move up to the Midgets. A few go the other way each year, downsizing from Midgets to Micro Sprint to keep racing, but on an easier budget. In either case, as Brown says, “We don’t lose them.”

“Lucas Oil has stepped up to the plat to help us with our points fund,” said Brown. Lucas Oil also is delivering TV production and air dates to select POWRi events, creating a national audience for the growing series.

It all seems to have happened pretty fast. The POWRi formula works. The season opener was in Texas, a bit of a distance from POWRi’s midwest roots, but one more sign of growth. “I never thought we would have done it,” said Brown.

Congratulations to Brown and his POWRi team for growing this segment of the sport of racing.

We attended the MAZDASPEED Media Day on Tuesday, and always enjoy being part of this event, with so many of the Southern California-based motorsports journalists in attendance. Dean Case does a terrific job creating energy and news at these events, and John Doonan and Jim Jordan are creating a powerful new path when it comes to a car company utilizing motorsports to sell cars. The MAZDASPEED team can go from bold 'high concept' marketing to flawless 'boots on the ground' execution at events without skipping a beat. Pretty amazing to watch.

You’ll see a racing references in Mazda’s cool new TV advertisement. Click here to view it on YouTube. More importantly, you’ll see tons of Mazdas at your local road circuit on any given race weekend. MAZDASPEED calls the Mazda marque the most raced of any brand, and judging from photos we’ve seen of 25 Miatas entering a turn in an SCCA race, they’re right.

MAZDASPEED worked with Honda Performance Development to introduce the concept of B-Spec racing two years ago at the PRI Trade Show. We’re happy to report that the concept of racing compact cars has been widely embraced in organizations and car companies, including SCCA, NASA, Grand-Am, Ford, Mini, Kia and more.

For about $2,500 in specialty performance equipment from MAZDASPEED, and about $10,000 in safety and other improvements, a Mazda 2 is ready to compete for a very affordable price for a season of racing.

Is there a better invitation for young people to enter the sport?

We thank the MAZDASPEED team for their leadership. In these times, entry-level series are critical in developing a new generation of racing enthusiasts. Affordability is clearly what the times call for. There’s still a segment of racing where a wealthy father is buying rides for his son, hoping he’ll be the next Jeff Gordon. However, for the racing industry to stay healthy long into the future, we need the sport to put out a welcome sign for enthusiasts who work their jobs all week long and go out and have a blast on the weekends racing.

In fact, we’ll put up another note or two in succession about the topic of affordable, accessible fun in racing, and how the formula still delivers car counts and racers every race weekend.



John Doonan, director of Mazda Motorsports, introduces some of the best young drivers competing in Mazda series as part of the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Ladder and the Mazda Road To Indy at the MAZDASPEED Media Day in Southern California. Believe me, you'll be seeing at least one of these drivers in an Indy 500.

Well known author and engine builder David Vizard has captivated an audience of race engine builders and members of professional race teams for two years running with his tech seminars at the PRI Trade Show. His one-hour (it actually ran 2-1/2 hours by the time he made it out the door) tech seminar for Scat in a jam-packed meeting room at the 2010 PRI Trade Show was followed up at the 2011 PRI with a return for Scat and also one for Dart.

Vizard first made the move from author to seminar presenter in 1995 with a performance seminar at the University of Colorado at Denver. It was a great success, and was followed by many more seminars at universities through 1999, when he moved to Tobago (an island in the Caribbean).

Vizard already has more seminars scheduled for 2012. One will be held in California in April and one at Swansea University in the UK in September.

For more details of DV’s seminars and some testimonials from some of the most successful engine builders worldwide go to www.davidvizardseminars.com.

And if you live in the Roanoke, Virginia area, there is an opportunity for you to meet Vizard. From March 2 - 4 there will be an auto show at Roanoke Civic Center. Click here for more details.

At the Terry Walters Precision Engines booth you can meet both David and his 16 year old daughter Jacque who, this year is racing two drag race Mustangs (one of which she builds the engine for) and a rear engine dragster.

We’ll keep you informed of any other seminar news for Vizard, especially as it might pertain to the 2012 PRI Trade Show.


















Keep an eye out for more David Vizard tech seminars in 2012.

With the recent hoopla for the NFL Super Bowl game still ringing in my ears, I think about what is the “real” Super Bowl in racing. To many racers, the annual Daytona 500 is the “official” launch of the racing season. After the Daytona 500 race literally thousands of race tracks, which include pavement, dirt, drag strips, kart tracks and road courses, open their gates and begin the process of promoting race events. They are preparing for all of their respective opening events at their venues across our country where hundreds of thousands of racers will journey to these tracks to race. The competitors are now working hard to get their cars ready. They are anxious to begin another season that begins in earnest in spring and runs up to the late fall.

Grassroots racing provides the foundation of business opportunity for our racing industry. Located nearby each and every racing venue (oval, drag strip, road course) is always a community of racing businesses that provide the ever important parts and services required for all the racers in the area to keep up to speed and winning races at the local tracks. This PRI Magazine is read from cover to cover by the owners, managers and operators of the 26,000-plus racing business entities currently serving the consuming racing group that participates on a weekly basis at our nation’s racing venues. In fact, this March issue features an unbelievable complement of advertisers that represent a significant increase from March of 2011. These 200-plus advertiser bring to the market a multitude of new product offerings for the ultimate racer and offer tantalizing profit opportunities for the retailers, engine builders, car builders, fabricators, suspension specialists and other outlets serving the racing community. Our job at PRI is to do everything we can to inform the market about what is happening in the marketplace via Editor John Kilroy’s factual and pertinent editorial offerings, combined with the complement of advertisers that bring their messages of new products and profit opportunities. These companies provide the racing product distribution infrastructure the inventory mix to serve all of their racing clientele.

So, it will not be long after the checkered flag waves at the Daytona 500 and the winner proudly stands in victory lane that “green flags” at all of the grassroots racing venues will wave. That is when the fun and business opportunities officially begin for everyone.

May everyone have a successful 2012 season.

In less robust economic times, companies tend to turn up the heat when it comes to battling for market share. The sense is that the most direct path to growth is to take business away from other companies. Get a bigger slice of the pie. And there’s a lot of truth to that. Every once in a while, though, it’s good to remember the enormous value of another path to growth, particularly for racing companies: make the pie bigger. For many years, racing industry sales expanded on the fact that the sport was thrilling, increasingly safer and ever easier for the less mechanically inclined to enjoy. Number of participants grew and grew. Small racing businesses popped up to provide local inventory, customer service and ‘value added’ insights as to how competitors could improve their finishing positions. Thousands of small racing businesses made it easy and convenient to go racing, and the pie continued to grow. Today, it’s important that more and more fans discover the sport, and that many of these newcomers find it inviting to participate as a competitor. We want new faces on the starting grid. This is especially true of the ‘next generation’ of racers Auto racing is the original ‘xtreme’ sport. We want more people to discover this by having more people enter the front gate of a race track for the first time. And we want more people to investigate the possibilities of going racing themselves. It’s great when race tracks create special entry-level classes and actively promote the concept of going racing to the fans in the grandstands. And we want more people to discover the thousands of small racing businesses that serve as one of their greatest allies in enjoying the sport, as they find parts easy to locate; services easy to contract and their finishes improving every step of the way. That will grow the pie, as it always has.

Carl Olson has been a real leader in the drag racing segment of the auto racing industry for decades, including a stint as NHRA vice president for international relations. We just received a report that he was inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

Below is the citation regarding Carl's induction. Congratulations, Carl, and thank you for all you've done for racing.

An enthusiast for all types of motor sport, American Carl Olson started to visit drag race events as a spectator during the mid-1950s. He first drove a fuel dragster in 1964, but his greatest success on the strip came when he joined up with Mike Kuhl and by 1972 he was IHRA Top Fuel World Champion and a regular Top Fuel Dragster winner at NHRA events. He won the last Top Fuel dragster eliminator to be held at Lions. By 1976 he had finished his racing career and took a Vice President’s role with the NHRA.

Although he had previously ‘touched base’ with European drag racing via meetings with Alan Wigmore in the USA and advising Brian Taylor on introducing Europe’s first contingency sponsorship scheme, his first in-depth introduction to British drag racing occurred in 1989. Carl was by then NHRA Vice President for International Relations. He and fellow NHRA Vice President, Bernie Partridge were invited to attend an event at Avon Park Raceway on Long Marston aerodrome (now Shakespeare County Raceway).

His hosts were David Riswick, who had just taken up an operating lease on the track, and David Wilkinson of Blacktop Promotions, the company formed to promote meetings there. Wilkinson was also Chairman of the British Drag Racing Association. Carl and Bernie were asked to review the facility, spend a bit of time with the organizers and participants, and make recommendations regarding potential improvements to the facility and event conduct. Dave Riswick’s end game was for it to become an NHRA sanctioned drag venue but problems with the lease scuppered this dream

But Carl also had a growing relationship with the Swedish drag racing fraternity and, at the behest of Per Olav Forsberg, attended regular meetings of a group that went on to form the European Drag Racing Association (EDRA). This was a coalition of Scandinavian drag racing organizers and officials with the common objective of improving the structure and execution of the sport primarily in Scandinavia, but with hopes of extending any progress throughout greater Europe.

When the EDRA members ultimately decided that in their view it would be in the sport’s best interest to approach the FISA/FIA for official recognition, Carl was selected to make initial contact and he extended an invitation for newly elected FISA President, Max Mosley, to attend the NHRA US Nationals in Indianapolis. He was extremely impressed, with what he saw, proposing the establishment of a standing FIA Drag Racing Commission that would make proposals to the FISA World Motor Sport Council for formal ratification. The World Council ultimately endorsed Mosley’s proposals and elected Carl to serve as Commission President in 1993, a position he held for the next thirteen years.

During that time, the Commission oversaw the establishment and development of the FIA European Drag Racing Championship series. And using the rules, regulations, policies and procedures of the NHRA as a model, the FIA established a comprehensive section of their rulebook dealing exclusively with drag racing. Today it is the standard by which the sport is conducted around the world. Carl Olson’s involvement was instrumental in taking the status of European drag racing (and with it British drag racing) to the very highest level and facilitating a focal point that then enabled the different national organising bodies to build the international sport that provides such a great show today. It is for this work that he has been inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

He later became Motorsports Manager for the SFI Foundation that looks after safety issues; a business with which he still retains a consultancy relationship when not working on his latest Bonneville project. He also serves as a Board member on the Quarter Mile Foundation led by Traci Hrudka that is logging the history of drag racing for a TV series.