Thanks to Dean Case and the entire MazdaSpeed team, we viewed the Ayrton Senna documentary last night at the annual MazdaSpeed press gathering. Dean got some serious media there, including representatives of Road & Track magazine, Haymarket (Racer magazine), the Speed Freaks, and many of the area’s most noted free-lancers. The PRI team alone counted around 15 attendees.

“Senna” gets two thumbs up. We don’t ever remember viewing anything in film that resembled racing as we knew it until watching this documentary. It had a way of capturing speed that unnerved the viewer, and brought us close to that knife edge between fast and catastrophe.

Great drivers wring the maximum potential out of a race car, but there are those with the most mysterious of driver talents. They can take a car beyond what anyone thought was capable. Senna was that kind of driver. The movie does a terrific job of bringing the viewer closer to understanding why, but it still remains a mystery, I think. Some have it, and we just don’t know where it comes from or how it’s possible. To re-experience this kind of greatness made for a wonderful 106 minutes, despite the terrible foreknowledge of how it would all end.

We watch Senna screaming joyously in his victory lap when he finally won an F1 race in Brazil at Interlagos. Then, we watch the crew pry him out from the car moments later after he had essentially passed out from the fatigue and pain of forcing the car around the track at a winning pace despite having only sixth gear due to a jammed gearbox. Unbelievable.

(For SoCal readers, the film opens to the public in Orange County on Friday, August 19, at the Edwards Westpark 8 in Irvine.)

Here are some interesting notes from Mazda that we wanted to share:

Mazda remains the most road-raced brand n America. Mazda racecars outnumber the combined efforts of Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

MazdaSpeed has sold over $75,000,000 in motorsports parts since 1991

Mazda has directly supported the 20 drivers who have won a total of 26 awards as part of the MazdaSpeed Motorsports Development Ladder, launched in 2006.

Beginning with the 2011 season, Mazda expanded the MazdaSpeed ladder via a partnership with IndyCar to create the Mazda Road to Indy.

Spec Miata is the largest spec class in the world. The MX-5 Miata is the best selling roadster in history, having recently passed the 900,000 mark.

Mazda remains the only Japanese automaker to have ever scored an overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

And we’d like to add our own note: There was only one automaker that advertised during the Indy 500 telecast that was not a big part of any race car on the screen (Honda had its engines in the race). That was Mazda. One of the greatest gearhead TV audiences of the year, and Mazda was there to send its message.

For more info on Mazda racing, go to www.mazdamotorsports.com.

We had a great conversation with John Godfrey this week, and part of the discussion involved his expanding sales of custom radiators for racing applications. We thought we'd share that information here with you.

Spike Products, Brownsburg, Indiana, manufactures custom radiators for a variety of racing applications. In addition to the company’s radiators for open wheel racing, such as sprint cars, midgets and Silver Crown cars, Spike also offers radiators for drag racing, road racing, and even go-karts, boats and motorcycles, said John.

John emphasized that all of Spike Products’ employees are involved in motorsports in some way so they understand the cooling system needs of the racing industry. “A radiator is a commodity: when your radiator is broken you are stranded,” he reminded, so his company works hard to deliver fast turnaround times, even for custom radiators.

For more information visit the Spike website at www.spikeradiators.com or call Spike at 317/858-0074

Earl Gaerte may not have been a familiar face to millions of race fans, but he was one of the most important, most talented, most respected figures in the US racing industry during my time here at PRI, which has now passed the two-decade mark.

Years ago, Earl would hold an event called the Gaerte Gathering at his Gaerte Engines shop in Rochester, Indiana. He would invite vendors for his engines, and it would end up being a folksy, friendly business gathering with some serious movers and shakers in racing when it came to oval track parts. A man of few words, Earl always had that kind of drawing power in the racing industry.

When I arrived at PRI, Earl had THE engine for midgets. Through Steve Lewis’ Nine Racing team, I got to experience Earl at work. One of my fondest memories was sitting back in the pits at the Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway many years ago, watching Earl work with Smokey Yunick on a reverse rotation engine that was giving them temperature problems during qualifying. Stan Fox would eventually win that race, battling Pages Jones, in what Chris Economaki described as one of the best races he’s ever seen.

When editorial questions arose at PRI, I developed this single question for myself, “What will Earl think when he reads this?” It was a way of focusing on the truth versus temporary hoopla. I don’t think you could ever find a more honest man than Earl. And it still challenges the brain how one shop could produce engines that would win so many feature races and championships, in so many series, over so many years.

I remember when Earl agreed to give a seminar on operating a race engine business at the PRI Trade Show. Earl’s first words were pretty much what he told Doug Kaufman in his fine bio of Earl on the Gaerte Engines website (click here to read it). “If anybody tells you they’re making money in the racing business, they’re lying.”

The huge room was packed with hundreds of race engine builders from around the country. We never had a crowd like that for an engine builder seminar before or since. Every seat was taken. They stood along the walls. Eventually, we had to stop people from entering the room. Then, a crowd built up by the door so they could at least listen to Earl.

He told them don’t trust accountants. Don’t trust lawyers. And he maintained a pretty steady pace in his cadence at all the things that can go wrong, how big the demands are, and how uncertain the financial rewards. The audience was not disappointed. They sat in rapt attention. They laughed. They nodded in knowing agreement. They loved Earl. He said it the way it was.

For every PRI Trade Show, Earl was the one person I always had on my agenda every year to see. If everything was OK, he would say, “Can’t complain.” If he had something he wanted PRI to truly understand, he would wrap it up in a few words and hand it over. It was up to us to pay attention, and we always did.

When the economy fell apart, I visited with Earl in his booth at the PRI Trade Show, and he had a different kind of visage than I had remembered seeing before. This was a couple years ago. He told me he had about 16 new engines at his shop for a major stock car touring series that had just lost its title sponsor amid the economic chaos. If they didn’t sell, it would be a whole year down the drain, or worse. Earl gave me a stark appraisal that day of where the racing industry was. The economic storm was not going to skip over us. It was going to take us with it. Earl delivered the truth of things once more, and I was most grateful for his insight. Fortunately, the series boldly pulled itself together and kept going.

I remember seeing Earl at a funeral reception for Smokey. He was quieter than I had ever seen him. And he sure was sad. We had just lost a one-of-a-kind figure in racing.

And that’s happened again with Earl’s passing.

An extraordinary man. A great race engine builder. A true leader. He leaves a hole in the racing industry, having welded together such a unique and powerful place within it. We sure thank him for all of his contributions to racing, and all of his help in guiding us here at PRI.

Here’s a fun, behind-the-scenes moment at PRI: Michael Lewis, Steve and Loretta’s son, won today at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium where he competes in the Formula 3 Italia Championship Series. It was his first win in the series. (See photos below)

Driving his K&N Eibach sponsored Prema PowerTeam Dallara, Michael came to Spa-Francorchamps with high expectations for the next round of the Formula 3 Italia Championship Series.

He qualified Friday on the pole, which put him in the P1 position on the starting grid for the Saturday afternoon race at Spa-Francorchamps.

The race started today at 4 p.m. Belgium time in pouring rain wet conditions. Michael got a good launch from the start and led every lap, being followed closely the entire race by French driver Maxime Jousse.

At the moment, Michael is second in the overall Formula 3 Italia Championship Series and leading in the Rookie Championship.

Round 8 in the Formula 3 Italia Championship Series will take place tomorrow (Sunday) morning at Spa-Francorchamps. Michael will start eighth because of the invert.

Michael’s sponsor lineup for 2011 includes Eibach Springs, K&N Engineering, SKF, GoPro, Klotz Synthetic Lubricants, Cometic Gasket, Bell Helmets, Subè Sports and Calico Coatings.

Please visit Michael's website at www.mjlracing.com.

A jubilant Michael Lewis celebrates his win on the podium at Spa-Francorchamps in the Formula 3 Italia Championship Series, where he is currently second in the overall standings and leading in Rookie Championship points.

Michael Lewis won his first race today in the Formula 3 Italia Championship Series, racing in the rain at Spa-Francorchamps.

A cool thing for an editor in producing daily news on the internet is that we can verify if we’re hitting the mark with our readers. Google Analytics, available at no charge to anybody who wants it, can give you many, many reports on how people are utilizing your website.

And we’re happy to tell you that the new ‘front page’ of the PRI website, with daily racing industry news throughout the week, is catching fire.

The page is already running 170% higher in unique views than a year ago, and we’re increasing that number of unique viewers by roughly 10% each week.

Thank you all for joining us each day (Just bookmark the page or make us your browser's home page). You’re part of a growing crowd of racing industry insiders.

We received a very nice note from Tim Frost, publisher of the National Speedway Directory, a valuable resource around the PRI editorial offices, about our new ‘front page’ of the PRI website. Tim was at the same MIA House of Lords reception attended by PRI’s Arianna Maugeri in the UK, as you can see in the photo below. Tim and Margo Frost visit with Arianna (center).

The Speedway Directory is a paperback book of nearly 600 pages that describes all the race tracks in the US and Canada, with full contact information and directions on how to reach the race tracks. Information is also available online, and there are apps for mobile devices.

Check it out at http://speedwaysonline.com .

Wherever Adrian Newey goes in Formula One, the cars get faster, the teams climb up the standings and championships happen. If there is one person at the top of the pyramid when it comes to the aerodynamics of a race car, a lot of people see Adrian Newey standing there.

As technical director of Red Bull Racing, he designed their 2010 championship-winning car, the RB6, and is enjoying his 2011 RB7 design dominating the field once again.

We mention Mr. Newey as a way to describe the multi-pronged efforts PRI makes to develop the PRI Trade Show as a truly international event. In the photo below, you can see PRI’s Arianna Maugeri standing with Adrian Newey (right) and Chris Aylett, CEO of the British racing trade group, the Motorsport Industry Association.

Arianna is based in Switzerland and is PRI’s manager of European and Middle Eastern business development. She’s a hard worker, smart, articulate, dedicated and very knowledgeable about the international racing scene.

She works to inform European companies of the value of bringing their technology to the PRI Trade Show in the form of exhibits. And she also develops attendance from her sector of the world so US companies can more easily conduct business internationally through the platform of the PRI Trade Show.

In the photo, Arianna is attending an MIA gathering at the House of Lords, where Newey was recognized with the MIA Motorsport Achievement Award for his outstanding personal contribution to the industry.

Arianna took advantage of the opportunity to meet Adrian Newey by suggesting that she interview him at some future date for an article to be published in PRI magazine. He agreed. The interview has not been completed yet, but we’re working on it.

When you come to the PRI Trade Show, and find yourself browsing technology that can be found in an F1 car, developed by a UK company, it’s at least partially because of the work of Arianna, and other members of Francisque Savinien’s international team here at PRI (the drawing power of the tens of thousands of racing business people in the exhibit aisles is still the primary magnet). And it’s a big reason why exhibitors find so many visitors from outside the US in their booths (the display of the latest racing components by 1100 companies is a pretty powerful magnet, too).

And, hopefully, you’ll find yourself in the future reading an interview in PRI magazine with Adrian Newey, and you’ll remember Arianna’s efforts to develop this opportunity for us. She does a great job for us….all of us in this amazing, worldwide industry.

Each year in promoting the PRI Trade Show, we use several avenues to put a special invitation out there to professional race teams to attend the Show. In these times when everyone's budget is being stretched as far as possible, the racing aftermarket offers a terrific answer in the search by professional race teams for both innovations and savings.

An annual visit to the PRI Trade Show is especially valuable to professional race teams that do not necessarily have the biggest budget in the series.

We say, come to the PRI Trade Show and....

Explore 700,000 square feet of competitive advantages.

Discover advanced engineering from the racing aftermarket.

Get the best advice to eliminate DNFs.

Find the best parts to stretch your budget and win.

Strategize with other racing professionals.

Seize this vital opportunity for smaller teams.

Go to the front of the pack in 2012!

Just wanted to share an interesting comment from Scott Baker, of Baker Performance Parts, in Stow, Ohio. We’re doing a profile on Scott’s racing business in a future issue of PRI, and Scott told us of his experience selling racing components on eBay.

Scott said he did very well on eBay for three years, but increases in fees eventually made it hard to cut a decent profit.

And the value of a bricks-and-mortar local racing store remains as valuable as ever to the end-users. “People still want to come in and handle a part before they buy it or can come back and return it if it’s not what they wanted,” said Scott.

Immediate availability of inventory, however, still remains important in retailing racing products. “A lot of people also don’t want to wait for parts. In this type of racing, they want to work on a car tonight and race tomorrow,” he said.

Baker Performance Parts is a great story. Keep an eye out for the article in a future issue of PRI magazine. Right now, it’s scheduled for September.

We had the great pleasure of getting to know Dave Darland in the years he drove for the Nine Racing USAC Midget team. Dave is one of those racers who puts the ‘hero’ in Saturday Night heroes. He’s a man of few words. He doesn’t boast. He just goes out and gets it done. A great athlete, who’s still cranking out wins.

He’s won all the top USAC Awards: Silver Crown Champion (1997), National Sprint Car Series Champion (1999)) and National Midget Series Champion (2001 and 2002)

It’s fun to go over  the weekend’s race reports and see Dave took another checkered flag. He won Saturday night’s race at Lincoln Park Speeway, Putnamville, Indiana, in a dramatic final lap pass, and a win that was measured in inches.

As the headline read on the Lincoln Park Speeway website, “Dave Darland, last lap, last turn, again!”

Congratulations to the great Dave Darland on an incredible career…and one more feature victory.

The great Dave Darland celebrates another sprint car feature win at Lincoln Park Speedway.