The American-Canadian Tour (ACT) has announced a new stock car touring division called the Mighty Mini Series, which will launch at Hickory Motor Speedway in Newton, North Carolina, on March 17–18.
The points-counting season will officially begin on Saturday, April 1, during the 49th Icebreaker Weekend at Thompson Speedway in Thompson, Connecticut. The series will later visit the track for its inaugural championship event as part of the 61st Sunoco World Series of Speedway Racing on Sunday, October 8. The current schedule can be seen below.
The announcement follows the success of the Ammonoosuc Asphalt Mini Late Model class at ACT-sanctioned White Mountain Motorsports Park in North Woodstock, New Hampshire.
Sponsorship opportunities are still available. For more information, contact Marvin Galarneau at mfg@acttour.com.
A new law has been passed that will help protect consumers from bad actors peddling counterfeit and stolen goods. The PRI-supported INFORM Consumers Act is critical in helping law enforcement, manufacturers, retailers, and online marketplaces of all sizes shield buyers from unscrupulous merchants selling knock-off and potentially unsafe products.
“PRI celebrates passage of the INFORM Consumers Act, which protects the intellectual property of motorsports parts manufacturers and helps to prevent the sale of stolen and counterfeit products,” said Eric Snyder, PRI’s Director of Congressional Affairs.
The Act—recently signed into law as part of the FY 2023 omnibus spending package—now increases transparency and accountability with new verification requirements.
Key provisions of the INFORM Consumers Act include:
Requires online marketplaces to verify certain information about high-volume third-party sellers of consumer products who make at least 200 sales totaling at least $5,000 during any 12-month period in the last two years. High volume sellers must include the seller’s bank account number, business tax identification number or a taxpayer identification number, and contact information.
High-volume third-party sellers with $20,000 or more in annual gross revenue through an online marketplace will now have to disclose to consumers the full name of the seller or company, business address, and contact info (current working email address, phone number, or other direct electronic messaging for the seller) after each sale.
Empowers online marketplaces to suspend high-volume third-party sellers of consumer products who do not provide the required information within 10 days of the request from the online marketplace.
For more information, contact Eric Snyder at erics@sema.org.
Prominent rally racer and action sports star Ken Block has passed away after a snowmobile accident in Utah on Monday. He was 55.
“Ken was a visionary, a pioneer, and an icon. And most importantly, a father and husband. He will be incredibly missed,” said his team, Hoonigan Racing, in a statement.
Block competed in the American Rally Association (ARA) along with his wife Lucy and 16-year-old daughter Lia, one of three children. Block was also known for his Gymkhana action videos that received a large following on YouTube and related social media outlets. After selling his ownership of the DC Shoes brand, Block shifted his business focus to Hoonigan Industries, an apparel brand for auto enthusiasts. He was the co-owner and “Head Hoonigan In Charge” (HHIC) at the company prior to his passing.
In addition to his autograph sessions and special appearances, Block was a featured speaker at the 2022 SEMA Show Kickoff Breakfast, where he discussed the making of “Electrikhana,” a tire-shredding trip on the Las Vegas Strip through the lens of a bespoke, 800-volt, bi-motor, AWD Audi S1, developed and built by Audi.
For more information on Block, visit the Hoonigan Racing website here.
Former USAC Midget racer Nick Bohanon has taken over ownership of Salem Speedway fueled by the Hoosier Lottery, the 0.555-mile oval track located in Salem, Indiana.
“I’m really excited... and looking forward to what the future entails for this historic track,” said Bohanon, a Southern Indiana native who has previously raced on the famous 33-degree banked turns at the track. “We want to continue our Great American Stocks series; they have a great following and put on great racing. We will keep the other local divisions that have been running at the track and plan to continue to bring in some additional outside touring series to keep fans interested in coming to all our events.”
Announced plans also include upgrades to the pavement, pit area, lighting, scoreboard, and infield concessions and restrooms. The 2023 season schedule is expected to be published within the next few weeks.
The MagnaFlow Group—the Southern California-based company specializing in performance and more automotive products—has acquired Camburg Engineering, the off-road racing and aftermarket suspension brand based in Huntington Beach, California.
Founded in 1997, Camburg focuses on building durable race technology for challenging off-road environments. Company founders Jerry Zaiden and Jason Campbell will continue their roles within the business, focusing on “shaping the future of suspension and off-road racing,” a company release said.
The World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series has named Ruben Mireles as its new series announcer.
Mireles will begin his new role at the start of the 2023 season at Volusia Speedway Park (Barberville, Florida) during the Sunshine Nationals, January 18–21.
Mireles previously served as a pit reporter for the World of Outlaws CASE Late Models and has been the DIRTcar Summer Nationals announcer for the past five seasons. He started announcing at El Paso Speedway Park (El Paso, Texas) at just the age of 12.
“It just means the world. It’s a big responsibility. It’s a big position, and more eyeballs are on me now. It’s just a pleasure to work for World Racing Group. I’m looking forward to the friendships and relationships and just want to thank (World Racing Group CEO) Brian Carter and (World of Outlaws Late Models Series Director) Steve Francis from the bottom of my heart,” Mireles said.
In related news, officials recently announced more than $3 million in purse money through a 53-race schedule across 30 tracks in 2023.
SuperSprings International (SSI)—the manufacturer of suspension solutions and products based in Carpinteria, California—has announced Justin Coulter as the director of Sales. He will help lead company growth with a focus on entering new markets.
Coulter is based south of Louisville, Kentucky, and has over 10 years of experience in the industrial sector.
“His unique experience and background made him an ideal fit to join our dynamic leadership team,” said SSI President Adam Weisner.
Tracking legal, legislative, and regulatory developments impacting the racing and performance industry.
PRI’s Washington, DC-based legal team, along with race track ambassador Tom Deery, are working continuously to protect and promote motorsports venues, sanctioning bodies, and businesses around the nation. We are tracking several initiatives as we enter the new year, including a new PAC chair, liability protections for motorsports venues, an invitation to the second annual Motorsports Day in West Virginia, and a grassroots effort to inform the industry that PRI is here to help.
New PRI PAC Chair Announced
The Performance Racing PAC has a new head. At the recommendation of PAC Executive Director Wade Kawasaki, the SEMA Board of Directors has appointed Norris Marshall of BluePrint Engines as PAC chair for the Performance Racing PAC. In this volunteer role, Marshall will oversee the PAC Board of Directors and fundraising efforts.
Marshall grew up in central Nebraska hearing stories about the family passion—fast cars and the engines that powered them. As a child, Marshall got involved in dirt track and some drag racing, and he knew he wanted to work on performance engines. In 1982, he founded BluePrint Engines out of his garage, building engines for local racers. BluePrint Engines has grown to become one of the largest crate engine manufacturers in the world, providing crate engines to Chevy, GM, Ford, and Chrysler.
It was also announced recently that Kim Pendergast of Magnuson Superchargers would serve as the PAC chair for the SEMA PAC. Pendergast and Marshall both currently serve on the SEMA Board of Directors.
WV Proposes Motorsports Responsibility Act, Set To Host Industry At State Capitol
The West Virginia Motorsports Committee has announced that a proposed draft bill, called the Motorsports Responsibility Act, is now before the Legislature. The bill would provide limited liability for motorsports venues from participants engaging in the sport. West Virginia already has similar statutes for venues engaging in whitewater rafting and snow skiing, as well as equine and ATV activity.
“Every year, in rapidly increasing numbers, the residents and non-residents of West Virginia are enjoying recreational and driver training. It is recognized that there are inherent risks in motorsports activities which should be understood by each participant. It is essentially impossible to eliminate all these risks, and the proposed draft bill will define those areas of responsibility between the venue and participants,” said WV Motorsports Committee Acting Chairperson Laura Bowman.
The bill’s passage would likely reduce liability insurance premiums for racing facilities in the state. This could allow for more investments in promotion, which would potentially create more tourism and jobs in the region.
In addition, the WV Motorsports Committee is working with PRI/SEMA and GNCC Motocross to hold the second annual WV Motorsports Day at the West Virginia Capitol Building, located at 1900 Kanawha Boulevard East in Charleston. Motorsports businesses, sanctioning bodies, racing venues, and related motorsports professionals are invited to join the Friday, February 24 event, which will help educate the WV Legislature about the impact the motorsports industry makes on local and state economies through tourism and commerce.
“West Virginia is an important state for PRI because it’s very motorsports oriented, and it has a great state senator [Mark R. Maynard] who’s an advocate for our industry,” said Deery. “As we weave our way through the legislative paths, everything becomes more important on a state-to-state level. West Virginia gives us a great model to follow as we work on firming up other state coalitions, getting them built from the internal out.”
PRI Continues Grassroots Motorsports Venue, Sanctioning Body Outreach
Meantime, Deery is redoubling his efforts to help track promoters navigate the evolving and often confusing local, state, and federal rules that allow them to keep their race tracks thriving.
At press time, Deery was attending the 50th annual Racing Promotion Monthly (RPM) Promoters Workshops in Reno, Nevada, which bring together track officials for three days of informative sessions on topics including employee relations, insurance, women in motorsports, media and streaming, motorsports law, track safety, and more.
While there, Deery informed attendees that PRI’s Washington, DC team and Membership program continue to provide promoters with support and resources. This includes setting up peer-to-peer discussions between operators or sanctioning bodies, and providing legal resources.
“We’re on the learning tour, if you will, to make sure people understand what PRI can do for them,” Deery said.
Deery will continue these conversations at the RPM@Daytona Workshops, taking place February 12–14, in Daytona Beach, Florida.
“I’d like to pass out thanks to the people who have stepped up within the different states and the people who embrace what we’re doing and are so supportive of it. We’re all in this together, and we will be much stronger together,” Deery concluded.
PRI’s Race Track Promoter Helpline continues to be monitored five days a week. If you have any questions, including how to join (or start) a state motorsports coalition, contact 202-794-8279 or racinghelp@performanceracing.com. Our staff is standing by and ready to help in any way possible.
Forced induction increases pressure in the combustion chamber, so a supercharged engine may need smaller spark-plug gaps to make it easier for the spark to jump from the ground strap to the electrode. This tool pictured at left closes the gap.
Don’t rob your engine of horsepower after adding a mighty supercharger by overlooking those small yet valuable spark plugs.
While spark plugs may not be the most exciting component in a race vehicle’s powertrain, there’s no denying that they can help make horsepower.
On the flip side, they can also cause a race vehicle to lose power if a mistake is made during installation. This is especially true when it comes to engines with power adders, like a supercharger.
What follows are critical spark-plug-related factors to help obtain maximum horsepower gain after boosting a race vehicle.
Heat Range
Heat range is one of the most common things that could (and should) change when adding boost. Most builders are familiar with the requirement of running a colder plug, but they may not understand what it does and why. Let’s break that down first.
The heat range is the spark plug’s ability to pull heat out of the chamber or away from the tip. Pulling that heat away means less chance for detonation, which means more power can be made safely. However, if a plug that’s too cold is installed, it could lead to idle misfires, lack of horsepower, drivability problems, and other problems for race vehicles that typically make 1,000 horsepower or less. For these vehicles, a little bit colder spark plug = good. A lot colder = bad. Boosted drag cars that make 2,000-plus hp, meanwhile, would require a hotter spark plug. If you’re unsure of the proper heat level, check with the spark plug manufacturer.
Plug Gaps
Gap is another key consideration; although, to be clear, we aren’t talking about the gap you’re going to put on your competitor. We’re talking about the gap at the tip of the spark plug. In short, adding boost adds cylinder pressure inside the combustion chamber. When that spark has to jump the gap, it must do so amidst all that extra pressure. To ensure that a spark fires properly every time, you must close the gap to make it easier for the spark to jump from the ground strap to the electrode (assuming coil voltage doesn’t change).
A gap that’s too small might not ignite all the air and fuel mixture. A gap that’s too large could misfire. Check with the spark plug manufacturer or engine builder if you are unsure, but in general, the size we recommend for most street cars making 600–800 hp is about 0.028 to 0.032.
Some cars need a little less gap, like Coyote Mustangs, and higher horsepower engines run an even tighter gap, like 0.018 to 0.022.
Tip Considerations
Spark plug tip styles are not often talked about, considering most engines run standard tips. However, there are lots of different cylinder head options available for a small block Ford or a big block Chevy, and each one has a different spark plug location, depth, and position in the combustion chamber. All of this variability affects how the spark plug tip, either non-projected or projected, sticks out into the air/fuel mixture.
The correct spark plug tip location in an engine can vary depending on the cylinder head used. Check with the cylinder head and/or spark plug manufacturer to determine if the build requires a non-projected, at left, or projected tip.
A common misstep is running a non-projected tip plug in a head that requires a projected tip. Even though the heat range is good, and the gap is reduced, the result is often terrible misfires, low horsepower, and an engine that can barely idle. This is because the tip was too far back in the cylinder head. Refer to the cylinder head manufacturer and spark plug manufacturer on the best plug for your application.
Tip Material
Tip material often raises a number of questions. Racers may be concerned, for example, that an iridium or platinum plug will be too hot and might hurt their engine. Rest assured, though, this is not typically the case. Any spark plug material should work well on a supercharged vehicle.
The key difference comes with copper plugs, which will wear faster and must be changed out more frequently. On the other hand, platinum and iridium spark plugs were designed to go much longer without a change, so consider these materials first.
Breakup Problems?
Another topic that must be covered is breakup problems—specifically, resistors in spark plugs. This is rarely discussed, but it is important, nonetheless. Imagine you just installed a supercharger kit, and then you bought and installed new spark plugs from the racing department of your auto parts store. Now your data logger won’t log, your radio sounds off, or you’re experiencing related electrical problems. Chances are you might have bought a spark plug without a resistor. You can’t tell them apart by looking at them, so you need to ask the manufacturer if it has a resistor.
Any modern car with electronic components will require a resistor-style plug. However, an older carbureted vehicle with no electronics can get away with a non-resistor plug. Although it should be noted that there really is no disadvantage to using a resistor plug on these older-model vehicles.
Let’s wrap up with a few useful recommendations:
• First, whenever you change your spark plugs and tug on wires, you risk breaking the connection inside. We recommend replacing the wires regularly to avoid misfires.
• Second, use the tool made for gapping plugs to gently close the gap from the ground strap to the electrode. Spark plugs are generally made of porcelain and copper and have fragile connections, so dropping one on the ground could end up breaking the inside.
• And finally, when in doubt, reach out to your spark plug manufacturer. We’ve always found them to be quite helpful!
Erik Radzins is the Director of Communications and Calibrations for Lenexa, Kansas-based ProCharger, one of the leading aftermarket centrifugal supercharger companies offering power adder options from strip to street. With 20-plus years of experience in the automotive industry, Radzins is an encyclopedia of knowledge on cars and aftermarket enhancements. Also highly skilled at tuning, Radzins leads the ProCharger calibration projects.
Long Tube Headers’ George Rumore is a strong supporter of the RPM Act. “When we modify a vehicle, we’re actually making it cleaner, helping out with its emissions,” he explained.
Serving our country as well as the high-performance community are sound principles that drive this veteran-owned exhaust components company and led to an industry commitment as a PRI Founding Member.
Regulatory pressures from Capitol Hill and elsewhere have forced the motorsports industry to circle its collective wagons and convince America that it’s a very big business that does, indeed, constitute a considerable chunk of the US economy and therefore is worth protecting for some very practical reasons. Ensuring that its employees have a voice in the ongoing debate over emissions, and racing’s role in it, is something that George Rumore values greatly. As vice president of sales for Long Tube Headers (LTH) in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Rumore is grateful that PRI is in the on-deck circle when regulators are throwing hardball at his chosen business.
“It’s more for the industry as a whole, even though it trickles down to the Long Tube Headers side, but what’s really exciting to me is that right now, we have a team of boys and girls at PRI who are doing for us what we can’t do for ourselves,” Rumore explained. “I can’t just go up to Congress and fight my point. But knowing that we have a team that has its nose to the grindstone, and that is fighting for us, that’s what makes me excited now, because we’ve never had a team like this one on our side. PRI is an opportunity to be involved in an organization that wants to see our community thrive and grow.”
The growth that Long Tube Headers has experienced has been in its business of building exhaust components for performance cars, most commonly late-model Ford Mustangs, but with similar components also produced for Stellantis and General Motors vehicles. Rumore is a lifelong performance-exhaust guy, having co-founded Long Tube Headers after managerial stints with Kooks Headers & Exhaust and while serving at Stainless Works. LTH, as it’s known for short, is a veteran-owned business with 15 employees, including an onsite engineer. The firm produces lifetime-warrantied tuned headers—and, recently, catalytic-converter packages for high-performance vehicles—that not only are claimed to promote superior scavenging, but also are crafted to be pleasing to the eye, thanks to its in-house Titan finishing process that bonds to the header tubing.
Long Tube Headers (LTH) recently added performance catalytic converters to its product line. “Our converter is CARB-compliant,” George Rumore said. “We’re out there spending money, trying to please those masses of people.”
“We’ve been in business as a startup for four years,” Rumore said. “We take pride in the land that we’ve served, and we take pride in doing our business on these shores. One of our philosophies is that everybody prices their products about the same. We look at the down and dirty costs and work to get our products to individuals at a reasonable price.”
Rumore became affiliated with PRI during his earlier employment, and Long Tube Headers now enjoys status as a PRI Founding Member. As Rumore put it, “I’ve been going to the PRI Show for probably 20 years now. What I like to tell people is that for our industry, the PRI Show is like the Super Bowl. When I go to the PRI Show, I’m mainly into looking at new ways of creating greater horsepower, growing our business, and growing our community.”
PRI’s role as an industry advocate in a sometimes hostile regulatory environment is vital to Rumore, who said PRI levels the field for motorsports when compared to other recreational activities that also happen to burn petroleum products. “I guess people tend to think that people like us are just mischievous and just want to run around on the streets causing trouble, when we’re really just passionate about what we do, just like anyone else,” he said. “You see people who are into horses. They drive all over the country, towing these big trailers behind their trucks, just so they can show off their horses.
“Everybody has a niche, and some people don’t like our niche and then get into positions of influence, and that’s how we got into the situation of some people trying to shut our industry down over emissions or the modification of vehicles,” Rumore continued. “That’s why I’m a strong supporter of the RPM Act. When we modify a vehicle, we’re actually making it cleaner, helping out with its emissions.”
Like other companies, Long Tube Headers has also grappled with pandemic-related supply-chain issues, which Rumore said are finally beginning to diminish. He also pointed to part of the company’s product line—aftermarket performance catalytic converters—as discernable evidence that the motorsports industry is, indeed, becoming emissions-compliant.
“We now have a catalytic converter,” Rumore said. “Is it 100% legal? No, because you’re still moving the converter, but at least it shows that that side of the industry is trying to comply. And our converter is CARB-compliant. So we’re out there spending money, trying to please those masses of people.
“My biggest thing now, realistically, is keeping this all alive,” he said. “Seeing this next generation of young enthusiasts and the smaller shop owners coming up, it’s just a matter of trying to keep the enthusiasm and passion for the sport going.”
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