Florida’s St. Petersburg City Council has unanimously approved a two-year extension with Green Savoree St. Petersburg (GSSP) for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg to remain a cornerstone event on the downtown streets and waterfront through at least 2026.

A marquee event for the NTT IndyCar Series for the past 17 years, the Grand Prix of St. Pete is set to return to its traditional position on the calendar during the second weekend of March in 2022. It was previously moved to October in 2020 and late April in 2021.

“I am thrilled that the Grand Prix will be in the Sunshine City through 2026. I want to thank City Council for recognizing the importance of this race in St. Pete,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman. “I also want to thank Kim (Green) and Kevin (Savoree), and everyone at the Grand Prix for not only organizing and promoting one of our city’s best events year after year, but for their dedication to our community.”

The dates for the next five Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg races are March 10-13, 2022; March 9-12, 2023; March 7-10, 2024; March 6-9, 2025; and March 12-15, 2026. 

The City of St. Petersburg’s “Embrace the Race” campaign has worked alongside local businesses to help multiply the economic impact for the city and surrounding communities each year. In addition, over four years via the MBA 5K Run on the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Track, over $216,000 has been raised for the Police Athletic League and American Stage Theatre. The 5K run and walk event are planned to return in 2022 after being put on pause for 2021. 

For more information, visit gpstpete.com. 

The expansion area of Garrett’s production facility in Wuhan, China, is shaded in red. Photo courtesy of Garret Motion Inc.

Garrett Motion, the differentiated technology provider for the automotive industry, has announced plans to expand and modernize its existing production facility in Wuhan, China.

Garrett’s Wuhan plant opened in 2013 and currently serves major local and global automakers. The expansion, expected to increase its state-of-the-art facility by 50%, is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.

“Garrett has achieved significant growth in Wuhan since we commenced operations in this key industrial hub over seven years ago,” said Olivier Rabiller, president and CEO of Garrett. “Our production rate in Wuhan has grown more than 60% annually from 2014 to 2020. Further, our strong performance in all of China in 2020, despite the impact of a global pandemic, underscores the broader need to expand our footprint in the world’s largest auto market. We are pleased to strengthen our presence in Wuhan and remain committed to investing in the future success of our company while supporting high-tech enterprise for the benefit of the local community.”

Garrett offers a range of boosting solutions, including turbochargers, intercooler cores, and more, for the racing and high-performance segments.

For more information, visit garrettmotion.com/racing-and-performance/.

Hot Shot’s Secret, the performance lubricant brand, has announced a donation of $6,000 to Battle Scarred Motorsports. The funds will be used to convert donated police vehicles into hand-controlled race cars that can be used by veterans and first responders that no longer have full use of their legs.

Battle Scarred Motorsports, formerly USMC Racing, is an organization whose mission is to make an impact in the lives of service members and first responders both past and present, on the track turning laps or on the crew in the pits.

In addition, Hot Shot’s Secret also provides all of the oils, fuel, and oil additives for the entire Battle Scarred Motorsports race team and for the diesel vehicles that tow the race cars.

“This gives our heroes who have given so much in service an opportunity to have the same ‘adrenaline therapy’ that everyone else experiences. It takes a lot to convert these donated cars into functional race cars—they must be gutted, then have roll cages added and other safety equipment. And... it requires a lot of extra stuff including ‘cool suits,’ which are racing shirts that circulate cold air/water to keep the driver cool since they race in long hot endurance races. We are very excited to help.”

For more information, visit hotshotsecret.com or battlescarred.org.

Motor State Distributing has announced the 13th Annual Motor State Challenge will take place on July 15–17, centered around GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Michigan. The three-day Pro-Touring event brings together drivers from across the US and Canada to compete in several classes, including: Late Model, standard and manufacturer vintage classes, the unscored/untimed touring class, and the new QA1 #goDRIVEit class where participants drive their car to the event, race it, then drive it home.

The event kicks off Thursday, July 15, with a 50+ mile cruise through Southwest Michigan led by the Berrien County Sheriff’s Motorcycle Unit. 

On Friday, July 16, drivers hit the track at GingerMan for timed lap sessions. The 1.88-mile-long road course provides drivers with long straights, short sprints, sweeping curves, tight apexes, and changing elevations, all with open run-off areas.

On Saturday, July 17, the Challenge continues at GingerMan with the Track Sprint, where drivers will experience a start-stop course on the most technical area of the track. Each group is given six runs on the timed, single-lap sprint, with the fastest course time counting towards their overall points. The day concludes with an awards ceremony.

For more information and to register, visit motorstatechallenge.com.

Photo of EMU President Dr. James Smith, Jack E. Roush, and EMU Dean Mohamad Qatu courtesy of EMU
 

Jack Roush, the founder, CEO, and co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing, has donated $1 million to Eastern Michigan University, his alma mater. 

The gift will help support mathematics and automotive programs in the University’s GameAbove College of Engineering and Technology. It includes a $200,000 fund for the purchase of industry-standard automotive lab equipment, along with $400,000 to each of the mathematics and automotive programs at the school. 

“I have a lifelong commitment to learning, and I’ve come full circle, from receiving my master’s degree in scientific mathematics at EMU to founding and chairing a company so heavily committed to technical excellence,” said Roush. “One of the challenges for young people coming of age in our time is marrying a strong academic background with practical experience. The GameAbove College of Engineering and Technology program’s hardware labs, focused on solving real-world problems, meet that challenge. I’m glad to see that my gift will optimize opportunities for students to gain vitally important hands-on experience.”

For more information, visit roush.com and emich.edu.

Top (L-R): Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Tracey Mann (R-KS), Jason Smith (R-MO). Bottom (L-R): Adrian Smith (R-NE), Van Taylor (R-TX), and Ron Kind (D-WI)

Support for the bipartisan Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports Act of 2021 (RPM Act), H.R. 3281, continues to expand each day, as members of Congress continue to hear an outpouring of support for the bill from racers and the motorsports parts industry. Earlier this week, seven House members agreed to co-sponsor the bill, including US Representatives Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Tracey Mann (R-KS), Jason Smith (R-MO), Adrian Smith (R-NE), Van Taylor (R-TX), and Ron Kind (D-WI).

The RPM Act must be enacted into law to guarantee your right to modify street cars, trucks, and motorcycles into dedicated race vehicles, and ensure that industry can offer parts that enable racers to compete. It is imperative that lawmakers continue to be reminded of the importance of passing the RPM Act. Currently, 65 members of the House have co-sponsored the bill. Click here to see the current list of RPM Act co-sponsors, and don’t forget to send a letter to your US Representative asking them to support the bill and fight for it to become law.

For details, contact Eric Snyder at erics@sema.org and join the live discussion on the RPM Act on SEMA YEN’s Facebook set for Wednesday, June 9, at 3 p.m. EDT (12 p.m. PST).

J.C. Cascio from Strange Engineering and Ben O'Connor from Impact Racing find real value and productive conversations with their clients at each year's PRI Trade Show in Indianapolis. Hear their unique perspectives above. For more information, visit pri2021.com. To secure a booth, visit here. 

Photo of QA1's Mopar Event in Lakeville, Minnesota, courtesy of QA1

QA1 has hosted Mopar enthusiasts from around the country during a special open house event at its facility in Lakeville, Minnesota, last week. The event featured a wide range of classic and modern Mopar vehicles, including QA1’s newest project vehicles: a 1969 Dodge D100 pickup known as “Project Corkscrew” and a 1966 Dodge Charger called “Silver Bullet.”   

The event featured an open house of QA1’s state-of-the-art research and development center where attendees could see the technology used to design, manufacture, and test new suspension products. Guests were also able to learn more about the development process of QA1’s Mopar product lineup, which includes tubular components designed to maximize the performance of factory torsion bars and Gerst-designed front coil-over conversion systems for classic Mopar pickups and cars, as well as rear coil-over conversion systems for classic A, B, and E body chassis.

“We were thrilled to host so many Mopar enthusiasts and share in their passion,” QA1 Marketing Manager Dave Kass said. “We’ve been part of the Mopar community for decades, and we’re excited to give people the opportunity to get hands on with our newest products.”

“Many of us here at QA1 are Mopar lovers ourselves, so we know the challenges torsion bar suspension can present,” QA1 Director of Sales Brett Littlefield said. “In fact, my car is currently being retrofitted with our QA1 front and rear coil-over conversion systems, and I can’t wait to see all of the new opportunities they’ll open up for my Charger.”

For more information, visit qa1.net/mopar.

General Motors has broke ground on the new Charlotte Technical Center, a 130,000-square-foot facility that will expand GM’s performance and racing capabilities. Additionally, the center will accelerate strategic knowledge transfer between motorsports and production vehicle development.

Representatives of Chip Ganassi Racing, Richard Childress Racing, and Hendrick Motorsports joined GM for the groundbreaking at the complex in Concord. The site was selected for its proximity to partner racing teams and major technical suppliers. The new technical center will support racing efforts across all series in which GM competes.

The facility is a $45 million investment for GM and is scheduled to open in early 2022.

“After more than a year of unprecedented challenges for everyone, we reevaluated our plans and found we could expand the footprint and scope for the Charlotte Technical Center to make it an even greater resource,” said Jim Campbell, GM US vice president of performance and motorsports. “This new location and larger facility is a clean-sheet design, tailored for technology development and collaboration with our racing teams and technical partners.”

The center will also provide more opportunities for GM to recruit top talent in the fields of software engineering, computational science, electrical engineering, and other technical skill sets.

The new technical center will feature advanced virtual tools, including three state-of-the-art Driver-in-the-Loop simulators, aero development, and other software-enabled vehicle modeling technology designed to enable faster analysis and iteration.

For more information, visit gm.com.

Warn Industries has announced the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Fabtech Motorsports, the manufacturer of suspension systems and lift kits for Chevy, Ford, Ram, Jeep, Hummer, Nissan, and Toyota, based in Chino, California. 

Fabtech’s product offerings include suspension systems, shocks, and leveling kits. The company was founded in 1989 as a custom fabrication firm specializing in racing suspension systems and Prerunner builds, cages, bumpers, and other products. Today, the company has over 2,000 SKUs in its portfolio and includes off-road and performance brands Dirt Logic and Stealth Shocks.

“We are proud of what we have accomplished over our 30-plus year history, and we look forward to continuing our traditions, now as part of Warn and as such, being able to leverage resources available as part of a larger entity. We will continue to focus on developing innovative solutions for the off-road segment,” Fabtech Founder and CEO Dave Winner said. 

Warn Industries designs, manufactures, and markets a full line of off-road equipment and accessories and is headquartered near Portland, Oregon.

For more information, visit fabtechmotorsports.com and warn.com.