Nominations are now being accepted for the Specialty Equipment Market Association’s prestigious annual awards.

Industry members are invited to nominate individuals and companies who have made a significant impact on the specialty-equipment market industry within the past year.

Members are encouraged to view the SEMA Industry Awards website to gain knowledge of the rich history of award winners, read about the award criteria, view photos from previous banquets and nominate industry leaders to win awards in multiple categories, including GEN-III Innovator, Manufacturer, Person, Rep Agency and WD.

The award winners will be celebrated for their accomplishments at the 2019 SEMA Industry Awards Banquet on Thursday, November 7, during the SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

For more information, visit sema.org/awards.

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response since its introduction, the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show’s Featured Products Showcase will return for a third year in 2019, providing exhibitors with unmatched opportunities to boost their products and brand awareness before, during and after the world’s premier event for motorsports professionals.

Exhibitors that sign up now at prishow.com/featuredproducts will secure their spot in the Featured Products Showcase’s new location inside the Lucas Oil Stadium (LOS) Exhibit Hall, a high-traffic area that will increase connectivity with buyers during the Three Biggest Business Days in Racing, which take place December 12-14 at the Indiana Convention Center and LOS in Indianapolis.

“The return on investment afforded by the Featured Products Showcase has made the program a can’t-miss for exhibitors who want to increase their exposure with buyers and media at the PRI Show,” said PRI Trade Show Director Karin Davidson. “Because of its popularity, the Showcase has expanded into the new Lucas Oil Stadium Exhibit Halls, which are connected to the Indiana Convention Center and easily accessible from the parking lot.”

Participation in the Featured Products Showcase provides exhibitors with product promotion on PRI’s social networks, promotional carpet signage at the exhibitor’s booth, signage with product description at the Showcase, professional photography of the entered products on-site for future use by the exhibitor, and exposure in PRI’s online exhibitor search feature and in the exhibitor's floor plan listing.

New for this year, each product’s location within the Featured Products Showcase will be highlighted in an interactive map on My Show Planner, an online feature that is part of the interactive floor plan and used by attendees and media to map out the PRI Show exhibitors that are specific to their business or audience.

“Because of its size, actually seeing everything at the PRI Show can be challenging, especially for media members who work the Show alone. So, since its inception a few years ago the Featured Products Showcase has been a must-visit area for me,” said Diesel Power Editor-in-Chief KJ Jones. “The Featured Products Showcase is a huge benefit to manufacturers, buyers and media attending the show. I look forward to checking it out every year because it gives visitors a better opportunity to see the products up-close and obtain detailed information about them.”

As part of the Showcase experience, PRI officials will once again host international media from key regions of the world to participate in the Global Media Awards program. Participating journalists will select 10 Featured Products Showcase products that are likely to be well-received in their home country. The winning exhibitors are then invited to attend a special reception in the Indiana Convention Center to receive their award and meet the international journalists. Last year, 70 Global Media Awards were presented for 53 different Showcase products.

“The Featured Products Showcase is a must for exhibitors who want to substantially increase their brand and product exposure at the PRI Show,” added Davidson. “This can be further enhanced by taking advantage of all the promotional opportunities available.”

Among the available upgrade options are a product placement with a description in the Featured Products Showcase Preview section of the November 2019 issue of Performance Racing Industry Magazine, which also serves as the official Show Guide. Photos of products will be included if participants supply images by September 9. Additionally, featured products will be included in the post-Show coverage within PRI Magazine’s February 2020 issue.

To learn more about the Featured Products Showcase, or to submit products, log on to prishow.com/featuredproducts.

For more information or to register for the 2019 PRI Trade Show, visit prishow.com.

The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) will induct its largest class in recent years March 16-17, 2020, during its 32nd annual Induction Celebration in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The Class of 2020 announcement included the news of a brand-new standalone category for off-road racing, which will feature the Baja 500, Baja 1,000 and SCORE World Champion Ivan "Ironman" Stewart.

Stewart joins the rest of the inductees, including NASCAR's first-ever champion Robert "Red" Byron (Historic category),  driver, official and safety advocate Wally Dallenbach, Sr. (Open-Wheel), Rick Hendrick, one of NASCAR's most successful owners (Stock Cars), Daytona 500 champion Tiny Lund (Historic), Can-Am and Rolex 24 At Daytona champion Jacky Ickx (Sports Cars), quarter-mile racing legend "Ohio" George Montgomery (Drag Racing), flat track impresario Chris Carr (Motorcycles), and early motorcycle racer, promoter and publisher Floyd Clymer (At Large).

The MSHFA Class of 2020 was unveiled in a press conference at Daytona International Speedway (DIS) by Motorsports Hall of Fame of America President Ron Watson and Daytona International Speedway President Chip Wile.

"We are delighted to welcome our largest class of inductees in recent years into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America," Watson said. "We have expanded to two enshrines in the Historic category and are thrilled to introduce Off-Road Racing as its own category for the first time in 2020."

Next year marks the fifth consecutive induction ceremony in Daytona Beach since the MSHFA moved from Novi, Michigan, to Daytona in 2016.

For more information, visit mshf.com.

WISSOTA officials have developed a tamper-proof cable lock system for the GM sealed crate engines used by WISSOTA drivers.

WISSOTA now has three licensed shops that will repair a sealed crate engine using the WISSOTA sealing system, paperwork and proper channels to ensure that only needed repairs are completed and the shop does not work on other parts or pieces.

The three repair shops that are currently licensed are Adams Automotive (Cameron, WI), Chubbs Performance (Clear Lake, MN) and Dakota Engine (Jamestown, ND). WISSOTA will still take protested GM sealed crates to any builder of WISSOTA’s choosing.

For more information, visit wissota.org.

Bondurant School of High Performance Driving announced the addition of a new drag racing program. The full-day course is said to be the first of its kind to offer professional drag racing instruction to the public behind the wheel of some of the most powerful street-legal cars in the world. Courses, which are set for July 27 and August 17, 2019, are limited to 16 students per class and costs $1,999 per driver.

“We’re thrilled to offer this new drag racing program with our partners at Dodge//SRT,” said Bruce Belser, CEO of Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. “Drag racing is an adrenaline-filled motorsport that requires a certain set of skills. Our new course will help drivers of every skill level improve their technique and drop their 1/8-mile time behind the wheel of powerful Dodge//SRT vehicles.”

The course is the first new addition from the school this year and is expected to fill quickly.

Classroom instruction will address the fundamental rules of drag racing, including proper launch, staging technique, reaction time, signals and pre- and post-run safety checks. On-track instruction will be under the direction and supervision of a professional Bondurant instructor and will be followed by eight 1/8-mile full passes.

In addition to the 840-horsepower Challenger SRT Demon, the Bondurant//Dodge SRT drag racing program will include the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Hellcat Widebody, and the 485-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT 392.

The new Dodge//SRT Bondurant Drag Racing Program will be held at Bondurant’s facility and the NHRA-sanctioned Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, both in Chandler, Arizona.

Additional courses will be announced in the coming weeks.

Enrollment is now open. For more information, call 800/842-7223, email aortiz@bondurant.com, or visit bondurant.com.

Alas, the 2019 PRI Trade Show floor plan has been buttoned up, posted online, and is now open for business!

In fact, before you proceed any further I suggest you visit prishow.com/floorplan19 and have a quick look around. I’ll wait…

As you may have noticed by the 1100-plus motorsports parts and service providers already slotted into the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium (LOS), this year’s Show, set for December 12-14, is shaping up to be one spectacular event!

Why the extra shot of optimism? Five points immediately come to mind:

1. More exhibiting companies and confirmed booth space (as of early June) than last year’s Show

2. More net square footage of exhibit space (again, in early June) than we had even at Show time of last year

3. Dozens of new exhibitors have already signed on, with more expected in the coming months

4. An expanded trailer display that, for the first time ever, extends onto LOS field

5. A new, user-friendlier location for the popular Featured Products Showcase

In addition, the floor plan for PRI 2019 includes traditional favorites like the world-famous Machinery Row, which is packed year after year with the absolute latest in CNC machining centers, fabrication and welding equipment, parts cleaning systems, dynamometers and more. You’ll find this dedicated area, and the exhibitors it houses, along the west end of the Convention Center’s Yellow Hall (aisles 5100-5700).

Attendees also are invited to explore that sweeping display of race trailers, motorcoaches, haulers, and toterhomes from a number of the industry’s top manufacturers…on the very field where Andrew Luck and the Colts play! What’s more, the move creates additional room in the stadium exhibit halls for PRI’s aforementioned product showcase—a one-stop shop for exhibitors’ newest and bestselling parts and services.

Here at PRI we work year-round to ensure that each Trade Show provides the best experience possible for buyers and sellers of new components and equipment for all forms of racing—drag, sports car, late model, sprint, midget, modified, off-road, marine and more.

And when all is said and done, we’re confident this year’s Show will deliver more race-winning products, more innovative technologies, more dynamic solutions, and more invaluable connections for motorsports professionals than anywhere else on Earth.

In order to ensure that you—exhibitors, attendees and media—get the most out of your time in Indy, we highly recommend coming to the Show with a solid plan in hand. Don’t wait until you’re inside the doors to start mapping out a strategy. (Trust me on this one!)

Consider this your formal invitation to go online (prishow.com), register for the Show, and discover where the industry’s top names in engine parts, suspension components, machining equipment, safety gear, track supplies and more will be ready and waiting to do business at the annual epicenter of new racing technology!

The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series will be featured at the world-famous Goodwood Festival of Speed for the third year in a row with an expanded lineup.

Four cars will race up the hill in the traditional Shootout Hillclimb, driven by ELITE 2 points leader Giorgio Maggi, up-and-coming NASCAR star Todd Gilliland, former Cup Series driver David Gilliland and NWES President Jerome Galpin.

The presence of the European NASCAR series at one of the most important motorsports meeting in the world—the Goodwood Festival of Speed, taking place now through July 7 and attracting tens of thousands of passionate fans every year—keeps growing edition after edition and will reach a new high this weekend. Four Euro NASCAR cars will be displayed together with a large NASCAR delegation and will take part in the iconic Shootout Hillclimb competition reaching its culmination on Sunday.

Several stars will highlight the 16-car NASCAR delegation at Goodwood: NASCAR Xfinity Series race winner Ed Berrier, former Cup Series champion crew chief Andy Petree and European endurance icon Emanuele Pirro will all take part in the Shootout, while Hall Of Famers Richard Petty and Bobby Labonte will drive NASCAR cars in demo runs.

After taking part in practice runs, the Euro NASCAR drivers will take on qualifying for the Hillclimb Shootout on Saturday, while the iconic race up the Goodwood Hill will begin on Sunday. All activities will be streamed live on Goodwood.com.

Cloyes Gear and Products, Inc., has unveiled a new global branding strategy and logo, as well as a new website, designed to communicate the nearly 100-year history of the company, the quality of its automotive timing products, and its commitment to supporting its customers and the automotive aftermarket, the company said.

“The global landscape in our product category is incredibly competitive,” said Brian Wheeler, vice president of business development and marketing for Cloyes. “Following months of competitive analyses and market research, we’re excited to launch a new global branding strategy and logo to support our brand growth worldwide. We’ve leveraged the history and value of the Cloyes brand to elevate our branding strategy and communicate the effectiveness and quality of our automotive product line.”

The updated Cloyes logo and brand materials are reflective of the company’s heritage, while still emblematic of the organization’s current technology and more modern aesthetic. The refreshed Cloyes’ branding strategy ensures that customer interactions with the company’s messaging and materials will be consistent and high quality.

The new Cloyes website features a custom parts lookup tool and online catalog, complete with a year-make-model part finder as well as vehicle identification number (VIN) lookup technology. Each search result links all applicable assets and content to each part number, such as installation tips, technical resources, and videos. The custom-designed site was developed with a modern bold aesthetic and mobile-friendly design providing an intuitive user experience on desktop or any device on the go, officials said.

“Automotive professionals and consumers continue to rely on the internet more and more to research quality parts and find application-specific replacement parts,” said John Bohenick, chief executive officer for Cloyes. “With our new website, our main goal was to help users find parts more efficiently. With the technology we’ve designed, for both OE replacement and high performance timing products, we’ve achieved that goal.”

For the new Cloyes website and to use its parts finder, visit cloyes.com.

Longtime NASCAR pit reporter and magazine editor Dick Berggren has been named the recipient of the 2020 Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence. Berggren becomes the ninth journalist to win the prestigious award named after Ken Squier and Barney Hall, the first two recipients.

Berggren will be honored during NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony festivities on January 31, 2020, and featured in an exhibit in the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Tickets to the Induction Weekend events go on sale to the public on Saturday, July 6 at 10 a.m. A special presale is available to NASCAR Hall of Fame members through Friday, July 5 at 11:59 p.m. Tickets to Induction Ceremony events begin at $75 per person (plus tax and applicable service fees).

“For more than three decades, Dick Berggren helped bring fans closer to the action across all levels of motorsports,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Jim France. “Though best known for his role as a pit reporter for NASCAR national series races, Berggren’s dedication to the grass roots level of racing helped shape his legend. His work with short track racing magazines brought life to the many series that make up the soul of NASCAR.”

Easily identified by his trademark flat cap, Berggren was a fixture on NASCAR television coverage from 1981 through his retirement in 2012. He began his television career as a pit reporter for ESPN in 1981 and appeared on CBS, TBS and TNN broadcasts before closing his career with a 12-year stint as the lead pit announcer for NASCAR on FOX.

Beyond his television work, Berggren dedicated his craft to short tracks, simultaneous serving as editors of both Stock Car Racing and Open Wheel magazines. He also went on to found Speedway Illustrated, which touts itself as “America’s favorite monthly short track racing magazine.”

A college professor by trade, Berggren began his motorsports announcing career as the PA announcer at Arundel Speedway in Maine. Prior to that, he raced a variety of cars, including stock cars and modifieds.

Berggren is a member of the Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Hall of Fame and was named National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) Writer of the Year in 1999.

Berggren was among eight nominees voted upon by a panel comprised of NASCAR and NASCAR Hall of Fame executives, journalists, public relations representatives and former drivers. The Squier-Hall Award was created in 2012 to honor the contributions of media to the success of the sport. Chris Economaki, Tom Higgins, Steve Byrnes, Benny Phillips, Norma “Dusty” Brandel and Steve Waid also have won the award.

The other seven nominees for the 2020 award were:

Russ Catlin, one of the best-known early racing writers and historians; editor of Speed Age Magazine

George Cunningham, long-time beat writer for The Charlotte Observer, Atlanta Constitution and NASCAR Scene; is the namesake for the annual NMPA award for Excellence in Writing

Shav Glick, covered motorsports for the Los Angeles Times for 37 years bringing NASCAR coverage to the West Coast

Mike Harris, spent 30 years as the lead motorsports writer for the Associated Press

Bob Jenkins, served as the lead NASCAR lap-by-lap anchor at ESPN from 1982-2000

Bob Moore, spent more than 20 years as a NASCAR beat writer including stints with the Daytona Beach News-Journal and The Charlotte Observer.

T. Taylor Warren, best known for his three-wide photo of the 1959 Daytona 500 finish, he covered every Daytona 500 until his death in 2008.

Tiered registration began June 18 for the 2019 Tire Rack SCCA Solo Nationals, and here are all the companies lined up to support competitors at the 47th running of the event taking place September 2–6 at Lincoln Airpark in Lincoln, Nebraska. Sign-up for contingency programs is conducted within online Solo Nationals event registration. Competitors may add or subtract contingency programs up to September 2 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time. Late changes can be made upon arrival at the Solo Nationals venue at the registration tent.

A full list of programs, including details and instructions, can be found by clicking individual contingency links in the Solo Nationals dropdown menu at www.scca.com/pages/solo-contingency. Many opportunities require pre-registration with SCCA and/or with the sponsoring company. It is the responsibility of each competitor to make sure they are in compliance with each program for which they would like to enroll, including registration, product use and decal placement. Once competitors have reviewed requirements for specific contingencies, registration for the various programs is conducted through a special MotorSportReg.com webpage.

Below is a quick glimpse at 2019 Solo Nationals contingency sponsors:

Hawk Performance, Official Brake Products of SCCA (All Classes)

1st - $100 certificate,   2nd - $90 certificate,   3rd - $80 certificate,   4th - $70 certificate,   5th - $60 certificate

Honda Performance Development (Select Classes)

Eligible classes: 1st - $300 HPD Bucks,   2nd - $200 HPD Bucks,   3rd - $100 HPD Bucks

Bridgestone Tires (Select Classes)

Eligible classes: 1st - $500,   2nd - $300,   3rd - $100

Falken Tire (Select Classes)

Eligible classes: 1st - $500,   2nd - $300,   3rd - $200,   4th–15th - $100

BFGoodrich Tires (Select Classes)

Eligible classes: 1st – 4 free tires,   2nd – 2 free tires,   3rd – 1 free tire 

Supplemental classes: 1st – 2 free tires, 2nd – 1 free tire

Design Engineering, Inc (DEI) (Select Classes)

Eligible classes: 1st - $300 certificate,   2nd - $200 certificate,   3rd - $100 certificate

Eibach Springs (Select Classes)

Eligible classes: 1st – 4 free springs,   2nd – 3 free springs,   3rd – 2 free springs

Nissan Motorsports (Select Cars & Classes)

Eligible classes (Current Select Models): 1st - $750,   2nd - $500, 3rd - $250

Eligible classes (Non-Current Models): 1st - $500,   2nd - $250,   3rd - $125

#DrivingForwardTogether (Select Classes)

Eligible classes: 1st - $100 and #DrivingForwardTogether T-Shirt

Hoosier Racing Tire (Select Classes)

Eligible classes: 1st – 4 free tires,   2nd – 2 free tires

Mazda North American Operations (All Classes)

1st - $800,   2nd - $500,   3rd - $250,   4th - $175,   5th - $150,   6th - $125

Solo Triad Award - $600


Competitors Bonus: Competitors who have competed in at least three National events without earning contingency from Mazda in 2019 are eligible to compete for $500 at the Tire Rack Solo Nationals. Mazda will award the top 10 of those competitors based on PAX finishing position.


Women’s Initiative (WI): Mazda will award any female Mazda competitor who finishes in Open Class 2nd-10th place a $150 WI bonus.

Nexen Tire (Select Classes)

Eligible classes: 1st - $800,   2nd - $500,   3rd - $300,   4th - $200,   5th - $100

Toyota/TRD (All Classes)

1st - $1,000

It is the responsibility of each driver to make sure they are eligible to receive any contingency awards in which they are interested.

Additional background about Tire Rack Solo Nationals is available at www.scca.com/pages/national-championship.