Claremont Speedway, the 1/3-mile asphalt oval in Claremont, New Hampshire, has been purchased by two New Hampshire racers and businessmen. The track has been renamed Claremont Motorsports Park.

Track owner Jim Ambrose, who purchased the facility in 2014 with a group of investors, sold the track to Norman Wrenn and Ben Bosowski, according to the Valley News.

The pair reportedly own tracks in Hudson, Epping, Lee and Winchester.

Track Manager Phil Hayes will stay on the employee roster, with reports that most of the original staff will remain.  

Changes planned for the track include an increase to five racing divisions. The new Six Shooters division will join the lineup of Sportsmen Modifieds, Late Model Sportsmen, Street Stocks and Put Stocks.

The 2019 season begins May 3.

For more information, visit the track website.

Officials with the Mt. Washington Auto Road in Gorham, New Hampshire and the Sports Car Club of New Hampshire announced that the historic Mt. Washington Hillclimb will be returning to the Northeast’s tallest peak July 10-12, 2020.

Organized and sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of New Hampshire, the 2020 Mt. Washington Hillclimb will serve as a 3-day motorsports festival that will include an 80-car field filled with some of the best drivers from North America and the world—as well as a contingent of rare vintage race and rally cars.

"We're incredibly excited to once again welcome back the Climb to the Clouds event. This race has been a part of the Auto Road scene since 1904 and we're proud of this racing tradition and our place in automotive history,” Mt. Washington Auto Road General Manager Howie Wemyss said.

Also known as the “Climb to the Clouds,” the Mt. Washington Hillclimb is one of North America’s oldest motorsports events, first run in July 1904, seven years before the first 500-mile race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and twelve years prior to the inaugural Pikes Peak Hillclimb in Colorado. The Climb to the Clouds was run sporadically from 1904-1961, then not again until 1990 when it was run consistently until 2001.

Following a ten-year hiatus, the Mt. Washington Hillclimb returned in 2011 as part of the 150th anniversary celebration of the Mt. Washington Auto Road which first opened on August 8, 1861. Since the 2011 event, the Hillclimb has taken place in 2014 as well as 2017. The 2020 Mt. Washington Hillclimb will celebrate 30 very active years of growth and popularity since it was brought back in 1990.

For more information, visit the Climb to the Clouds website.

ACL Distribution, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has announced the addition of a new stocking distribution center in Orlando after signing a partnership with Titan Motorsports.

“The addition of this warehouse…will help ACL better facility its customers in South and East Coast regions, decreasing transit times,” ACL Distribution stated in a news release.

The new distribution center—located at 11370 Boggy Creek Road, Orlando, Florida 32824—can be reached by phone at 407/277-8423.

ACL Distribution has locations around North America including Michigan, California, Minnesota, Florida and Canada.

For more information, visit the ACL Distribution website.

Off Road Speedway, the track in Norfolk, Nebraska, has signed an agreement with IMCA for its Late Model division to join four other Saturday weekly IMCA classes.

“We’ve been looking for an organization with solid motor and tire rules,” Promoter Jerry Pospisil said, who met with IMCA President Brett Root and Vice President of Operations Jim Stannard before announcing his decision to sanction. “IMCA has a complete set of rules that are pretty well cut and dried.”

The 1/3-mile dirt oval in Norfolk had been part of a Late Model series with other tracks in eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa.

While Norfolk drivers fared well in that tour, Pospisil pointed out that they’ll now have the opportunity to race close to home, earning point fund shares while competing in national, state and local track levels.  

IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars, IMCA Sunoco Hobby Stocks, Karl Chevrolet Northern SportMods and Mach-1 Sport Compacts have raced at Off Road since the track opened in 2015.

Stock Cars are part of IMCA’s EQ Cylinder Heads Northern Region and Hobby Stocks are in the Big Daddy Race Cars Northern Region.

The upcoming IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing point season starts April 13. Championship night will be August 31.

For more information, visit the IMCA website or the Off Road Speedway website.

Must See Racing Sprint Car Series officials have released an updated calendar of events for the winged 410ci asphalt sprint car tour, featuring a notable date change and one additional venue.

The Must See Racing season will now kick off on May 4, at Anderson Speedway (IN) with the annual Must See Racing 50, while the series' two-day weekend at Ace Speedway moves to October 18-19, as part of the track's season-ending Rodney Cook Memorial weekend.

This year's season kickoff at Anderson's quarter-mile bullring marks the first spring standalone event for Must See Racing in the history of the sanctioning body. Previous spring races at Anderson were held as part of Pay Less Little 500 week at the end of May.

In addition, Ohio's Sandusky Speedway becomes the fourth new track that Must See Racing will visit during the upcoming season, with a Sunday afternoon special planned at the half-mile oval on August 25.

In total, 12 full-points shows are featured on this year's Must See Racing calendar, as well as a special Rumble for the Record time-trial challenge at Illinois' Rockford Speedway on September 28, and the annual sanctioning of the Pay Less Little 500, which Must See Racing has held since 2008.

For more information, including the complete 2019 schedule, is it the Must See Racing website.

Earlier this year, NHRA released the names of the eight NHRA Legends who would be competing in a one-time-only “Unfinished Business” competition as part of the 50th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. Now it’s time for the fans to decide who will face off in the first round of eliminations.

The legendary lineup features some of the biggest stars in NHRA Championship Drag Racing including “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Joe Amato, Kenny Bernstein, Ed “The Ace” McCulloch, Warren Johnson and Terry Vance. To top it all off, Florida native and NHRA fan favorite Darrell Gwynn will serve as the honorary starter for this prestigious group of competitors.

Each driver will compete in a custom Toyota Camry distinctly wrapped to emulate looks inspired by some of the drivers’ favorite rides.

The competitive bracket is up to NHRA fans. From now until February 22, fans can visit nhra.com/promo/unfinished-business-matchup-vote to vote for the first-round matchups they want to see.  

For more information, visit the NHRA website.

James Key now has a start date with his new Formula 1 team, McLaren, as announced by Formula 1.

Key, who McLaren signed in July last year, will join the Woking, United Kingdom-based squad as technical director on March 25, after an agreement was reached with Toro Rosso for his release.

Key has two decades of experience in F1, having begun his career at Jordan in 1998. He remained with the team as it became Midland, Spyker and Force India, rising to the role of technical director. He joined Sauber in 2010 before moving to Toro Rosso two years later.

Toro Rosso, who finished last season ninth in the constructors' standings, three places behind McLaren, have announced that Jody Egginton will be promoted to technical director in Key’s place.

For more information, visit the Formula 1 website.

PPG has announced a $10 million investment in a new 82,000-square-foot facility and class A paint line at its Greenville, South Carolina, coatings services facility.

Scheduled for completion in August 2019, the expansion is designed to accommodate increased demand for Class A coatings application and value-added services, according to the company. Class A coatings include those used on surfaces that are readily seen or touched by customers, such as hoods and door skins.

“The expansion of the Greenville facility will help us continue to grow with our customers in this important location,” PPG Vice President Of Coatings Services Jeff Oravitz said. “The added capacity for electrocoating [e-coat], labeling, light assembly, packaging and shipping, along with other value-added solutions, will be invaluable to our customers looking to streamline processes, save time and reduce logistics costs.”

The Greenville plant opened in 2013 as a dedicated coatings services facility for automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. In 2015, the facility was expanded to include aftermarket packaging and hem sealing services, the process to join inner and outer closure panels.

For more information, visit the PPG Coatings Services website.

Canyon Speedway Park officials have announced racing will resume at the 3/8-mile dirt oval in Peoria, Arizona, as soon as March.

It was previously announced last week by track owner Doug Gabbard that the race season was on hold until further notice.

“After the first few races of the year, I saw clearly that changes needed to be put into place. I made the decision to take the time necessary to improve what needed to be improved upon,” Gabbard said in a new statement. “A few instances of the changes taking place would be anywhere from the surface of our racetrack down to the lighting and sound in the pits, among other things.”

After overpowering support from the local community, the timeline to open the track has been moved from an unknown date to early March.

“With the help of so many people, we now expect to be back in action for our Spring Showcase, possibly our biggest event of the year,” Gabbard stated in the statement, mentioning its March 8–9, event featuring AMSOIL USAC SW/CRA 410 NW Springs, AZ Differential Modifieds, Askrens Trucking/Flexi Flyer Sport Mods, Allscapes stock cars and micro sprints.

For the latest track updates, visit the Canyon Speedway Park website. 

Another highlight will be a three-day show at Dodge City Raceway Park in Dodge City, Kansas, for the 3rd Annual Lubbock Wrecker Service DCRP Sprint Car Nationals which is set for June 13–15 when the URSS Sprints will join the DCRP Sprints and the Sprint Series of Oklahoma.

The URSS will also visit a few new tracks this year with a scheduled date at Soloman Valley Speedway’s ¼-mile oval in Beloit, Kansas, on Saturday, July 27. A tentative date is also planned at the 3/8-mile high banked track at Thunder Hill Speedway in Mayetta, Kansas, on Saturday, July 6.

URSS officials and series founder Rick Salem are still working with a few other tracks to secure additional dates, and they will be announced when completed.

For more information, including the complete 2019 schedule, visit the URSS website.