The Trans-Am presented by Pirelli Series has revealed new class names for its growing production-based classes. The SuperGT Class (SGT), formerly TA3, and the GT Class, formerly TA4, are now aligned name-wise with other “GT” series and classes in North America. 

“We’ve updated the names for the GT and SuperGT Classes to better reflect the kinds of cars that are competing in them,” Trans-Am Race Company President John Claggett said. "Diversity is a key aspect of these classes, with sports cars, grand touring cars, performance coupes, and performance sedans, all with varying engines and drivetrain layouts, and all welcomed in the GT and SuperGT classes.”

After hiring a new technical director in 2018, a new rule set was developed to encourage stability, innovation and growth of the classes. Those rules will remain unchanged in 2019.

To grow participation in the production classes, Trans-Am has begun contacting former competitors to let them know about the many changes made since they last raced with Trans-Am. The Technical Department has also started researching which cars from other North American race series, professional and amateur, would easily crossover into the Trans-Am GT and SGT classes. Throughout the 2019 season, they will be contacting teams and prep shops to let them know of the opportunities of racing in the Trans-Am Series.

The 2019 Trans-Am presented by Pirelli season will launch March 1–3, at Sebring International Raceway near Sebring, Florida.

For more information, visit the Trans-Am website.

(Photo courtesy of Trans-Am).

Honing systems manufacturer Sunnen Products Company is relocating its BTA Heller division to the Sunnen headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. The move from Troy, Michigan, will be completed by March 31.

BTA Heller provides a solution for shops looking for complete bore creation-to-finishing capabilities. Sunnen added BTA’s deep hole tooling and systems last year for primary hole generation.

The relocation will facilitate further development of tooling, systems and processes, as the companies build on natural synergies to offer single-source bore creation and finishing solutions, according to Sunnen.

Sunnen’s core technical competencies include automated and manual honing and lapping systems, custom system development and integration, abrasives, tooling, lubricants, and gaging.

The BTA Heller acquisition expanded Sunnen’s honing expertise to include tooling for initial hole creation and other complementary bore sizing and finishing processes. Sunnen also recently introduced the new SHD series skiving and roller burnishing system with tooling engineered and supplied by BTA Heller.

Sunnen employs 650 people worldwide, with offices, manufacturing and tech support facilities throughout Europe, the U.K., China, Brazil and India.

For more information, visit the Sunnen website.

Roxboro Motorsports Park, a 42-acre facility featuring an 1/8-mile drag strip in Timberlake, North Carolina, has entered into a multi-year sanctioning agreement with the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA).

Roxboro Motorsports Park features a strong grudge racing contingent and a growing bracket racing program.

“We’ve got a good bunch of bracket racers and we have some good grudge races coming up,” Track Owner Jody Williams said. “We feel the IHRA Summit SuperSeries will help us on the bracket racing end. We’re just trying to improve everything and see where it goes.”

The 2019 schedule opens on Sunday, March 17, with a St. Patrick’s Day food drive, test-n-tune and a gambler’s race. Points racing for the IHRA Summit SuperSeries begins six days later on Saturday, March 23.

Roxboro Motorsports Park will also now be eligible to compete in the IHRA Division 1 (Patriots) Summit Team Finals.

First opened in 1959 as Person County Dragway, the track was renamed Roxboro Dragway in 1970 and later to Roxboro Motorsports Park in 2006. Five years ago, the track also underwent a major upgrade which included grinding and polishing the track, new electronic timing and sensors and renovated restrooms.

For more information, visit the IHRA website or the Roxboro Motorsports Park website.

Formula 1 governing body FIA has opened a tender for standardized gearboxes that would be used by the pinnacle of motorsports beginning in 2021.

Currently, some teams make their own gearboxes, while others buy them in. For example, Alfa Romeo and Haas run Ferrari gearboxes.

With new regulations set to kick in 2021, however, the FIA announced the desire for one supplier to provide the gearbox internals, with teams free to create their own outing housing.

“The aim of single source supply is to retain current levels of Formula 1 gear change performance for all cars at a much reduced cost to the competitors while also removing the requirement for teams to design or source their own gearboxes,” said the tender.

“The unit can be carried over between seasons so removing the need for costly continual performance development. In order to retain competitor’s own freedoms for suspension and for the gearbox aero surfaces, the outer housing will remain team specific (designed and produced by the competitor) with the common, self-contained gearbox cassette mounted inside.”

The FIA’s plan involves teams using four gearboxes per season, based on the calendar swelling to 24 races with five tests. The units can form a pool and be used at any time during the season.

Anyone interested in the tender is required to submit their proposals before March 15, with a decision expected between April 15-30.

For more information, visit the F1 website.

BorgWarner, which has acquired two Oregon-based businesses, formed Cascadia Motion LLC to buy assets and merge the operations of both Rinehart Motion Systems LLC and AM Racing Inc.

“Rinehart Motion Systems and AM Racing are two established companies in the specialty electric and hybrid propulsion sector,” BorgWarner Chief Technology Officer Hakan Yilmaz said. “Bringing them together as Cascadia Motion will allow us to offer design, development and production of full electric and hybrid propulsion systems for niche and low-volume manufacturing applications.”

Rinehart Motion Systems specializes in propulsion inverters and controls for electric and hybrid vehicles in the racing industry and beyond. AM Racing designs and manufactures single- and dual-core electric motors and gearsets used in motorsports and more, as well.

Cascadia Motion LLC will expand the company’s ability to support a wide variety of customers with small scale projects, specialty products, and low volume manufacturing needs, according to BorgWarner.

For more information, visit the BorgWarner website.

The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame has announced tickets are now available for its 30th annual induction banquet and ceremony. Festivities will take place Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1.

Individuals being inducted for their career achievements include Drivers – Richard Griffin, Jason Johnson and Stevie Smith; Owners-Mechanics-Builders-Manufacturers-Car Sponsors – M.A. Brown and C.K. Spurlock; Promoters-Officials-Media Members-Event/Series Sponsors – Thomas J. Schmeh and Greg Stephens; and Pre-1945 Era – “Wild” Bill Endicott.

Friday will feature a “must attend” event in the Museum, which includes a screening of the documentary “The Legend of Stan Bowman” in the theater on the second floor.

A free reception, open to the public, is set for 7 p.m. on Friday. The gathering will include an open mic discussion with plenty of stories from previous and current inductees alike.

After Friday, Hall of Famers Dave Argabright and Pat Sullivan will emcee the Saturday event. Following the induction ceremony, inductees’ families and friends are invited back to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum’s second floor for the unveiling of the new inductees’ plaques.

Saturday’s festivities conclude with a night of racing at Knoxville Raceway (Knoxville, Iowa). McKay Group/West Bend Insurance Night Knoxville Championship Cup Series racing will feature 410 sprint cars, 360 sprints featuring the Nebraska 360 Sprint Series and 305 sprints.

For more information, visit the SprintCarHoF website. To purchase induction ceremony tickets, contact Lori DeMoss at 641/842-6176 or LDeMoss@sprintcarhof.com.

INDYCAR announced today the planned introduction of the next step to improve cockpit safety for all drivers in the NTT IndyCar Series.

All cars participating in an April 24 open test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) oval will be fitted with Advanced Frontal Protection (AFP), a titanium piece made by Dallara.

AFP, which stands a little more than 3 inches tall and averages three-quarters of an inch in width, is designed to deflect debris away from the driver. It will be positioned in front of the cockpit along the chassis centerline. The piece has passed the same strength tests as Dallara’s roll hoop.

Versions of AFP have been explored through on-track and simulator testing since 2012. New technology made this a practical option now.

All cars entered in the 103rd Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge in May will be fitted with the piece, and they will carry it through the rest of the season.

“Safety is a never-ending pursuit, and this is INDYCAR’s latest step in the evolution,” INDYCAR President Jay Frye said. “There are more details to come about the phases to follow.”

A halo-type device was considered, but it cannot be fitted to the current version of INDYCAR’s chassis.

INDYCAR has done extensive testing with a windscreen developed in conjunction with PPG Aerospace, including on-track sessions at ISM Raceway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2018. Neither driver who tested the windscreen reported problems, but recent testing at PPG’s facility in Huntsville, Alabama, proved that work remains before INDYCAR could implement its use.

For more information, visit the INDYCAR website.

(Image courtesy of Chris Beatty Design and INDYCAR).

Memphis International Raceway (MIR) and parent company IRG Sports + Entertainment (IRGSE) have announced the addition of motorsports industry veterans Dominic Blasco and Bob Fairey to the MIR management team enhancing and reinforcing the commitment to the multi-purpose facility.

Blasco, the general manager at the IRGSE-owned Cordova International Raceway (Illinois), will support Memphis International Raceway on a part-time basis in a management role overseeing operations for all major events. Blasco, a former MIR employee, has an extensive motorsports background that includes event and operations management, drag strip track preparation and experience with various drag racing events including the popular small tire class.

Fairey continues at MIR in an expanded role that includes management of facility maintenance, operations, special projects, along with drag strip track preparation. He will work under the supervision of Blasco.

Both additions will report to Memphis International Raceway President Tim Packman.

“In addition to reopening the paved oval track and making improvements to the road course, we recently repaved the drag-strip return road and are redoing the water/burnout box as we continue to invest in our MIR facility. Street Outlaws’ JJ Da Boss calls MIR home. When it comes to drag racing, we are all in,” IRGSE President and CEO Lou Partenza said in a statement.

Upcoming major events at the three distinct racing venues on property at MIR include USAC Silver Crown Series, The 33rd annual Original Super Chevy Show, IHRA Summit Super Series, NASCAR, Street Outlaws, Grudge Racing, NMCA Memphis Homecoming, Street Warriorz, the Great American Bracket Race, Late Models, NASA Pro Racing and more.

For more information, visit the Memphis International Raceway website.

Motorsports businessman Charles Roberts is leading an investment group that has purchased Crate Racin’ USA, also known as Durrence Layne Racing, from the sanctioning body’s founders Mike and Heather Vaughn. Roberts is well known in the industry as a fan, sponsor, tire dealer and track owner.

The sale was previously announced as being sold to an anonymous investment group.

“There isn’t a person on earth that I would feel more comfortable in selling a successful racing business that Heather and I started 15 years ago than Charles Roberts,” Mike Vaughn said.

Vaughn founded Crate Racin’ USA in 2005 as he saw the need for a dirt late model series where the race cars were exclusively powered by the economical steel-block aluminum-head Chevrolet Performance 604 circle track engine, also known as a crate engine because of the container the engine was shipped in.

What started as a single traveling series has blossomed into two touring series and a four-division weekly racing series that competes over a 27-week season at 30 different race tracks across the country.

With the 2019 racing season already underway, Roberts said all of the current personnel employed by the Vaughns would remain in place.

Event and weekly track agreements are being finalized and will be announced by the sanctioning body in the coming days.

In related news, Durrence Layne Racing has announced two additional tracks have signed agreements for weekly racing sanctions.

The Durrence Layne Chevrolet Late Model division, the Durrence Layne Performance Parts Street Stock division, and the Durrence Layne Chevrolet Modified Sportsman division will each be featured on both Thunderhill Raceway (Summertown, Tennessee) and Tennessee National Raceway (Hohenwald, Tennessee) schedules in 2019.

For more information and rules about the Durrence Layne Racing Divisions, visit the series website.

Birmingham, Alabama-based Xtreme Concepts has announced the turnkey security solutions company will launch its own NASCAR team under the Xtreme Concepts Racing banner.

The company will field a ride competing in five NASCAR Xfinity Series and two Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) races in 2019.

Their debut will take place with the Xfinity Series’ My Bariatric Solutions 300 on March 30 at Texas Motor Speedway. Its first MENCS debut will be with the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama on April 28.

The team will also race on June 29 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Illinois, July 5 at Daytona International Speedway, August 16 at Bristol Motor Speedway (Tennessee) and August 31 at Darlington Raceway (South Carolina).

Jeffrey Earnhardt will pilot the No. 81 Toyota for the team, which will also have a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs racing.

For more information, visit the Xtreme Concepts website.