London Dragway, the Southeastern Kentucky motorsports facility featuring a 1/8-mile drag strip, has agreed to a multiyear sanctioning agreement with the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA).

As an IHRA Division 2 (Heat Wave) track, IHRA championship racing is held every weekend during the season with Outlaws, Outlaw Pro Mods and Pro Street Cars the second weekend of every month.

“There’s a ‘Diamond in the rough’ philosophy that goes along with London,” said Jon O’Neal, IHRA Division Director. “Except the rough isn’t rough. It’s the Daniel Boone National Forest. It looks like it shouldn’t be there, perched on top of a hill, surrounded by the beauty of nature. I think that’s what makes the relatively new and surgery-room clean facility such a draw.”

For more information, visit the London Dragway website. For a list of IHRA member tracks, visit the IHRA website.

Gainbridge, an online financial services company that offers annuity products simplified for the modern age, has reached a multiyear agreement to become the presenting sponsor of the Indianapolis 500 starting with the 2019 edition of the world’s most prestigious auto race.

The announcement was made earlier this week during a press conference at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) featuring Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Hulman & Company President and CEO Mark Miles, Group1001 President and CEO Dan Towriss and IMS President J. Douglas Boles.

“We welcome Gainbridge to this new partnership with ‘The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,’” Miles said. “Gainbridge offers a bold, new way to steady growth, and we’re honored that the platform is being launched through this association with the Indianapolis 500 – an exciting global event with a rich history and a bright, dynamic future. It’s a perfect fit.”
Gainbridge also will become the official annuity and life insurance partner of INDYCAR, IMS and the Indy 500.

“Gainbridge’s simplified approach to delivering annuities empowers investors who seek to maximize performance, but stay out of trouble, amidst today’s market volatility,” CEO of Group 1001, Gainbridge’s parent company, Towriss said. “In investing, like in racing, anything can happen. The key is to stay calm and have a strategy in place to hedge for the unexpected. The amazing parallels between Gainbridge’s philosophy and racing make our Indy 500 partnership that much more meaningful.”

The 103rd Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge is scheduled for Sunday, May 26. The race is the crown jewel of the NTT IndyCar Series and the largest single-day spectator sporting event on the globe.

For more information, visit the IndyCar website.

(Image courtesy of IndyCar).

Formerly known as the USAC Southwest Sprint Car Series, the San Tan Ford Desert Sprint Car Series will run under the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) banner this season.

The second non-winged sprint car tour to join ASCS in 2019, the San Tan Ford ASCS Desert Sprint Car Series joins the ASCS Elite Non-Wing Series presented by Abilene Powder Coating with 17 dates spread among four Arizona dirt tracks.

Just like the ASCS Elite Non-Wing Series, the series rules for the San Tan Ford ASCS Desert Sprint Car Series will not change.

The move to ASCS sanction provides drivers with the option for ASCS Membership and access to the insurance provided as well as added exposure and the addition of a $7,500 point fund. The point fund provided by the American Sprint Car Series is in addition to efforts already in place with the series.

In related news, ASCS has announced its Southwest Region’s 12th season schedule.

The series lineup works together for the most part with the recently announced San Tan Ford ASCS Desert Sprint Car Series with several nights run in conjunction with each other. Only the Memorial Day Weekend dates conflict with each other as the San Tan Ford ASCS Desert Sprint Car Series will be at Canyon Speedway Park.

Jason Rominger will serve as the competition director for ASCS Southwest Region. The complete 2019 ASCS Southwest Region schedule is below.

For more information, visit the ASCS website.

2019 ASCS Southwest Region Schedule
Feb. 22-23 – Canyon Speedway Park – Peoria, Ariz.
March 23 – Arizona Speedway – Queen Creek, Ariz.
April 13 – Central Arizona Speedway – Casa Grande, Ariz.
April 27 – USA Raceway – Tucson, Ariz.
May 11 – Arizona Speedway – Queen Creek, Ariz.
May 25-26 – Vado Speedway Park, Vado, N.M.
June 22 – Central Arizona Speedway – Casa Grande, Ariz.
June 29 – Arizona Speedway – Queen Creek, Ariz.
Aug. 31-Sept. 1 – Vado Speedway Park – Vado, N.M.
Sept. 14 – USA Raceway – Tucson, Ariz.
Oct. 5 – Arizona Speedway – Queen Creek, Ariz.
Oct. 12 – Canyon Speedway Park – Peoria, Ariz.
Nov. 9 – Central Arizona Speedway – Casa Grande, Ariz.
Nov. 29-30 – Arizona Speewday – Queen Creek, Ariz.

The 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. announced today the official opening of Truex Management Group (TMG), a company specializing in fully-integrated management services for professional race car drivers and athletes.

TMG offers an array of services, including risk management, financial advisement and investment, accounting, personal services and sponsorship development, turn-key in-house merchandise management via in-house screen printing and embroidery services, aviation services, in-house creative and social media management.

Tony Mangini will serve as the president of the company. Mangini brings more than 10 years of experience in corporate sales to lead TMG. Over the past four years, Mangini has successfully managed NASCAR drivers Ryan Truex and Ryan Reed while helping both athletes secure personal service endorsements, according to TMG.

“I feel like we have developed a solid management model over the years and we’ve been talking about extending those same services to other drivers and athletes,” Truex said. “I’m proud of the work that Tony Mangini and the team has done over the past year to build a new management model in sports.”

For more information, contact TMG President Tony Mangini.

Movieland Speedpark’s Pro Late Models will be FASTRAK weekly sanctioned in 2019. The Chandler, Indiana, track is currently being operated by Reno Fontana and will host its first race April 19.

The FASTRAK Pro Late Models at the 3/8th-mile oval will run on Friday nights, with teams vying for the $5,000-to-win FASTRAK VP Racing Fuels National Weekly Championship. The drivers who become FASTRAK members and compete in a minimum of 10 races will also be eligible for the 2019 FASTRAK World Challenge at Beckley Motorsports Park on October 5–6.

The newly formatted FASTRAK World Challenge will pay $2,000 to win on Friday and $5,000 to win on Saturday along with a $5,000 to win points fund for the top 10 drivers through the two nights. Additionally, drivers at Movieland will compete for a FASTRAK Divisional Championship, which has $1,000 in point money per track within the division.

“Building this class in the tri-state area is our main focus,” FASTRAK Executive Vice President DJ Irvine said. “FASTRAK offers a host of benefits to the drivers and great championship point funds to compete for. I’m truly excited about Movieland Speedpark joining the FASTRAK family.”

The 2019 FASTRAK World Championship will pay $50,000 to win and $2,050 to start at Virginia Motor Speedway on September 13–14.

For more information, visit the FASTRAK website.

Raceway Park, the dirt track in Jefferson, South Dakota, has been taken over by A-to-Z Promotions for the 2019 race season.

A-to-Z Promotions has rebranded the track as Interstate Speedway and has hired a new general manager. Denny Moore, a former driver, will take over daily operations of the track he once raced on.

"I think we just need to get some new things going and get some new blood, some new drivers, some new fans coming," Moore said to Siouxland Proud. "We need the old ones as well but we're working on new things and try to make it go better so we'll do the best we can."

Plans for track upgrades are underway, including new dirt, updated bleachers and a variety of race styles. Previously, the track was sanctioned by IMCA Weekly Racing and offered a lineup of Late Models, stock cars, modifieds and more.

For the latest on the track, visit the Interstate Speedway social media page.

Have you ever heard the story of Bubble Wrap? If not, it’s worth a quick run-through.

In the late 1950s, a couple of engineers named Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes wanted to create a new kind of wallpaper based on a product they’d developed that was made up of two plastic sheets, joined together, with air bubbles in between.  
   
At this point you may be asking, “Who on earth would cover their walls with this stuff?”

The answer: literally nobody.

But while the concept of a cushiony wall covering in every American home fell flat, Fielding and Chavannes realized their creation was unique, namely in that it was both lightweight and a good insulator. So they had an idea, and in 1960 the pair founded a new company—Sealed Air Corporation—and began marketing Bubble Wrap as their trademark brand.       

Just like that, the world’s most entertaining packing material was born!

So what’s that got to do with motorsports, you ask? The tale of Bubble Wrap shows us that a product created for one purpose may be just as useful (or in some cases even more so) in a decidedly different application. It also demonstrates how redirecting—or reframing—one’s perspective can breathe new life into something whose original design is a good fit beyond its intended use.      

And therein lies the approach we took for this month’s coverage of race suspension components, albeit with a twist: We wanted to know which shocks, springs, etc. that already WERE effective in their originally designed-for application had been successfully repurposed for another.

Turns out nearly every top manufacturer we contacted for input had at least one example of such a product.

For the team at QA1, it was the Proma Star Double Adjustable Coilover, which was initially engineered for drag racing but, thanks to its exceptional versatility, has proven more than capable in today’s growing UTV market. “That adjustability allows you to adapt, whether that’s to the conditions of an event or to the configuration of the car itself,” noted Dave Kass.

Another supplier told us about bypass shocks that were originally designed for hardcore off-road racers, but whose adaptability and exceptional heat management capabilities had proven beneficial in Late Models and modifieds; still another explained how their aluminum bushings—developed to replace factory rubber bushings on the front lower control arms of road racers and autocrossers—have gained favor in the drag race community. “By limiting front end lift,” noted George Hsieh of Whiteline, “it also limits weight transfer to the rear at launch, allowing the front tires to get better traction when the vehicle is launched hard, and that results in better ETs.”

The history of innovation in racing is filled with stories like these, and I encourage you to read our report, “Shocking Versatility,” which begins on page 76, for a comprehensive look at how one segment of the racing market has leveraged this concept to develop creative solutions and fill a specific need… even if it wasn’t the original intent. Think Bubble Wrap, only better.

Motorsports legend Gil de Ferran and entrepreneur Alejandro Agag have launched a new electric off-road racing series set to take place in five unique and remote locations across the globe.
 
Extreme E will showcase electric SUVs competing in extreme environments, highlighting the series’ vehicles, star drivers and advanced technologies, as well as the challenges faced by each ecosystem.
 
Set to begin in January 2021, five events will be staged in locations that are under threat from climate change and other challenges, including the Arctic, the Himalayas, Sahara desert, the Amazon rainforest, and islands in the Indian Ocean. By demonstrating the performance of electric cars racing in these harsh terrains and conditions, Extreme E hopes to raise global awareness of the specific issues each environment faces, such as melting ice caps, deforestation, desertification, retreating mountain glaciers, plastic pollution and rising sea
levels.
 
Extreme E will be presented as a “docu-sport” TV series, produced by filmmaker and new Artistic Director of Extreme E Fisher Stevens.
 
The series is committed to reducing its carbon emissions, alongside ongoing legacy initiatives at each destination to help protect already damaged ecosystems impacted by climate change, officials said. Acclaimed British explorer and environmentalist David de Rothschild will be Chief Explorer of Extreme E, where he will lead the mission to take electric racing to some of the world’s remotest locations.
 
All equipment will travel by sea, on board the near 7000-ton former Royal Mail Ship—the St. Helena—which previously delivered supplies to the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. RMS St. Helena will act as a “floating paddock” for Extreme E, and will be modernized and improved using renewable energy technologies as part of an extensive renovation project.
 
“This is a hugely exciting project,” said de Ferran. “Extreme E offers a unique sport, adventure and entertainment concept that has never been seen or done before. Viewers can expect a completely new way of consuming sport, with each episode telling not just the story of a race, but the wider race of awareness and the need to protect these remote and challenging environments being explored by Extreme E.”
 
Operated in association with Formula E, organizers of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, Extreme E will use a traditional round-robin format with two groups of six teams—with the top four progressing to the knockout stage, and each driver going head-to-head to earn a place in the final. The off-road stages will be around 6–10 km in length, with a series of virtual gates to be navigated through by drivers in a mixture of extreme heat and humidity, high altitude and subzero temperatures.
 
Extreme E is a fully-funded venture and has already secured the backing of Continental Tires as a founding partner and official tire supplier, officials said, adding that CBMM is also supporting the series as niobium supplier—facilitating the integration of technologically-advanced niobium products in the chassis of the all-electric SUVs.

For more information, visit the Extreme E website.

Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving announced its lineup of driving and racing courses for 2019, which includes professional instruction in high performance driving and racing, as well as driving programs specifically tailored for teens, women, first responders and the military.

Each program is based on the Bondurant Method of Driving and taught by world-class instructors who are trained to the highest levels.

“Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving is open for business and going flat out,” Bondurant Chief Restructuring Officer Tim Shaffer said. “Not only has the School conducted ‘business as usual’ for the past several months, we also hosted the Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200K Scholarship Shootout in December. During the School’s restructuring, we’ve honored all of our past registrations and continue to accept new students for all of our 2019 driver safety and racing courses. The School appreciates our fans and loyal students, both current and returning, who have been patient with us during our restructuring phase, and we look forward to a robust 2019.”

The School’s 2019 course schedule can be found at Bondurant.com and by calling 1-800-842-RACE. 

For more information, visit the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving website.

Charles Raymond Evans III has become the new owner of Monarch Motor Speedway, which was formerly Red River Speedway, in Wichita Falls, Texas.

The high-banked, three-eighths-mile red clay oval has been sitting dormant since July of 2017, but Evans has made plans to bring life back to the speedway this season with multiple events.

“Owning a premier motorsports venue like Monarch Motor Speedway has always been a dream of mine,” Evans said. “My love of the sport started at a very early age and has grown with me. I want to build a facility that Texas can be proud of and shows the dedication my company has to the future of racing everywhere and the people that make the sport so amazing.

“I believe in the power of racing to bring communities together and see the potential here in Wichita Falls,” Evans added. “I look forward to being part of this community from now on and want to thank everyone for welcoming us the way they have.”

The track schedule is comprised of six race weekends between the first of March and the end of August, highlighted by a Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series national tour event on May 31.

Additional highlights of the schedule include an Ultimate Deep South Super Late Model Series tripleheader, July 4-6, and a Lucas Oil Elite Non-Wing Sprints doubleheader in April.

(Image courtesy of Monarch Speedway).