For the first time in nearly a decade, the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame will be inducting two new members at its annual event that benefits the Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter.

Helio Castroneves will become the 21st member inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame (HoF) when he is honored during a special ceremony held in The Speedway Club’s Grand Ballroom on Nov. 3 during the AAA Texas 500 NASCAR playoff tripleheader weekend. Castroneves joins retired NASCAR star Carl Edwards, who was announced as the 20th inductee last week.

The event will mark the first dual induction since the 2000 Cup champion and Corpus Christi native Bobby Labonte and Speedway Motorsports Inc. founder Bruton Smith were recognized in 2008. It also will be the sixth time overall.

NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs as well as drivers Kevin Harvick and Christopher Bell, who are each favorites to win championships in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series, respectively, also will be honored at the ceremony slated to begin at 11 a.m. CT.

The Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame luncheon serves as a major fundraiser for the Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter. Tickets are priced at $75 and include a gourmet Texas barbeque.

Castroneves is the most dominant IndyCar driver in Texas Motor Speedway history. He owns track records for most wins (four), top 10s (15), top fives (11) and laps led (506) throughout his record 20 career starts. He also recorded one pole position.

The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship calendar for 2019 has been released, featuring 15 events across the Australian continent.
 
Pre-season testing begins February 13–14, at Phillip Island and Queensland Raceway ahead of the season opener in Adelaide on February 28–March 3.

To ease travel plans on Queensland-based teams, the April event (Symmons Plains and Phillip Island double-header) will follow the Adelaide 500 and Australian Grand Prix.

Phillip Island is one of four Victorian events on the 2019 calendar, including Albert Park, Winton and Sandown. Victorian Minister for Tourism and Major Events John Eren told Supercars.com the changes are a win for the state.

"The Supercars package will help grow tourism in Phillip Island, the High Country and across greater Melbourne – solidifying our state's reputation as the motorsport capital," Eren said. “Phillip Island and Winton in Victoria’s High Country have so much to offer and now with the return of the Supercars in 2019, there’s even more reason to visit. The Victorian Government is a proud supporter of Supercars and I am delighted that these four events will be renewed for 2019."

The Supercars Commission will meet next week to finalize a two-day track format for Winton. The group will also discuss the Gold Coast event, and whether or not to shift formats to a single, 500km race.

And while Sydney Motorsports Park is not on the calendar, Supercars will return to the venue in 2020 as part of a shift towards a summer-focused schedule.

To view the complete 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship calendar, visit the Supercars website here.

The American Rally Association (ARA) has released its 2019 season schedule for its third continuous year of racing. The ARA will visit more locations than ever before with a seven-event National Championship Series featuring many of the greatest stage rallies in the country in 2019.

Under the ownership of PRI exhibitor United States Auto Club (USAC) and its vast resources, ARA is operated by rally competitors and promoters with a common goal of building the sport of stage rally in the USA.

Among an exciting lineup of both national and regional events, ARA welcomes the 100 Acre Wood Rally to be the opening round of the 2019 ARA National Championship Series. Known for fast roads and the famous cattle guard jump, the 100AW is a favorite event for both competitors and fans alike. Based in Potosi, Steelville, and Salem, MO, the rally is a staple of the region and will start on March 15, 2019.

“ARA is excited to open the 2019 championship with the 100 Acre Wood Rally,” said ARA President Doug Shepherd. “ARA has also focused on adding one-day events to its schedule so that the Regional competitors will have more choices and opportunities to participate. We feel our organization, being staffed with experienced competitors and officials, can assist event organizers in providing a superior event. We intend to grow the sport’s participation from the base while still enhancing the premier US National Rally Championship.”

In addition to the national championship, the ARA East and West division championships return with even more events on their calendars. Each national championship event will have two to three associated regional events, just as they were this year. In addition, five stand-alone regional events will be run throughout the year.

2019 ARA National Championship Series
100 Acre Wood Rally
March 15 – 16
 
Olympus Rally
April 27 – 28
 
Oregon Trail Rally
May 31 – June 2
 
Idaho Rally International
June 29 – 30
 
New England Forest Rally
July 19 – 20
 
Ojibwe Forests Rally
August 23 – 24
 
Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally
September 13 – 14
 
ARA Standalone Regional Events
Nemadji Trail Rally
December 1, 2018
 
Headwaters Rally
Late April/Early May, 2019
 
Tour de Forest Rally
September 28, 2019
 
Show Me Rally
October 5, 2019
 
Nemadji Trail Rally
December 7, 2019

National Performance Warehouse Companies (NPW) has announced that it will acquire Performance Warehouse in the Pacific Northwest, again expanding the company’s presence on the West Coast. The transaction is expected to close on October 15.

With the deal, NPW will add two warehouses, bringing the company’s total number of warehouses now to 19 across the U.S. and Canada. The acquisition includes the Hillsboro, Oregon, and Tacoma, Washington, warehouses and four stores – three in California and one in Idaho.

Performance Warehouse was founded in 1969 and markets performance, truck accessories and traditional parts. NPW says the company’s business model and products closely align with its own. Both companies are members of the Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance and AAM Marketing.

Performance Warehouse will continue to operate with JR Moore at the helm and industry veteran Mark Noble will oversee the two warehouse operations and the four stores, while Bonnie Delaney will join the NPW marketing team. The Baxter Stores will continue to operate with Ken Moore, Jim Moore and Kim Cham.

Hendrick Motorsports has named new crew chiefs for the organization’s Nos. 24 and 48 NASCAR Cup Series teams, effective at the conclusion of the 2018 racing season.

The assignments represent new roles for veterans Chad Knaus and Darian Grubb, along with the return to Hendrick Motorsports of Kevin Meendering. The responsibilities for 2019 include:
    •    Knaus will become crew chief for William Byron and the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team with its respective personnel. He currently leads the No. 48 team of Jimmie Johnson.
    •    Meendering will become crew chief for Johnson and the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team with its respective personnel. He is currently crew chief of NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff contender Elliott Sadler.
    •    Grubb will be promoted to technical director, an executive leadership role supporting Hendrick Motorsports’ engineering and vehicle development resources. He is currently crew chief of the No. 24 team with Byron.

"Chad and Jimmie will go down as one of the greatest combinations in sports history," Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said. "They defied the odds by performing at a championship level for longer than anyone could’ve possibly imagined. What they’ve accomplished together has been absolutely remarkable and will be celebrated for generations. This has been an incredible, storybook run."

Knaus will complete his 17th season as crew chief for Johnson and the No. 48 team, representing the longest-running crew chief-driver relationship in NASCAR. The pair has won a record-tying seven NASCAR Cup championships together and this season competed in the series playoffs for a record 15th time.

Knaus will return to the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team he originally joined 25 years ago. From 1993 to 1998, the Rockford, Illinois, native assumed a variety of duties under the direction of crew chief and mentor Ray Evernham. He oversaw body development and served as a tire changer for the No. 24 team, proving to be an integral part of driver Jeff Gordon’s 1995 and 1997 Cup titles.

Grubb will finish the season as crew chief for the No. 24 team with Byron, who leads the 2018 Cup Series rookie of the year standings. The Floyd, Virginia, native served in a variety of technical roles with Hendrick Motorsports from 2003-2008, including race engineer, engineering manager and crew chief.

After stints at Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing, where he won a Cup title as crew chief for Tony Stewart, Grubb returned to Hendrick Motorsports in January 2016 as vehicle production director. He was promoted to director of competition systems in August 2017 before being named crew chief of the No. 24 team. Grubb holds a mechanical engineering degree from Virginia Tech.

A group of race fans has banded together to try to purchase and save Badlands Motor Speedway, the dirt track located in Brandon, South Dakota that was listed for sale earlier this year.

The former Huset’s Speedway is owned by Chuck Brennan, who hosted an auction for the race facility on September 15. No buyer was secured on that date.

Huset’s Speedway Timeline Facebook page features a post detailing the different ways fans can help “save” the track through four different contribution options ranging from a share in the owner’s stock, free pit passes, season tickets, and a printed name in the program.

The group currently has $102,979 committed to the purchase as of late Wednesday afternoon, with numbers continuously growing.

For more information on contributing to the cause, visit here. The following statement was posted on the Facebook page:

We've had many race fans ask us to organize a stock share group to purchase Huset's Speedway. So, this post is a Hail Mary attempt to encourage fans to pull together and dig deep to save the track we all love. There are 4,000 race fans that like the Huset's Speedway Timeline page… and we will need every single one of you to carry the weight equally.

It's all up to the race fans. If we don't get 3,150 fans to commit to contributing then the deal is off for everyone. Right now we don't need anything from you other than a commitment.

Officials have announced an all-new, free-to-enter single-seater motor racing series for women drivers. The inaugural W Series aims to get women to the pinnacle of racing, Formula 1, and will have a prize fund of US$1.5 million.

The first W Series season opens in the spring of 2019 and will feature several races run on some of the most well-known circuits in Europe, most of which have staged Formula 1 races for many decades. The W Series also aspires to include races in America, Asia and Australia in the future, according to series officials.

The new series will provide identical cars for 18-20 drivers, all of which will have to pass a "rigorous pre-selection program/examination" including on-track testing, simulator appraisal, technical engineering tests, fitness trials and more. Successful applicants will then be given a thorough training program focusing on driving techniques, simulator exposure, technical engineering approaches, fitness, media skills and more.

A group of experts with decades of Formula 1 experience will assist the program: David Coulthard (multiple Grand Prix winner); Adrian Newey (one of the most successful Chief Design Engineers in modern Formula 1 history); Dave Ryan (40 years’ Formula 1 experience in team management with the McLaren and Manor Formula 1 teams, as well having run his own GT racing team Von Ryan); Matt Bishop (15 years’ experience as a journalist and editor in Formula 1, followed by 10 years’ experience heading up McLaren’s communications, content, media and PR operation in Formula 1).

The official announcement included the following statement:

At the heart of W Series’ DNA is the firm belief that women can compete equally with men in motorsport. However, an all-female series is essential in order to force greater female participation. W Series is therefore a mission-driven competition, the aim of which is not only to provide exciting racing for spectators and viewers on a global scale, but also to equip its drivers with the experience and expertise with which they may progress their careers, racing and honing their skills in W Series before eventually graduating to existing high-level mainstream racing series.

For updates to this story, visit the below links. 

All-Female W Series Names Over 50 Drivers Competing For A Spot In 2019
NBC To Broadcast W Series Across US
New Chief Commercial Officer For All-Female W Series

Everyone who works for a living belongs to some type of industry: Chefs are members of the restaurant/food service industry; farmers are members of the agricultural industry (sorry, it’s lunchtime); realtors are members of the housing industry; DIRECTV customer service representatives are members of the inconvenience industry; and so forth.

But unlike many others, a good 99.9% of racing industry members are here because we want to be. How do I know this, because it follows the same philosophy as snow skiing: Anyone who’s ever done it understands that when you’re sailing down a mountainside, you can’t go half-speed. The minute you let fear, or doubt, or hesitation creep in, you’re finished—a disaster waiting to happen. It’s the same idea in racing, where you’d better be all in all the time, or else…     

One of the best parts about working at PRI is getting to meet people who combine that unbridled passion for motorsports with the experience, knowledge and insight that allows them to do their jobs better than most. It may be a manufacturer whose intake designs are revolutionizing the category; or a suspension specialist who’s figured out the optimal setup for big block modifieds; or a master engine builder whose power plants are killing it in the eighth-mile.

There’s no shortage of expertise in this industry, and as the voice of the racing marketplace it’s our job to identify the experts and bring them to you, the reader. Or, in the case of our annual Trade Show (December 6–8 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis), the attendee. We’re facilitators of content—and our sources are among the best in the business.

Yes, the PRI Show is our once-a-year occasion to bring thousands of the latest parts, equipment and services together under one roof, to facilitate business, and to deliver cutting-edge subject matter live and in-person.

And this year, in addition to featuring aisles of the latest hardcore racing products, the Show offers more opportunities than ever to learn from and rub elbows with leaders in their respective fields. Take the inaugural All-Star Engine Builder Panel, which features the legendary Keith Dorton, Jon Kaase, Ed Pink and Sonny Leonard to help kick off the 2018 Advanced Engineering Technology Conference (AETC). It’s just one of many top-level pre-Show conferences, seminars and networking events slated for this year’s Race Industry Week.

Then, morning person or not, you certainly won’t want to miss our PRI-sponsored sessions from 8–9 a.m. on December 7–8, where you’ll gather invaluable intel on a host of topics for small- and mid-sized businesses: Alex Striler of Team Lucas leads an all-star panel of marketing directors and decision-makers on the keys to effective sponsorships; Google-supported trainer Erin Bemis explains how customers find your racing business online and how to enhance your web presence; Bill Bader Jr., Steve Beitler, Tommy Franklin and Bob Sargent discuss challenges and solutions for owners and operators of independent racing venues; and Lyn St. James facilitates a can’t-miss Q&A on opportunities for women in motorsports with Shea Holbrook, Katie Hargitt, Cara Adams and Dr. Karen Salvaggio.

And there’s more—lots more, in fact—which you can read about in our PRI Trade Show Preview article beginning on page 26. There, you’ll discover all that’s new for PRI 2018 including exhibitors, presenters, display areas, international offerings, and the full lineup of our acclaimed education program. And, if you still have questions, need assistance, or just haven’t registered to attend yet, don’t hesitate to call our offices at 949/499-5413, or visit us online at pri2018.com. We’re all in for PRI 2018! Are you?

BorgWarner celebrated the inauguration of its new production plant in the Caidian Economic Development Zone in Wuhan, China, with a grand opening ceremony.

Occupying nearly 28,000 square feet (floor area), the new facility integrates comprehensive functions including production, engineering, quality, sales, logistics, administration and finance.

The Wuhan-based building will produce drive motors, P2 motors, belt alternator starter systems, starters, alternators and related components as part of its efforts to support growing demand from the Chinese combustion, hybrid and electric vehicle market.

“Leveraging our leading technologies and system integration ability, we will continue to meet growing demand from Chinese electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) customers with our localized production and engineering capability,” BorgWarner PowerDrive Systems President and General Manager Dr. Stefan Demmerle said.

Local government officials, customers, suppliers and media representatives were invited to join BorgWarner’s management and employees to celebrate the official opening of the BorgWarner PowerDrive Systems Wuhan Plant, which included a ribbon cutting and tree planting ceremony.

Construction of the Wuhan plant began in 2016. Today, more than 300 employees currently work in the plant, with the workforce reportedly projected to double in five years.

Following the momentum of the Tire Rack SCCA Time Trials Nationals at NCM Motorsports Park, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) has announced a 2019 launch of the Tire Rack SCCA Time Trials National Tour. The series will be a coast-to-coast National Level Time Trials program with stops at 10 of America’s best and most challenging tracks.

Time Trials National events will not be a points series, but one-off events based on the Tire Rack Solo Championship Tour model, with collaboration between host Regions and National staff leading up to the 2019 Time Trial Nationals, which will be held once again at NCM Motorsports Park.

Events for the Tire Rack Time Trials National Tour are currently being planned at Pittsburgh International Race Complex, High Plains Raceway, Carolina Motorsports Park, Portland International Raceway, GingerMan Raceway, Heartland Motorsports Park, Thunderhill Raceway and Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.

Jon Krolewicz, the SCCA Time Trials program manager, sees this as a chance to take the energy and buzz from the NCM event on the road.

“We want to capture the positive social and competitive experiences shared by the participants of Time Trials Nationals and bring that same overall vibe to various tracks across the nation,” Krolewicz said. “By expanding across the country with the series and with the support of Tire Rack, we can bring a best of motorsports experience to a much larger audience while also providing SCCA Regions resources to help them grow their own Time Trials and Track Events.”

More information will be announced at a later date.