Legendary American race car driver, team owner and car builder Dan Gurney passed away on Sunday, January 14, due to complications from pneumonia. He was 86.

Gurney was one of the most versatile racers in motorsports history, being one of only three drivers to win races in Indy car, Formula 1, NASCAR Cup and elite sports car competition (along with Mario Andretti and Juan Pablo Montoya).

During the 1960s, Gurney enjoyed considerable success overseas, including winning four Formula One World Championship Grand Prix events and sharing the winning car in the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours with A.J. Foyt, plus the 1960 Nurburgring 1000-kilometers with Stirling Moss.

But he also won at home, claiming seven United States Auto Club-sanctioned National Championship events in the late 1960s; five out of the six grueling 500-mile NASCAR stock races held over the Riverside, California, road course between 1963 and 1968; numerous events in the SCCA Can-Am and Trans-Am series; and even the first professional road racing series ever conducted in the United States, the inaugural USAC Road Racing championship in 1958.

Gurney also drove in nine consecutive Indianapolis 500-Mile Races between 1962 and 1970—finishing second, second and third in the final three - and was the winning manufacturer three times.

The following statement was distributed by the Gurney family: “With one last smile on his handsome face, Dan drove off into the unknown just before noon today, January 14, 2018. In deepest sorrow, with gratitude in our hearts for the love and joy you have given us during your time on this earth, we say ‘Godspeed.’”

“When we talk about legendary American drivers, owners and car constructors on an international stage, Dan Gurney is one of the all-time greats. His skill in all three areas helped him make an indelible mark and serve as a huge influence in this sport. Dan was a giant in the racing world, in every sense,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway President J. Douglas Boles said.

Gurney was also a member of the Road Racing Drivers Club (RRDC) since 1960.

“[Gurney] was an international star, yet a humble celebrity," said RRDC President Bobby Rahal. "His devotion to his family was evident in the support he provided his sons to follow in his footsteps, on the race track and in the boardroom. With his wife Evi by his side, Dan could conquer the world. He conquered our hearts. We offer our sincerest condolences to Evi and the entire Gurney family.”

Officials from the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) and FOX Sports have announced a three-year broadcast rights agreement that calls for a minimum of eight ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards events to be televised on FOX Sports in each of the next three years 2018–2020.

FS1 will drop the green flag on ARCA's 66th season of competition at Daytona International Speedway with live coverage of the 55th Lucas Oil 200 Driven by General Tire February 10, 2018.

"With more than two decades of working together under our belts, it's great to be able to secure another multi-year deal with the team at ARCA," said Josh Oakley, FOX Sports Executive Director of Acquisitions & League Operations. "We look forward to getting the new deal started as part of FOX Sports' comprehensive coverage of Daytona Speedweeks in February."

The 2014 season marked ARCA's first full year on FOX Sports. NewsCorp, the parent company of FOX Broadcasting Company, rebranded SPEED in September, 2013. ARCA's relationship with the FOX Sports family of networks reaches back to April 20, 1997, when Speedvision covered the ARCA Racing Series race at Salem Speedway. Cumulatively, Speedvision, Speed Channel, SPEED and FS1 and FS2 have telecast 248 races encompassing 21 consecutive years of covering the ARCA Racing Series.

"ARCA has a well-established history of investing in long-term relationships, and that certainly holds true in the case of our television network partnership," said ARCA President Ron Drager. "The FOX Sports agreement is a cornerstone of our overall broadcast strategy, as it has been for more than 20 years. This is a major, mutual commitment between FOX and ARCA to showcase our product to millions of viewers annually in the highest quality live television production format. Our viewers, sponsors, race teams and tracks directly benefit, and it further stabilizes the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards platform for the near term future."

According to Nielsen Media Research, FS1 is currently available in 84.5 million homes, while FS2 is rapidly growing and now available in more than 52 million U.S. households.

The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards features 20 events at 18 tracks on its 2018 schedule. The series has crowned an ARCA national champion each year since its inaugural season in 1953, and has toured over 200 racetracks in 28 states since its inception. The series tests the abilities of drivers and race teams over the most diverse schedule of stock car racing events in the world, annually visiting tracks ranging from 0.4 mile to 2.66 miles in length, on both paved and dirt surfaces as well as left- and right-turn road courses.

The Trans Am Race Company has announced the appointment of Dorsey Schroeder as Chief Steward of the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli for the upcoming 2018 season. 

The appointment marks a reunion between the two parties; Schroeder campaigned in Trans Am from 1989 to 1999, capturing 17 victories and 52 top-five finishes across 81 starts and still stands seventh all-time in TA class victories. Included in that tally is Schroeder’s 1989 season, a dominant six-win performance that saw him named Series champion. 

“The timing is finally right to return to Trans Am,” said Schroeder. “There have been discussions over the years about getting involved with Trans Am, and it’s finally come together. It’s exciting to return to Trans Am—the Series is doing a great job bringing in new talent to the sport while maintaining its heritage. Trans Am has always been important to me, and my championship is probably what I’m still best known for.”

Aside from his Trans Am experience, Schroeder competed in IROC, IMSA, ARCA, SCCA, and Grand-Am as well as NASCAR Cup and Trucks. Schroeder joins Trans Am after a stint as Race Director for Pirelli World Challenge, a position he held from late 2015 to the conclusion of the 2017 season. 

“We’re thrilled to have secured Dorsey’s talents as Chief Steward,” said John Clagett, President of The Trans Am Race Company. “Dorsey brings with him experience from nearly every layer of motorsport, as a competitor, analyst, and, most recently, as a race director. I’m confident Dorsey’s unique mix of experience and talent will help us continue to grow our platform and when paired with Terry Dale, our returning Operating Steward, gives Trans Am a truly outstanding race control.”

Schroeder will assume leadership of a race control previously led by Wally Dallenbach, Jr., who departed Trans Am following the close of the 2017 season due to time conflicts. In addition to his Trans Am duties, Schroeder will also continue in his role as Competition Director with Historic Sportscar Racing. Schroeder had the following to offer to Trans Am competitors heading into the 2018 season:

“I would like all to understand I was a race car driver first, not a steward and I see things through a driver’s eyes,” said Schroeder. “My goal is to always be as fair as possible to all competitors and be as consistent as humanly possible. I always want to make real time decisions; and if I give a penalty, I want the driver to have the opportunity to remedy it—if they can drive back to the front, great. In addition, throughout my 45-plus years in motorsport, I’ve been with chief stewards who talk down to their drivers—that’s not me. This is not race control versus drivers; we’re all one team in my eyes, team Trans Am, and we’re going to make it the best it can be. I look forward to working with all of them.”

The 2018 Trans Am Championship presented by Pirelli will commence Sunday, March 4 at Sebring International Raceway. 

As eSports grows across the globe, the gaming evolution continues at Richmond Raceway, as a new initiative for 2018 will offer multiple tiers of online engagement featuring NASCAR Heat 2 on XBOX One and Playstation 4.

Richmond Raceway eSports will launch with a two-day tournament at the Season Launch Spectacular on January 26-27 at the Richmond Raceway Complex’s Old Dominion Building.

Richmond Raceway eSports will run the course of the 2018 NASCAR schedule with a virtual season from February 11 to November 18. The Richmond Raceway eSports season will feature a pair of weekly, 40-player online races, including a #28 Richmond Raceway Toyota Camry to be driven each week by a special VIP guest gamer.

Entrants will have the opportunity to be randomly selected as a weekly competitor in one of the track’s 2018 Richmond Raceway eSports races by joining the conversation on Twitter and sharing their stories of playing NASCAR Heat 2 with the hashtag #RichmondeSports.

Gamers can connect to Richmond Raceway eSports using the gamertags Richmond1946 on XBOX One and RichmondRaceway on Playstation 4.

To learn more about Richmond Raceway eSports, visit richmondraceway.com/esports.

Madison Heights, Michigan-based performance aftermarket distributor Motovicity Distribution recently announced the launch of an all-new half-mile top-speed airstrip battle in 2018.

The event, dubbed Never Lift, will take place at the New Coalinga (Calif.) Municipal Airport on April 28–29.

In collaboration with half-mile specialists Shift-S3ctor, Never Lift seeks to engage all aspects of the grassroots racing community, including manufacturers, dealers, shops, racers, enthusiasts and the media. The runway in Coalinga will host some of the country’s fastest import and domestic side-by-side top speed racing, featuring multiple classes and cash prizes.

Indeed, within years of selling to import and modern muscle shops, Motovicity has identified that the growing half-mile airport events remain popular with its customer base, noted Marketing Manager Curtis Schabath, adding, “Motovicity’s place in the market allows us to understand and align the interests of the parties involved in these types of events. With Never Lift, we simply created an event around this passion, and what our partners and customers value and enjoy about the aftermarket.”   

For the latest Never Lift developments, visit www.neverlifthalfmile.com.

VP Racing Fuels, Inc., announced the appointment of Tiffany Boone as Business Development Representative to support its growing retail consumer products team.

“With the increasing number of retail opportunities requiring additional resources to meet the demand, we’re fortunate to be able to bring someone with Tiffany’s varied experience on board,” President of VP Racing Fuels Alan Cerwick said.

Born and raised in the “Gateway to the West," Boone received a Business Administration Degree with an emphasis in Finance from University of Missouri – St. Louis.

Most recently Boone spent several years as National Sales Manager for a plastic manufacturing company in the St. Louis area. She was responsible for the daily operations of sales, customer service, shipping and project management, as well as an active participant in the company’s leadership team developing long-term strategic plans and implementing new policies and procedures within the departments she managed.

“I love helping retailers with new lines that cater to the fast-paced evolution of consumer wants and needs. I enjoy the rich history of competition VP has in racing and cannot wait to be a part of a team that helps business owners and users have a competitive advantage with VP’s retail product lines in other industries,” said Boone said.

Boone is based in St. Louis, Missouri, and will be responsible for VP’s Consumer Products Midwestern U.S. sales region.

Kevin Thomas Jr. has been named the Driver of the Year for the first time by the North American Non-Winged Sprint Car Poll voting panel of media members, promoters, sanctioning officials and manufacturers.

The 2017 Indiana Sprint Week champion and Perris (Calif.) Oval Nationals winner earned seven first-place ballots cast in the year-end poll.

Those drivers ranked second through fifth, respectively, are USAC National Sprint Car champion Chris Windom (four first-place votes), Justin Grant (one first-place vote), Tyler Courtney and USAC/California Racing Ass’n champion Damion Gardner.

Rounding out the top 10 are C.J. Leary, Chase Stockon, Thomas Meseraull, Brody Roa and Robert Ballou and R.J. Johnson.

Sam McGhee, owner of the Sam McGhee Motorsports No. 11, earned the 2017 non-winged sprint car Team of the Year award.

Tyler Courtney will receive the Wild Card Award for his exciting non-winged sprint car performances in 2017, while Logan Seavey will receive the 2017 non-winged sprint car rookie-of-the-year award.

Pat Sullivan, of Sprint Car & Midget Magazine, will receive the North American Non-Winged Sprint Car Poll Media Member of the Year honors for the third time in his career.

Jim O’Connor of Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway will each receive the Promoter of the Year Award for the fifth time, while USAC’s Levi Jones received that award for the first time.

Jeff Swindell of Swindell Bleeders will receive the Builder/Manufacturer of the Year honors for the first time.

The North American Non-Winged Sprint Car Poll is an annual awards program of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum Foundation, Inc., of Knoxville, Iowa. All awards will be distributed in 2018 at tracks and other locations throughout North America. The awards were announced at the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

American-Canadian Tour (ACT) and ARbodies have announced a new contingency agreement for the ACT Late Model Tour and Série ACT. ARbodies, neé Aluminum Racing Products, will become an official contingency sponsor of the ACT in an agreement that runs through the 2020 racing season.

As part of the contingency deal, ARbodies merchandise certificates will be awarded to the eligible race winner and 10th-place finisher at each ACT Late Model Tour and Série ACT event. If said finishers are not eligible for the awards, the merchandise certificates will be awarded to the next eligible competitor.

In addition, an ARbodies complete “A” body package will be raffled off to one eligible driver in each series at their season-ending Banquet of Champions. Winners can elect to receive a discount on a complete “M” body package in lieu of the "A" body.

“We’re excited to enter into this new relationship with ARbodies,” ACT co-owner Cris Michaud said. “The company has a great history of products and of working with the ABC Late Model body template, and we look forward to partnering with them going forward.”

ARbodies has been a manufacturer of race car bodies for more than 30 years. Based in Tennessee, the company produces a full line of bodies and components for asphalt and dirt short track cars throughout the United States.

Formula 1 (F1) officials have released updates to its sporting regulations for the 2018 season. Although few in number, F1 officials called the updates “major in significance.” Following are summaries of the key points.

Three Engines Per Season
In a bid to make F1 power units even more reliable—and further reduce costs—this season each driver must make do with just three engines for the 21-race campaign. That compares with four engines last year (when, incidentally, the calendar featured one less Grand Prix).

The exact impact this has remains to be seen, though treading the fine line between performance and durability will certainly be tougher than ever: go too conservative and you’ll fall off the pace; go too aggressive and you risk costly failures and grid penalties—though those too have been changed for 2018 (see below).

Simpler Grid Penalties
One less engine per driver could mean more grid penalties in 2018. However, there will be far less confusion for fans over how those penalties impact the starting order.

Under the previous system, drivers changing multiple power unit elements could rack up multiple grid drops, often in excess of the number of cars at the event.

Now, any driver who earns a grid penalty of 15 places or more will have to start from the back of the grid. If more than one driver receives such a penalty they will be arranged at the back of the grid in the order in which they changed elements.


Wider Range Of Tire Compounds
As in 2017, official F1 tire suppliers Pirelli will make three dry-weather compounds available to teams at each Grand Prix. However, for 2018, those three will be selected from a broader range of compounds, which now includes the new, pink-marked hypersoft at one end of the spectrum and the orange-marked superhard at the other.

It means in total there will be seven, rather than the previous five, slick tire compounds, all of which are a step softer than in 2017, making them the fastest tires in Formula 1 history, says F1. Reports based on initial data suggest they could immediately mean cars going a second per lap quicker, says F1.

Also new for 2018 is the ice blue color of the hard compound Pirelli tires. The 2018 range in full is hypersoft (pink), ultrasoft (purple), supersoft (red), soft (yellow), medium (white), hard (blue), superhard (orange).

Xtrac, a manufacturer of high-performance transmissions for the motorsports and automotive industries, has announced that Joe Greenwell will be appointed non-executive chairman beginning July 1, 2018.

Greenwell will take over the role from Peter Digby, who becomes company president. Xtrac’s chief executive, Adrian Moore will continue to head up the executive team responsible for day-to-day operations.

Greenwell has most recently served as chief executive of the UK government’s Automotive Investment Organization established in 2013 and is now part of the Department for International Trade. He is also chair of the RAC Foundation and has served as a board member of the UK government-backed High Value Manufacturing catapult since 2012.

Working alongside Digby, the chairman will focus on Xtrac investing in new equipment and additional staff to increase capacity and improve efficiency. This will further strengthen the core motorsports business, with an additional focus on transferring applicable technologies to the wider high-performance automotive sector, according to the company. This latest significant investment follows a buyout of Xtrac by Inflexion Private Equity announced in September 2017.