The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) has announced both the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge 2018 schedules.

Twelve world-class road racing facilities and events highlight the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule, which kicks off January 6–8 during The Roar Before The Rolex 24 at Daytona Beach, Florida.

In 2018, the WeatherTech Championship will feature three classes of competition. The Prototype (P) class includes Daytona Prototype international (DPi) and LM P2 race cars battling head-to-head for class and overall race honors, the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class features factory-backed GT race cars in what is widely considered the best GT racing in the world, and the GT Daytona (GTD) class includes GT3 race cars from world-renowned manufacturers prepared by top professional race teams with highly competitive Pro-Am driver lineups.

Incidentally, the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge enters an exciting new phase in 2018, with the complete adoption of GT4 technical regulations for the headlining Grand Sport (GS) class and the introduction of the new TCR (Touring Car) class alongside the continuation of the ultra-competitive Street Tuner (ST) class.

All three classes will compete in a 10-race Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge schedule that also kicks off January 6–8 during The Roar Before The Rolex 24 at Daytona Beach, Florida.

Visit here for the complete 2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule and visit here for the complete 2018 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge schedule.

As Speed Week celebrates its 68th anniversary, the racing community is exploring ways to help restore the Bonneville Salt Flats to its former glory.

Three organizations are in discussions with Intrepid Potash-Wendover, Inc., a potash mine operator, on ways to increase the amount of salt brine being pumped onto the historic site. 

The goal is to create a ten-year pilot program to pump at least 1.2 million tons of salt a year, more than double the current amount being pumped.

The expanded lay-down will build upon a 1997-2002 program which averaged 1.2 million tons yearly and increased the salt surface and underground aquifer that supports it.

Bonneville’s premier racing venue is actually the densely-packed salt remnants of an ancient lake bed formed over thousands of years,” said Doug Evans, Chairman of the Save the Salt Coalition. “The salt crust has been shrinking and thinning for decades due to both human and environmental factors. We welcome this team effort approach to helping return Bonneville to its former glory.”
 
The racers are represented by three organizations. The “Save the Salt Foundation” is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to restore the Bonneville Salt Flats. The “Save the Salt Coalition” is an umbrella group comprised of automotive and motorsports companies and organizations with a vested interest in this national treasure, while the “Utah Alliance” is a volunteer Utah-based advocacy group using its expertise and contacts at the local level.
 
Details about the ten-year pilot program are being refined and will be released in the coming months. The parties are working with the US Congress to develop appropriations legislation necessary to implement the plan.
 
For more information, visit www.savethesalt.org.

Chevrolet unveiled its 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series car Thursday at its corporate headquarters in Detroit, introducing a Camaro ZL1 that will debut during 2018 Daytona Speedweeks.

The Camaro ZL1 will replace the current Chevrolet SS model used in NASCAR's top series, and it joins the Camaro SS in a NASCAR national series. The Camaro SS has been Chevrolet's car in the NASCAR XFINITY Series since 2013.

The Chevrolet SS has scored 70 Monster Energy Series wins to date and contributed to Chevrolet earning 39 NASCAR manufacturer titles — including 13 consecutive titles from 2003-2015.

Chevrolet engineers used a variety of tools, including computational fluid dynamics analysis and reduced-scale and full-scale wind-tunnel testing, to optimize aerodynamic performance while maintaining the ZL1’s design character.

According to Chevrolet, the ZL1 name was originally bestowed in the 1960s on a Chevrolet-developed all-aluminum racing engine that became a dominant force in road racing. In 1969, a few enterprising dealers used Chevrolet’s special-order system to get the ZL1 engine installed in 69 regular-production Camaros. The cars became instant legends on the street and dragstrip.

More than 40 years later, Chevrolet reintroduced the ZL1 to offer track-capable performance straight off the showroom floor. The 2018 Camaro ZL1 is powered by a 650-horsepower supercharged engine featuring a similar 90-degree V-8 configuration as the Cup racing engines.

For more information, visit the NASCAR website.

Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) President Ron Drager and Ilmor Engineering President Paul Ray confirmed that the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will continue to utilize the ARCA Ilmor 396 engine package through 2023.

The ARCA Ilmor 396 has, over the course of 53 races since its debut at Daytona Int’l Speedway in February 2015, produced 34 different winners including 21 first-time winners. The consistency in quality of the inventory of over 100 engines currently in ARCA race shops is evidenced by the fact that 39 different engines have gone to victory lane.

The ARCA Ilmor 396 delivers over 700 horsepower, 500 foot-pounds of torque and is built to run 1500 miles between rebuilds. The engine package features a Holley EFI fueling system and is supported by a team of Ilmor technicians who attend each race event to provide technical assistance.

Teams purchase and own the ARCA Ilmor 396 engine, which features a conditional 500-mile warranty. The same ARCA Ilmor 396 can be utilized at short tracks, superspeedways, road courses, intermediate and dirt tracks. ARCA Racing Series teams continue to have the option of utilizing the ARCA Ilmor 396 or the “Legacy” engine rules package.

Skip Barber Racing School has received US Bankruptcy Court approval in New York to sell all their assets and intellectual property to Liquid Asset Partners.

The school is one of the largest racing institutions in the world with a 40+ year history providing racing instruction, defensive and high-performance driving classes, amateur and professional racing championships, and corporate entertainment experiences. Their list of alumni includes top racers, business professionals, and world famous actors.
 
While most of the physical assets will be sold in a three-month liquidation sale starting August 29, the iconic brand is available for outright purchase offers or potentially for licensing to regional race schools or tracks that want to grow their race programs.

Liquid Asset Partners utilizes a unique approach to Intellectual Property and values the enormous brand recognition of the Skip Barber Racing School. Other schools and race tracks with instructional programs could add quality and demand to their race programs from the Skip Barber Racing School association.
 
A three-month liquidation sale will be held in Braselton, GA starting August 29. The sale will include hundreds of race cars and high-performance engines, transmissions, and components for Barber formula race cars, Mazda Miata, Porsche 911, Mustang GT, semi-trailers, trucks, fleet equipment, race equipment, memorabilia, and historical vehicles.
 
Press contacts or interested parties should contact Liquid Asset Partners at 616/719-5917 to discuss.

Berlin Raceway’s Hall of Fame will soon be adding three new members.

The Class of 2017, featuring Fred Campbell, Ross Eppink and the late Bill McGowan, will be honored Saturday during the track’s races. The induction ceremony will be held in conjunction with Berlin’s annual season-ending awards banquet on Nov. 3 at the Trillium Event Center in Spring Lake.

The list of inductees has been detailed by the track below.

Fred Campbell
No driver in Berlin’s 67-year history has won more track championships than Campbell, who captured a total of ten in all. Each of Campbell’s titles came in the Late Model division, earning his first in 1979 and his last in 2002. Campbell, of Battle Creek, won four consecutive crowns from 1979-through-1982, before adding titles in 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 2001 and 2002.

One of Campbell's most memorable Berlin victories came on May 22, 1989. Campbell beat out some of the Midwest's top drivers when he captured the ARTGO 200.

Ross Eppink
Ross Eppink began his career at Berlin in 1975 after he took his wife’s 1967 Camaro and turned it into a race car. He slapped the No. 186—his squad number with the Marne fire department—on it. It was the start of a more than 30-year career, which saw Eppink race a wide variety of cars, including Late Models, Super Stocks, Sportsman, Thunder Cars, Hobby Stocks and 4-Cylinder. He eventually retired in 2009.

He also has built chassis for a number of drivers, including Dave Lake, Mike Bursley, Bruce Chase and his son, Billy Eppink.

Bill McGowan
McGowan, who passed away in 2011, enjoyed a racing career that spanned 44 years as a mechanic, car owner and crew chief. Some of his biggest successes came at Berlin when he teamed up with Berlin Hall of Fame driver Bruce VanderLaan in the 1980s. VanderLaan, with McGowan as crew chief, won Late Model titles in 1985 and 1986 before tying Fred Campbell for the 1988 championship. He earlier owned a 6-Cylinder that Gene Eding drove to the track championship in 1974.

Mazda Motorsports announced open registration for the 2017 Global Mazda MX-5 Cup Challenge featuring a $110,000 prize pool, with $75,000 going to the overall winner.

The two-race, total points event will be hosted at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on October 12-15. Registration is now open at MazdaMotorsports.com to all race car drivers around the world, excluding Mazda Motorsports’ factory drivers.
 
Previously known as the Global Mazda MX-5 Cup Invitational, this high-stakes challenge met success in its inaugural race last year, with 19 racers from the US, Japan, Australia, the U.K., Sweden, Poland, Germany and Switzerland competing.
 
“Mazda MX-5 racing is known to be intense, from grassroots to professional levels,” David Cook, business development manager of Mazda Motorsports said. “The Battery Tender Global Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires is our signature spec sports car series within the US. It is our intention to make the Global MX-5 Cup Challenge the pinnacle of spec sports car racing in the world.

“Last year, our focus was to get this event off the ground and to showcase our brand-new car to racers and media beyond the US. Now, it’s about showing everyone what the top racers in the world can do in our Global MX-5 Cup car."
 
Racers will need to have an INDYCAR license to compete, as it is the sanctioning body of MX-5 Cup. The first place winner is awarded $75,000, second place receives $25,000 and third place receives $10,000.

Format:
·  Two 45-minute races with points awarded.
·  Races will be run to the same sporting and technical regulations as regular season MX-5 Cup races.
 
Eligibility requirements:
·  Interested racers must apply for, and receive approval for, an INDYCAR-issued MX-5 Cup license to compete. All Mazda teams are eligible to enter.
·  Complete details are posted at www.MazdaMotorsports.com.

The 2018 Atlantic Championship Series run by Formula Race Promotions (FRP) intends to expand its entrant base to include Pro Mazda entries. The Pro Mazda class will run for their own championship and in their own class, while sharing FRP’s trademark abundance of track time with the Atlantic cars.

In addition, Hoosier Racing Tire is working closely with FRP to develop a spec Pro Mazda tire.

FRP intends to run a 14-race, seven-weekend Atlantic calendar in 2018, similar to previous seasons.

A trial Pro Mazda program was run at Mid-Ohio in July, with two entries successfully sharing the track with the Atlantic cars as Series officials closely monitored how it would affect competition.

“After a thorough review of adding Pro Mazda into the Atlantic field, including observing two guest entries at Mid-Ohio, we are confident that it will seamlessly integrate into our operation,” a statement from the series read. “The Atlantic cars will still be the class of the field, with the Pro Mazdas running their own competitive pace at the same time.

“There are quite a few cars out there not being utilized, sitting in prep shops or garages. Our message to their owners is to come and sample an FRP weekend. We offer three hours of track time and two races per event.”

Long-time Series partner Hoosier Racing Tire intends to conduct a tire test in the near future with the goal of developing a stable spec tire for Pro Mazda entries.

The next event for the Atlantic Championship Series is August 25–27 at Summit Point track.

Mansfield Motor Speedway will play host to one of the world’s biggest dirt track races next year, when the inaugural Sprint Car World Championship comes to the Mansfield, Ohio dirt track.

The April 27-28, 2018 event will pay $100,000 to the 410 winged sprint car event race winner. The weekend will have preliminary features on Friday, April 27, which will help set the table for Saturday’s event. Also, a non-qualifiers race will be hosted for teams not making the Sprint Car World Championship main event on Saturday, April 28.

“We are excited to take on phase two of Mansfield Motor Speedway’s #BACKTODIRT movement and continue making Mansfield Motor Speedway a ‘Motorsports Destination’ as we have always said was important to us and was the overall goal,” MMS President Cody Sommer said.

Although the championship is eight months away, this weekend’s races (Aug. 11–12) at MMS will have an effect on the Sprint Car World Championships. The top three finishers at this weekend’s Great Lakes Dirt Nationals main event at MMS will be locked into the Sprint Car World Championship next April with provisional starting spots.

This season, Mansfield Motor Speedway has spent a lot of time establishing itself, developing different areas and processes along the way and has shown major improvement every time the gates open. It has seen large crowds, great racing and a diverse group of competitors and fans.

For more on this story, visit the Mansfield Motor Speedway website.

SPEEDVEGAS, the $30 million supercar driving experience located near the Las Vegas Strip, announced the addition of new executives and staff, detailed below.

Johnny McMahon, chief operating officer, joined SPEEDVEGAS after years spent in executive roles with The Light Group, overseeing all operations of the company’s nightclubs at Bellagio and The Mirage. Prior to joining SPEEDVEGAS, he served as director of operations for Topgolf Las Vegas. In his role at SPEEDVEGAS, he oversees all aspects of the track and its operations.

Gina Mann, vice president, groups and events, is a native Las Vegan who brings nearly four decades of experience in the hospitality marketing industry to SPEEDVEGAS. With a bachelor of science degree in Hotel Administration from UNLV, Mann has worked as an event planner and destination marketer.

Matt Denning, general manager, served in the US Marine Corps and has spent a large portion of his life working on cars. He spent two decades hauling exotic cars around the country on a tractor trailer and is part of the SPEEDVEGAS executive team.

Rosine Frangie, director of partnerships, brings to SPEEDVEGAS a diverse background in fields related to hospitality marketing and event planning, public affairs and non-profit organizations. Frangie worked at MGM Resorts International and Wynn Las Vegas, where she focused on planning, coordinating and marketing public and private events. She has also served as a congressional liaison for Nevada Congresswoman Shelley Berkley and, most recently, as director of major gifts for the ACLU of Nevada.

Greg Schroeder, director of digital marketing, has a long career history in the hospitality and sports attraction industries, having most recently overseen marketing for Walters Golf in Las Vegas. Serving in diverse roles—from operations director to general manager to owner—Schroeder knows firsthand what it takes to make a destination such as SPEEDVEGAS prosper.

Cristi Santana, leisure sales manager, served as executive meeting sales manager at Bellagio Resort & Casino, a role she was given after initially working as special events coordinator for that property. At SPEEDVEGAS, she thrives on applying her skills in relationship building, creativity, poise and problem solving to her role in driving customers to the experience.