Universal Technical Institute (UTI) has inked a partnership with Mitsubishi Materials U.S.A. Corporation, one of the leaders in manufacturing and materials innovation. With the new partnership, Mitsubishi Materials will provide tools and products for students enrolled in UTI's new Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Machining Technology program.

Developed in partnership with Roush Yates Engines, the new course will be offered at UTI's NASCAR Tech campus in Mooresville, North Carolina. The machining and CNC training will give students the skills to start careers as entry-level CNC technicians. These highly skilled technicians are in demand and use sophisticated computer programming to make high-precision parts for multiple industries, including motorsports, aviation, advanced and medical manufacturing. 

The official launch of the CNC Machining Technology program will be celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, July 26, at the NASCAR Tech campus. Classes begin Monday, August 14.

"We are thrilled to welcome Mitsubishi Materials to the UTI and NASCAR Tech team," said John Dodson, VP of Business Alliances & NASCAR for UTI. "Having Mitsubishi Materials as an industry partner and preferred vendor will give our students access to some of the most innovative tools and technologies in the world, and our graduates will have a leg up to pursue careers in the sought-after field of CNC machining."

Premier Performance Products Distribution, a wholesale distributor of aftermarket automotive parts primarily serving the diesel and off-road segments, announced the addition of Bob Barra as vice president of sales and marketing.

In this role, Barra will be responsible for overseeing all sales and marketing efforts for Premier’s more than 300 product lines.

“Premier’s long term commitment to ensuring the best possible customer experience was attractive to me in becoming a part of the Premier team. I am confident in our ability to help our partners grow our mutual business,” said Barra.

Barra brings 20 years of sales, operations and management experience in the recreational business from both the RV and marine markets. Most recently, Barra served as vice president of sales at KING, a manufacturer of satellite antennas and dishes for recreational vehicles.

Before moving to KING, he spent 10 years at Stag Parkway, where he rose from regional sales manager to senior vice president of sales while overseeing significant sales growth and operational reorganizations. Prior to working with Stag Parkway, Barra held positions as national sales director at Bernina of America, and regional sales manager at Outboard Marine Corp.

Premier says Barra’s addition will help steer the company during a period of exciting growth, while continuing to emphasize its customer-first focus, according to a press release from the company.

Marx Group, a full-service marketing communications agency for the automotive, aftermarket and trucking industries, has relocated and expanded its Detroit-area office to meet the needs of a growing client base and account team.

The Detroit-based team relocated from Birmingham, Michigan, to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, to a new 2800-square-foot office, located at 43700 Woodward Ave., Suite 106. This doubles the previous office space in Birmingham.

Marx Group – founded in 1984 by chairman and chief strategy officer, Tom Marx – is headquartered in San Rafael, California, and established its first Metro Detroit office in December 2016, when Frank Buscemi joined the firm as president, CEO and creative director and the alliance with Near Perfect Media was established.

“Since establishing the Metro Detroit location in December of last year, we’ve added several clients with a significant local or automotive-industry presence and we very quickly ran out of space,” said Buscemi. “This new location gives us the space we need to operate right now, allows for future growth opportunities, and puts us in a location that’s geographically central to many of our Detroit-area clients. Combined with our San Francisco Bay Area location, it increases our ability to support the rapidly growing link between Detroit and Silicon Valley.”

Marx Group provides integrated marketing services, including brand strategy and development, public relations, advertising, social media, research, graphic and web design, among others.

Mike Chastain, Race Director of the Lucas Oil Drag Boat Racing Series, has announced that the series will eliminate three races from this year's schedule.

"To ensure the continuing viability of the Lucas Oil Drag Boat series the decision has been made to shorten the 2017 race schedule by three events," Chastain said. "We apologize for the late notice but the economies obtained by the cuts will help us move forward to construct a more robust race series in 2018."
 
The most recent event taken off the schedule is the Augusta Southern Nationals, set for July 21—23 in Augusta, Georgia.

The next event that was removed from the schedule was the Lucas Oil Fall Shootout, which was set for September 30—October 1 in San Angelo, Texas.

Finally, the last event removed from the schedule is the Lucas Oil Thunder on the River event, which was set for October 13–15 in Parker, Arizona.

Future announcements will follow as the restructuring process evolves, according to the series. The remainder of the 2017 schedule is below.
 
August 11-13
Marble Falls, TX; Marble Falls Lakefest 2017
 
September 1-3
Wheatland, MO; 7th Annual Diamond of the Drag Boats Nationals
 
November 3-5
Phoenix, AZ; Lucas Oil Drag Boat Finals

The IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge has seen a resurgence in the Grand Sport class car count this year, led by the introduction of GT4-spec race cars.

The cars, built to Stephane Ratel Organization GT4 technical specifications used in a variety of championships throughout the world, are competing in GS this season against production-conversion cars, which have been grandfathered into the class this season. Next year, the GS class will use GT4 cars exclusively.

The Continental Tire Challenge has already seen a number of new GS cars break through for their first victory this year. The new Ford Mustang won in its second appearance in March’s race at Sebring International Raceway in the hands of Scott Maxwell and Jade Buford. The McLaren GT4 earned its first win in May at Circuit of The Americas courtesy of co-drivers Matt Plumb and Paul Holton with C360R.

Last Saturday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, the new Chevrolet Camaro GT4.R, which made its series debut at Circuit of The Americas, claimed its first GS win with Stevenson Motorsports and co-drivers Robin Liddell and Matt Bell.

The new BMW M4 GT4 race car was unveiled to North America during the event weekend at Watkins Glen International earlier this month. Based on BMW’s history in the GS class, it would come as no surprise for this car, which will begin racing at Daytona International Speedway at the beginning of the 2018 season, to experience the same type of success as the other new cars.

BMW has quite a winning history in the Continental Tire Challenge with 72 victories, trailing only Porsche with 92 wins in the series. And while BMW has competed the last several years in the Street Tuner class, it hasn’t been in the GS class since the M3 was retired from competition at the end of 2015.

“We were hoping that we could return to that class, and the adoption by IMSA of SRO GT4 specs for the GS class opened that door for us again,” said BMW of North America Motorsport Manager Victor Leleu. “It was unrealistic for us to develop a car specifically for local rules, whether in America or anywhere else, and being able to rely on a global set of rules like GT4 is a great opportunity for us.

“To us, the M4 GT4 will allow us to return to the GS class, the top class of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, and we’re just excited to be back there, be able to make a big return to the series and continue this long tradition in the future.”

Leleu knows he and his colleagues at BMW will have their hands full next season competing against the GT4 cars already racing in the Continental Tire Challenge, let alone any others that may join before the green flag drops in 2018.

“I can’t comment on what other manufacturers do, but it seems they’ve seen the same opportunities we have through GT4 and this notion of global specs that you can run, basically, worldwide,” he said. “We’ve seen it in GT3 before, so many manufacturers are now present in it, and so are we, but to the point that maybe that market’s a little saturated now. There seems to be an interest for something a little under, a little less costly, for sure.”

With at least seven or eight manufacturers building GT4 cars, one might wonder if there are enough customers to go around. That doesn’t seem like a problem for BMW.

“I’m proud to report that we’ve had a ton of interest from the word, ‘Go,’” Leleu said. “Ever since BMW Motorsport first communicated about the car towards the end of last year, we’ve had a lot of people knock on our door.

“We’re only getting a small allocation of cars here in the U.S., so once we’re really ready to start selling the cars here, we’ll see who’s really interested,” he added. “But the level of interest, the number of requests that we’ve had, put simply, is far superior to how many cars we’ll have at the end of the day.”

Leleu expects the first M4 GT4s to be delivered to American teams in the fourth quarter of this year and be ready to go in time for the season-opening race at Daytona.

“The goal would be, obviously, to give the teams the chance to test and familiarize themselves with the car before they have to hit Daytona for the annual Roar, which comes super quickly after the holidays in December,” he said. “It will be late October, early November for the very first units.”

Schmidt Peterson Motorsports (SPM) announced an addition to its executive team in Jon Flack. The former Global COO and President, Americas of Just Marketing International (JMI) joins the Indianapolis-based team as the President of SPM.

Flack, an Indiana University graduate, has over 20 years of experience in motorsports marketing including brand strategy, research & measurement, planning, PR & digital, account management and event & experiential marketing. During his 15-year tenure at JMI, Flack oversaw day-to-day operations, annual and long-term planning as well as financial allocations across the business. He has worked with brands Crown Royal, UPS, Verizon, Subway Restaurants, Hisense, AMD, Qualcomm and many others. The Indiana resident has been involved with multiple motorsport series including Formula One, Formula E, NASCAR, IMSA, the Verizon IndyCar Series and NHRA.

As the President of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Flack will oversee the commercial side of the company which has grown considerably through partnerships with Lucas Oil, Arrow Electronics, Microsemi, Cypress Semiconductor and others in the technology sector.

“The addition of Jon to the SPM team is the next logical step in creating an organization capable of winning championships while being industry leaders in the off-track experience for our partners,” co-owner Sam Schmidt stated. “He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of all forms of motorsports which will be tremendously beneficial to our growth. We are excited to have him on board.”

Flack commented, “I’m extremely honored to be joining Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. I’ve watched with interest the past 16 years as SPM have built the organization one step at a time, and I’m thrilled to support the next chapter of the company’s growth and diversification. My Indiana roots run deep so the opportunity to combine my passion for IndyCar with my marketing expertise was simply too good to pass up.”

Flack will make his first trip with the team for this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto held just 20 minutes outside of the hometown of SPM driver and fan favorite James Hinchcliffe.

Brian Bender, president and CEO of S.B. International, Inc. (SBI), a global supplier of cylinder head components, has announced his retirement after 34 years with the company. Bender, one of SBI’s original employees, will assist in the transition to the new president and will remain as a consulting member of the SBI Board of Directors.

As Bender’s successor, the company’s board of directors has appointed Tom DeBlasis as president. DeBlasis most recently served as vice president of sales for SBI, and will apply his 41 years of sales and management experience in the automotive aftermarket to continuing the growth of SBI, expanding the presence of the SBI and K-Line brands globally, managing daily operations, and directing product, sales, marketing, and distribution strategies.

SBI, based in Nashville, Tennessee, offers complete valve train and cylinder head component coverage for the automotive, heavy-duty truck, performance, marine, agricultural, earth-moving, and industrial engine markets worldwide. For more information, visit www.sbintl.com.

BMW will join the FIA Formula E Championship as a manufacturer for the 2018-19 season. Andretti Autosport will serve as BMW’s works entry in the series and help promote the manufacturer's hybrid and electric technology.
 
“We are excited to expand our partnership with BMW i and serve as BMW’s official Formula E works team beginning in season five,” said Michael Andretti, CEO of Andretti Autosport and its global family of race teams. “The ongoing collaboration between BMW and Andretti Formula E has provided a strong foundation for BMW’s entry as an official manufacturer. We look forward to running BMW’s first all-electric racing drivetrain and competing for the Formula E Championship.
 
"BMW is leading the automotive future with the BMW i line and their innovation in electric car technology. I couldn’t pick a more prestigious or historic manufacturer to work with in Formula E.”
 
According to BMW, the Formula E project is already providing valuable impetus in the development of BMW iNEXT and the next generation of advanced BMW i models with electric drive.

The 2018-19 season—season five in the history of Formula E—will be the first season in the series where drivers will be limited to one car for the race. Currently, drivers change cars at the halfway point of the race.

Turn 14 Distribution, the 2016 SEMA Warehouse Distributor of the Year, has announced its expansion into an all-new, larger warehouse designed from the ground up to its own specifications.

The 234,000 sqft facility, located at 3035 Campus Drive, Hatfield, Pennsylvania, opened for business on December 23, 2016.

“The new location deploys the latest in material handling and logistics technology combined with proprietary software solutions developed in-house. These innovations allow us to achieve a capacity of more than 28,000 packages per day with 99-percent accuracy, allowing our partners to continue their rapid expansion unconstrained,” Turn 14 Distribution’s CEO Jon Pulli said.

The technology expansion incorporates small and large five-sided scan tunnels with high-speed scales to capture exact dimensions and weights for all inbound products. The new technology will help the company reach its goal of 99.99-percent shipment accuracy.

In related news, Turn 14 Distribution has also added Stainless Works’ range of aftermarket headers and exhausts to its line card.

In addition to designing a wide range of aftermarket headers and exhausts, Stainless Works manufactures every system on-site in the US.

Stainless Works products will never rust like the "cheaper" 400 series stainless steel, according to Turn 14 Distribution.

IndyCar’s president of competition and operations Jay Frye says that an aeroscreen very similar to Formula 1’s proposed Shield arrangement could be tested as early as September, as reported by Motorsport.com.

Next weekend will see the Shield tested by the Ferrari F1 team during practice for the British Grand Prix, and Frye says a similar device could be trialed in one of the 2018 IndyCar’s sign-off tests.

Those tests, which will see Juan Pablo Montoya driving the Chevrolet-powered car and Oriol Servia piloting the Honda-engined machine, will take place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25-26, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Aug. 1, Iowa Speedway on Aug. 28 and Sebring International Raceway on Sept. 26.

Frye told Motorsport.com that if IndyCar does go the route of using a screen like Formula 1’s Shield, they will probably have it “slightly more vertical – less raked back.”

One of the problems in question of the Shield is ensuring the sightlines of the shield work for different tracks, like Texas' high-banked track.

Frye also said that IndyCar had been consulting with the armed forces to talk about the materials used in military applications such as the canopies of Lockheed-Martin F-16s, and also talking to NHRA teams. Don Schumacher Racing was the first NHRA squad to introduce fully enclosed cockpit ‘pods’ for its Top Fuel racers.

Regarding the potential for oil smears or stone-caused pitting in the screen, Frye is expecting the screens to carry tear-offs, like a helmet-visor or a stock-car windshield.