Martinsville Speedway President Clay Campbell added a new member to his team Monday while also promoting two others.

Harrison Hamlet joined the Martinsville Speedway staff as the Manager of Communications, while Blake Collins was promoted to Senior Manager of Business Development and Ashley Oakes was promoted to Senior Manager of Sales.

Hamlet joins the speedway staff from the Martinsville Bulletin, where he served as Sports Editor for four years. Collins was promoted from the Manager of Communications position and Oakes was promoted from the Manager of Group Sales position.

“I’m very excited to bring Harrison on board,” Campbell said. “He has a great knowledge of our sport, having grown up with a father who raced at many levels and I’ve been impressed with his writing talent, as I would read his articles every day.

“Blake and Ashley have also shown to be very valuable members of our team and I’ve always been a big believer of promoting from within. I’m looking forward to all three of them playing a big role in the future of Martinsville Speedway.”

All three will start their new positions immediately. Racing returns to Martinsville Speedway this fall with two race weekends.

On September 23, the Whelen All-American Series will be in action with one of NASCAR’s biggest, richest and most prestigious Late Model Stock Car race, the ValleyStar Credit Union 300. The race pays $25,000 to the winner and will be the first race under the track’s new LED lighting system.

On the weekend of October 27-29, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will both be in action for the Alpha Energy Solutions 200 and the Old Dominion 500. Both races are part of NASCAR’s Playoffs, where the winner could be the first to lock in a spot at the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by calling 877.RACE.TIX or online at www.martinsvillespeedway.com.

NASCAR has announced the addition of a fourth stage to the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The four stages of the 400-lap race will be set at 100 laps apiece.

The race is set to take place on May 28, 2017, starting at 6 p.m.

"The stage racing format is delivering more dramatic moments over an entire race, fueling tremendous racing action this season," said Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. "With a fourth stage added to the Coca-Cola 600, the historic event will have another layer of strategy for teams and even more excitement within the race for fans."

"For 58 years, the Coca-Cola 600 has been a crown jewel on the NASCAR circuit because it presents unique challenges that don't exist in any other race. The distance is greater. The test of endurance is greater. The challenge of adjusting to the track surface from hot to cool puts more pressure on crew chiefs and pit crews," said Marcus Smith, president and chief operating officer of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. "It's only fitting that teams have an opportunity to be rewarded for the extra effort required to win at the 600. An additional stage win and that extra playoff point in May could be critical for playoff success in the fall."

The Motorsport Safety Foundation (MSF) announced the new High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) instructor certification program, which is said to provide a level of safety and accountability that “the industry has been asking for.”

HPDE has never had a singular, industry-wide minimum standard, and needed an organization to help bring together best practices. For this reason, and in collaboration with a number of instructors, drivers and organizations from the industry, the Motorsport Safety Academy HPDE credential program was formed.

The Motorsport Safety Academy has set two targets and purposes:

    •    Individual High Performance Instructors: Establish and set national standards for the selection and training of high performance driving instructors.

    •    Organizations Running High Performance Driver Education Schools:
Establish and set minimum standards for the curriculum and operation of its training programs.

Both targets support MSF’s overall mission of defining standards for operations of HPDE schools and instructor training programs to provide a safer and better quality experience for performance driving students.

Certification consists of six levels, from an online training program (Level 1) to certification for remote instruction using data acquisition and video (Level 6).

After completion of Level 1’s online certification, candidates then must successfully complete a hands-on Certified Instructor Training Program conducted by a certified organization to gain a Level 2 certification, which allows the candidate to begin in-car instruction with students on track. From Level 3, a candidate can become certified for additional skills that pertain to HPDE instruction.

For costs and more information, including how to be “grandfathered” into the program, visit www.motorsport-safety.org/certified.

South Carolina residents, rejoice. Darlington Raceway recently announced a ticket opportunity for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 event on Sept. 3.

Beginning on Monday, May 15 through July 15, all residents of South Carolina can visit www.DarlingtonRaceway.com/PalmettoOffer to take advantage of in-state pricing for the Labor Day weekend race at the track "Too Tough To Tame."

South Carolina residents can save $25 off the purchase of two (2) adult tickets in select grandstand areas.

“Your Palmetto Home Track Offer” will launch in conjunction with a scheduled NASCAR XFINITY Series rookie test session, which will take place on Monday (May 15) through Thursday, May 18.

The test is free and open to the public on all four days, giving fans the opportunity to see NASCAR’s young and upcoming XFINITY Series stars race around the high banks of the "Lady in Black."

Five NASCAR XFINITY Series race teams are scheduled to participate in the test session, detailed below.

Darlington Raceway will open one section of the Colvin Grandstands, on the backstretch of the track, for fans to watch the test over the four-day period. Fans need to use the Gate 3 entrance to the track off of Highway 151. The parking lot is located next to the track’s administration building.

Fans can also get their picture taken with Darlington’s Chevy Impala pace car, which will be located next to the ticket office.

Drivers Currently Scheduled*

Monday-Tuesday – May 15-16
    ◦    Spencer Gallagher – GMS Racing
Wednesday-Thursday – May 17-18
    ◦    Cole Custer – Stewart-Haas Racing
    ◦    Tyler Reddick – Chip Ganassi Racing
    ◦    Daniel Hemric – Richard Childress Racing
    ◦    William Byron – JR Motorsports

*Times of the test and driver participation are subject to change by the race teams, weather permitting.

Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) announced Michael Cobb as the organization’s new President and Chief Executive Officer. An SCCA member with more than 25 years of diverse experience transforming brands, companies and cultures, Cobb will officially embrace his new role June 1.

The Dallas-area resident comes to the SCCA after serving as Chief Marketing Officer for Gold’s Gym, a recognized name in fitness.

Lee Hill, Chairman of SCCA’s 13-member Board of Directors, said Cobb emerged as an extremely strong candidate from the seven finalists considered for the position. After a 13-0 vote, Cobb was identified as the unanimous choice by Board members.

Cobb graduated with a bachelor’s degree in advertising from Sam Houston State University and went on to graduate from Omnicom's Global Senior Management Program and The STAGEN Integral Leadership Program. 

In his new position as SCCA President/CEO, Cobb is tasked with structuring, building, managing and leading effective staff and operational efforts. He will partner with the Board of Directors and staff to craft, update and forward the vision, mission and strategic goals of the organization. His role includes functioning as a leader, ambassador, spokesperson and representative, as well as becoming the “face of the SCCA.”

“At the highest level, this opportunity is about building relationships and stewardship,” Cobb said.  “Strengthening relationships based on trust across the BoD, regions, staff, membership and our valued partners will continue to be job one. And with regard to stewardship, it is about doing all we can, collectively, to ensure we build a solid foundation that sets the SCCA up for much more success across the next 70 years.”

Cobb also brings with him a love of motorsports. He grew up in admiration of his father, an autocrosser who won local SCCA events with regularity.

Cobb established his competition “career” at an early age by winning a Texas Soap Box Derby event and competed in the Nationals in Akron, Ohio. In 2007, he began participating in SCCA autocross with the Texas Region, claimed the Novice of the Year award in his first full season of competition, and competed in the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Nationals.

The Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania was recently awarded the annual Tourism Achievement Award presented by the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau.

The program honors Pocono Mountains hospitality and tourism industry employees, along with member properties, as local tourism heroes for strides in customer service and community involvement. The awards were distributed during the PMVB’s 23rd Annual Tourism Day held on Wednesday (May 10) at Skytop Lodge.

Pocono Raceway was the first sports facility to rely on solar power. The race track and its partners work hard to reduce the impact the races have on the environment, through source reduction, responsible waste management via composting and recycling programs, solar energy generation, charitable giving, food donations, even simply planting trees.

Pocono Raceway is committed to a goal of diverting 75 percent of all waste away from landfills by 2018, and zero landfill waste from its skybox facilities in future seasons. The race track believes that food donations are also a large part of reducing waste, and have donated almost 700 pounds of food in June of 2016 to various groups in the Stroudsburg Area.

Award recipients include: Kyle Kuczma of Cove Haven Entertainment Resorts, for the Outstanding Tourism Employee of the Year Award; Greg Huffman of Bushkill Group, Inc. for the Brand Hero Award; Pocono Raceway for the Green Award for a Large Business; and Keen Lake Camping & Cottage Resort for the Green Award for a Small Business.

The Subaru Rally Team USA has entered a technical partnership with high-performance brake rotor specialists Disc Brakes Australia for the team’s stage rally program in the 2017 American Rally Association Championship.

Disc Brakes Australia (DBA) will provide custom developed brake rotors to the team for use on the two Subaru WRX STI rally cars of team drivers David Higgins and Travis Pastrana.

"Disc Brakes Australia has always been popular in the Subaru community for building great brake rotors. But we really wanted to show the capabilities of our rotors in the most demanding motorsport we could think of,” stated Yoni Kellman, Sales and Marketing Manager DBA USA. “Stage Rally can make or break you, and we wanted to prove we had the mettle. Subaru Rally Team USA is the premier team in the sport, so it was only fitting that we teamed up with them to gain valuable feedback on how our rotors hold up at the top levels of motorsports to further improve our products.”

Subaru Rally Team USA (SRTUSA) is managed by Subaru technical partner Vermont SportsCar. Vermont SportsCar began working with DBA USA earlier this season to develop and test brake rotors for the team’s stage rally cars.

For more about DBA, visit www.dbausa.com.

Photo courtesy Peoria Speedway.

Peoria Speedway, a dirt track based in Peoria, Illinois, was hit hard by flooding last week but will reopen faster than expected.

On May 1, Peoria Speedway was fully underwater due to flooding in Peoria County. Track owner Jason Plummer had predicted the track wouldn’t be dry for weeks and asked the community for help with the cleanup.

Thanks to the efforts put forth by Plummer and the community, however, the track will see racing this weekend.

“After a flood that set Peoria Speedway back for a short time, it is time to return to racing. We are ready to go and will be racing this weekend. We would like to thank everyone who came to the track and helped get the place cleaned up and ready to race again,” a post from Peoria Speedway’s Facebook page stated.

The track features weekly racing on Saturday nights of Late Models, modifieds, steel block Late Models, street stocks and crate mods. For more information, visit www.peoriaspeedway.com.

For just the third time in history, some of the country’s best sprint car drivers, both winged and traditional non-wing, converge this coming Friday and Saturday night at Eldora Speedway.

The #LetsRaceTwo Doubleheader features the nation’s premier sprint car tours, the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series and United States Auto Club (USAC) Amsoil National Sprint Cars, on the same track on the same nights.

Both divisions will have a complete program each night highlighted by a 30-lap main event on both Friday, May 12 and Saturday, May 13.

The two series have long histories at the storied high-banked, half-mile clay oval. This weekend’s events will be the 162nd and 163rd World of Outlaw events at Eldora, while the USAC sprint cars have been competing at Eldora since 1960 and will be competing in their 194th and 195th feature events.

Only four drivers have scored both World of Outlaw and USAC Sprint Car wins at Eldora. Steve Kinser (35 World of Outlaws wins, two USAC wins), Jac Haudenschild (six World of Outlaws, five USAC), Danny Smith (one in each) and Brad Sweet (one in each) are the only drivers to have beaten the best of the best in the two sprint car disciplines.

Haudenschild and Sweet will be in the action this weekend but both are only expected to compete with the World of Outlaw Craftsman Sprint Car Series.

Spectator gates open at 2 p.m. both days with the first cars hitting the track at 6 p.m. for hot laps and qualifying.

Racing For Relief, a St. Henry-based organization which conducts the sale of tickets for the Tony Stewart Foundation 50/50 Raffle, will host their membership’s first kart race of the season on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. at “Little E” – Eldora’s 1/7th-mile clay oval.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit eldoraspeedway.ticketforce.com/.

Congratulations to Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, Vermont, on its 50th year of operation. The ¼-mile clay track that features weekly racing has been, remarkably, owned or operated by a member of the Elms family since its opening in 1967.

Charles V Elms Sr. was a member of the track’s first-ever operations team and later purchased the track in 1972. In 1990, he passed it down to his son, CV “Butch” Elms III, who owns the track today along with April May Preston.

Elms and Preston recently completed a number of track renovations including a new novelty area, new VIP Suites, a new scoring tower and a newly expanded parking lot to accommodate growing attendance. Weekly Saturday night racing kicked off with the season opener May 6.

Sanctioned by DIRTcar and United States Auto Club (USAC), the track features DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds, DIRTcar Sportsman Coupe, USAC DMA Midgets, Limited Late Models, Four Cylinders and its popular Coupe Modified division running open-wheel modifieds with 1930s-style bodies.  

“I think the Coupes make us unique,” Preston told DIRTcar. “They’ve been running since day one and they truly race—they roll them, they wreck them.”

So, what does it take to stay in business all these years? According to Preston, it’s a love for the track combined with a healthy dose of dedication.

“The fact that it’s been 50 years and it’s always been managed by one family is exciting. You can’t say that today about a lot of businesses,” Preston said. “If it weren’t for the love of the track and Butch’s dedication, we may not be celebrating 50 years.”

The track’s success can also be attributed to its affordable, family-friendly atmosphere. Races typically cost $10 for adults, $8 for students/seniors and $2 for kids under 12, unless otherwise noted. The Bear Ridge Kids Club also offers a season-long membership for children under 12 for only $5, which includes free entry to races, a free toy each race and special promotions, like a bike giveaway that takes place in the fall.

Here’s to another 50 years, Bear Ridge Speedway!