Memphis International Raceway (MIR) welcomed Terry Forsythe to the team as they begin planning for the 2017 racing season. Forsythe will take on the Event Manager role for MIR January 2017. Forsythe has a long history in racing.

Forsythe, born and raised in Jackson, Tennessee started his racing career working at Jackson Dragway at the age of nine. His first job was handing out time slips at the end of each run. Forsythe started racing at the age of 12, and has raced at MIR for over 20 years. He has held the title of Memphis Super Pro Track Champion along with being a multi-time winner in the $10K to win Big Bucks Races at Memphis. Forsythe is married to Carol and they bring with them two sweet dogs named Gabbi and Lizzie as they join the Memphis family.

"Even though Terry doesn't officially start with us until January, he will still take on a major role in our planning for the 2017 season. I look forward to working with him and having him as a member of our team," said Dominic Blasco, MIR's director of operations.

Forsythe has worked with Glidewell Trailers selling racing trailers, motorhomes and toterhomes and most recently worked as Track Manager for Holly Springs Motorsports Park, spending the last seven years at Holly Springs and assisting with the rebuild from a tornado’s damage.

"I am very excited about my next chapter in racing as the Event Manager and all of the opportunities Memphis has to offer. I take a lot of pride in the racing surface of the race track and I will always make it the best that it can possibly be," said Forsythe. "When deciding to join Memphis and looking at the schedule planned for 2017, I look forward to working the many different events as there are a lot of exciting things on the calendar. This is a great opportunity to continue my racing career and I look forward to seeing all the racers and fans come out to join us."

MIR just wrapped up a successful 2016 season and is already in the planning stages for the 2017 season. Schedule announcements will be forthcoming.
 

NASCAR announced the 2017 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series calendar, with six top European circuits hosting the excitement of NASCAR racing at some of Europe’s most prestigious and historic tracks.

The schedule will take the series to six countries, with 12 rounds of racing for its ELITE Division 1 and ELITE Division 2. Each event will be highlighted by four NASCAR Whelen Euro Series races: Two for the ELITE 1 Division and two for the ELITE 2 Division.

New this year will be races at the legendary Hockenheimring in Germany and the Autodromo di Franciacorta in Italy. The series will also return to Valencia in Spain, Brands Hatch in England and Venray in Netherlands, before crowning the 2017 champion at Zolder in Belgium.

Built on the foundations of a very successful 2016 season that attracted thousands of fans every weekend, the ninth season of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series already promises to be the best in the history thanks to long-term partnerships with world class venues. With one of the most attractive and cost-effective formulas in motorsports, the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series looks forward to 2017 to further consolidate its position among the best series in Europe.

“We are very proud of this calendar and honored to work with such amazing circuits and organizations,” said Jerome Galpin, president of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. “We will visit some of the greatest facilities in Motorsports and offer the fans one of the best racing experiences they can find in Europe, filled with pure racing in a fun American atmosphere. It’s also a tremendous value for every team, driver and their sponsors; no series in Europe can offer them a better and more cost-effective form of racing than NASCAR.”

“The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series has seen amazing growth and the fans have really embraced the series,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president. “We are excited about bringing the series to Hockenheimring and Franciacorta, and very pleased to continue our long-term relationships with four classic venues: Valencia, Brands Hatch, Venray and Zolder. Together, we are looking forward to unprecedented excitement in our European series and continuing the series’ progress.”

For the third consecutive year the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season opener will be held in Spain at Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo. The track will host the third edition of the Valencia NASCAR Fest on April 8-9.

The series will then head to Brands Hatch on June 10-11 for another marquee event reaching its fifth edition and attracting a larger crowd every year: the American Speedfest. Legendary Hockenheimring will make its debut in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series with a dedicated American-themed event on July 1-2 for the delight of the large German NASCAR fanbase, while Raceway Venray, the “fastest half-mile in Europe,” will close the regular season in spectacular fashion with four nail-biting oval races on July 15-16 in the context of the Autospeedway American Style event.

On September 16-17 the playoffs—awarding double points for each race—will begin at the Autodromo di Franciacorta. Located in the north of Italy near the Garda lake, the 2.519-km road course will host Euro NASCAR for the first time. After another huge success in 2016, Belgium will host the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Finals for the third consecutive year at Circuit Zolder and crown the 2017 European NASCAR Champion.

Anthony Kumpen, the 2016 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series ELITE 1 Division champion, and other top drivers in the series will be honored in the United States next month. They will be on stage at the NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Series Awards on Saturday, Dec. 10 at the Charlotte Convention Center/NASCAR Hall of Fame in North Carolina. The awards will be broadcast live on FansChoice.tv and simulcast on NASCARHomeTracks.com, in English, Spanish and French.

Precision Turbo & Engine has announced it has joined forces with the Napier and Turbonetics turbocharger team.

Turbonetics is a supplier of turbochargers, regulators and related products to many of the world's industrial power-generation companies. Additionally, Napier has a 200-year history, earning a reputation for engineering and manufacturing excellence, producing everything from printing presses and franking machines to cars, aero engines and some of the world's finest industrial turbochargers.

These factors all contributed to Precision's decision to join the Napier/Turbonetics team and enhance its reputation as an automotive aftermarket leader, and maximize customer satisfaction. The goal is provide higher quality products with premium customer service.

"This unity is phenomenal," said Harry Hruska of Precision Turbo and Engine. "Not only is Precision Turbo gaining resources by working alongside Napier and Turbonetics, but the knowledge and experience that is being mutually combined will enable all companies to expand in existing and new markets, and with the global presence of both companies, you can expect new opportunities to be created for Precision Turbo products."

The addition of Precision Turbo and Engine is a strategic complement to the Turbonetics and Napier Turbocharger business. Together, they can leverage their strong engineering and take their technical capabilities to an entirely new level of excellence, from which both customers and suppliers alike can benefit.

Precision Turbo and Engine General Manager Roger Conley will continue to run the day-to-day operations at Precision Turbo and Engine, as he has done for the past two years. Hruska, Vice President of Business Development, will also continue to remain highly involved with and largely support the business and its future endeavors.

Sammy Johns has joined Richard Childress Racing as operations director. He will report directly to Dr. Eric Warren, RCR’s director of competition.

Johns parted ways with Richard Petty Motorsports in August. He had been director of operations since Gillett Evernham merged with the RPM in 2010.

The Lakeland, Florida, native started his career at local short tracks. His early foray into NASCAR was as a mechanic and chassis builder before becoming a crew chief for David Green in 1997.

Two years later, Johns moved to Andy Petree Racing with Ken Schrader. In 2001, Johns was hired by Ray Evernham as director of competition to work with the new Dodge program. He was also crew chief for Casey Atwood (2001-2003) and Bill Elliott for five races in 2004 before the company was purchased by George Gillett in 2007.  

In 2009, Johns was the crew chief for AJ Allmendinger for the first 22 races and finished out the season with Reed Sorenson. He returned to the box for one race with Aric Almirola in 2013 at Talladega where the No. 43 Ford won the pole for the race.

RCR currently campaigns three full-time Cup programs in house with Paul Menard, Ryan Newman and Austin Dillon and has technical alliances with JTGDaugherty Racing and Germain Racing. RCR is expected to run five Xfinity teams next season.  

Recent efforts by Kooks Headers and Exhaust to export performance products to new markets have gained national attention.

The company has been awarded the prestigious Export Achievement Certificate from the United States Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, in recognition of recent accomplishments in opening and expanding its aftermarket exhaust market in the Middle East.

“The Export Achievement Certificate is a U.S. Department of Commerce award designed to showcase the important role that exporting plays in our national economy, to highlight the contributions made by exporters—especially small- and medium-sized enterprises—to their local communities, and to recognize new exporters,” said Eduard Roytberg, Senior International Trade Specialist – Global Automotive Team for the U.S. Commercial Service.

Kooks was recommended for the award by the Specialty Equipment Market Association, and company officials accepted the certificate from Andres Castrillon, Automotive Team Leader, International Trade Administration, during the 2016 SEMA Show.

“By increasing the prominence and visibility of exporters in their communities and through industry events like the SEMA Show, this award encourages new exporters to continue exporting and strengthens partnerships,” Roytberg noted. “Kooks was specifically recognized for its aggressive efforts in entering and expanding markets in the Middle East—partially as a result of the assistance provided through the U.S. Department of Commerce and SEMA partnership, and namely through programs like the annual SEMA Middle East Business Development Conference.”

Kooks Headers and Exhaust has been exporting to the Middle East for more than 10 years.  However, with the recent help of international sales manager Jack Tese, the company has increased their distribution to the area significantly. The Kooks team has also spent time traveling to the area to train and work with their customers and the results are clearly being seen.

“The Middle East is one of our favorite demographics,” Kooks Headers and Exhaust Director of Sales and Marketing Chris Clark said. “Never have I seen a customer base that is so entrenched in making their vehicles faster and pushing them to the limits. Our customers and dealers there give us the best trial for our products and we are grateful for the friendships that have brought them into the Kooks family. We look forward to going back every year.”

This year’s Annual Congress of the International Council of Motorsport Sciences (ICMS), once again co-locating with the PRI Trade Show in Indianapolis, Indiana, includes a robust curriculum, as well as a speaker list that reads like a who’s who of scientific, medical and educational experts in motorsports safety.

As in year’s past, ICMS will present its Annual Congress to inform the international motorsports community, different scientific and medical disciplines, sanctioning body personnel, automobile designers and constructors, race team managers and drivers, and industry corporations interested in improving safety and performance for the motorsport participant and highway motorist.

The conference curriculum is delivered in educational modules including medicine and physiology, applied science, logistics and administration, and motorsports safety and will be presented by the most experienced and knowledgeable practitioners from around the globe.

The complete curriculum and lineup for this year’s ICMS Annual Congress can be found here.

There is a fee to attend this two-day conference, which takes place Wednesday, December 7 and Thursday, December 8, 2016, in Rooms 206 & 207 of the Indiana Convention Center. For more information or to register, visit www.icmsmotorsportsafety.org.

The lineup for the 2017 season for the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network is continuing to take shape, and among the nights that have already been confirmed is the National Tour’s return to Colorado and the addition of two new facilities to the ASCS lineup, as Joe Bellm with BST Promotions will bring the series back to Colorado on Memorial Day Weekend.

Starting off on Saturday, May 27 the series will debut at El Paso County Raceway in Calhan, Colorado, with Phillips County Raceway in Holyoke, Colorado, following on Sunday, May 28.

Last visiting the “Centennial State” in 1998, Oklahoma’s Daryn Pittman found Victory Lane at the Rocky Mountain National Speedway in Denver.

“We have the facilities now to host events like the Outlaws last year, and now the ASCS next year and El Paso County Raceway is by far the nicest facilities in the state,” commented event promoter Joe Bellm. “We’ve lengthened the track as well as widened it over the past three years so it’s ready to go. Phillips County was actually downsized from a half-mile to a three-eighths and it can hold about 4,000 people and with all the upgrades there, these are the best facilities in the state so that’s where we’re going.”

Bellm has also helped build events around Colorado to where tracks and classes rarely run on top of each other, in order to give everyone a fair shake at racing and watching. The Colorado Alliance Tour encompasses four tracks, with Lamar Speedway and I-76 Speedway filling the other two spots.

The 2017 season is the 26th year of competition for the Lucas Oil ASCS presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network. The preliminary lineup for the 2017 season will be released on December 9, during the 2016 PRI Trade Show in Indianapolis.

For continued updates on the Lucas Oil ASCS or any of the regions that make up the ASCS Nation, visit www.ascsracing.com.

WC Vision, producers of the Pirelli World Challenge, recently unveiled its class programs in alignment with the earlier-announced 2017 Pirelli World Challenge schedule for North America’s biggest GT Production-based road racing campaign.

WC Vision announced the 2017 Pirelli World Challenge dates and locations last month.

This year, the PWC series featured over 22 auto manufacturers and 38 separate models in its seven racing divisions—GT, GTA, GT Cup, GTS, Touring Car, TCA, TCB—and its 27th year produced one of the world’s most competitive GT production racing series.

The newly created SprintX division saw some of the most exciting racing in 2016 sports car competition with last-lap passes for victories by Michael Lewis at Utah Motorsports Campus and Kyle Marcelli at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. In the SprintX inaugural season, Michael Mills of Houston, Tex., won the GT SprintX Sportsman point championship.

In 2017, the GT/GTA/GT Cup classes will feature five traditional Sprint weekends (50-minute single driver events) and five SprintX doubleheader contests (60-minute, two-driver events). The GT Cup will have four sprint weekends in 2017.

The GT/GTA/GT Cup champions will be determined in three separate point categories with Sprint and SprintX Champions. Drivers, teams and manufacturers competing in all 19 GT/GTA and 18 GT Cup races will be named the Overall Pirelli World Challenge champions.

With the 60-minute, two-driver format, the 2017 SprintX series has been expanded to the five PWC Headliner weekends set for VIRginia International Raceway (VIR) April 28-30, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) May 19-21, Lime Rock Park May 26-27, Utah Motorsports Campus August 11-13 and Circuit of the Americas (COTA) Sept. 1-3.

Pirelli World Challenge’s sprint format for the GT/GTA/GT Cup events will include the five weekends with the Verizon IndyCar Series at the streets of St. Petersburg (March 10-12) and Long Beach (April 7-9, no GT Cup race), Road America (June 23-25), Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (July 28-30) and Sonoma Raceway (Sept. 13-15). All except Long Beach (GT single race) will be doubleheader weekends.

Four of the five GT/GTA/GT Cup sprint weekends will be same-day television coverage on the CBS Sports Network. A complete 2017 Pirelli World Challenge CBS Sports Network schedule will be announced in the near future.

In GTS/GT4, all 18 races (9 weekends) will be Sprint format with 50-minute, single-driver contests. GTS/GT4 also will be allowed to compete in SprintX in 2017. The Touring Car classes—TC, TCA and TCB—will continue their traditional sprint races (40-minute, single-driver) at six PWC weekends (12 races).

“Building on the highly-competitive battles across all classes in 2016 and, with the expansion of the SprintX format to five racing weekends, we believe our drivers, teams and fans will enjoy our most exciting season ever in 2017,” said Greg Gill, WC Vision President and CEO.

According to Marcus Haselgrove, WC Vision Vice-President of Competition, PWC expanding the GT3 base has allowed for more competitors in 2017 and Haselgrove believes more teams and manufacturers will expand the fields in the upcoming years. Look for expansion in the GT Cup division with additional manufacturers.

“GT3 customers now have increased opportunities to run for a single-driver or a two-driver championship or compete in all events for an overall title,” said Haselgrove. “This exciting expansion is in response to our customer feedback with the new GT production-based equipment entering our series.”

The Pirelli World Challenge season finale for the Touring Car categories is again set for Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Oct. 13-15 with a the SRO Motorsports Group Intercontinental GT Challenge eight-hour endurance event along with a complete Touring Car (TC,TCA and TCB) doubleheader weekend. The PWC season finale for GT/GTA/GT Cup and GTS divisions will take place at Sonoma Raceway in September.

Berlin Raceway's 2017 season will open with the April 22 Icebreaker and conclude with The Chet Championship Weekend Aug. 25-26.

In between, the traveling NASCAR K&N Series will pay the Marne, Michigan, half-mile its first visit on July 1, and a new Mini Wedge division for youngsters aged 6 to 14 is scheduled to compete 12 times throughout the spring and summer.

Berlin officials have released its tentative schedule for next season, and general manager Nick Mesman said the track's 67th year will offer a nice mix of popular, traditional events along with a new wrinkle or two.

Berlin became a NASCAR sanctioned track a year ago, and Mesman said track officials expect to continue that relationship with the sanctioning body in 2017. It was that relationship that helped opens the pit gate to a new marque event.

Mesman said Berlin is hoping the Mini Wedge division will help groom future West Michigan stars and introduce a new generation of racers. The cars, which feature mini Outlaw Late Model bodies with 6.5 hp engines, will race on a track that will utilize portions of Berlin's frontstretch. The track is already taking shape, and a wall is being built along the inside of the frontstretch.

The annual Battle at Berlin Super Late Model race will run in conjunction with The Chet; and the Jegs All-Star Tour has a date at Berlin on July 15.

ARCA will not be back, however: Mesman said that Berlin and the ARCA sanctioning body have mutually parted ways.

For the full 2017 schedule, click here.

Happy Thanksgiving from PRI!