ECR Technologies (ECR), the high-performance research, development and engine production company located on the Richard Childress Racing (RCR) campus in Welcome, North Carolina, is now a wholly owned division of RCR Enterprises, LLC. With the strong brand equity that ECR has built in worldwide motorsports since 2007, the company will continue to use the name ECR Engines.

The state-of-the-art company has grown over the past nine years to provide engines for NASCAR teams such as RCR, Germain Racing, JTG Daugherty Racing, Circle Sport - Leavine Family Racing, and others in the Sprint Cup, XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series.

Beyond NASCAR, ECR also produces engines for the Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototypes competing in the 2016 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards, SCCA, dirt and asphalt short track, and sprint car racing.

ECR was formed in 2007 when Richard Childress Racing and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. combined their engine development and production efforts. The subsidiary of RCR Enterprises has earned more than 250 victories, including two Daytona 500s, three Brickyard 400 championships, and championships in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, Camping World Truck Series, and ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards.  ECR Engines won the 2014 and 2015 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with the Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype.

With a focus on leading-edge development and world-class engine production, ECR Engines enjoys technical partnerships with market leaders in innovation, including Chevrolet, WIX Filters, Lucas Oil, Zeiss, PTC, Cometic Gasket, Bosch, Clevite, ARP, Smith Brothers, Spring Technologies, Total Seal, and others.

Since 2009, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series protocol for policing race tires has been to send samples to a certified lab for a comprehensive report on each tested tire. To-date in 2016, the series has spent a tremendous amount of money to police tires, and vows to continue to provide fair and equitable opportunities for race teams to compete in any LOLMDS event.

After consulting with representatives of Hoosier Racing Tire, Florence Speedway, several drivers, and teams; the series will experiment with a new concept at the upcoming Sunoco Race Fuels North/South 100 - Presented by Lucas Oil.

The series will provide a new LM40 right rear tire, at no cost, to each team who transfers into the 100-lap North/South on Saturday night. Race teams will bring their wheel to a designated impound area where they will choose from fifty LM40 tires that are the same date code and 95” chalk mark. Those tires will have to be mounted—in the presence of an LOLMDS official, inflated—using the nitrogen provided, and then remain stored at the LOLMDS trailer, until the start of the North/South 100 main event.

The series will sound a 10-minute call at the start of the 20-lap, Modified feature—held prior to the North/South 100 main event. At the conclusion of the Modified feature, the starting grid will roll to the infield where they will then receive their right rear wheel/tire from impound. Each team will have an opportunity to make air pressure adjustments, however, no cutting, siping, or buffing will be permitted. Following a brief intermission for track prep, the grid will roll to the frontstretch for driver introductions.

Drivers will only be permitted to change their right rear tire in the event of a flat. In that event, the series will provide a mounted LM40 that is not cut, siped, or buffed.

“We’re very excited to try this concept, the response has been tremendous,” said Series Director, Rick Schwallie.

The tire rule for Thursday’s Ralph Latham Memorial, Friday’s preliminary events, and Saturday’s B-Mains will remain the same - with standard testing policies in place. The left rear and front tires will also be subject to lab testing during Saturday night’s 100-lap main event.

Tire Rule for Florence Speedway - August 11th-13th:

Left Rear/Fronts - Hoosier Rib 1350

Right Rear - Hoosier 03, LM40 (LOLMDS will supply all right rear LM40 tires for the North/South 100 main event, with this exception, right rear 03 tires are allowed at all other times.)

During a first-ever outdoor “State of the Sport” presentation for industry stakeholders, media and race fans at Road America—site of this weekend’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase—International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) leadership provided details on future platforms for three of its sanctioned series.

Enhancements to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge and what is now known as IMSA Mazda Prototype Lites presented by Cooper Tires will be rolled out beginning with the start of the 2017 racing series and continue through the next 2–3 seasons.

“Over the past several months, we have engaged with nearly all of our stakeholders and competitors to gather their input and discuss the most appropriate way to modernize our various platforms,” said IMSA CEO Ed Bennett. “At the same time, we have analyzed trends in the global motorsports landscape to arrive at what we believe is the most logical strategy. While it’s impossible to make decisions that will satisfy the interests and needs of everyone, we feel confident that our plans for the future are sound and position our platforms for continued growth, stability and interest.”

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship

The same four classes that have been competing since the series’ inception in 2014 – Prototype (P), Prototype Challenge (PC), GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) – will continue in 2017. The Prototype class will feature the introduction of new Daytona Prototype international (DPi) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LM P2) race cars.

The GTLM and GTD classes both are expected to feature many of the new race cars built to Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) GTE technical regulations for GTLM and Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) GT3 specifications for GTD.

The 2017 WeatherTech Championship will mark the final season of eligibility for the single-spec PC class, which features defined Pro-Am driver combinations, in the flagship series. The class debuted as part of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in 2010, and next season will mark the eighth season of competition for the ORECA FLM09 chassis.

Beginning in 2018, the WeatherTech Championship will shift to a three-class format comprised of P, GTLM and GTD. While there no longer will be a separate Pro-Am Prototype class, Pro-Am drivers in the Prototype class may compete for Jim Trueman Award honors at each event and at season’s end. The year-end Jim Trueman Award winner will earn an automatic and highly coveted invitation to compete in the LM P2 class at the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The top Pro-Am driver in the GTD class will be recognized at each event and at season’s end with the Bob Akin Award. The season-long Bob Akin Award winner also will receive an automatic entry to compete in the GTE-Am class in the following year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In both cases, the automatic invitations to the 24 Hours of Le Mans are a proud link between IMSA and the ACO in support of their ongoing strategic alliance to continue the growth and development of sports car racing worldwide.

IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge

Beginning in 2017, IMSA will allow race cars from mainstream automotive manufacturers homologated as GT4 cars by the Stephane Ratel Organization (SRO) to compete in the series’ top Grand Sport (GS) class alongside select “grandfathered” vehicles built to IMSA GS technical regulations that currently are eligible and participating in 2016.  IMSA was pleased to establish a cooperation agreement with SRO to accomplish this goal together regarding the GT4 platform.

At the start of the 2018 season, all GS category cars will be built and strictly adhere to GT4 technical regulations with the requirement that they are from a mainstream automotive manufacturer. A number of manufacturers are currently developing new GT4 race cars that will roll out gradually before the start of 2018.

In the Street Tuner (ST) class, all cars currently competing will be eligible to continue racing in ST through the end of the 2018 season.

IMSA also is currently in discussions with Mr. Marcello Lotti, CEO of Touring Car Racing (TCR) International Series, regarding a cooperation agreement for TCR-homologated cars which have consumer brand relevance in the North American market. The concept being developed would be to initially establish an additional class within the Continental Tire Challenge beginning as early as 2018.

IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda

In 2017, the Mazda Prototype Lites presented by Cooper Tires will evolve and be rebranded as IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda. The sprint-race series will feature two, 45-minute races per event weekend with a two-class format including Le Mans Prototype 3 (LM P3) race cars in the “PC1” class, and cars that currently race in the Prototype Lites L1 class will comprise the “PC2” class. Existing Prototype Lites L2 class cars no longer will be eligible after the 2016 season is completed.

Any ACO-homologated LM P3 chassis built by six approved constructors will be eligible to compete in the PC1 class, and all PC1 cars will be powered by identical specification V8 engines. The PC2 class will feature Mazda-powered Élan DP02 chassis.  In both cases, no balance of performance (BoP) will be applied or administered to either class.

Beginning in 2017, IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda events will be streamed live on IMSA.tv. In addition, each event is expected to have tape-delayed television coverage on a cable network to be announced in the near future.

IMSA Prototype Challenge presented by Mazda is designed to be the final developmental rung on the ladder for drivers aspiring to compete in the WeatherTech Championship Prototype class and in other international prototype competition.

Bryan Clauson, who will go down in USAC history as one of its most prolific performers, succumbed to injuries suffered in a devastating accident in Saturday night's Belleville Nationals midget race in Belleville, Kansas. He was 27.

Clauson, who started ninth, had just taken the lead from Chad Boat and was starting to pull away when he encountered lapped traffic on the lightning-quick, high-banked half-mile dirt track. He got stuffed into the fence by a lapped car and went into a series of snap rolls before landing on his side, at which point he was struck in the cockpit by an oncoming car at a high rate of speed. Clauson was airlifted to Bryan Medical Center West in Lincoln, Nebraska.

He is survived by his parents, Tim and Diana, sister Taylor and fiancée Lauren Stewart.

"Last night, the 7th of August, we said goodbye to our son, my fiancé, our friend, Bryan Clauson," Clauson's family and fiancée said in a statement. "He was surrounded by family and friends and we were grateful that we could experience his final moments with him.

"Our Bryan fought to the end with the same desire that he demonstrated behind the wheel of all the various race cars he would park in victory lane. However, we were more proud of our Bryan that took a moment to make a young fan's day, or demonstrated his uncommon kindness and appreciation toward his friends, family and fans.

"We would like to thank everybody who has shown their concern toward us and kept us in their prayers. We will never be able to truly thank you. We would also like to thank the staff at Bryan Medical Center who stood and fought with our Bryan since he arrived here early yesterday morning."

"We know that our Bryan is also your Bryan and that you would like to participate in honoring him. A service will be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at a date and time to be announced soon. In lieu of flowers, or to make a donation, people may direct their contributions to the USAC Benevolent Fund website at http://usacbf.org/cash-donation/ or checks should be made out to the USAC Benevolent Foundation in the name of Bryan Clauson. The address is 124 E Northfield Drive, Suite F #129, Brownsburg, IN 46112.

Thank you for being a part of our Bryan's life."

The Noblesville, Indiana, resident captured 40 sprint features, 39 midget main events and a pair of Silver Crown races to go with his four USAC titles and three all-around USAC championships in a career that started in 2005.

That tied him with the great Gary Bettenhausen for No. 5 on the all-time USAC sprint list and put him No. 7 in the midgets—in between Chuck Rodee and Jimmy Davies. And his 112 total wins put him No. 5 on the overall USAC ladder.

"This is one of the darkest days in the 60-year history of USAC," USAC president Kevin Miller said in a statement. "Not only was Bryan on pace to be USAC's all-time winningest driver, he was a great ambassador to the sport. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and fiancée."

At age 16, Clauson became USAC's youngest-ever victor with a midget triumph at Columbus Motor Speedway in 2005—two years after he began running sprint cars around the Indiana outlaw circuit.

When he was 17, Clauson swept the USAC midget/sprint doubleheader at Salem Speedway to join an exclusive club that included Pancho Carter, Jeff Gordon and Dave Steele.

He was signed to Chip Ganassi's driver development program in 2006 and began racing stock cars, winning at the ARCA race at Gateway in 2007 in addition to the pole at Talladega. He made 21 starts in NASCAR's Nationwide series in 2008 and won the pole at Daytona, but his ride evaporated before the '09 campaign began.

So it was back to open wheel and USAC, where Clauson developed into one of the drivers to beat in any discipline or any surface. He swept the three biggest outdoor midget shows at Indianapolis Raceway Park, the Belleville Nationals and Turkey Night Grand Prix and racked up 19 feature wins.

In 2010, he scored 19 more victories, including the Hut Hundred at Terre Haute, and in 2011 he earned his initial USAC midget title and the overall USAC championship, which earned him a ride in the 2012 Indianapolis 500.

In May 2012, after practicing in or around the top 10 most of the month for Sarah Fisher's team despite having no previous IndyCar experience, Clauson began his fourth and final lap of qualifying when he hit the Turn 1 wall. He made the race, but the team's budget and his confidence took a shot.

But he bounced back to capture the 2012 USAC sprint championship and began a roll like few drivers have ever experienced. From 2012 through 2015 he won 90 midget and sprint races all over the country—scoring another USAC midget and sprint crown in the process.

He also qualified at Indy in 2015 and this past May, but admitted he wasn't as comfortable as he wanted to be and it was difficult just running an IndyCar once a year.

The family of Jonathan Byrd, longtime owner and sponsor at the Indy 500, took a liking to Clauson and put his last two Indy programs together in addition to this year's "Circular Insanity Tour" – Clauson's attempt to run 200 races.

Going into Saturday night's race in Kansas, Clauson had been to victory lane 27 times in 115 starts and was leading the Belleville Nationals when he lost his life.

Robert Bosch LLC has announced that Douglas Arnold will join the Bosch Automotive Aftermarket Division North America as vice president, independent aftermarket sales, effective August 15.

He will be based in the Broadview, Illinois, office, reporting directly to Enrico Manuele, regional president, Bosch Automotive Aftermarket North America.

Arnold brings over 15 years of experience to Bosch in national brand and private label sales and sales management across a range of distribution channels. Most recently he served as vice president of traditional sales for Dorman Products Inc., where he successfully developed operating plans and set team, pricing and program strategies supporting both national accounts and traditional aftermarket business.

On the night of August 20, Dan Gurney's name will be added to the honor roll of names already inscribed on the Peter Bryant Challenger Award.

The award is named for the late race car designer Peter Bryant, who designed and engineered many well-known racing machines, among them the cutting-edge Ti22 and UOP Shadow Can-Am cars, as well as the Shelby Series 1 road cars. Beginning as a young racing mechanic in his native England, Bryant went on to become an innovative engineer/designer.

Among Gurney’s myriad accomplishments: oversight of the design and construction of the Formula 1 Weslake Eagle and then driving it to become the first American to win a Grand Prix in a car with his own name on it; talking Ford into working with Colin Chapman to install a modified Ford Fairlane engine in a upgraded Lotus 33 chassis for the Indianapolis 500; taking Toyota to victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona; and building the Eagle Indy car that Jerry Grant broke the 200 mile-per-hour barrier with at Ontario Motor Speedway in 1972.

At a Riverside Raceway reunion event in 2010 (on the first anniversary of Bryant's passing) the "Peter Bryant Challenger Award" was unveiled and presented to former McLaren mechanic/Formula 1 Driver/race car constructor Howden Ganley by Bryant's widow Lois.

The ceremony honoring Gurney will take place at a special dinner at the Monterey Plaza Hotel held as part of the historic races and concours, and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic Can-Am racing series.

Due to prior commitments, Gurney will not be able to attend the Can-Am dinner. Accepting for him will be Vintage Racecar Associate Editor, historian, and the author of "Dan Gurney's Racing Eagles" John Zimmermann.

Bristol Motor Speedway has announced the hiring of motorsports public relations veteran Anthony Vestal as Director of Communications. For almost two decades, Vestal has led the day-to-day communications program for the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA).

As a member of the Bristol, Tennessee, race track’s communications team, Vestal will lead efforts for Bristol Dragway, in addition to daily PR operations. He will also assist in integrated strategy, development and execution for all Speedway and ancillary events. In his new role, Vestal will report to Becky Cox, Vice President of Communications.

“We’re thrilled to have found someone who is already familiar with our core communities and is as talented and experienced as Anthony to join our team,” said Jerry Caldwell, executive vice president and general manager for Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway. “His position is a key hire as we continue to strengthen our entire team during Bristol’s pivotal transition to a multi-use sports and entertainment facility.”

Vestal comes to Bristol Motor Speedway with over 30 years of experience in motorsports. For the last 17 years, he has served in various leadership categories, most recently as the Director of Media Relations for NHRA Drag Racing, shaping all day-to-day communications duties for the sanctioning body’s professional series.

Prior to his time at NHRA, Vestal served as an associate editor for a weekly Southeast motorsports magazine, where he reported on all forms of auto racing. Before that he covered college and high school sports for multiple newspapers in Southwest Virginia.

Vestal, a native of nearby Grundy, Virginia, graduated from the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.

Badlands Motor Speedway in Brandon, South Dakota, has promoted Tom Savage to become its first General Manager. Savage has been overseeing the day-to-day and racing operations for the last year in his role as assistant general manager.

Savage is a Sioux Falls, SD, native who has a long-standing history in the sports world. He earned a Journalism degree from the University of Sioux Falls in 1992 and worked his way through college as a sportswriter for the Argus Leader, South Dakota's largest newspaper. After college, Savage began working in professional sports as the director of public relations for the NBA Development League's Sioux Falls Skyforce team.

During Savage's career in the NBA he served as the director of public relations for four different teams including the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Indiana Pacers and Seattle Supersonics.

In the middle of his NBA career, at age 33, Savage landed his longtime goal of becoming the director of public relations for the world's largest one-day sporting event - the Indianapolis 500. Before moving back to Sioux Falls in 2012, he also worked for a sports agency in Indianapolis where he represented nine NFL players.

Badlands Motor Speedway is located at 2012 S. Splitrock Boulevard in Brandon, South Dakota. Chuck Brennan purchased the former Huset's Speedway in 2015, investing over $10 million in a massive renovation. Races are held all summer on Saturday and Sunday evenings, in addition to specialty events and concerts. For more information, visit www.BadlandsMotorSpeedway.com.

Motovicity Distribution, a Madison Heights, Michigan-based automotive performance aftermarket distributor, announces the addition of C&R Performance to their line card.
 
Former IndyCar Series chief mechanic, Chris Paulsen, founded C&R Racing in 1988. C&R has since become the leading manufacturer of cooling systems, specialized chassis components, and drive-train packages for professional motorsports in the USA. Having dominated the NASCAR series for the past 24 years, C&R has moved into the high-performance aftermarket with their top-of-the-line cooling systems.
 
"C&R Performance is excited to have Motovicity Distribution as our newest warehouse distributor,” said Paul Hammond, Outside Sales Lead for C&R. Paul continued, “With both companies excelling in high-performance parts and skilled customer service, we see many more wins in the future for both of our companies.”
 
“C&R Performance is one of the first names that comes to mind when thinking about high performance, high end cooling solutions,” said Brett Kinsfather, Sales and Marketing Manager for Motovicity Distribution. He went on to say, “Motovicity is committed to offering the highest quality products and the best brands to our customers, and we look forward to continuing that mission with C&R’s race proven products.”
 
For more information, visit www.motovicity.com.

Scott R. Smith, who has been with the NHRA since 2002, has been named NHRA Director of Media Relations.
 
Smith will direct the communications efforts of the NHRA, the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and other entities within the sanctioning body. The position will continue to build upon the relationship the NHRA has with media outlets across the country.
 
Smith began with the NHRA as the communications manager at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2002, and has worked with numerous sanctioning bodies including NASCAR, USAC, ARCA, and racing promotors including Goodguys Rod & Custom Association and Super Chevy.

In 2008, Smith was named senior media relations manager and took on added duties including traveling to select NHRA events in a support role. In 2012, Smith transitioned into an expanded role with the company and was the lead NHRA communications manager at numerous NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events and Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum Hot Rod Reunions across the country.
 
Smith will continue to be based out of Lucas Oil Raceway.