2015 PRI Trade Show goers can learn efficient social media methods to help improve their motorsports businesses by attending Constant Contact’s Erin Bemis’ “Social Media In Record Time” seminar on Friday, December 11, from 8–9 a.m. in Room 240 of the Indiana Convention Center.

Did you know that 43 percent of small businesses dedicate six or more hours per week to social media? While it’s important to engage for social visibility and key connections online, we all want to do more in less time. This sessions will help you save time and get back to what you love to do—running your racing business.

Bemis will discuss time-saving tips for managing social media; simple ways to find usable, relevant content for posts; how to integrate social media into sales promotions and events; best practices, business builders and more.

There’s no charge for registered attendees and exhibitors. For more information on this seminar and the PRI Trade Show, visit www.pri2015.com.

PRI Show goers are invited to buckle up as EricTheCarGuy (aka Eric Cook) reveals his tricks of the trade, and explains how he converted 20 years of experience as an ASE certified master technician into a YouTube channel with over 600,000 subscribers.

In his exclusive seminar at the 2015 PRI Trade Show, “EricTheCarGuy’s YouTube Experience And How It Can Benefit Performance Automotive Businesses,” Cook will share his keys for success while outlining how racing businesses can use video as a powerful, cost-effective marketing tool.

He’ll explain the business strategies he’s employed over the years, as well as what has worked (and what hasn’t) on the road to managing an online enterprise whose detailed repair clips have garnered over 100 million views since 2009.

EricTheCarGuy’s unique and interactive seminar takes place from 8–9 a.m. on Saturday, December 12 in Room 242 of the Indiana Convention Center. There is no charge for registered Trade Show attendees.

For more information on this seminar, click here. And for more on the PRI Trade Show, visit www.pri2015.com.

Tethering aerodynamic components of the Dallara chassis is among safety enhancements announced by INDYCAR that will be implemented for the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season.

The high-tensile Zylon tethers minimize the possibility of components becoming detached from the race cars during accidents.

The rear beam wing and rear wheel guards will be tethered for all Verizon IndyCar Series events and the car’s nose will be tethered on superspeedways (1.5 miles or longer). Dallara also has designed a tethering system for the front wing main plane for the three superspeedways on the 2016 schedule—Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway.

Since 1999, Verizon IndyCar Series cars have employed wheel restraints attached to the chassis and suspension. The Suspension Wheel/Wing Energy Management System (SWEMS) also includes one or two restraints attached from the rear wing main plane to a secure location on the transmission.

“It is a continual goal to improve safety for all the participants, fans and drivers alike,” said Will Phillips, INDYCAR Vice President of Technology. “We also need to do this in a fashion that does not create more yellow-flag racing and try to prevent as much debris as possible. We have great support from our partners to improve safety and wish to thank Chevrolet, Honda and Dallara for their participation and efforts in working together to implement change.”

Other changes for the 2016 season as part of INDYCAR’s ongoing research and development to improve the on-track product and safety include:

*A domed skid plate on the underside of the chassis, which improves its yaw/spin characteristics, will complement rear wing flaps that deploy at 90 degrees if a car spins and travels backward on a superspeedway. The package will minimize the incidence of the car becoming airborne.

The rear wing flaps have been tested in wind tunnels at General Motors and Texas A&M University. Components are scheduled to be available for the April 6 test on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.

*An update to the Engine Control Unit (ECU) prevents a car from moving forward during a pit stop if the gearbox is not in neutral while the fuel hose is attached. Through the ECU, the fuel probe activation sensor can stop the car from moving forward by returning the engine to idle and engaging the clutch if the car is not in neutral when the fuel probe is plugged in.

*Another ECU update puts the engine in idle faster if too much pressure is applied to the throttle or brake pedal. The throttle pedal failsafe will engage and idle the engine when pressure applied to either the throttle or brake pedal exceeds a calibrated threshold.

The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will race 20 times in 2016, including eight races on superspeedways, nine on short tracks, two on dirt and one on a road course.

The season will mark the third consecutive season with a 20-race schedule. ARCA raced 21 races in 2013 and 19 in 2011 and 2012.

“We are pleased to announce our full and complete schedule,” ARCA President Ron Drager said. “We feel we have once again put together a schedule that highlights the diversity of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. We are excited for the start of the new season.”

The series will kick off the 2016 campaign—as it has for more than 50 years—by racing at Daytona International Speedway. The race will be right before the NASCAR Sprint Unlimited and will help christen the newly-renovated Daytona Rising project.

The only different track on the schedule from 2015 is the return of the ARCA Racing Series to Madison, Wisconsin, for Father’s Day weekend. There are other changes to the schedule, however.

For example, ARCA’s Chicagoland date shifts to Thursday, September 15 in primetime as part of a huge weekend of racing, which includes the kick-off for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016. The weekend also includes the Camping World Truck Series and the XFINITY Series.

The road course race at New Jersey will be on Saturday, May 28, instead of the Sunday afternoon race it has been the last few years. The race on the mile-dirt at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds is going to be a night race, and the event at Mobile (Ala.) Int’l Speedway was removed from the schedule.

ARCA will celebrate milestone races with the 75th series event at Toledo Speedway and 99th and 100th races at Salem Speedway in southern Indiana.

The series will have companion races with all three of NASCAR’s top touring series at one time or another in 2016, starting with the Daytona race in February, plus Iowa Speedway with the Verizon Indy Car Series in July.

The race at Winchester Speedway will once again coincide with the King of the Wing sprint cars.

The return to Madison Int’l Speedway in Wisconsin is good for the series’ presenting sponsor, Drager said.

“It was important for us to schedule a race in the Menards market,” Drager said. “Last year, we did not have a race in either Minnesota or Wisconsin and this year, we decided to go back. We are definitely looking forward to racing again at Madison and the upper Midwest.”

The 2016 season will be part of ARCA’s 64th consecutive season of competition since 1953.

2016 ARCA Racing Series schedule:

Date – Venue – Location

Feb. 13 – Daytona Int’l Speedway – Daytona Beach, Fla.

April 9 – Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville – Nashville, Tenn.

April 24 – Salem Speedway – Salem, Ind.

April 29 – Talladega Superspeedway – Talladega, Ala.

May 22 – Toledo Speedway – Toledo, Ohio

May 28 – New Jersey Motorsports Park – Millville, N.J.

June 3 – Pocono Raceway – Long Pond, Pa.

June 10 – Michigan Int’l Speedway – Brooklyn, Mich.

June 26 – Winchester Speedway – Winchester, Ind.

July 9 – Iowa Speedway – Newton, Iowa

July 22 – Lucas Oil Raceway – Brownsburg, Ind.

July 29 – Pocono Raceway – Long Pond, Pa.

Aug. 6 – Berlin Raceway – Marne, Mich.

Aug. 21 – Illinois State Fairgrounds – Springfield, Ill.

Sept. 4 – DuQuoin State Fairgrounds – DuQuoin, Ill.

Sept. 1 – Salem Speedway – Salem, Ind.

Sept. 15 – Chicagoland Speedway – Joliet, Ill.

Sept. 23 – Kentucky Speedway – Sparta, Ky.

Oct. 14 – Kansas Speedway – Kansas City, Kan.

After nearly 34,000 votes were cast around the world for NASCAR regional touring series’ 2015 Most Popular Driver Awards, seven drivers earned the ultimate honor from fans—including four rookie drivers and a pair of repeat winners.

The Most Popular Driver Award winners for 2015 are:

• Rico Abreu (St. Helena, Calif.), NASCAR K&N Pro Series East

• Nicole Behar (Spokane, Wash.), NASCAR K&N Pro Series West

• Jason Hathaway (St. Thomas, Ont.), NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1

• Rodrigo Marban (Mexico City), NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series

• Alon Day (Ashdod, Israel), NASCAR Whelen Euro Series

• Melissa Fifield (Wakefield, N.H.), NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour

• Trey Hutchens (Lexington, N.C.), NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour

Underscoring the young talent entering NASCAR’s ranks, award winners Abreu, Behar, Day and Hutchens are all in their first full season of NASCAR touring series competition, with Hutchens also earning the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Award in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour.

Both Fifield and Marban won the Most Popular Driver Award for their series last year, with Fifield making history as the first female to win the award for the tour.

Marban of the NASCAR Mexico Series garnered more votes than any other driver in 2015, just ahead of NASCAR Next drivers Behar and Abreu. Behar dethroned 2014 Most Popular Driver Brandon McReynolds, while Abreu earned the award in his first year in stock cars after transitioning from a successful open-wheel career.

The closest race was in the Canadian Tire Series where championship runner-up Hathaway edged Alex Tagliani by just 104 votes. It is the second year in a row in which Tagliani missed out on the top spot by a slim margin. Last year, he was beaten by JR Fitzpatrick by just 48 votes.

Similarly, Fifield beat Preece for the Whelen Modified Tour award by 110 votes. Hutchens collected more than 40 percent of the Whelen Southern Modified Tour vote to top tour champion Andy Seuss, a three-time winner of the award.

Day won three of the final four races of the Whelen Euro Series season to finish as runner-up in the championship standings in his first year in the series.

The Most Popular Driver Award winners will be recognized as part of the NASCAR Touring Series Awards on December 12 in the Charlotte (North Carolina) Convention Center at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

CV Products, LLC has announced that it is moving forward in a new direction to place increased focus on its various manufacturing businesses and the distribution of performance engine components located in Thomasville, North Carolina.

As a result, CV Products is transitioning its Mooresville, NC, store location and Professional Race Service (PRS) Trackside programs to SRI Supplies. The Mooresville facility and PRS programs specialize in chassis, suspension and trackside products for the racing industry. SRI Supplies will now operate under a new name, SRI Performance. This transition is taking place as seamlessly as possible, with no anticipated interruption to customers.

“CV Products has been in business for 27 years supplying quality racing components to the performance industry," said Clyde Vickers. "We fully intend to maintain our focus of outstanding customer service and competitive pricing. CV's future emphasis will align with our heritage, the No. 1 supplier of racing engine products in the industry. We are proud of our manufacturing achievements and the leading brands that we have built. We will now shift our focus to accelerating their growth.

"It was important that we found someone to satisfy the racers needs for chassis parts, suspension parts and trackside supplies," he added. "Greg Fornelli and the SRI Performance team will do an excellent job in this regard.”

Fornelli, president of SRI, noted, “With 20 years of experience in the motorsports distribution business, this opportunity is the next logical step in the evolution of Stock Car Steel & Aluminum and SRI. When Clyde announced that CV was exiting the chassis parts side of their distribution business, we immediately realized that a void would be created in the local and national market. Clyde and CV Products have built a stellar relationship with their customers over the years. We feel like combining the strengths of CV and SRI will lead to an overall increase in customer satisfaction and convenience.”

The SRI Performance store, located at 107 Overhill Dr., Mooresville, NC, opened on December 1, 2015, with a focus on chassis parts and fabrication supplies. SRI Performance was scheduled to attend its first trackside event December 2 at 5 Flags Speedway for the 48th running of the Snowball Derby.

CV will continue operations from its 42 High Tech Blvd, Thomasville, NC, location with a focus on supplying quality manufacturing capabilities and race engine related products to the performance racing community.

The All Star Circuit of Champions will move ahead into the 2016 season with a full slate of scheduled competition, with race dates ranging from early February until late October. “America’s Series” will headline 51 dates during the new year, visiting seven different states and nearly 30 different facilities along the east coast, Northeast and Midwest. As traditional, the All Star Circuit of Champions will begin its new campaign in the “Sunshine State” during the early weeks of February, showcasing talent on February 5-6 at Bubba Raceway Park near Ocala, Florida, as well as on February 10-11 at Volusia Speedway Park near Barberville, Florida. The four Florida dates will coincide with the annual Bubba Army Winter Nationals and DIRTcar Nationals.

“We are really excited about next year’s schedule, we’ve added seven tracks to slate in 2016,” said Tony Stewart, owner of the All Star Circuit of Champions. “I can’t wait to get to Ocala and Volusia in less than three months and I know many of our teams feel the same way.”

The All Star Circuit of Champions will continue its 2016 campaign with a busy spring stretch consisting of 15 events between March 26 and June 11. The Series will visit dirt venues in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin during the early months of 2016, all before transitioning into the newest edition of Ohio Sprint Speedweek in late June. Spring travel plans include a Friday, May 20th appearance for the first time at the Lincoln (Illinois) Speedway.

The 34th edition of Ohio Sprint Speedweek will return to the All Star headlines between June 17 and June 25, kicking off with action at Attica Raceway Park. Speedweek competitors will hit the Ohio dirt on nine consecutive occasions, visiting nine different facilities all across the “Buckeye State.” Ohio Sprint Speedweek will conclude with a $10,000-to-win finale on Saturday, June 25, at the Fremont Speedway in Fremont, Ohio.

All Star competition will resume immediately after Ohio Sprint Speedweek. The 2016 schedule boasts a busy second half season, which includes returning to areas of Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Competitors will also experience a taste of Indiana soil during the downhill segment of 2016, visiting Kokomo Speedway for the two-day “Dirt Classic Indiana” on July 22-23. A scheduled stop to the Brownstown Speedway is also on the late season agenda.

The All Star Circuit of Champions will join the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and the United States Auto Club (USAC) during Eldora Speedway’s Four Crown Nationals in late September. All Star competitors will take to the Eldora Speedway half-mile on Saturday, September 24, becoming Eldora’s fourth open wheel division for the weekend spectacle. The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series will open the two-race weekend with action on Friday, September 23, followed by all three USAC national divisions and the All Stars on Saturday, September 24.

A full weekend at Atomic Speedway will conclude the 2016 All Star championship schedule. “America’s Series” will invade the Chillicothe, Ohio, high banks for the final time next season on October 21-22 for two complete programs. The Friday night portion will award a $5,000 winner’s share, followed by the 2016 All Star Circuit of Champions finale on Saturday night worth $20,000.

“Our hats off to all the teams, fans, partners, track owners and promoters that helped make the ownership transition this past year so smooth for us,” Stewart said. “We are just one piece of the equation to help continue to grow 410 racing around the country.”

Brainerd International Raceway (BIR) has announced 2016 racing schedule.

The schedule features drag racing, road racing, Superbike racing, an Aussie-style cruising event, endurance racing, drifting and autocross competitions, the BIR Performance Driving School and even snowmobile racing on open water. The schedule also includes non-racing events, such as an RV and camper show, and Lakes Jam, a three-day music and camping festival that will feature Toby Keith and Styx this year.

The biggest change to the schedule involves race week for the 35th Annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, which is set for August 18–21. BIR basically extended the event into the previous weekend by moving Thunder at the Lakes from early June to August 12–14, the weekend before Nationals. Most of the drag racers who compete at Thunder’s NHRA West Central Division Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series also race in the Sportsman classes during Nationals. Moving the event to August will give fans a great preview to Nationals and will extend the event several more days.

“This is great news for our fans because now Nationals is, for all practical purposes, a 12-day event with drag racing taking place on all but four days,” said BIR Owner Jed Copham.

The NHRA Nationals is BIR’s main attraction again this year, when the best drag racers on the planet, the fastest cars and tens of thousands of crazy race fans descend on Brainerd to celebrate the largest motorsports event in the Upper Midwest.

A major scheduling change that occurred last year proved to be a big hit for BIR. The Trans-Am Series moved from the GSTA Muscle Car Shootout on Labor Day weekend to the PleasureLand RV Show & Go on Fourth of July weekend, which is where it’ll be again this year. The Trans-Am Series’ 40-lap, 100-mile race on Sunday afternoon will be the weekend’s grand finale event. It was televised last year and is expected to be on TV again this year.

Joining the Trans-Am Series on the road course that weekend will be the National Auto Sport Ass’n (NASA) again. Meanwhile, the second leg of the three-race Muscle Car Series will be on the drag strip, with cars flying down the track at over 200 mph in classic heads-up racing.

This is the eighth season for the Muscle Car Series, which kicks off Memorial Day weekend during the Street Car Showdown and ends Labor Day weekend during the GSTA Muscle Car Shootout.

Joining the ranks as one of the track’s most popular events is the Modern Automotive Performance Proving Grounds, which has two weekends on the schedule again this year. The Proving Grounds is for imports and sport compacts that compete in drag racing, drifting, autocross and open lapping on the road course. One of BIR’s increasingly popular events, the Proving Grounds will be at BIR in June and September.

One event that already was wildly popular got even better this year. The Wet & Wild Weekend in June will feature snowmobiles racing on open water, the Bracket Drag Racing Series on the drag strip and Superbike racing courtesy of the Central Roadracing Ass’n (CRA).

The schedule also is full of fun, affordable and “non-traditional” racing, such as the ChumpCar World Series and the World Racing League, both of which bring endurance racing to BIR for teams of drivers that race cars that are typically headed for the scrap yard. The Aussie-style Powercruise is back for a fifth year, giving fans the chance to participate in a number of driving events throughout the weekend.

“The thing we try to do every year is offer our fans unique types of racing that appeals to the whole family,” Copham said. “We have races that feature professional racing teams, regional amateur drivers and for the backyard mechanics who want to give racing a try. Nearly all of our racing is fun and affordable family entertainment.”

When most people think of BIR, they think of spectator events, but there are many opportunities for people to get behind the steering wheel and test their fortitude and driving skills. For example, the Wednesday Night Drags – Street Legal Style is a program where BIR opens its drag strip to anyone with a street legal car, truck or bike, and a helmet. The same thing is available on the road course, where the BIR Performance Driving School combines classroom instruction and on-track sessions to teach drivers how to handle a car at high speeds. Most racing events have classes for those who want to try racing, using their own street car, truck or bike.

Copham calls it one of BIR’s best-kept secrets.

“Many people don’t know that they can come here and race rather than sit in the grandstands and watch. Most of our races are open to anyone, as long as their car or bike meets safety and tech requirements. Some of the races require a short instructional session as well, but most of our events are open and can be affordable to get started.”

Editor’s note: This column originally appeared on inc.com.
 
What will be the biggest challenge facing leaders in the next five years? It's the same challenge that's faced leaders since the beginning of time. It's people. Ask any successful business owner and you'll learn that the key to their success is always the people in their organization. This fact will always be the same, even as people dynamics change. Want to be surviving and thriving five years from now? Then make sure you've got the answers to these five questions about your people.
 
1. Am I fair?
A report released earlier this year by the the U.S. Census Bureau says that more than half of the country's children will be part of a minority race by 2020. The Bureau also predicted a few years ago that, by 2050, minorities in this country (that would be Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, etc.) will be the majority and the number of residents over the age of 65 will more than double. Another report predicts as much as a third of the incoming CEO class will be made up of women by 2040. In 2013, the buying power of America's LGBT community was estimated at $830 billion. In the next five years your workforce will become more diverse. People will look different, dress different, practice different religions, come from different cultures and have different sexual orientations. They will be open, unabashed, and more self-confident to express their views. And they will expect to be treated fairly. Successful leaders will ensure that there are policies in place so that these expectations are met. Otherwise, these talented, hardworking, productive individuals will help someone else become successful.
 
2. Am I practical?
Statistics published in Fortune Magazine places the freelance population at over 42 million individuals. What's even more astonishing is that some entrepreneurs speculate that the freelance population will quickly overtake traditional employees by 2020. Elance, a leading site for independent contractors, has seen its number of registered users grow from less than 4 million in 2012 to almost 10 million by the end of 2014. Outsourcing is established, accepted and a bona fide way for self-employed entrepreneurs and established business people to profit from each other. Over the next five years successful leaders will use a practical combination of independent contractors and full time employees to enable their companies to grow and prosper.
 
3. Am I flexible?
Despite Yahoo's Marissa Mayer's concerns, a recent report has found that "tele-working" has grown 80% since 2005 and another survey recently found a greater increase in the number of companies planning to offer telecommuting in 2014 than those offering just about any other new benefit. Thirty-six percent of employees surveyed would choose flexible work arrangements over a pay increase and 95 percent of employers say telework has a high impact on employee retention. The Pew Research Center reported that fathers have tripled their time with children since 1965. This is important. Successful leaders in 2020 will allow their people the ability to roam, travel, work from home, be on the road, move about and most importantly better integrate their work responsibilities with their personal lives to both theirs and their employers' mutual benefit.
 
4. Am I current?
According to this great presentation Facebook has more than 1 billion users, 90 percent of all Internet traffic in 2017 will be video, mobile traffic as a percent of Internet traffic is growing 1.5x per year and the average U.S. adult spends 141 minutes a day using mobile devices. The next generation of workers will have grown up on social media, video and mobile and they will be expecting the same experience at their place of employment. They will not understand systems that are not on the cloud and that don't provide immediate delivery of data anywhere and anytime. They will have little patience for systems where they cannot collaborate, share data and communicate freely and quickly. They are not used to printing things out, faxing paperwork and using a pen to write. They are on the move, with short attention spans and even less patience. They will expect their employer to provide technology that addresses these needs. To attract and retain the best talent, successful leaders in 2020 will have invested in systems that meet these expectations.
 
5. Am I generous?
In October 2014, Apple announced new perks for its employees that included increased parental leave, a wellness center and paid time off for volunteer or charity work. Your company is not as big as Apple, but the compensation you pay your employees will grow ever more important over the next few years. And it's not just money. Only 11 percent of Gen Y workers define having a lot of money as a definition of success, according to marketer Brian Solis. You will need to be more creative (and generous) in the perks you provide. This will not only be flex time as mentioned above but more vacation, free food in the office, discount programs, company teams, charitable activities and reimbursed training. Your flexibility, generosity and compassion to your employees will determine how successful you will be as a business owner in the next five years.
 
Why do CEO's at big companies make so much money? It is not just vision and intelligence. It is because they are the most skilled of managers. They are leaders who are able to move thousands of people in the direction of their goals. And when it comes to their people, they are always fair, practical, flexible, current on technology and generous. This is how they succeed today. And this is how you will succeed over the next five years.
 
2015 PRI Trade Show seminar speaker Gene Marks is president of The Marks Group, a Philadelphia-based consulting firm specializing in sales and marketing technologies. He appears regularly on Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC discussing matters affecting the business community. He is also a daily columnist for The Washington Post, and writes weekly for Forbes, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur and The Huffington Post. Don’t miss his PRI Show seminar “The Next Two Years: Your People” at 8 a.m. on Friday, December 11, 2015, in Room 239 of the Indiana Convention Center.

When the historic 75th running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix rolls into Perris Auto Speedway on Thanksgiving Night, fans will be treated to a format change that they had requested with more action on the night for the Honda USAC National and Western States Midgets.

In addition to the traditional qualifying, B main and 98-lap championship main, drivers will also have to run heat races giving fans more bang for their racing buck.

“Normally we qualify all of the cars and half the field gets seeded into the main event by their qualifying times,” promoter Don Kazarian told the crowd on the final night of the 20th Annual Oval Nationals. “Then we would run a couple of B mains to seed the rest of the field into the 98-lap main event. This year everybody is going to have to qualify and nobody gets seeded into the main event through qualifying. They will have to get into the main the old fashioned way by transferring from the heat races. If they do not transfer from their heat race, they will have to go to the B main and try to transfer from there. It is a whole new ball game and the fans are going to see a lot more racing.”

NASCAR Sprint Cup star Kyle Larson, defending Turkey Night winner Christopher Bell, four-time USAC-CRA Sprint Car champion Damion Gardner, USAC National Midget point leader Tracy Hines, three-time Western Midget champion Ronnie Gardner and Rico Abreu are just a handful of the racing stars who will be on hand to try and get their name inscribed on the historic “Aggie Trophy.”