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Earlier this year, more than 50,000 off-highway vehicle enthusiasts gathered at the Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Recreation Area in California for the seventh annual King of the Hammers. The event, known as the ultimate desert race, has evolved from 12 teams racing for bragging rights to more than 150 competing teams. Johnson Valley is the largest OHV area in the United States and draws at least 200,000 visitors annually while generating at least $260 million each year for the national economy. During the King of the Hammers event, racers take advantage of the area’s unique geography to race “Ultra 4” vehicles on a dry lakebed at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour and rock crawl through challenging boulder fields. This year, Congressman Paul Cook (R-CA) attended this important event in his home district and addressed a standing-room-only crowd at the drivers’ meeting.

New Wave of Hacker Technology Threatens Unsuspecting BusinessesRegularly making chump meat of the most sophisticated of computer defenses, hackers will be unleashing a new wave of malware in the coming year on the unsuspecting—many of whom will be completely unprepared, according to Sophos, a computer-security firm.“Cybercriminals tend to focus where the weak spots are,” said Gerhard Eschelbeck, chief technology officer at Sophos. “Protecting data in a world where systems are changing rapidly and information flows freely requires a coordinated ecosystem of security technologies.”

C7 Corvette Prototype, Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD, 2014 GMC Sierra Denali, 2013 Ford Focus

Last month, we highlighted several consumer magazines that had great coverage from the 2012 SEMA Show. The great coverage isn’t limited to just consumer publications. Several industry trade magazines reported on the SEMA Show, complete with highlights of vehicles, products and people. Here’s a small sampling.

SEMA invites industry professionals to attend Town Hall meetings at one of the first two stops on the 2013 Town Hall tour. The first meeting will take place at Lund International in Buford, Georgia, Friday, May 3, from 6:00 p.m,–9:00 p.m. The next SEMA Town Hall Meeting, located at Bestop Inc., near Denver, Colorado, is Wednesday, June 26.Town Halls offer current and prospective SEMA members the opportunity to learn about the association’s programs and objectives and network with local businesses and SEMA staff. These interactions provide attendees with the chance to share their business challenges and growth potentials. The Town Halls also give SEMA staff valuable feedback that will help identify association benefits that can enhance members’ business operations and better meet their needs.

If you’re reading this, you’re holding the annual SEMA Membership Directory issue. With more listings, this directory is one of our largest ever, as your association continues a healthy trend in membership growth. While we now make membership listings available online as well, we think the printed edition is well worth the effort, since SEMA members consistently mention the directory as a primary benefit to their business. Now that you know about it, you can take advantage of this industry sourcebook to connect with other leading companies all year long. But what other valuable SEMA benefits are you missing simply because you don’t know about them? Are you overpaying for shipping, insurance or credit-card processing fees?

The candidates for the 2013–2016 SEMA Board of Directors have been announced. The members of SEMA’s Board volunteer their time to provide industry insight and a business-level perspective that contributes to the direction of the association. That strategic direction plays a critical role in shaping the future of the automotive specialty-equipment industry. Voting for the 2013–2016 SEMA Board of Directors Election will be open and available online between May 15 and June 11. Voting is open to current SEMA members, and votes must be submitted by the designated primary contact of each voting SEMA-member company.

Law and Order is an update of some of the most recent federal and state legislative and regulatory issues that could potentially impact the automotive specialty-equipment industry. These include issues affecting small-business owners and their employees.

It’s December 1967, and the men about to fire that Chevy small-block on the engine dyno are Jim Travers and Frank Coon, founders of Traco Engineering. Commanding their attention is a Trans-Am race engine—possibly destined for one of Roger Penske’s Sunoco Z/28 Camaros—and Car Craft magazine’s Bob Swaim is chronicling “Traco’s magic touch” to see how the legendary engine builders squeeze more than 400 hp from “a basically stock 301ci engine with the Z/28 options.” Swaim’s story, “Chevy’s Little ‘301’ Giant,” appeared in the magazine’s March 1968 issue.Traco (a contraction of Travers’ and Coon’s last names) was founded in 1957 after the pair served as mechanics for Bill Vukovich during his Indy 500 wins in 1953 and 1954.