It’s not too late to apply for a 2020 SEMA Show booth. The online Exhibitor Services Manual contains all of the resources pertinent to a successful exhibit at the SEMA Show. To help you navigate efficiently, each section is broken down to the basics. Simply click the buttons to the left to see the products and services available. 

Compiled by SEMA Editors

NHRA Announces Revised Plan to Restart 2020 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series

NHRA officials have announced that they are working with state and local officials as well as host tracks and teams on a revised Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule, which will be announced soon. The season is expected to resume, with fans in attendance, in August and will consist of 18 total events for 2020, including the two that kicked off the season. The Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series will continue to be contested at each Mello Yello Series event. The revised schedule previously announced is in flux because of the fluid nature of the pandemic situation. At this time, it is certain that the events planned for June and July are postponed. Those events are the AMALIE Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals, June 5-7 (Gainesville, Florida); Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil, June 12–14 (Houston); NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, June 19–21 (Bristol, Tennessee); Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, June 26–28 (Norwalk, Ohio); Route 66 NHRA Nationals, July 9–12 (Chicago); Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals Presented By Pennzoil, July 17–19 (Denver); and NHRA Sonoma Nationals, July 24–26 (Sonoma, California). Tentative schedule announcements for the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Series, Mickey Thompson Tires NHRA Top Fuel Harley Series, and SAMtech.edu NHRA Factory Stock Showdown series will be released following the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series announcement.

Champion Brands LLC has announced the podium finish of the Jonathan Nerren race livery of a Shelby Tribute Mustang.

Shelby Tribute Mustang Wins with Champion Modern Muscle Motor Oil

Champion Brands LLC has announced the podium finish of the Jonathan Nerren race livery of a Shelby Tribute Mustang utilizing Champion’s line of motor oils. For the 2020 season, Nerren and his teammate Tyler Nelson will travel nationwide as the Shelby American Drift Team in the Pro 1 Series of Formula Drift. Their first event was scheduled to be in Long Beach, California, April 10–11, but was canceled due to the Coronavirus. Once the racing season returns, in addition to their Formula D schedule, they can be found at events including Holley Ford Fest, Gridlife Midwest, Mustang Week, CJ Pony Parts drift demo, zMAX Dragway for NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, Street Car Takeover and the 2020 SEMA Show in Las Vegas.

Hot Shot’s Secret Announces Sponsorship of Corona Lockdown Online Practice Tree Challenge

Hot Shot’s Secret has announced sponsorship of the Corona Lockdown Online Practice Tree Challenge—a Facebook challenge game open to all drag racers and enthusiasts missing the sport who would like to join this private group. The only question to join the now 1,200-member-strong private Facebook group is: What is your perfect reaction time? Because the events are sponsor-funded, there have been numerous shootouts, jackpots and prizes that have been given away throughout these many weeks of racing, with the grand prize compliments of Mutt & Jeff Promotions that involves a weekend of buybacks valued at $450. For more information on the Corona Lockdown Online Practice Tree Challenge click here.

NASCAR will return to racing on May 17.

NASCAR Returns To Racing With Events At Darlington, Charlotte

NASCAR has announced it will return to racing on May 17, which will kick off a slate of races that includes seven events in three series at two race tracks—Darlington Raceway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series will each host its first on-track event since mid-March. The NASCAR Cup Series will return to Darlington Raceway, Sunday, May 17, with a 400-mile event scheduled for 3:30 p.m. (EDT), live on FOX, FOX Deportes, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. What follows is a schedule that includes midweek races in primetime and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in its traditional Memorial Day Weekend home for the 60th consecutive season. Each of NASCAR’s return events will be run without fans in attendance. Further schedule adjustments will be announced in the future. To view the schedule, visit NASCAR’s website.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Announces “Reopening Tour”

Lucas Oil Products has announced the return to racing in 2020 for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series following several postponements and cancellations due to COVID-19. The “Lucas Oil Reopening Tour” provides the purse for six newly added May events. With these events, along with the races contested at Speedweeks, the series drivers will still compete in 54 of the 57 original 2020 LOLMDS tour events. The number of scheduled televised races will remain as originally scheduled. Because of the scheduling changes, a pair of $7,000-to-win events, May 12–13, at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, will signal the return, with all late-model teams invited. These events will be without fans, but they will get a chance to tune in live, via LucasOilRacing.tv, and free on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Facebook page at 7:30 p.m. (EDT). In addition to the back-to-back weekday races, Lucas Oil Speedway will hold a practice session on Monday, May 11 (closed to the public). To view the revised 2020 schedule, visit the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series website.

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series is set to race Friday night, May 8, at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway in a $10,000-to-win, “behind-closed-doors” Invitational by McKay Insurance with Nationwide.

World Of Outlaws Announces 16-Race Schedule Through Mid-June

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series, together with their partner tracks, have updated schedules into mid-June in an effort to safely return to racing in a manner that allows tracks, teams, partners and fans to begin looking ahead. The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series is set to race Friday night, May 8, at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway in a $10,000-to-win, “behind-closed-doors” Invitational by McKay Insurance with Nationwide. While spectators will not be able to attend in person, fans across the world can watch live on DIRTVision presented by Drydene. Events originally scheduled for May 23 at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, May 25 at Lawrenceburg Speedway, May 29 at Lake Ozark Speedway, May 30 at I-70 Motorsports Park and June 3 at I-80 Speedway have been postponed. Fans with tickets to those events will be able to use them when rescheduled dates are announced. The June 5 event at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and June 6 at Granite City Speedway in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, remain on the schedule, with a final determination being made closer to the event dates based on local guidelines.

The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series is also adjusting its schedule, with action resuming May 15-16, at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 rather than the previously announced Boone Speedway. The fast-changing landscape has provided the opportunity to shift the Series re-opener to Pevely, Missouri, in front of fans on a limited basis. The originally scheduled races May 29 at Jacksonville (Illionis) Speedway and May 30 at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Indiana, have been postponed. For more information, and the updated 2020 schedules, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.

For more racing news, visit the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) website.

By Ashley Reyes

A new video featuring Marla Moore of Legendary Companies from the 2019 SEMA Show STAGE, hosted by Myles Kovacs, is now available. Coined as one of the industry’s most active volunteers and leaders, Moore shares personal stories about how she entered the automotive industry and her reaction to being inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame.

Throughout her career, Moore has been at the forefront of launching marketing projects for aftermarket companies and brands, including AutoZone, COMP Cams, Hypertech and more. Find out how she excelled within each company and what advice she has about attitude when looking to succeed in the industry.

“I think the attitude is wanting to find something that you are passionate about and wanting to be the best there is,” said Moore. “[…] When you’re coming up, have that attitude. ‘I don’t want to just be the best—I want to be legendary. I want people to know me, know who I am and know what I do when I walk down the hall.’”

In addition to her many successes as a marketing director, Moore contributes to various SEMA councils and committees as a volunteer and has spearheaded numerous projects, including the SEMA Businesswoman’s Network (SBN) Mustang Build in 2012. In her interview, Moore talks about the team behind the project that showcased the talent of women in the industry and received national and local news coverage along with a feature in Times Square.

“(When) you’re surrounded by people who are passionate about what they’re doing, who are knowledgeable, it just rubs off on you. It’s infectious,” said Moore.

Moore also speaks about her experience attending Jim Russell’s Racer Driving School and driving Formula Mazdas at Laguna Seca, running into Daryl Hall and John Oates and what it was like stepping on stage the night she was inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame.

“The feeling I had when I got up where was ‘I am so in love with this industry’, so that’s what I talked about.”

Check out the full video and stay tuned to SEMA eNews for additional interviews from the STAGE powered by SEMA Education and the SEMA Wheel and Tire Council (WTC). For the latest news and updates, follow SEMA Education on Facebook and Instagram.

By Ashley Reyes

A new video featuring Marla Moore of Legendary Companies from the 2019 SEMA Show STAGE, hosted by Myles Kovacs, is now available. Coined as one of the industry’s most active volunteers and leaders, Moore shares personal stories about how she entered the automotive industry and her reaction to being inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame.

Throughout her career, Moore has been at the forefront of launching marketing projects for aftermarket companies and brands, including AutoZone, COMP Cams, Hypertech and more. Find out how she excelled within each company and what advice she has about attitude when looking to succeed in the industry.

“I think the attitude is wanting to find something that you are passionate about and wanting to be the best there is,” said Moore. “[…] When you’re coming up, have that attitude. ‘I don’t want to just be the best—I want to be legendary. I want people to know me, know who I am and know what I do when I walk down the hall.’”

In addition to her many successes as a marketing director, Moore contributes to various SEMA councils and committees as a volunteer and has spearheaded numerous projects, including the SEMA Businesswoman’s Network (SBN) Mustang Build in 2012. In her interview, Moore talks about the team behind the project that showcased the talent of women in the industry and received national and local news coverage along with a feature in Times Square.

“(When) you’re surrounded by people who are passionate about what they’re doing, who are knowledgeable, it just rubs off on you. It’s infectious,” said Moore.

Moore also speaks about her experience attending Jim Russell’s Racer Driving School and driving Formula Mazdas at Laguna Seca, running into Daryl Hall and John Oates and what it was like stepping on stage the night she was inducted into the SEMA Hall of Fame.

“The feeling I had when I got up where was ‘I am so in love with this industry’, so that’s what I talked about.”

Check out the full video and stay tuned to SEMA eNews for additional interviews from the STAGE powered by SEMA Education and the SEMA Wheel and Tire Council (WTC). For the latest news and updates, follow SEMA Education on Facebook and Instagram.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation that would allow  motorsports to resume immediately under certain conditions.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation (H.B. 2489) that would allow outdoor recreational activities, including motorsports, to resume immediately under certain conditions.

Currently, Pennsylvania’s emergency Business Closure Order does not allow any recreational activity businesses, such as spectator sports, to operate. The bill requires such activities to adhere to the social distancing practices and other mitigation measures defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

The bill is currently awaiting consideration in the House Committee on State Government.

For more information, visit the SEMA Action Network (SAN) website.

For details, contact Christian Robinson at stateleg@sema.org.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation that would allow  motorsports to resume immediately under certain conditions.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation (H.B. 2489) that would allow outdoor recreational activities, including motorsports, to resume immediately under certain conditions.

Currently, Pennsylvania’s emergency Business Closure Order does not allow any recreational activity businesses, such as spectator sports, to operate. The bill requires such activities to adhere to the social distancing practices and other mitigation measures defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

The bill is currently awaiting consideration in the House Committee on State Government.

For more information, visit the SEMA Action Network (SAN) website.

For details, contact Christian Robinson at stateleg@sema.org.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation that would allow  motorsports to resume immediately under certain conditions.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation (H.B. 2489) that would allow outdoor recreational activities, including motorsports, to resume immediately under certain conditions.

Currently, Pennsylvania’s emergency Business Closure Order does not allow any recreational activity businesses, such as spectator sports, to operate. The bill requires such activities to adhere to the social distancing practices and other mitigation measures defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

The bill is currently awaiting consideration in the House Committee on State Government.

For more information, visit the SEMA Action Network (SAN) website.

For details, contact Christian Robinson at stateleg@sema.org.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation that would allow  motorsports to resume immediately under certain conditions.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation (H.B. 2489) that would allow outdoor recreational activities, including motorsports, to resume immediately under certain conditions.

Currently, Pennsylvania’s emergency Business Closure Order does not allow any recreational activity businesses, such as spectator sports, to operate. The bill requires such activities to adhere to the social distancing practices and other mitigation measures defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

The bill is currently awaiting consideration in the House Committee on State Government.

For more information, visit the SEMA Action Network (SAN) website.

For details, contact Christian Robinson at stateleg@sema.org.

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation that would allow  motorsports to resume immediately under certain conditions.

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced SEMA-supported legislation (H.B. 2489) that would allow outdoor recreational activities, including motorsports, to resume immediately under certain conditions.

Currently, Pennsylvania’s emergency Business Closure Order does not allow any recreational activity businesses, such as spectator sports, to operate. The bill requires such activities to adhere to the social distancing practices and other mitigation measures defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  

The bill is currently awaiting consideration in the House Committee on State Government.

For more information, visit the SEMA Action Network (SAN) website.

For details, contact Christian Robinson at stateleg@sema.org.

SEMA News—May 2020

RETAIL BEST PRACTICES

By Mike Imlay

Retail Doldrums?

Rethinking Some Basics Can Get Your Business Bouncing Again

Almost every retail owner will experience times when the business feels stuck in the doldrums. But if you can shift your approach in a few fundamental areas, you can soon get your business back on track as a rewarding venture.

Getting “unstuck” is a popular small-business topic, and there’s no end to advice articles online. Most of them deal chiefly with burnout and the motivational blocks that can stymie a business owner. However, small-business expert Barry Moltz believes that there’s more to getting a retail business unstuck than motivational gimmickry—even while he concedes that it’s hard for a business owner to exude enthusiasm day in and day out.

“The problem is, how can you expect your team to be enthusiastic if you’re not?” Moltz said. “That’s why you need to have some kind of mission that is larger than whatever you sell or the service you provide.”

Success, Failure and “Bouncing”

Still, having a mission is just the starting point for getting a stuck retail operation back on course. According to Moltz, real forward movement comes from shifting your views about business in general toward a more realistic appraisal of what defines success.

“Most people think that if you just work hard, you’ll be successful, but I say that it takes a lot more than hard work,” he explained. “Your timing in the market has to be right.”

Moltz pointed to Netflix as an example. Its founders originally wanted to mail customers VHS tapes but soon realized that the videos would be too bulky, expensive and inconvenient. Then DVDs burst onto the scene, offering the perfect solution.

“Their timing was right on that—it didn’t matter how hard they were going to work,” Moltz said. “I also believe that you’ve got to have a little bit of luck with the timing. I believe that the harder you work, the more you spread your risk and the luckier you get. But ‘overnight success’ usually takes seven to 10 years.”

Which means a retail owner must also view failure from a new perspective. Moltz sees a fine line between woefully “accepting” failure versus recognizing that it’s bound to happen.

“I think you have to realize that there’s going to be failure if you are pushing the envelope of any kind of business or business model,” he said. “The key thing isn’t accepting it; the key thing is what you do once you’ve failed. I always say that you can feel really sorry for yourself, have a pity party, cheer the darkness when you fail, but you have to let go of failure. You have to say, ‘Okay, this is what’s happened.’ You may not always understand why [a tactic] failed, but you have to go on and try something else. I believe it’s these patient, iterative steps that really get to where you want to go overall from a success standpoint.”

Moltz said that business owners should embrace the concept of “bouncing,” along with that new approach to failure.

“A lot of people talk about ‘bouncing back,’” he said. “But I think that when we bounce, we don’t always bounce back. Sometimes it takes us to a different place. It’s almost like a sailboat tacking across a windy lake. You can’t go straight to your target, so you’ve got to make a decision and see what happens. If you end up to the right of where you want to be, you make another decision that pushes you to the left. You make another decision, and it pushes you farther to the left. So these small, patient, iterative steps have you kind of bouncing all over the place. But you’re always trying to go to that general target.”

Having embraced new perspectives on work, success, failure and bouncing forward, the retail owner can next tackle the deeper behaviors that often hamper an enterprise.

1. Succumbing to Daily Distractions

From his frequent speaking engagements with small-business entrepreneurs, Moltz has met many who equate being busy with being productive, missing a crucial distinction.

“Being busy is doing stuff,” he said. “Being productive is focusing on the stuff that’s really important. It’s not a time issue. It’s an attention issue.”

To overcome that tendency, many efficiency experts recommend that retail owners go to work each day armed with a full to-do list and specific action items to tick off before checking e-mail, voice messages and social media. But Moltz recommended a slightly different approach: Each day, set aside two things you have to get done to consider the day successful. Then don’t let the day unfold haphazardly.

“Shut off all the time vampires,” he advised. “For a certain part of the day, for an hour during the day, shut off all your interruptions, whether electronic or in your office or whatever. Then decide the one or two things that you’re going to get done in that hour that will really make a difference to your business. Every single time you have a hard time focusing and want to interrupt yourself, just take a minute and go back to where you were. The hardest thing is to focus your attention, because our attention span is about eight seconds now, and goldfish attention spans are nine seconds.”

2. Not Constantly Marketing

Being small operations, many retailers concentrate on serving and making sales to immediate customers, then shifting to marketing efforts when there’s downtime or sales slack off. Or perhaps they don’t like to do marketing because they hate asking people to buy things.

“They become stuck because they don’t keep their pipeline full,” Moltz said. “They just wait for customers to come in. And you can’t do that. You have to do marketing all the time.”

That is because a retailer can’t actually sell anything to people who are unready to buy.

“If I don’t have the pain or the need that your [business] solves, I’m never going to buy from you,” he said. “But as soon as I have that pain or need, you want me to think of you as a possible alternative.”

That means constantly reminding potential customers that you’re there—preferably through automated systems for email marketing, content marketing, social media or regular advertising that can track where the leads are coming from.

“There are a lot of really easy tools out there,” Moltz noted. “You can hire a consultant for an hour if you want, but it doesn’t take a lot of time. The hardest part is actually planning the content of what you’re going to send out. What I suggest is just coming up with topics. For example, one of the topics might be ‘the most replaced part on a used car.’ That might be the title of an email, and it might point to a survey or some other thing that provides that result. At the least, it reminds people that you’re an expert in this area.”

3. Failing to Leverage Staff

A third common reason that a retail operation can sputter is a lack of delegation of critical roles and decision-making to staff. As Moltz put it, “Instead of it being more hierarchical where the employees that you hire are leveraged to make decisions and do their part in the business, your business remains stuck because you’re at the center of everybody, and every major decision goes through you. There is no leverage. Every person in the company is kind of your assistant, and that’s a problem, because unless you find leverage through employees, you don’t really have a company. You just have
a job.”

Ultimately, Moltz said, success in business relies less on big ideas and more on how entrepreneurs bring their ideas to fruition. We’ve all seen people succeed with an idea that we might have once thought of but never pursued. The difference is they did.

“That’s why business is all about the people,” Moltz emphasized. “There’s probably nothing unique that any of the readers and their businesses do that someone else couldn’t do. It’s the people executing it that make it unique.”

Barry Moltz is a small-business expert and a frequent speaker on getting businesses unstuck and related topics. He can be contacted at 773-837-8250 or through his website at www.barrymoltz.com.