Dirt Late Model Champ Rick Eckert to Share Setup Strategies at PRI Show
This year’s Race Industry Week, held in conjunction with the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Trade Show, could prove to be a big on-track winner for Dirt Late Model teams with the addition of the “Winning Setup Strategies for Dirt Late Models” chassis seminar, Friday, November 30.

The seminar will offer an opportunity to hear about winning engine and chassis strategies in Dirt Late Model racing. It’s designed particularly to provide information to those racing at local tracks and on regional tours. The panel discussion is being organized by Dick Berggren and Karl Fredrickson of Speedway Illustrated magazine.

Speakers will include Rick Eckert, 2011 World of Outlaws Late Model champion, who is currently second in points in the series. Eckert is the winner of the 1999 Dream at Eldora as well as many other major DLM events.

Roush-Yates Engine’s Jeff Clark will also share information about today’s high-performance dirt late-model engines. Clark is highly regarded as an expert in the race-engine field with experience across a broad array of on-track powerplant disciplines. A third major speaker will be added.

The “Winning Setup Strategies for Dirt Late Models" is one of more than 35 special events during Race Industry Week that will take place in conjunction with this year’s PRI Trade Show, which will run November 30– December 1, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. The 25th Annual PRI Trade Show features the latest product lines of more than 1,000 manufacturers of racing and high-performance automotive components, as well as precision machining equipment. It will be attended by approximately 38,000 racing business people from all over the United States and from 70 countries. For more information, visit www.performanceracing.com/tradeshow.

	FOX-sponsored athletes Jesse Jones and Bryce Menzies are teaming up once again to drive the FOX OFFROAD Racing trophy-truck in the Baja 1000.

FOX Athletes Jesse Jones and Bryce Menzies Join Forces at 45th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
FOX-sponsored athletes Jesse Jones and Bryce Menzies are teaming up once again in Baja. They first teamed up at the 2012 Baja 500 sharing pits and logistics. The move paid off, netting Menzies the overall win and his second consecutive Baja 500 win and Jones reaching the podium in third place. They're stepping up their collaboration for the Baja 1000 by sharing driving duties of Jones' FOX OFFROAD Racing trophy-truck.

The 45th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 is a point-to-point peninsula run that starts in Ensenada, Baja California Sur and finishes 1,121.55 miles south in La Paz, Baja California Sur.

Optimum G Advanced Vehicle Dynamics Seminar Returns To Race Industry Week
After a successful opening run in 2011, long-time race engineer Claude Rouelle will return to Orlando with his “Advanced Vehicle Dynamics & Data Acquisition” seminar, November 26–28, as part of Race Industry Week in conjunction with the 25h annual PRI Trade Show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

The Advanced Vehicle Dynamics Seminar joins the AETC as one of two kick-off events to Race Industry Week—the week-long racing business extravaganza leading into this year’s PRI Trade Show.

The seminar is designed to help teams and designers not only learn about finding the correct setup, but also about understanding why a setup change is working or not working, and knowing how to quantify this advantage. It will aid in understanding how, why and how much certain factors affect vehicle behavior, rather than relying on experience and intuition.

Rouelle's career includes experience as technical advisor and manager on dozens of circuits and rallies, including the European Rally Championship, European Touring Car Championship, French Formula 3, Japanese F3000, Formula One and the CART series. In 1997, he created OptimumG, a consulting company that specializes in race car engineering and data acquisition through software development, consulting services and seminars.

Topics scheduled to be addressed in the three-day seminar include: tires, aerodynamics, kinematics, steady state weight transfer, shocks, ride and transient weight transfers, data acquisition, and car design, tuning modification and chassis setup. There is a fee to attend.

The OptimumG seminar is one of eight major events taking place in conjunction with this year’s PRI Trade Show, which will run November 29–December1, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. Overall, “Race Industry Week” is scheduled to include more than 35 special events to be held in conjunction with the 2012 Show.

For more information, visit www.performanceracing.com/tradeshow.

	Falken Tire will continue participation in the American Le Mans Series, Formula Drift, King of the Hammers and Supercross.

Falken Tire "Waves the Green" for an Expansive Motorsports Program for 2013
Falken Tire will continue participation in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Formula Drift, King of the Hammers and Supercross.

 In the GT Class, ALMS competition, Falken engineers continue to ramp up further as Falken plans an “intense testing schedule in 2013,” according to Derrick Walker, who will return for his third year as team manager of Falken’s ALMS program. Both Bryan Sellers and Wolf Henzler, who have scored three victories in their two years together as co-drivers of the Team Falken Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, will continue their partnership in 2013. The ALMS will merge with its road-racing counterpart—the Grand Am series—in 2014 to form a single North American sanctioning body and racing program.

In Formula Drift, Team Falken will return with a three-car lineup featuring Justin Pawlak in his ’13 Mustang GT; Darren McNamara, driving a new V8-powered Nissan S14; and Daijiro Yoshihara, who will again enter his 2011 Championship-winning Nissan S13, however, though a new collaborative effort with Subaru, Yoshihara will campaign a new BRZ in 2014 with heavy development and testing takings place throughout the 2013 calendar year.

Falken Tire will expand its off-road program when the brand enters the 2013 King of the Hammers competition with Japan-based Team Tsuda Racing as well as supporting Race Prep Racing for a second year. Tsuda Racing features Driver Masa Tsuda and Co-driver Daiten Izumi, and Race Prep will have Driver Richard Carte and Co-driver Kristen Carter on board. Both teams will run on WildPeak All-Terrain tread.

More than 30,000 fans converge at Means Dry Lake in Johnson Valley, California, to form “Hammer Town”—a makeshift city made up of RVs and campers. Falken will also have a base of operations there, providing tire support to its teams and distributing Falken products and team “swag” to its neighbors during the week-long event.



Falken Tire also recently announced the signing of its second multiyear contract as the Official Passenger Car and Truck of AMA Supercross as well as with the series’ 2012 Champion, Ryan Villopoto, who has won back-to-back titles.

	The new co-sponsors for the 2013 Induction Banquet for the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame are the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and Summit Racing Equipment.

International Drag Racing Hall of Fame Announces Major Sponsors
Don Garlits, chairman of the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing (Ocala, Florida) has introduced two new co-sponsors for the 2013 Induction Banquet for the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, based at the museum.

The new co-sponsors are the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) [Glendora, California] and Summit Racing Equipment (Tallmadge, Ohio).

The event will be known as the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame Induction Banquet presented by NHRA and Summit Racing, and will be held at the Paramount Plaza Hotel & Suites (Gainesville, Florida) Thursday, March 14, 2013, preceding the NHRA Gatornationals. The 2013 class of inductees include: Dave Boertman (Norton Shores, Michigan), Wally Booth (Beverly Hills, Michigan), Bernie Fedderly (Brownsburg, Indiana), Harry Hibler (Shadow Hills, California), Hirata, Hobbs & Vodnik – Kenny Hirata (Lowell, Indiana), Phil Hobbs (Greenwood, Indiana) and Bobby Vodnik (Oak Forest, Illinois), K.S. (Tiger) Pittman (Springfield, Missouri), Dick Rosberg (Rockingham, North Carolina) and Louis Senter (Encino, California); and the Founders Award – Dr. Robert C. Post, PhD (Easton, Maryland).

To get tickets to the ceremony, call 877-271-3278 or e-mail Donna Garlits at donna@garlits.com.

While these photos were originally shot June of this year, the crew at Brenda Priddy & Co. has been receiving a lot of interest in the ’13 Dodge Challenger as the anticipated introduction at the North American International Auto Show draws closer.

According to Priddy, major changes are in store for the Challenger lineup for the 2015 model year—including renaming the car Barracuda. However, based on these photos, a mid-cycle facelift will be taking place very shortly, as well as a rumored supercharged engine with 550 hp.

It appears the updated Challenger may be getting more a Charger-type/Dodge-styled grille (the center-vertical bar is visible through the camouflage), updated headlamps and a larger air intake down low—not to mention a boost in horsepower.

Photo Copyright: Brenda Priddy & Co.

While these photos were originally shot June of this year, the crew at Brenda Priddy & Co. has been receiving a lot of interest in the ’13 Dodge Challenger as the anticipated introduction at the North American International Auto Show draws closer.

According to Priddy, major changes are in store for the Challenger lineup for the 2015 model year—including renaming the car Barracuda. However, based on these photos, a mid-cycle facelift will be taking place very shortly, as well as a rumored supercharged engine with 550 hp.

It appears the updated Challenger may be getting more a Charger-type/Dodge-styled grille (the center-vertical bar is visible through the camouflage), updated headlamps and a larger air intake down low—not to mention a boost in horsepower.

Photo Copyright: Brenda Priddy & Co.

	Showgoers view the Toyota HiLux, which SEMA imported from the Middle East.

More than 100 companies have signed up to measure the 2012 Toyota HiLux—a compact pickup popular globally but not sold in the United States. SEMA imported the vehicle in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide an opportunity for members to measure it and create export-ready products.

In the short time since the vehicle arrived in the United States in mid-July, 18 SEMA members already have created product, which were displayed at the SEMA Show.

SEMA members exhibiting products for the HiLux at the Show included:

• American Racing
• AMP RESEARCH
• ATS Design
• C.R. Laurence Co. Inc.
• Cequent Performance Products
• Dynatrac Products Co. Inc.
• Firestone Industrial Products
• Hellwig Products
• Husky Liners
• JRi Shocks
• K&N Engineering
• McGard LLC
• OMIX-ADA
• Penda Corp.
• Rugged Liner Inc.
• Stampede Products
• Timbren Industries Inc.
• Truck Covers USA

	Showgoers view the Toyota HiLux, which SEMA imported from the Middle East.

More than 100 companies have signed up to measure the 2012 Toyota HiLux—a compact pickup popular globally but not sold in the United States. SEMA imported the vehicle in partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce to provide an opportunity for members to measure it and create export-ready products.

In the short time since the vehicle arrived in the United States in mid-July, 18 SEMA members already have created product, which were displayed at the SEMA Show.

SEMA members exhibiting products for the HiLux at the Show included:

• American Racing
• AMP RESEARCH
• ATS Design
• C.R. Laurence Co. Inc.
• Cequent Performance Products
• Dynatrac Products Co. Inc.
• Firestone Industrial Products
• Hellwig Products
• Husky Liners
• JRi Shocks
• K&N Engineering
• McGard LLC
• OMIX-ADA
• Penda Corp.
• Rugged Liner Inc.
• Stampede Products
• Timbren Industries Inc.
• Truck Covers USA

Kyle Busch's "Rowdy Edition Camry" was named the winner of the 2012 Toyota Racing Dream Build Challenge.

Kyle Busch and his creation known as the "Rowdy Edition Camry" was named the winner of the 2012 Toyota Racing Dream Build Challenge. As the first-place winner, Busch received $50,000 for his designated charity, with second place receiving $25,000, third place $15,000 and fourth place $10,000. The announcement was made last week at Toyota's SEMA Show press conference by television racing commentator and "Top Gear USA" host Rutledge Wood.

Announced earlier this year, the Toyota Racing Dream Build Challenge was a vehicle-modification build competition where fans determined the winner among four Toyota Racing drivers who were competing for charity. Fans were invited to vote via Facebook for their favorite vehicle, customized with parts and accessories available through TRD, begging near the end of October.

View the video of the Toyota Press Conference at the 2012 SEMA Show.

Kyle Busch's "Rowdy Edition Camry" was named the winner of the 2012 Toyota Racing Dream Build Challenge.

Kyle Busch and his creation known as the "Rowdy Edition Camry" was named the winner of the 2012 Toyota Racing Dream Build Challenge. As the first-place winner, Busch received $50,000 for his designated charity, with second place receiving $25,000, third place $15,000 and fourth place $10,000. The announcement was made last week at Toyota's SEMA Show press conference by television racing commentator and "Top Gear USA" host Rutledge Wood.

Announced earlier this year, the Toyota Racing Dream Build Challenge was a vehicle-modification build competition where fans determined the winner among four Toyota Racing drivers who were competing for charity. Fans were invited to vote via Facebook for their favorite vehicle, customized with parts and accessories available through TRD, begging near the end of October.

View the video of the Toyota Press Conference at the 2012 SEMA Show.

	All active and retired military personnel receive free admission for the Goodguys 23rd Autumn Get-Together, Sunday, November 11, at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, California.

Free Admission for Military Personnel at Goodguys 23rd Autumn Get-Together
The Goodguys Rod & Custom Association and Specialty Sales Classics have teamed up to offer FREE admission to all active and retired military personnel for the Goodguys 23rd Autumn Get-Together, Sunday, November 11, at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, California. The two-day automotive event features more than 2,500 American-powered hot rods, custom cars, classics, trucks, musclecars and street machines of all years, makes and models. The event also includes vendor exhibits, a giant swap meet and car corral, Goodguys AutoCross and more. All U.S. Military will be admitted for FREE (valid military ID required for admission) Sunday, November 11, for a special Veteran’s Day celebration. The U.S. Color Guard will post the colors during a special ceremony at high noon at the main stage. Other festive Veteran’s Day activities will also be featured.

Transamerican Auto Parts Names Jim Jackson International Sales Manager
Transamerican Auto Parts Company hired Jim Jackson as international sales manager, a newly created position for the company. According to Transamerican, Jackson is highly regarded in the automotive aftermarket industry, most recently serving as president of ARB USA/Air Locker Inc. for 23 years. Prior to that, Jackson was the international sales manager for six years at Warn International. Although Jackson's duties will require travel, he is based at Transamerican Auto Parts' headquarters in Compton, California.

Pictured left to right: Mitch Fogle, president, Lund International; Gary Disher, Niagara Truck 'N' Stuff; and Ed Orzetti, president & CEO,  Keystone Automotive Operations Inc.

Keystone Automotive, Lund International Give Away Chevrolet Silverado
Keystone Automotive and Lund International teamed up to offer one lucky Keystone customer a chance to win a customized ’12 Chevrolet Silverado for supporting and promoting the Lund International family of products. The contest, which began March 3 and ended October 1, was open to customers purchasing LUND and AVS products who earned entries to become one of the five finalists with a chance at picking the key to the giveaway vehicle. The five finalists were flown into Las Vegas for a three-night stay and VIP Tour of the  2012 SEMA Show. The final event - the grand prize drawing—took place in Last Vegas, at the SW Steakhouse on October 31, 2012, and Gary Disher was the grand prize winner of the customized Silverado.  

John Nodson to Serve as Vice President for Marx Group Advisors
Marx Group Advisors named John Nodson as the company's vice president. He will be responsible for providing hands-on experience as an analyst and dealmaker for acquisitions and divestitures. Nodson is also an advisory board member of Marx Group Advisors. According to the Marx Group Advisors, Nodson was with Standard Motor Products for 35 years, most recently as director of marketing, where he provided leadership for business units building and managing multiple brands and full lines of engine management, brake products and retail accessories. Since 2009, Nodson has been the vice president of research for The Marx Group, an allied organization of Marx Group Advisors that specializes in marketing communications in the automotive and commercial vehicle aftermarket. In that role he has been managing the market research department, including primary and secondary research, focus groups and online studies. He also works with major data providers to help clients select the right information to incorporate into customized data analyses.  

	SEMA Mustang Build Powered by Women, better known as “High Gear,” is now available for auction to raise money for the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund.

The SEMA Mustang Build Powered by Women, better known as “High Gear,” debuted in the Ford Motor Co. booth on the opening day of the 2012 SEMA Show. The ’13 Mustang GT is now available for auction to raise money for the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund. To place your bid or learn more details about the Mustang and auction, visit www.sema.org/auctions.

The Mustang Build made national headlines during the summer when more than 40 women volunteered their time and expertise to customize the vehicle in less than two months.

The SBN launched the project to showcase the talented women of the automotive industry. With SEMA and Ford Motor Co. teaming up for the build, an additional 40-plus SEMA-member companies donated products and services, which include custom paint, customized wheels, a custom leather interior, high-performance suspension and a new supercharger autographed by industry legend Vic Edelbrock.

“This project could not have happened without the amazing support between SEMA, Ford Motor Co., Source Interlink Media (SIM), along with the many manufacturers who provided product for the Mustang and our awesome women build team members,” said Rose Kawasaki, SBN Vehicle Build Task Force chair.

“This project has confirmed the fact that there are a group of passionate female enthusiasts in the automotive industry, and this was an ideal undertaking to showcase the talent of women in our industry,” said Doug Evans, executive vice president for Source Interlink Media. SIM, which publishes dozens of leading automotive publications, including Hot Rod magazine, was an active partner in the SEMA Mustang Build, which hosted much of the build at its headquarters in El Segundo, California.

More information SEMA Mustang Build website is available online at www.sema.org/sema-mustang-build. More information on the SBN is available at www.sema.org/sbn or by contacting Bryan Harrison at BryanH@sema.org or 909-978-6691.

	SEMA Mustang Build Powered by Women, better known as “High Gear,” is now available for auction to raise money for the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund.

The SEMA Mustang Build Powered by Women, better known as “High Gear,” debuted in the Ford Motor Co. booth on the opening day of the 2012 SEMA Show. The ’13 Mustang GT is now available for auction to raise money for the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund. To place your bid or learn more details about the Mustang and auction, visit www.sema.org/auctions.

The Mustang Build made national headlines during the summer when more than 40 women volunteered their time and expertise to customize the vehicle in less than two months.

The SBN launched the project to showcase the talented women of the automotive industry. With SEMA and Ford Motor Co. teaming up for the build, an additional 40-plus SEMA-member companies donated products and services, which include custom paint, customized wheels, a custom leather interior, high-performance suspension and a new supercharger autographed by industry legend Vic Edelbrock.

“This project could not have happened without the amazing support between SEMA, Ford Motor Co., Source Interlink Media (SIM), along with the many manufacturers who provided product for the Mustang and our awesome women build team members,” said Rose Kawasaki, SBN Vehicle Build Task Force chair.

“This project has confirmed the fact that there are a group of passionate female enthusiasts in the automotive industry, and this was an ideal undertaking to showcase the talent of women in our industry,” said Doug Evans, executive vice president for Source Interlink Media. SIM, which publishes dozens of leading automotive publications, including Hot Rod magazine, was an active partner in the SEMA Mustang Build, which hosted much of the build at its headquarters in El Segundo, California.

More information SEMA Mustang Build website is available online at www.sema.org/sema-mustang-build. More information on the SBN is available at www.sema.org/sbn or by contacting Bryan Harrison at BryanH@sema.org or 909-978-6691.