Special Events & 1200+ Exhibiting Companies Make PRI Trade Show This December “The Three Biggest Business Days in Racing”
 

LAGUNA BEACH, CA – Racing industry professionals looking to accelerate business and get a fast start for 2010 will find the task begins this December, 2009, in Orlando, when the world’s largest hardcore racing trade show opens the doors to its exhibit aisles.

Special events and exhibits by over 1,200 motorsports companies in the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show will make Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December 10-12, 2009, the three biggest business days in racing.

More than 40,000 racing industry buyers from all 50 states, plus 60 countries, attended the PRI Trade Show last year in the North/South Building of the Orange County Convention Center, where the event takes up 1,000,000 square feet. Racing retailers, race engine builders, racing fabricators, WDs, professional race teams and more come to preview the latest advances in racing products, motorsports engineering and precision machining equipment.

The PRI Trade Show is timed for racing entrepreneurs to have the opportunity to conduct business face to face with racing industry suppliers, receive hands-on sales demonstrations of new racing products, make purchase decisions and have the components in stock for the start of the next racing season.

“The racing products and machinery that will provide new revenue streams and new sources of profit for racing entrepreneurs in 2010 will all be on display in Orlando,” said John Kilroy, editor of Performance Racing Industry magazine. “It’s a remarkable and unique opportunity for racing professionals to see it all in one hall—thousands of new racing products! There’s nothing like it.”

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By Jack Smith

Kevin Durden, the Archer Florida racer better known for his asphalt success and an occasional street stock race on clay, will be one of the drivers to watch closely this weekend. Kevin will be starting his first Powell Memorial on dirt at Ocala Speedway on Friday night, June 5th.

Durden, who has raced and won in just about everything on the hard track, began his dirt late model career in April of this year. His first outing was with the United Dirt Late Model Challenge Series at Penton Raceways in Alabama. He wrecked and really didn’t get to run, but the next night at East Alabama Motor Speedway, Durden drove his #56 late model to an 11th place finish.

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Two weeks later at North Florida Speedway he took his B-Main race and then finished 9th in the feature. Durden said, “It’s a lot of fun. I’ve raced just about everything else, asphalt, I’ve run some street stocks on dirt, but this is a new challenge, definitely a lot different than anything else I’ve done.”

A challenge it will be when the United Dirt Late Model Challenge Series takes the green flag for the 75 lap, $5,000 to win 14th Annual Powell Memorial. Top guns in the UDLMCS such as Jason Fitzgerald, Johnny Collins, Russell Brown Jr, Ivedent Lloyd Jr, Dillon Wood, Clay Bedenbaugh and Tyler Ivey are just a few of the tough competitors. Then there is Mark Whitener who has won three of the five races run this year in the UDLMCS.

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Two-time Bonneville land speed record holder and current Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Valerie Thompson has announced a partnership agreement with Team Marines Racing (TMR).

The deal struck with Team Marines will help generate additional marketing value for Thompson’s sponsors by providing associations with active duty, retired and future Marines and their families. The agreement will also help to generate revenues for the Wounded Warrior Project and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, two programs that exist to provide support to those who serve and preserve our freedoms.

“I could not be more excited about joining Team Marines Racing,” said Thompson, who competed in four NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events in 2008. “Our team has been looking for ways to give back to the Military and their families, which makes this a perfect fit. Their dedication and service to our country speaks for itself. We are proud to support the Wounded Warrior Project and the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.”

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RRUSA Media

This week the Inside Florida Racing show special guest is Lake Speed.

In 1978, a young American driver traveled to Lemans, France, and pulled a huge upset, winning the Karting World Championship race. On that day he bested, among others, the future Formula One star Ayrton Senna. And, he is still the only American to have won the Karting World Championship. That driver was Lake Speed.

The Karting World Championship began in 1964, and is ruled by the CIK-FIA. It takes place once a year, each year in a different country, and is the kart racing flagship event. Lake won six International Karting Federation championships in his early karting days.

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In 1980 after considering racing in other series such as Formula One, CART, and IMSA, and getting advice from current Lowe’s Motor Speedway promoter, Humpy Wheeler, Speed chose to go NASCAR racing. According to Speed, “It was the highest mountain to climb.”

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(l-r)Ryan Hunter Reay -Firehawk -Ryan Briscoe-J.R Hildebrand

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Tabbed an IndyCar Series title contender, Ryan Briscoe didn’t wish to quash the pre-season predictions. Sure there would be pressure to perform early in the diverse 17-race schedule, but the North Carolina-residing Aussie counted it as motivation.

In the late-afternoon sun of a perfect spring day along Tampa Bay, Briscoe held up under the heat … under the pressure of the season opener and multiple challengers over the final 14 laps on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course.

Briscoe gave Team Penske its 30th IndyCar Series victory in the season-opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg as he held off Ryan Hunter-Reay by 0.4619 of a second at the checkered flag of 100 laps of physical and mental stress. A sweat-soaked firesuit and blistered palms attested to that, though an unfailing wide smile emerged once unmasked.

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RRUSA Media

A great lineup of racers from around Florida for this month’s show from the dirt track located near Tampa, Florida.  The “Real Racin USA Live!” Internet radio show broadcasts live the third Thursday of each month from the Hall of Fame Cafe at the track.

 Currently the state’s top sprint car driver is Gene Lasker. Lasker talks about his beginnings at East Bay in the Street Stock, the move to sprints in 1990, and the success that has followed one of Florida’s most entertaining drivers.  Sprint car promoter Don Rehm, currently promoting the Top Gun Sprint Car Series (dirt) and the Checkered Flag Sprint Car Series (asphalt),  sits in with Gene and the two compare notes on the current sprint car scene.

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KARNAC MEDIA

Ryan Hunter-Reay, driver of the Rahal Letterman in the IndyCar Series in 2008, will be a special guest on Inside Florida Racing this Monday night. Rahal Letterman is co-owned by TV personality David Letterman.

Ryan Hunter-Reay is a former Kart racer, and will appear on IFR as part of the weekly Karting segment, hosted by CeCe Brooks, Rob Elting and Jack Smith.

The economy is affecting racing at every level and the IndyCar teams are no exception. The Rahal Letterman team is currently out of the 2009 season unless it can secure a sponsorship deal.
“Everybody knows about what’s going on in this economy, and things look pretty grim,” team co-owner Bobby Rahal said Thursday. “But we do have some sponsorship on board and what we’re still looking for is a primary sponsor.

Ryan Hunter-Reay finished 6th in the 2008 Indianapolis 500 and won at Watkins Glen.

Inside Florida Racing airs on RealRacinUSA.com every Monday night 7-9 PM and all shows are on Itunes and archived for on-demand listening.

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Ocala, Fl. (02/27/09) Once again Ocala Speedway was the site for the opening round of the United Dirt Late Model Challenge Series. This would also mark the fifty-seventh season opener of the historic Florida track. Drivers from all over the Southeast converged on the central Florida clay to make their bid for the 2009 Championship.

Before the racing action began Track Owners/Promoters Mike and Angie Peters were awarded the Real Racin’USA Promoters of the year for ’08 by Real Racin’USA/KARNAC.com owner Jack Smith for the outstanding job that made the track a huge success.

There was still a lot of moisture in the track when the field rolled out for qualifying. Most teams had a hard time early hooking up to the surface early but the speeds began to pick up as more drives took time.

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PALMETTO, Fla., Feb. 18 - Earning the 2008 team championship in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear was one thing; defending that title is another.

Andersen Racing continued to work towards that goal yesterday when it

conducted another test of two of its Star Mazda cars at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla., some 193 miles from the team’s home base at Andersen RacePark in Palmetto, Fla., and some 153 miles from the site of the Star Mazda season opener March 20 at Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Fla.

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BARBERVILLE, FL – Feb. 13, 2009 – Josh Richards is scrawling his name all over the 38^th annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH.

The 20-year-old sensation from Shinnston, W.Va., rolled to his second $10,000 victory in as many nights on Friday, capturing the mid-winter racing extravaganza’s 40-lap UMP DIRTcar Super Late Model finale at Volusia Speedway Park.

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Richards continued his February assault on dirt tracks in the Sunshine State, winning for the second time during the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH and fifth time overall in Florida over a one-week span. He authored a virtual repeat of his triumph in the previous night’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series season opener.

“To win three last week and two this week is pretty unreal,” said Richards, who joined Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., as the only drivers since 2004 to win the week-ending UMP DIRTcar special and a WoO LMS event during the same Alltel DIRTcar Nationals by UNOH. “It’s starting to sink in a little bit, but I still don’t even know what to say.

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KARNAC MEDIA

Saturday night at New Smyrna Speedway the Annual Pete Orr Memorial was run, as usual the final night of the World Series of Asphalt Stock car Racing. For the sixth time since Florida lost one of its most respected racers, the Pete Orr Sportsmanship Award was presented as part of the commemorative ceremonies.

This year the Award presented to Chad Pierce, a familiar face around the FASCAR tracks of New Smyrna Speedway and Orlando Speedworld for the last decade.

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When presented with the award, the usually spontaneous Pierce was at a loss for words, “Actually, I don’t even know what to say for once, I can’t talk.”

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As 2008 came to a close and a lot of racers were winding down for the year, the driver of the number 46 Billy Wells owned dirt late model was amping it up. Darrell Padgett won at Golden Isles Speedway, his first ever win in the National Late Model Series, and then had back to back wins at Volusia Speedway Park including the Holiday Convention Classic to end the year.

Darrell Padgett missed winning the non-members competition in the United Dirt Late Model Challenge Series by a mere 20 points, losing out to Patrick Williams in the closing laps at East Bay Raceway Park in November. Coming off the strong finish to end last year, in 2009 Padgett has set his sights on the UDLMCS championship.

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“We really jelled there at the end, we hit on some things setup wise and was able to close out strong.” Padgett said recently. This week he is at the Super Bowl of Racing, held each winter at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga. “Brunswick is one our favorite places to run, Brunswick and Volusia top our list, they’re both high speed and I guess kind of fit my driving style, and they promote a lot of passing usually and makes for good racing.”

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