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BIG CROWDS FILL THE AISLES DURING THREE DAY MOTORSPORTS 2012 SHOW
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Tony Stewart’s # 14 Sprint Cup car at Motorsports 2012
NEWS FROM:
MOTORSPORTS 2012 PRESENTED BY VP’S SEF SMALL ENGINE FUELS
RACE CAR AND TRADE SHOW
Promoter: Len Sammons @ 609.888.3618
MEDIA CONTACT: Ernie Saxton Communications, Inc.
Ernie Saxton @ 215.752.7797
Fax: 215.752.1518
Cell: 267.934.7286
Email: Esaxton144@aol.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PLEASE WITH OUR THANKS
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BIG CROWDS MAKE MOTORSPORTS 2012 A SUCCESS STORY FOR 27TH YEAR
OAKS, PA January 23, 2011 . . . Large crowds jammed the aisles and exhibitors did brisk business at the Motorsports 2012 Presented by SEF Small Engine Fuels Race Car and Trade Show. Racers, fans and promoters filled the three day show at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center to see just about everything imaginable in motorsports. Attendance was up considerably over past years for Friday and on the closing day, Sunday. A big crowd filled the Expo on Saturday despite the first winter storm to hit the area this season.
NASCAR Sprint Cup star Matt Kenseth, four time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday, drag racing legend Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins, five time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion crew chief Chad Knaus, former NASCAR star now SPEED TV personality Jimmy Spencer and a host of other well known figures in the sport were on hand to visit with fans and sign autographs.
“Our sales were good this year and every year. We know the market, the people know we are going to be here and give them good prices,” said Jeff Behrent of Behrent’s Performance Warehouse (Florida, NY).
Other vendors, filling more than 600 exhibit areas, shared the same enthusiasm about the show with several already making plans to return with the show takes place again in January, 2013.
No less than 250 race vehicles representing a wide variety of motorsports were won display and enjoyed by the fans.
Attendees also had the opportunity to visit various speedway displays collecting information on the 2012 season that will help them make plans for the events they want to attend.
“We do this show to meet the racing public, get exposure, and give something back to the sport, “ said VP Racing Fuels’ Fred Turza. “The Motorsports show has been excellent for what we are trying to achieve.”
One of the many highlights of the show was the annual BPG Racing Ms Motorsports Pageant won this year by Ms. Samantha Legas. The 20-year-old resident of Savannah, NY picked up $1,500 as the new Ms. Motorsports and will now represent the show through a number of personal appearances at motorsports events throughout 2012.
“I never expected to win Ms. Motorsports since I never had entered a pageant before,” said Legas. “I enjoy modeling, I enjoy racing and this is an opportunity to do both. I’m really looking forward to it.”
First Runner-up was 21-year-old Kasey Missimer of Bechtelsville, PA representing NASCAR sanctioned Grandview Speedway. Kasey also has the opportunity to be Miss AARN. Should Legas not be able to fulfill her obligations as Ms. Motorsports Kasey would step in.
Second Runner-up honors went to Mindy English of Addison, NY. The Dangerous Wines Swimsuit Winner was Kimmie Trout of Reading, PA.
The MetalFab sponsored Sunday activities included the Little Miss Motorsports Pageant with eight year old Carlee Strunk, daughter of 358 Modified racer Glenn Strunk, of Bechtelsville, PA earning the title. First Runner-up was Brianna Carter of New Egypt, NJ with Second Runner-up honors going to Kylie Murray of Pottstown, PA.
In the Tiny Miss Motorsports Pageant seven year old Samantha Idele of Southampton, NJ walked off with the top prize while First Runner-up honors went to Raclyn Eisenhard who calls Reading, PA home. Second Runner-up was Samantha Grice of Newark, Delaware.
Also on Sunday Joshua Fisher lead Jacob Reinfendifer and Cody West across the finish line in the 7-9 bracket of the Big Wheel racing action. Shane Rothman was tops in the 5-6 year old class with Bryce Smith and Gunnar Zeiner (son of late model racer Zane Zeiner) following. Mia Hirschman, granddaughter of asphalt modified racer Tony Hirschman Sr., won the 3-4 year old feature with Mackenzie Adams and Lainden Hinds finishing second and third.
Best Booth Awards were earned by:
Best In Show: Four Star Lettering
Best Commercial Booth: DMI
Best Quarter Midget Booth: Doylestown Quarter Midgets (Honeybrook)
Best Vintage Club: Garden State Vintage Stock Car Club
Best Speedway Booth: NASCAR sanctioned Grandview Speedway
Best Car Award went to:
Best Stock Car: Matt Jester (BD Media Booth)
Best Open Cockpit Car: Nick Schlauch, Sr. (Lincoln Speedway Booth)
Best Drag Car: Mike Clayboss 1970 Buick (VP Booth)
Best Vintage Stock Car: Frankie Schneider Sedan (Nazareth Reunion)
Best Vintage Open Cockpit Car: “White Phantom” (Flemington Historical)
Plans for the 2013 edition the Motorsports show will be announced shortly. Companies wishing to get on the mailing list to receive 2013 exhibitor information, which will be available in less than a month, can do so by writing to motorsports@aarn.com. Fans can also join the mailing list by writing to the same address.
“We would love to hear from show attendees/fans/racers with their opinions about the show,” said show producer Len Sammons. “We are always looking for suggestions regarding the show. We think we had a great show this time around but we always feel there is room for improvement.”
MEDIA NOTE: Our thanks to all of you for making this another successful event. Ernie Saxton on behalf of Len Sammons Productions.
ERNIE SAXTON COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Motorsports Marketing - Sponsorship Consultant
Columnist- Broadcaster
215.752.7797 - PA. Office
386-677-5152 - Florida until March 16
267.934.7286 - cell/text
Esaxton144@aol.com
www.saxtonsponsormarket.com
NASCAR Season Off to a Rough Start
Posted by: | CommentsNASCAR Sprint Cup drivers appeared a bit rusty in today’s practice sessions for Saturday’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. When the smoke cleared, six Cup cars were trashed by crashes involving seven drivers.
The first incident occurred just 20 minutes into the first practice session when Denny Hamlin tapped Mark Martin going into turn 1, triggering a wreck that also collected Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer (subbing for an ill Kevin Harvick) and Jamie McMurray.
The second practice session didn’t fair much better, as Juan Montoya bumped Kurt Busch into the frontstretch wall just three minutes after the track went green.
All but Juan Montoya had to pull out back-up cars.
Jeff Burton topped the first practice session at 193.303 mph. Kasey Kahne was fastest in the second session at 191.673 mph.
Two practice sessions are scheduled Friday for the Daytona 500 (2:00pm ET and 4:00pm ET). The Budweiser Shootout will kick off the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season at 8:00pm ET on Saturday.
Mustang to Make NASCAR Debut in 2010
Posted by: | CommentsFord Motorsports announced Tuesday that its Mustang model will make its NASCAR debut in 2010. It’ll be the first time the Mustang brand has competed in NASCAR and the first Ford coupe in the Nationwide Series since the 1997 Thunderbird. The new Mustang will be coordinated with NASCAR’s transition of the Nationwide Series’ cars to the “Car of Tomorrow” platform. The platform will be nearly identical to that currently used in the Sprint Cup division, however the plan is to use different body styles in the Nationwide Series.
Image of 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series Ford Mustang, courtesy Ford Motorsports.
NASCAR expects to phase in the new car over 5 or 6 races in the 2010 season before employing the car full-time in 2011. The Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota manufacturers have not officially announced which model they intend to submit for the new car design, however Dodge is rumored to propose its Challenger brand for 2010. NASCAR is interested in differentiating body styles from its highly-criticized Sprint Cup COT. According to a release made available from NASCAR.com, the new Nationwide car will sport a rear spoiler (rather than a wing) and a spring front suspension (rather than bump stops). The front splitter will apparently carry over from the Sprint Cup COT.
Ford Motorsports claims the Mustang has accumulated over 2,000 professional race victories. The fifth-generation Ford Mustang has enjoyed success in the KONI Challenge, SCCA Speed World Challenge and Formula Drift events. Ford has competed in the NASCAR Nationwide Series since its inception in 1982 under various brand names: Fairmont (1982-1986), Mercury Cougar (1984), Thunderbird (1987-1997), Taurus (1998-2005), and Fusion (2006-Present).
Click here to read the press release from Ford Racing.
Here’s my take on it: I think this is a great step in the right direction for NASCAR and the car manufacturers. It seems that NASCAR is taking a conservative approach with the new car’s debut; I think they could have been more aggressive though. While it’s certainly an improvement over the Sprint Cup COT — “let’s just put headlight decals on the thing and pretend it’s a stock car” — they could have gone a little further and allowed a more stock body and — dare I say — allowed the various makes to have different downforce numbers.
Why not take the guts of the COT platform (e.g., the frame, etc.) and throw a fully stock body on top of it? Drop in a front valence and rear spoiler for safety and then let them drive it. No headlight decals allowed. Whoever builds the better car wins. And it would be great to have something that handles dramatically different than the Sprint Cup cars to throw those drivers for a loop. Let the manufacturers duke it out for a little added drama.
We’ll see how it goes. It has to be better than the Fusion.
Happy Harvick Not So Happy?
Posted by: | CommentsTim Tuttle at SI.com, citing “multiple sources”, is reporting that Kevin Harvick is asking out of his contract with Richard Childress Racing (RCR) after this season. Harvick has another year remaining on the contract, but according to the report he is looking to move over to Stewart-Haas Racing, perhaps taking sponsor Shell/Pennzoil with him.
RCR has had a poor season so far in 2009 and Harvick is mired back in 25th in the point standings, pretty much putting him out of contention for the championship. Meanwhile Tony Stewart has had a remarkable season with his new team, posting fifteen Top-10s and two wins. Stewart leads the driver standings by 175 points over Jeff Gordon. The NASCAR Sprint Cup season passed the halfway point after Sunday’s race at Chicagoland.
Harvick stepped into the RCR #29 team after Dale Earnhardt was fatally injured at Daytona in 2001. The team changed numbers from 3 to 29 out of respect for Earnhardt. In just his third start for the team, Harvick posted his first win in a photo finish at the Atlanta race in March.
Harvick has not won a Sprint Cup race since the 2007 Daytona 500.
Weatherman For Hire
Posted by: | CommentsI find it interesting to see how often drivers are able to “steal” a victory of sorts by gambling on the weather. Oftentimes it’s the teams that can afford to actually take the chance (e.g., those that have little to lose) that actually go through with it, but it’s not unusual to see a team successfully pull it off once or twice a season.
With the modern advances in both weather and computer technology a team is capable of making much better judgments about the changing weather conditions than, say, 10-15 years ago.
Weather radar can now be brought down to street-level precision — more than enough to identify a race track on the map. Precipitation is displayed real-time with both direction and speed, allowing for one to determine whether the shower is going to affect the track and if so, exactly when it should arrive. Furthermore, rainfall rates and duration can be analyzed to determine if the shower is going to just wet down the track, or be enough to wash out the remainder of the race.
Now I’m not necessarily suggesting that each team go out and hire a certified meteorologist (though I wouldn’t be surprised if teams had them already, perhaps to predict the weekend’s forecast to help the crew chief with the car’s setup), but in these large teams that have 50, 100, or 200+ employees, you’d have to believe that they would have 1 or 2 that are weather enthusiasts that are sufficiently equipped to find and interpret weather data.
If rain is forecast for race day… wouldn’t you want such a person in your pit area?
John Calla is a professional meteorologist. He has over 15 years experience watching The Weather Channel and 25 years experience shoveling snow. He also took an introductory level meteorology class in college. Mr. Calla will work for food.
FOX: GM to Scale Back NASCAR Support
Posted by: | CommentsUnder its bankruptcy restructuring plan, General Motors is expected to scale back support of NASCAR Nationwide and Truck Series teams, according to a report from FOXSports.com, which attributed the story to the SportsBusiness Journal.
The cost-cutting measures are likely to have the greatest affect on larger organizations, such as Kevin Harvick Inc., which fields teams in both series, and Rusty Wallace Inc. and JR Motorsports, which field teams in the Nationwide Series, according to SportsBusiness Journal’s Michael Smith, who wrote the story.
As Smith points out, support from manufacturers typically comes in the forms of engines, parts and cash. In most cases, factory support goes to larger, more substantial organizations, while smaller teams receive little assistance, if any.
GM participates in NASCAR’s top three touring series under the Chevrolet brand.
Eury Jr. Out, McGrew In
Posted by: | CommentsHendrick Motorsports announced today that Tony Eury Jr. will be replaced as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Lance McGrew will step in as acting crew chief effective with the June 7 Pocono 500. Eury will move on to a research and development position within Hendrick Motorsports.
McGrew has one Sprint Cup win, the 2006 Talladega 500 with Brian Vickers.
“Our performance hasn’t been where it should be,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “It’s impossible to pin that on any one factor, but a change is the right decision at this point. We have a plan in place, and we’re going to move forward with it.”
This change has been a long time coming. Earnhardt Jr. is mired back in 19th in the points standings and since moving to Hendrick Motorsports has only a single win on a fuel mileage run at last year’s Michigan 400. Meanwhile teammates Jeff Gordon (points leader), Jimmie Johnson (4th) and Mark Martin (12th) have experienced wins in 2009.
See the full press release from Hendrick Motorsports.
Town Hall Meeting?
Did anyone else get a little queasy when they heard that NASCAR held a “town hall”-style meeting on Tuesday? The purpose of the meeting was to examine some of the difficulties facing the sport in recent times (read: declining interest / TV ratings). I mean at first it sounded like a great idea… until I heard that it was going to be for car owners and drivers only.
I applaud NASCAR for acknowledging that there are problems and looking to address them before it’s too late. Ostrich-like behavior, after all, is rarely ever rewarded. But NASCAR needs to stop listening to car owners and drivers and start listening to THE FANS.
Most of the tumultuous change heaped on the sport in recent years — often pushed by the car owners and drivers through NASCAR — has been met with much opposition by the fan base. The “Car of Tomorrow”. The schedule “Re-Alignment”. All the crazy rules they have now. Fans didn’t want any of this stuff… they complained when it was proposed… they complained when it was implemented… and now they’re voicing their complaints with their feet and remote controls.
Hopefully NASCAR will listen to the right people before it’s too late.
Was Carl Long in Attendance?
Carl Long is both an owner and a driver… I wonder if he was invited to the town hall meeting? His mere presence would have been enough to point out what’s wrong with the new NASCAR.
Long is a throwback to old-school NASCAR: an average guy with not a lot of money running an independent team — all for the thrill of racing. He attempted to enter the non-points paying Sprint All-Star event through the Sprint Showdown qualifier. Before the race he blew his motor and sent it to NASCAR for tech inspection where they found it to be oversized by 0.17 cubic inches. Yeah, that’s right — 0.17.
His crew chief, Charles Swing — another average guy –, was fined $200,000 (!) and both he and Long were placed on a 12-race suspension. Long was also penalized 200 championship points, which is interesting since he currently has ZERO because he hasn’t qualified for any 2009 events.
Now where the hell is this guy going to get $200,000?
It’s clear: NASCAR’s intention is to simply ruin the guy, plain and simple.
