#PRI30 – A Performance Racing Industry Trade Show Wrap-Up
Column By: NICHOLAS FILLMAN / RPW – INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The 30th annual Performance Racing Industry Show had yet another exciting weekend in the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis, and like always lead to a number of exciting announcements across a number of different racing series.
Northeast Modified promoter, Brett Deyo, was on hand at the 2017 PRI event, thanking his season long sponsors and looking to further improve his racing promotions at the Georgetown Speedway along with the Short Track Super Series.
Deyo has secured Sunoco Racing Fuel as a major sponsor of his North & South tours, and as the event sponsor for the 2018 edition of the “York County Nationals” at the new BAPS Auto Paints Speedway (Susquehanna).
He also signed Harry’s U-Pull It as the event sponsor for the North vs South series event at the Big Diamond Speedway in June.
Among the biggest announcements was a new partnership between Richard Childress Racing, and prominent USAC sprint car team Dooling Hayward Motorsports. The new alliance is more than just a technical partnership and is designed to hopefully create a development program that could lead to more opportunities in NASCAR for future drivers.
2017 Saw Broken Arrow, OK driver Brady Bacon behind the wheel of their spike chassis entry running non wing shows across the U.S. under the United States Auto Club banner. With the new alliance Bacon will again return to full time traveling duties with the USAC National Sprint tour where Bacon is a two time champion for Hoffman Auto Racing.
Bacon will also return for a full assault on the USAC midget tour with FMR Motorsports, a partial schedule for the USAC Silver Crown series, and running a number of winged races aboard his own 99 sprint car.
The new Dooling-Hayward-RCR announcement also came with the reveal that Tanner Thorson has left Keith Kunz Motorsports and will run select USAC National Midget series racing for the teams Midget department, starting with the 2018 Chili Bowl Nationals.
The team also has plans to run the 2018 Indiana Midget Week and potentially more events on the 2018 season.
Thorson will also drive for Tri-C motorsports in California when not running for the midget team. The 3c entry will again run with the King of the West 410 sprint series, the Sprint Car Challenge 360 series, and other shows across California in addition to WoO events.
Veteran wrench, Rusty Kunz will serve as the crew chief for Thorson at the Chili Bowl along with drivers Thomas Meseraull and Brayton Lynch in his own RKR entries, Brad Sweet in a second DHM, entry and assisting ASCS National Sprint tour driver Blake Hahn with his entry at the Chili Bowl.
2017 USAC National Sprint car champion Chris Windom was named as the driver and winner of the Tony Elliott Foundation opportunity to drive for Clauson-Marshall Racing at the 2018 Chili Bowl Nationals.
With Windom driving for CMR at the Chili Bowl, Arizona driver Stevie Sussex has been tabbed the driver of the Baldwin Brothers, Claxton 5 entry for the Chili Bowl, the ride usually piloted by Windom.
Clauson Marshall Racing also announced that they have selected driver “Sunshine” Tyler Courtney to be their driver in their first ever venture into sprint car racing and will follow the entire USAC National Sprint tour.
After leading the vast majority of the 2017 USAC National Sprint series points, only to be passed late in the season, Justin Grant and Sam McGhee Motorsports have amicably parted ways for the 2018 season. Sam, and brother Max McGhee, will follow the beginning part of the 2018 World of Outlaws season and assess their position following the western swing.
Grant, fresh onto the market, has found the empty seat of the TOPP Motorsports ride recently vacated by Tyler Courtney. Grant and TOPP will look to have the same success the each had in 2017 and contend for the USAC National Sprint Series Championship.
In IndyCar news, Jack Harvey has partnered with Michael Shank Racing for a six race deal in the IndyCar Series including the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500. Shank has partnered with established Indy team Schmidt Perterson Motorsports to make the deal happen.
The new rides of Bobby Pierce and Earl Pearson Jr were unveiled at the 2017 PRI show as they have found new opportunities in 2018.
Pearson left Dunn-Benson Motorsports and has a brand new Black Diamond Chassis #1 entry at his disposal for the 2018 season.
Pierce, the 21-year-old UMP late model champion and substantial winner across multiple late model sanctions, will move to the Dunn-Benson team for the 2018 season and will move to Rocket Chassis, rather than running his families own, Pierce Race Cars, that he has driven for the majority of his career.
Look for Pierce and Dunn-Benson to announce their 2018 series plans in January.
