Performance Racing Industry Trade Show
Updates from the final day of PRI show
Day three of the PRI trade show. (DirtonDirt.com)
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Dec. 14) — The Indiana Convention Center doors reopen Saturday morning for the third and final day at the 32nd annual Performance Racing Industry Trade Show, where more than 30,000 attendees are expected to check out 1,100 companies, including many with a Dirt Late Model focus. Saturday’s blog-style notebook (complete PRI coverage):
2:55 p.m. | PRI wrapping up
With the aisles significantly thinning inside the Indiana Convention Center after lunch, the 32nd annual Performance Racing Industry Trade Show is coming to a close. If you couldn’t attend or perhaps missed some of DirtonDirt.com’s coverage, simply look back through the PRI Index Page to catch up.
2:40 p.m. | Quick turnaround
On the final day of PRI, Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., had perhaps a greater sense of urgency than in years past. Erb, who made the move from the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series to the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series last year, will once again follow the WoO tour. This year, however, the series will jumpstart its season in early January at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park, taking competitors on a Western swing before heading to Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park in February.
“We’re gonna do our best (to be ready),” said Erb, who finished sixth in WoO points with eight top-five finishes in 41 starts in 2019. “We haven’t had to do that before. Usually we’d have the whole month of January to get ready. Now, getting ready to race on New Year’s is a really quick turnaround. You know, we’re just trying to get everything lined up, keep everything maintenanced up and we have to work a little bit faster and harder.”
Standing at the Keyser, Mfg., booth, Erb, who recorded four victories overall this season, including a $10,000 World 100 prelim triumph, said he’s making rounds as usual on Saturday before heading back to Illinois to continue preparations for the upcoming season.
“The biggest thing is just coming to all the products people and give them a thanks. Tell them that we appreciate all the things they do for us and see if there’s anything new out there and go from there.”
1:05 p.m. | To scale or not to scale
For years, drivers have gone through the process of putting their cars on a set of scales and calculating weights to help formulate winning chassis setups. There’s cross weight, left side weight, left rear weight and more. Drivers religiously calculated and re-calculated their percentages. And for 40 years the Minnesota-based Intercomp Company has been synonymous with scales.
Lately, however, there’s been a trend away from scales as teams use other means to setup their machines. Spring smashers are all the rage, helping teams use a different kind of math to reach victory lane. Where does that leave a company like Intercomp?
“Scales are still our bread and butter product,” said Intercomp representative Chris Berg. “We have heard some conflicting information. We’ve also heard that people are saying ‘we don’t scale our car anymore.’ Other people have told us that they necessarily don’t not scale their car, they just don’t scale it as often. So there’s a little bit of distinction there to be made you know when somebody says, ‘well, I don’t scale my car.’ What are you really saying? So that’s part of it. Also I think, kind of the education component behind it. The fact that using a load stick or spring smashing can all work with scaling.
“We do offer a manual rater for coilover shocks. So we are able to kid of help some folks out there who are looking for something that’s a little more economical, something that they can put in their race trailer very easily … something that they can do at the track. I’ve had a couple of people just this weekend ask me about that.”
Berg said his company is working to develop other tools other than just scales to help drivers.
“We are currently developing a load stick that’s wireless,” he said. “That’s gonna be the first in the industry to be wireless. We’re pretty proud of that. We’re in pre-production right now. The load stick is essentially (a device) you put on the car. You take the shock off and put it on the shock mounts. It’s adjustable and you can use those to get your car in the attitude that you want it and then figure out what the loads are and figure out what strength of springs you’re gonna need to get that car in that particular attitude.
“That’s one of the steps we’ve taken, along with education and talking to folks, saying, hey, you may not be scaling quite as much, but it’s still an important part of making sure your car is setup properly, even if you’re just using that as a check to make sure that the data that you’re getting from your spring smasher matches your overall setup concept.”
11:50 a.m. | Commemorating 25
Touring the Indiana Convention Center’s PRI Show ahead of his 25th season in racing, Jon Mitchell of Texarkana, Texas, told DirtonDirt.com’s Ben Shelton that he planned to use the No. 25 during 2020 to commemorate the year. Mitchell, who is expected to chase the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series in search of his second series title (the 2012 CCSDS champ has five career wins on the tour), is going to run a special graphics package as well.
11:45 a.m. | Ferguson raises bar
Carson Ferguson of Concord, N.C., knows he raised the bar a bit during his first full season following a series after collecting a tour-best four victories and the championship on the Fastrak Racing Series for Crate Late Models. Ferguson, who periodically hung out at the Butlerbuilt Racing Seats display where he cousin and fellow North Carolina racing standout Chris Ferguson was working, said he had to up his game when he and his family-backed team decided to hit the road.
“Really you’re racing a tour, and normally on a tour, there’s a lot better cars than on a weekly deal,” Carson said. “Around home I feel like we have the strongest weekly racers. You know we got Michael Brown, Dillon Brown, Jacob Brown and (Bryan) Mullis. I feel like we have stout cars that around our region they run up front everywhere they go. It’s really just being on the tou,r you know, you have those two- or three-day shows where it’s testing you and your team to perform night in an night out. It’s a lot of work for anybody, and whenever you’re a small team it’s extra work, but it also makes it (sweeter) when you do run good.
“It was our first full year, you know we started early and just finished a couple weeks ago. With the Rocket cars I run, you can call up there and get any information you need, and then the shocks we’re on, we’ve got Gary Winger helping us a good bit. With our connections and everything, I definitely don’t think we’re at a disadvantage at all. It’s just more the experience level. I came from asphalt, so I’m not really a dirt driver yet. It’s a lot of late nights in the shop for sure, but running a tour, having to commit to a tour, it makes it (sweeter) when you do run good because you’re having to run against those good guys from everywhere.”
Ferguson’s 2020 plans aren’t set in stone. He said he’s in the process of refurbishing his Rocket Chassis in hopes of getting it back into the same competitive form that carried him to four Fastrak victories in four different states: North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and West Virginia.
“Right now we have the car basically stripped,” he said. “We have the decking off, shocks sent off to get rebuilt, rear end’s out, transmission and all that. We’re just trying to regroup. The last 25 percent of the season we got carried away I think with trying too much stuff, getting too far away from our baseline. I definitely think if we get back to what we started the year off with and ran most of last year with we’ll be back up running like we were last year.”
Though 2019 was a success, Ferguson said he may have left a couple of big wins on the table too.
“We went to a $10,000 (to-win) at Wythe that I should have won. Went to a $5,000 at Beckley I should’ve won,” he said. “Every racer has those races that at the end of the year they’re like, ‘Yeah, I should have won about a handful more or two handfuls more.’ I don’t know if we’re gonna follow a tour next year with our work schedules and everything. If we do, it’ll definitely be a series that pays out good. Right now our deal is gonna be with the Crate, but if anything opens up either in someone else’s Crate car or a Super (Late Model) or even on asphalt or something, I’ll definitely take advantage of the opportunity.”
10:45 a.m. | Martin confident after rookie success
Logan Martin of West Plains, Mo., got a big boost in confidence while following the Lucas Oil Midwest LateModel Racing Association tour in 2019. He captured the tour’s rookie of the year honors while finishing third overall in series points.
“You always want to accomplish more than you did, but we had certain goals and we were able to check a lot of the boxes,” Martin told DirtonDirt.com’s Ben Shelton on Friday. “Some of them we weren’t, but it just makes it more exciting heading into 2020. The biggest challenge was this was our first time following a regional tour like the MLRA and going to new tracks. Nearly every track we went to outside of Lucas Oil Speedway (in Wheatland, Mo.) was a new track for us this year. So just getting accustomed to new tracks was probably our biggest challenge.”
While winning MLRA rookie honors, Martin managed to jump to another series where he won his first career Comp Cams Super Dirt Series feature, a $2,500 race he claimed at Batesville (Ark.) Speedway in July. Martin closed out the year with a victory in Springfield (Mo.) Raceway’s annual Turkey Bowl. It wasn’t the first time Martin won at Springfield as he picked up a MARS Racing Series feature at his home-state oval in 2017.
“It was so rewarding. We got up there and got to dicing with (Scott) Crigler and (Ryan) Gustin and cutting through lapped traffic,” recalled Martin of his Turkey Bowl triumph. “Springfield is just a bad to the bone racetrack. That place races so good. It’s kinda under the radar, but it’s a really cool place to race and I always enjoy going there and that was a fun race to be a part of.”
Martin said his 2020 plans call for him to follow either the MLRA or Comp Cams tour, while also hitting as many national touring events he can within a three to four hour drive from the shop.
10:25 a.m. | Robinson in supporting role
Bossier City, La.’s B.J. Robinson was among the drivers on hand for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series banquet held Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium, just a short walk across from the Indiana Convention Center. Robinson wasn’t among the drivers picking up hardware. Instead, he was there in support of friend and colleague Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., who drives the house car for Ronnie Stuckey’s Louisiana-based Black Diamond Chassis, where Robinson is an employee.
“It’s always good, anytime you can go and do that and be a part of it,” said Robinson as he made he way back to his hotel following the banquet. “Without Earl and his help and everybody at the shop and Ronnie and Terry (Stuckey) … they’ve been like family to me for about probably 15 years now. Working for them and helping run the day to day stuff I don’t always get to spend as much time or go travel and race with Earl and them as much as I’d like to. So anytime you can go and hang out with those guys and have a good time, it’s always good.”
Robinson had a successful season behind the wheel himself, driving to four Louisiana Series victories as well as a win in the inaugural Ultimate Deep South Series race at Boothill Speedway in Greenwood, La., to close out the season on Nov. 29.
“Anytime you can win right there at home it’s always good,” said Robinson. “To end the year (with a win) is good in a way, but then it also makes you want to keep going and find somewhere else to race because you feel like you’ve got everything going in the right direction. In the racing world I guess it can always go the other way, so you have good weeks and bad weeks.”
While Robinson’s 2020 plans aren’t 100 percent complete just yet, he does know he plans to again focus on a regional tour as much as his time at Black Diamond will allow.
“We’ll probably run the Comp Cams deal most of next year we’re pretty sure and then hit a few Lucas Oil races when they come around,” he said. “We’ll probably try to go to that Show-Me (100 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.) and they got a couple co-sanctioned races I think. We’ll try to hit those and hopefully not have as many rainouts.”
9:32 a.m. | Attracting more regulars
While unveiling a lucrative 28-race schedule on Friday (plans are for 31 events total), Brasstown, N.C.’s Ray Cook, promoter of a trio of Schaeffer Oil-sponsored tours, talked about luring more drivers to his three series that are currently split into the Spring, Southern and Fall Nationals.
Cook said he’s tossing around the idea of adding even more incentives than just the series points fund in a effort to attract drivers who will stick with the series long-term. One idea Cook has is crowning an overall champion among the three tours.
“I would like to pick out six or seven drivers and basically let’s just partner up with an agreement that … I’m not saying they have to do all 31 of them, but maybe do at least 25 of them,” said Cook. “Something that we could market and put together even as far as having seven reserved (parking spots) for them when they get there where we’re all parking together, similar to what some of the national tours are doing.
“Just brand ourselves with a certain group of drivers, you know. That’s what I want to get to, where we can take this and go forward and just do something to have it where our promoters know these guys are coming and I can advertise it every week and not worry about it.”
A number of $10,000-to-win events dot Cook’s tours, which is highlighted by a $20,000-to-win Spring Nationals event at Tazewell (Tenn.) Speedway in April.
“I look at it and think for a regional deal … I think it’s great,” added Cook. “But sometimes we get a few of the national tour guys stop in and everybody says, well, they run off a few drivers. I feel like one of the neatest things about our series is you never know who’s gonna be there. It’s still got some of that (old-school) feel. You know what I mean? Everybody over the years has raced with us at some point and we’re proud of that but also it’s been good for a lot of regional racing too.”
8:00 a.m. | Finale in sight
DirtonDirt.com staffers will be out and about again today, tracking down more interviews, stories, photos and other tidbits from the 750,000 square feet of exhibit space, where you can rack up a ton of steps in a single outing.
The show’s final day wraps up an hour early, but there’s still plenty of time to get out and see what all the fuss is about. If you can’t make it, check this page throughout the day for updates from the showroom floor.
In the meantime, check out Friday’s PRI coverage, including video interviews from Matt Cosner, Ray Cook, Matt Curl, Jesse Lowe, Logan Martin, Mike Mataragas, Donald McIntosh, Brian Shirley, Mike Spatola, Ricky Weiss and more.
Editor’s note: Reporting by Robert Holman, Ben Shelton, Derek Kessinger and other DirtonDirt.com staffers; remote assistance from Kevin Kovac.
