Who’s Who At PRI

Motorsports business gets done at the PRI show in Indianapolis.  [Paul Gohde Photo]

You never know who you’ll run into while walking the aisles at the Performance Racing Industry trade show held recently in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana.

Dirt Late Model team owner and NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Clint Bowyer is looking at the latest parts for his dirt cars while Kasey Kahne is in the booth of his sprint car team chatting with fans. There are Rahals here and Tony Stewart there. John Force is signing autographs, Don Prudhome is just being “The Snake” and John Andretti helps polish his son Jarett’s USAC midget.

PRI, now in its 27^th year of presenting the latest in racing parts and supplies to the vast racing industry, filled the Indiana Convention Center from top to bottom with over 1,100 companies displaying their wares in 3,200 booths to customers from more than 70 countries.

The 27th annual Performance Racing Industry Show took place at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, IN. [Paul Gohde Photo]

Honda Racing shows off their USAC midget at PRI. [Paul Gohde Photo]

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Clint Bowyer has his Dirt Late Model team owner hat on checking out the booths at PRI. [Paul Gohde Photo]

Graham Rahal and father Bobby talk IndyCar Series and more. [Paul Gohde Photo]

Educational seminars and conferences, combined with informative press briefings and social events, are also offered to give attendees and exhibitors many opportunities to interact in a relaxed atmosphere away from the crowded aisles of commerce.

Exhibitor registration is already available for the 28^th PRI show to be held in Indy on December 10-12, 2015. www.performanceracing/tradeshow.

Racing Notes from PRI:

• Tony Stewart met his fans and the media at the Chevrolet Performance booth on Thursday. He covered topics that included being an owner/driver in NASCAR, partner Gene Haas’ F1 team and Kurt Bush possibly running another Indy 500.The Chase: “We had two cars in the Chase, Danica is improving and we were probably the weakest of the group. It’s a good thing I was in the car at Homestead. I was a nervous wreck watching (the Chase) play out. There were four guys going for the championship, at times running 3,4,5,6. For an owner it’s very, very nerve-racking to watch. But it’s moments like that that make winning the championship so special. It’s great to see your driver and one of your best friends accomplish his dream. This wasn’t a deal where he (Kevin Harvick) just had to finish 12^th or better to win the championship. He had to pretty much win the race to win the Chase.”

  NASCAR partner Gene Haas’ upcoming F1 team: “I’ve got my hands full with my own team. I am excited to see the F1 side come along but we have no involvement in it.”

  Kurt Bush and the Indy 500: I haven’t heard anything yet (about 2015). I hope he does run it. I’m very supportive-100%-if he wants to do that again. I thought for somebody who’s never been in an Indy car and to go there as tough as IndyCar is right now and to have the performance like that was unbelievable.”

• Steve Kinser’s future after completing his final full season in the World of Outlaws: “He’s the greatest driver in the sport. He’s earned the right to decide when he wants to retire. As long as he wants to race we’ll have a car for him.” Stewart will supply Kinser with a car for about 40 sprint car events in 2015.

• On Tony Stewart giving any more thought to driving anything but a stock car: “I think about it every day.”
• Graham and Bobby Rahal addressed Indy car fans at the Verizon Indy Car Series booth, kidding about Graham’s recent engagement to Ashley Force and looking ahead to the 2015 Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Indy Car season and Indy Car tracks:Will RLL have two cars? “We’re flat-out planning a proper situation for our first car for Graham. We’ve got some (sponsor) things cooking but kind of on the back burner (for a second full-time entry). There’s better than an even chance that we’ll have two cars, but not much better than that- but I’m hopeful. Our first focus is to make sure we have one really good car. I’m almost sure we’ll have a second car at Indy but obviously it also gets harder at this stage of the game to find people to staff (a second car). We’ve got the equipment, but it’s finding the right people.”

  Indy Car tracks and the dwindling oval races: “I wasn’t an oval racer when I came on the scene. They’re a great challenge and I liked them after a time. It’s a shame we don’t go to Phoenix, but the changes they made for NASCAR might not make it a good track for us anymore. Thank God we’re at Milwaukee. We go to Texas and the crowds have gotten smaller for us and NASCAR. Pocono? Not many people there. It doesn’t look good, unfortunately when you bring a potential sponsor to the track. I’m not anti-oval by any means. I hope Milwaukee sticks around for a while.”

• ARCA: Madison, WI, Elko, MN and the Milwaukee Mile off the ARCA schedules: “Madison and Elko are not included on the 2015 ARCA/Menards racing series. Madison may be having a potential ownership change on the horizon and we don’t want to book a race and then have to take it off the schedule,” noted ARCA’s Mark Gundrum. “Elko’s owner didn’t want to do an ARCA race so they took on a promoter at large, but after three years they chose not to renew. Elko was Menard’s second-largest retail market and that race was driven by them.”ARCA Midwest at Milwaukee: “The Milwaukee Mile event for the ARCA Midwest Tour I understand is likely not going to happen for 2015. There has been an ownership change for the Midwest Tour and Gregg McKarns (son of legendary ATRGO promoters John and Sue) has taken over. Since the Milwaukee event is a lease arrangement, the promoter has a reasonable amount of risk and Gregg looks to get settled and maybe bring some traditional ARTGO-style events back to the Midwest and get his feet under him before he chooses to tackle a project as big as Milwaukee,” explained Gundrum.”

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

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