THE STATE OF THE RACING INDUSTRY |
but every time Congress ends and we have a new administration come in , the books reset and you ’ ve got to introduce that bill again . We ’ re in the middle of that right now . It ’ s been introduced in the House . It has over 70 cosponsors . It has bipartisan support , which is a really important thing to emphasize .
I know people might be tired of hearing about the RPM Act or tired of sending in letters , but we need to show them that we ’ re never going to get tired and we ’ re never going to give up this way of life . Every time someone sends in a letter or they speak with a representative or one of our lawmakers , it ’ s super important . Right now , we ’ re trying to communicate better . We ’ re trying to be more up front with our representatives , thank the cosponsors , try to get those folks that are middle of the road over to see how important the racing industry is , then give that push for what we think is an obvious clarification of the Clean Air Act .
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PRI ’ S NEW MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM ALLOWS INDIVIDUALS LIKE NHRA TOP FUEL STAR ANTRON BROWN TO BECOME MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZATION .
Yeah , I know we ’ ve been hearing about the RPM Act and these threats from the EPA for a few years now , so some people might not feel a sense of urgency to get behind this . But this is something threatening our industry right now , right ?
Yes . When I was in Colorado , I sat down with Brent [ Leivestad ], the owner PFI Speed . Brent is a Honda drag car builder . They build thousand-horsepower Hondas that run eights in the quarter mile . They ’ re big PSCA supporters . We believe this is an example of the EPA overreach that Chris Kersting and Scooter Brothers warned us about a decade ago .
This is a speed shop or a race shop like hundreds
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across the country . He builds race parts , he sells race parts , and the EPA just fined him $ 180,000 for selling 37 controllers to 37 customers that are building Honda race cars . We ’ re going through the process of documenting this with Brent . He ’ s got every customer affidavit , pictures of the cars , where the EPA never did the research , never looked into it . They just saw that this was a guy who was selling parts on the internet and it did affect the emissions system . They fined him . [ PFI ] has been offered , basically a shakedown , of $ 18,000 to pay the fine in 30 days or it will go back to the $ 180,000 .
As you know , these guys run on a pretty thin budget . It ’ s endangering that specific race shop , but the big impact here and what people really have to be aware of is the manufacturers are at risk . The manufacturers are already stopping the manufacturing of race parts . We will not be able to build race cars if we don ’ t get the RPM Act passed . Or you ’ ll be hand-building headers in your driveway like we did in 1956 . That ’ s where we ’ re at as an industry right now .
You have a behind-the-scenes look at the industry and the companies that operate in it . What are you seeing and hearing from these companies ?
I think it comes down to one word , which is fear . There are big shops right now – the biggest names in the industry – that are fearful they ’ ll be shut down by the EPA for modifying
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vehicles . If you break it down into the different segments of the industry , you ’ ll know that the diesel guys didn ’ t do themselves any favors by modifying street-going trucks and going out and rolling coal and shooting videos . That ’ s how they got in trouble and that ’ s what signaled the EPA that something was going on here and why they hired more agents to investigate us further .
I have a 2019 Z06 Corvette . I like to drag race that car . I would like to do little modifications to it like we have been doing for the last 70 years in this country . As a whole , it ’ s not going to impact the environment . We ’ re at the precipice of the EPA stopping modifications of vehicles . Right now . Within this administration .
Looking ahead at the PRI Show , how important was it to return to an in-person PRI Show this year ?
I think it ’ s huge . I think it ’ s a huge part of any serious race team or manufacturer ’ s year to be on the floor in Indianapolis on December 9-11 . It ’ s going to be a landmark event . We ’ re at 970 exhibitors already . We ’ ll be over a thousand , maybe 1,100 exhibitors back in Indianapolis . The city has recovered very quickly . They just lifted all health plans requirements . We will follow the city guidelines , but there won ’ t be any extra health measures . Read that as you ’ re not going to have to wear a mask if you don ’ t want to .
What can attendees expect from the PRI Show this year ? How will it look different from past shows ?
The show ’ s going to be big . We ’ re going to add some new elements to the show for the first time . We ’ re going to have an EV racing area for the people who are super interested in electric racing . We ’ re going to have an iRacing area .
We ’ re going to have a content creator area . We think it ’ s so important to tell the story of racing . We ’ re going to bring together the manufacturers of the cameras and the GoPros and all the gear content creators use to tell the story . We ’ ll also have some content creating experts running seminars .
We ’ re going to have a central area where we ’ ll really tell the story of why membership is so important . The membership opened for businesses in March , then on July 13th , we opened up individual memberships , which is tied to attendee registration . You will need a membership to attend the PRI Show . This year we do have a complimentary membership level , but we really hope people will take a good look at the $ 40 level . We have a couple other packages if people want more from their PRI experience .
We think it ’ s going to be a great show . We had 65,000 people in Indianapolis two years ago . We think we ’ ll be north of that number in December . The racing industry is just so hot right now . DI
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80 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com |
Issue 170 |