First, I would like to pass along my condolences to Pete Pistone and his family on the recent loss of his father. I had the privilege of meeting him on a few occasions, and the relationship that Pete and his father had bonded with auto racing. Many would say that baseball is America's Pastime, but the Pistone family can make an argument that auto racing is equal if not not better. God Speed Mr. Pistone.

I was asked to write a press release on behalf of Five Star Race Car Bodies and when they gave me the information about what to write on, I literally got excited. Five Star is hosting a Tech Seminar and Promoters Roundtable on Saturday, March 14 at their Twin Lakes, WI facility.

Strength of Sport
That NASCAR is the #1 spectator sport as 17 of 20 highest attended U.S. sporting events in 2008 were NASCAR races.

That NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events averaged nearly 120,000 fans in 2008.

That NASCAR remains strong as the #2-rated regular season sport on television.

That NASCAR is televised weekly in more than 100 countries and in more than 30 languages.

That more than 400 unique corporate sponsors are involved in NASCAR.

That NASCAR has the most Fortune 500 involvement in all of professional sports.

That NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races at 100 tracks across more than 30 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico.

Driver/Track Milestones
That Jimmie Johnson will attempt to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win four consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships

That for the first time in his 11-year NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career, Tony Stewart will be driving for a different team other than Joe Gibbs Racing. Stewart is the new driver/owner of Stewart-Haas Racing and will drive the No.14 Chevrolet in 2009.

Contributed by Art “Fireball” Fehrman as a "Back in the Day" Article
(illinoisvintageracing.com)

Opening day each year at the Fe was always exciting. Fans couldn’t wait to see what kind of car body styles were built over the winter. In the pits it was always neat to hear the stories of where each current year car came from.

Dan Lewis PhotographyThe Dells Raceway Park banquet in November crowned Cardell Potter as the Limited Late Model Rookie of the Year and fifth in points overall for the 2008 race season. The banquet did not mark the end of racing for Potter, but the start of his snowmobile season. “I have been racing snowmobiles for 12 years, started when I was four years old,” Potter recalls.

Potter took his first Pro Championship win in Plymouth (WI) January 9-11. This past weekend he qualified for the World Championship in Eagle River. Potter finished third in his heat race on Saturday evening which moved him into the semi-feature where he finished 3rd, placing him in the front row for the World Championship race. Potter started in 6th position for the World Championship 25 lap race, and finished 9th overall. At 16 years old, Cardell Potter is the youngest racer to ever make the World Championship race.

Potter will be racing this weekend, January 23-25 in Wausau at the Flip Merwin 525 Memorial Race.

With all of this talk about the economy, job losses, etc. Many are starting to wonder if the local tracks are going to take a big hit this season. I am trying to look at things at a glass half full mentality.

First, the local tracks have a variety of divisions that can fit into someone’s budget to race. Higher end divisions may see a decline, but lower divisions should alright.

Second, if there was a time to get creative with a marketing program, now is the time to do that. Any money is good money to take. If someone offers you a small amount each week you want to run, you have plenty of advertising space on your car.

Third, just because NASCAR teams are seeing some financial issues, don’t assume its going to happen on the lower level. Like I have said before, some sponsors may not afford the money that many NASCAR teams need to compete so they may be looking at spending less money on the local and regional level so they can still reach to their target market.

By: Kevin Ramsell
DAYTONA BEACH, FL (Monday, January 19, 2009) - ROL Marketing Partners, LLC along with the American Speed Association has announced a partnership with all new racingonline.com website. The new site debuted on January 15, featuring local, regional and national news along with its famous forum message board.

“For over ten years, racingonline.com has been the website for race fans in Wisconsin and the Midwest and with the new owners having a group of people involved that are enthusiastic and passionate about this sport, it was an easy decision for the American Speed Association to be a part of it,” Dennis Huth, American Speed Association President stated. “This group will take racingonline.com from a local level to a national level and we are excited to help them achieve this goal.”

The opening weekend of the website saw tremendous numbers as the site had over 4,000 unique visitors and close to 260,000 hits.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 14, 2009) - When Stephen M. Dale, the former owner of the American Speed Association, licensed portions of the sanctioning body's rights to Dennis Huth and sold all shares of the ASA Late Model Series to Ron Varney in 2004, he retained the ownership of the American Speed Association name and ASA family of trademarks with intention to keep the 36-year history in the short track industry alive.

Shortly thereafter, Dale sold his all of rights and ownership in the American Speed Association and ASA family of trademarks to Huth and Racing Speed Associates, LLC. Huth and Varney worked towards a compatible resolution for more than two years. Unfortunately, and as a last resort due to apparent confusion in the marketplace, in December 2007, Huth filed suit against Varney over ownership of the ASA LATE MODEL SERIES trademark.

By Kevin Ramsell
It’s the start of a new year, which means many of us have announced some resolutions and have already failed on those resolutions. I was going to work out more in 2009, but my health club was closed on New Year’s Day, so that I idea was shot.

I got to thinking what if short track racing had their version of resolutions for this year. Here are some ideas.

Resolve to make your racing facility more fan friendly and racer friendly than you have done in the past. There are many short tracks that do provide great customer service all across the board, and there are some that need to improve. In this economy, customer service is one area that you can easily win the returning customer week after week.

By: Verve PR
Daytona Beach, FL…December 1st, 2008…Dennis Huth, President of Racing Speed Associates, dba; American Speed Association (ASA) announced today that he has entered into an exciting new agreement with VERVE! Energy Drink of Scottsdale, Arizona. Huth realized immediately after talking to VERVE! management that this opportunity would introduce the fastest growing “all natural” and “healthy” energy drink to all of the ASA members and ASA member tracks across the U.S. and at the same time present them with an opportunity of funding each of their Motorsports teams and race tracks with the new Motorsports Economic Stimulus Program that has already been launched through the ASA Speed Truck Challenge.

Photo by Randy Van HoofBy: Randy Van Hoof
Week one of Tilleda Thunder is in the books and a beautiful day greeted the 31 drivers checked into the pits. Bright sunshine and temps in the low 20 made for a great day on "Lake Speed"

First feature up for the day was the wild outlaw RWD Studded class with the 10 of "The Wiley Veteran" Ben Michonski in his Loose Gruff Modified leading the field to the green. On lap one the 07 of Mike Schmidt had the right front go flat and the race was stopped to allow him to change the tire. The race was re-started with the 10 of Michonski on the pole, 07 Monte Carlo of Schmidt in second and the 41 of "Pugs" Wildenberg in his Monte starting last. These three cars can put on a heck of a show as all of them ran in a close group for over half of the race. Michonski started to pull away late in the race. With two to go Schmidt started to put on the heat and they ran side by side. On the final lap coming out of turn four Michonski bobbled and Schmidt was on the outside and on the loud pedal hard and passed Michonski and won by about one car length at the checkered with Wildenberg ending up third. Michonski won the heat.