IndyCarhasrestructureditsPRoperation
with Mike Zizzo now its vice president
of communications while Kate Davis
has taken on the new role of director of
communications. As part of the reshuffle
Curt Cavin has moved to the post
of senior manager of Digital Content
Editorial. Zizzo has been acting as a
consultant to IndyCar since February
and has 23 years of motorsports PR
experience under his belt.The Sports Prototype Cup, a new
championship in the UK this season,
has introduced a mechanic of the
weekend award. There will also be an
overall winner at the end of the season.
The award is to recognise the hard work
put in by the mechanics during an event
and throughout the year.Tyre engineer Matthias Bode is now in
charge of Kumho’s European Technical
Centre (KETC) in Morfelden-Walldorf,
Germany. Bode, who comes to Kumho
from Dunlop Goodyear, reports directly
to M J Lee, senior vice president at the
company’s global R&D centre in Korea.Also joining Kumho from Dunlop
Goodyear (see above) is Roberto
Sangalli, who has taken up the role of
manager, Tyre Engineering, for KETC.
Prior to his spell at Dunlop Goodyear
Sangalli spent 20 years at Pirelli, where
for a time he was responsible for the
development of tyres for F1, GP2, GP3,
and all GT series products.Lee Iacocca, the US motor industry giant
who launched the Ford Mustang and
turned around the fortunes of Chrysler,
has died at the age of 94. He graduated
in engineering from Lehigh University
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, then joined
Ford in 1946, though he soon realised
his talents lay in sales and marketing.
It was Iacocca’s recognition that the
automobile market was changing in the
US that led to the Mustang in 1964.Long-time NASCAR television pit reporter
and magazine editor Dick Berggren is to
be the recipient of the 2020 Squier-Hall
Award for NASCAR Media Excellence.
Berggren becomes the ninth journalist
to win the prestigious award, which is
named after Ken Squier and Barney
Hall, who were the first recipients.
Berggren, who was known for his
commitment to grassroots motorsport as
much as to the higher levels of US stock
car racing, retired in 2012.UK engineering student Oliver Milner
has won the Infiniti Engineering Academy
European final and from January of next
year he will spend six months working at
the Renault F1 Team’s technical centre in
Enstone, UK, plus six months at Infiniti’s
European Technical Centre in Cranfield,
UK. Included in the prize package is
accommodation, access to a company
car and a competitive salary. Now into its
sixth year, 50 per cent of past Academy
winners have gone on to secure full time
roles at either Infiniti or in Formula 1
following their placements.Mathew Nilsson, the co-team
principal of Australian Supercars squad
Walkinshaw Andretti United, spent some
time in the US with sister operation
Andretti Autosport recently, attending
the IndyCar race at Road America with
the team and then working for a week
at its Indianapolis workshop as part of
a drive to pool information between
the two teams. Andretti took a stake in
the Supercars squad, as part of a deal
that also included Zak Brown’s United
Autosports, last year.Erebus Motorsport CEO Barry Ryan has
bought a share in the Supercars team by
way of purchasing a 50 per cent stake
in one of its car’s Racing Entitlements
Contracts (which amount to a franchise to
compete in the series). He now joins team
owner Betty Klimenko as co-owner of
the No.99 Holden. Ryan was promoted
from general manager to CEO last year.^SEPTEMBER 2019 http://www.racecar-engineering.com 93Rick Hendrick, the most successful team owner in
NASCAR history, is among those named as inductees
intothe 2020 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.
Hendrick (pictured) joins former Indy racing steward
andsafety pioneer Wally Dallenbach and motorsport
publisher Floyd Clymer on the list. Drivers Red Byron,
Tiny Lund and Jacky Ickx also feature.RACE MOVES
NASCARClagett believes the spread of venues the series visits is a natural
leveller in some respects. ‘You would expect a Dodge Viper or
Chevrolet Corvette to be a tough car to beat in a place like Road
America, but on the flipside a Porsche or other more nimble
cars might have a slight advantage at a place like Lime Rock,’
he says. ‘And as long as we’re giving an equal representation
of race tracks, having the same amount of tracks that could be
advantageous for one or the other, then it kind of makes the
BoP slightly less important. We still do BoP, but we’re trying to
make it where it isn’t 100 per cent that.’
On the right tracks
But for now one of the most important balances in Trans Am is
the one between keeping costs down while still racing at the
very best of venues. ‘I think one of the reasons we grew and
became successful again is that we were delivering heritage
type race tracks,’ Clagett says. ‘The Watkins Glens, Daytonas,
Sebrings, Road Americas and Indys of the world, and those
are not the cheapest race tracks to get deals done with. But
that’s what we have to have in order for us to be delivering on
our promise to our competitors. If we give them a bunch of
no-name race tracks our entries would go down, but as long
as we can give them the heritage tracks, the iconic tracks, I
believe we are doing a proper job of treating our competitors as
customers, and then we can keep them.’
Keep them, and no doubt attract others. But perhaps not
works teams. ‘When Chevy and Ford did it [in the past] then
predictably what you had was the top eight cars on the grid
were these, and the independents were relegated back out of
the top 10, and the numbers of your independents are going to
fall off as a direct result of that,’ says Clagett. ‘So, in today’s world,
let’s just say if Chevrolet and Ford said they wanted to help the
series, I would look to build a marketing platform for them,
as opposed to a factory works programme. If they wanted to
support the series we could support them by going into event
markets and doing a substantial amount of cross promotion
with car dealerships; that’s what I think it should be about.’
And that’s the thing about a series with a history, it’s not
just about retaining the good stuff from the past, it’s also about
learning from the mistakes of the past.