Driving Sports

I'm an automotive performance enthusiast. I like fast cars that corner like a fighter jet, stop with authority, and make a joyful noise. I think exhaust flame throwers are ridiculous and I really don't give a rip about a car's stereo. As long as I can hear it above the scream of the engine and the wind noise, I'm good. There's an exception if the car's a Ferrari or similar, in which case you can keep the stereo - I'll listen to the engine for my music. So I've always felt a little out of place at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show each year in November.

Sure there's plenty of good performance stuff at the show, but you have to wade through all kinds of blingy crap to find it. The show is the biggest collection of automotive parts and accessories in the world, and 99% of it is a waste of time and materials. To top it all off, the crowds are horrendous, you can't get a restaurant reservation for love or money, and you have to stay in some casino full of old people chain-smoking while they gamble away their social security checks. And we pay to attend this?

But there's another way - I just got back from the Performance Racing Industry show. This show is held a month after SEMA in sunny Orlando, Florida. It's a nice place to hang for a few days in chilly December. But the real reason you care is that PRI is limited to just the stuff that performance and racing professionals want to see. You can search the whole show and not find a single set of 36-inch 50-pound zircon-encrusted SUV wheels anywhere. Lambo doors? Forget about it.

What you will find is the real deal. Brake kits and turbos and the components for making custom exhausts. You'll find racing teams and engine builders talking to custom cam grinders and chassis builders. They've got racing jacks and 4-post lifts and CNC mills. Yes, you can find most of this stuff at SEMA, but at PRI it's all under one roof in one big room you can walk in a day. I got more work done for the Driving Sports family of automotive publications in two days than in two years of pushing my way through SEMA.

And PRI has free beer. Lots and lots of free beer. When the evening bell rings, you can't walk 10 feet without someone shoving a beer (or two) into your hands. They have a free shuttle bus to your hotel ($80/night) and to the nearby restaurants ("Table for 6? Right this way, sir.") and there's free beer on the shuttle, too.

What you're probably wondering now is what we all wonder - what about the booth babes?  They're just as hot as the booth bait at SEMA, and every last one of them is wearing a little Santa outfit. You could spend all your time at the show just figuring out which ones are naughty and which ones are nice. Hell, they're all nice.

One of the unique features of PRI is the Stars of Karting Classic, which features a Who’s Who of racing talent each year. Much of that talent came through Mazda's Formula Atlantic Championship and this year’s race was no exception.

The “Masters Division” featured drivers such as Dan Wheldon, A.J. Allmendinger, Joey Hand, Alex Tagliani, Buddy Rice, Michael Valiante and Ryan Hunter-Reay while the “Karters Division” featured several drivers who will likely move into Formula Atlantic at some point over the next few years as well as one Atlantic veteran, Aaron Justus.

The final race featured an exciting battle for second place between Allmendinger, Hand and 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie Scott Speed, which was a throwback to similar battles enjoyed by the same threesome earlier this decade. On the final lap, Hand managed to wrestle the second spot away from Allmendinger and Speed also made his way past for third. IndyCar driver Jay Howard won the race.

Now that's real racing - not watching some cable TV "personality" talk about racing. If you keep your eyes open, you might find a few of your favorite racing heroes hanging around the PRI show. What you won't find is acres and acres of LED-equipped valve stem caps and headrest DVD screens. If that bums you out, well Viva Las Vegas, but for those of us with dirty fingernails, PRI is where it's at.

Photos courtesy of Performance Racing Industry Trade Show