PRI 2009
We took a brief trip to PRI and thought we’d share some highlights.
Our second stop was the Sparco booth and they had Charles Espenlaub’s burned-at-Thunderhill helmet, suit and gloves on display.
Espenlaub escaped this freak incident with some burns on his hands and will recover. However, this was all the Sparco folks were talking about at the show and so much that I don’t know if they did any business at all this weekend.
They were showing a new suit design, but they were too busy talking about Espenlaub’s incident to even discuss it.
Perhaps for similar reasons, Oakley is now having their racing gear manufactured by Simpson. Word is that they like the fact that it’s all made in America. Doubtless, their premium pricing strategy will continue This is their latest suit design.
Wrapping up the latest in racing suit technology is this personalized suit from Taylor Motorsports. They take their business so seriously, that they made this custom suit for their sponsored driver, Haywood Jablome.
We dropped by Stop Tech and we’ll need these rotors for next year.
We ran into many Canadians, including Ken Wilden, 2009 KONI Challenge GS champion and driver for Rehagen Racing.
Ken was on hand with 986, a company that has re-engineered driver cooling solutions, from the cooler through to the shirt. Really fantastic, innovative stuff. Check it out at 986inc.com.
We also ran into Andrew Comrie-Picard, here on stage with the Raceline Radio guys.
Also sharing the stage with Raceline was our favourite car for 2010, the Viper ACR-X.
Other sports car racing pr0n included this two-time winner of the 24 Heures du Mans.
There was an entire Japanese racing section highlighted by this Dome S102.
Classic Design Concepts had their Weekend Warrior concept on display in the main lobby.
The Weekend Warrior is intended for someone who wants a daily driver that can be tracked. It rolls on Pirelli Corsa, with a roll bar, on-board spare (and jack), fitted helmet storage, six-piston front brakes, a splitter and active aero.
Overall, there weren’t any game-changing new developments at this year’s PRI show, but it was a solid show and, surprisingly, not noticeably smaller than last year’s event.