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ROME, Ga. – Pirelli Tire North America and the Trans-Am Series have renewed their partnership until the end of 2024, with the Italian tire company serving as presenting partner for the Trans-Am Series.

At the same time, Pirelli has also extended its agreement with SVRA – the Sportscar Vintage Racing Ass’n – for the same period, as the official street tire of SVRA. SVRA, the largest vintage racing organization in the United States open to virtually any vintage or historic race car, will share a number of key dates with the Trans Am Series.

The recent five-year extension between Pirelli and the Trans-Am Series comes off the back of the current three-year agreement that lasts until the end of this year. As a result, Pirelli will continue to be presenting sponsor as well as official tire supplier to one of the best-known road racing championships in the United States, which is rooted in popular culture as well as motorsport.

The Trans-Am Series has been thrilling fans and drivers alike since 1966, with a range of classes that include production-based entries up all the way up to the iconic 850 plus horsepower TA Class. This complements Pirelli’s road to track philosophy perfectly, in which the lessons learned on circuits are put into practice on road car tires. Pirelli will continue to supply the entire Trans-Am field, including a purpose-built competition tire for the TA and TA2 classes, enabling the drivers to get the very most out of their cars while spectators enjoy a spectacular show that highlights the very best of American racing.

Ultra high performance – as well as competition – is at the very heart of Pirelli, which celebrates more than 110 years of motorsport and recently renewed its exclusive partnership with Formula 1. As well as supplying more than 220 car racing championships worldwide, Pirelli is one of the companies that invests most into research and development through motorsport, in order for the competition product to be as closely aligned to road car tires as possible.

Consequently, Pirelli and Trans-Am are currently testing 18-inch tires for the headlining TA class, which could be adopted from next season already: bringing the tires used on the track even closer to those on the road. In a similar move, Pirelli is introducing 18-inch tires to F-1 beginning in 2021.

“We’re delighted to renew this relationship for a championship that’s at the heart of American automotive culture, with extremely close racing and very high standards of driving,” said Pirelli North America Chief Executive Officer Marco Crola. “As well as providing great entertainment, this agreement enables us to reinforce our links with iconic American car manufacturers, and further enhance the connection between road and track with our high-technology P Zero products. This same technology is also seen in our Pirelli Collezione tires for classic cars, which combine classic looks with modern know-how, underlining the importance of the SVRA series to our portfolio as well.”

“It’s a pleasure for us to extend the partnership with Pirelli, which is an extremely popular move among drivers and teams as well,” said Trans-Am Series President John Clagett. “Pirelli is an iconic brand that stands for performance and style, with a commitment to competition and technical excellence that fits in perfectly with our own.”

Sean Rayhall walked away from professional racing in December and, at the time, had no plans to be back in a race car of any kind.

After years of being passed over for opportunities he hoped to attain and burned out in many different facets, the fun was gone and Rayhall was ready to focus on business ventures he hoped would shape his future.

Then, an old friend gave the 24-year-old native of Winston, Ga., a call — and just as quickly as he was gone from the racing scene, Rayhall was sucked back in.

“I was done. I was completely done when I walked away,” Rayhall told SPEED SPORT. “It wasn’t fun anymore; I wasn’t having fun and I was ready for a change because I felt like, if I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing, then why do it, you know?

“I grew up ripping sheetrock out of walls and working in construction when I wasn’t racing because it was what I needed to do, but racing was always something I was passionate about. When I left at the end of last year, that passion wasn’t there anymore. It felt like a job more than it did something that I was doing because it was fun to do.

“I knew that if I was going to come back, I had to find something that would spark the same kind of passion for the sport that I had when I was a kid, and I found that when T.J. Michael finally called me.”

Michael, a longtime friend of Rayhall and his family, put a driving offer on the table. The only catch? It was a type of car that Rayhall — despite his diverse racing résumé — had never campaigned.

It proved to be enough of a lure, however, and Rayhall will be going sprint car racing for the first time this year.

The former Indy Lights winner and European Le Mans Series champion plans to compete in 15 to 20 winged sprint car events later this season. He’ll drive for the Michael Racing Group, a team Rayhall calls his “second family” and “a group that I can have fun with” as he jumps back into the driver’s seat.

“I helped T.J. in Legend Cars a little bit, years ago and I actually even took his older sister to Homecoming down in Texas, back in the day … so I’ve always been really, really close with the Michael family. I call him my little brother, but he’s taller than me now,” Rayhall joked. “They always knew that when I went back road-course racing, it was more to make a living, than it was necessarily to go racing. I enjoyed what I did for a while, but it just wasn’t for me. After a while, it didn’t fit my ideals anymore.

“We’d been talking and flirting with the idea of me driving one of their cars for a while, so when T.J. called me and asked what I thought, I told him, ‘Man, I want to go racing,’” added Rayhall. “Sprint cars have always been a passion of mine, even though I haven’t been able to race them full time or anything like that, but he and I talked about the idea and finally, we sat down to have dinner and decided that this just felt right to go and do.

“Sometimes, when it just feels right, you have to jump on an opportunity … and that’s how I feel about this deal.”

Rayhall, who celebrated his 24th birthday in March, has one of the most diverse racing résumés in the country, even though he’s still on the younger end of the age spectrum.

He started go-kart racing at age 7 and moved to bigger cars five years later, joining the Skip Barber Southern Series in 2007 before winning his first major race as a 14-year-old in 2009.

Rayhall added Legend Car championships at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2010, as well as a class victory in the prestigious Legends Million at CMS before moving to late models and competing with the USAR Pro Cup (CARS Tour) and UARA-STARS Series in 2011 and ’12.

The following year, Rayhall began his six-year sojourn in sports cars and open-wheel formula cars, the stint of his career with which most fans are familiar. He claimed the L1 Class title in IMSA Lites during his debut season in 2013, later moving into Prototype Challenge competition with the American Le Mans Series and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

A short-lived Indy Lights stint that produced two victories in 2015 paved the way for a move to the European Le Mans Series, where Rayhall teamed with John Falb to collect the LMP3 class championship on the strength of two wins and five podium finishes in six events.

Rayhall even got the opportunity to run a Chip Ganassi Racing Indy car, sharing the seat with Charlie Kimball during a test at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, but opportunities to advance to the top level of open-wheel racing in the United States never panned out for Rayhall.

KNOXVILLE, Iowa – McKenna Haase recently became the latest in a sequence of auto-racing drivers to participate in NBC’s American Ninja Warrior television series, an experience she’s since called “unforgettable.”

Haase, who frequents Knoxville Raceway as a 360 sprint car driver and became the first female in history to win a feature at the half-mile oval, followed in the footsteps of NASCAR and Indy car stars as a participant on the show, which features obstacle courses designed to challenge athletes of all types.

The program boasts a $1 million prize if a Ninja Warrior athlete can make it to the finals of the show and successfully navigate all four phases of the grand-finale course.

Ryan Blaney and Ben Kennedy represented NASCAR on the program two years ago, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. tried his hand at the ninja course twice, in both 2016 and 2017.

NTT IndyCar Series regulars Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Tony Kanaan – as well as part-time Indy car drivers Helio Castroneves and Conor Daly – have also tried to beat the clock on ANW.

Haase, however, is the first dirt open-wheel driver to make an American Ninja Warrior appearance.

While that’s a title she takes pride in, Haase was quick to note that it’s not just about being the first to do something for her, much like when she won at Knoxville for the first time. Instead, it’s about passion.

“Obviously I started training to get better for racing, but once I started doing Ninja Warrior training, and getting better at it … my goal became to make it on the show,” Haase told SPEED SPORT. “A lot of that comes down to sacrifice. I know there were a lot of professional drivers who tried going on the show over the last few years, but a lot of them don’t do Ninja as training full time, at least that I know of.”

That’s one aspect of Haase’s journey to the Ninja Warrior stage that makes her attempt unique.

“For me, the sport of Ninja itself is something that I’m really passionate about and really enjoy doing,” she said. “It’s kind of like racing. As a driver, you don’t want to miss the biggest races of the year, and that’s what this show is for Ninja. There are competitions across the country, but American Ninja Warrior is kind of like the Granddaddy of Them All.”

It’s fitting then, that Haase slipped in that Knoxville Nationals parallel into her recollection of her Ninja Warrior experience. She views both sports as having different aspects that aid one another.

“Everyone said that when I went to the show and stood on the platform, my heart was going to be beating out of my chest,” Haase said. “I tried to mentally prepare myself and stay as calm as possible, and I waited six hours in the holding tank beforehand. … A lot of that focus and the knowledge that you only get one shot are things that translate back into the race car, even though we have more races in a given season to get things right.

“I think that focus on hitting my marks, without overthinking anything, is a parallel that I can definitely utilize in both sports. They definitely have different things that cross over between the two, for sure.”

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OREGON, Wis. – One year ago, the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series tackled Madison Int’l Speedway for the first time.

This Friday the USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series returns to Madison Int’l Speedway for the Bytec Dairyland 100.

Kody Swanson was victorious in the inaugural Dairyland 100 a year ago.  In fact, in the six most recent instances in which Swanson made his first Silver Crown start at a particular pavement track, he’s finished in the top-five: second-place finishes at both Michigan’s Berlin Raceway and Ohio’s Toledo Speedway in 2010; a second at Gateway Motorsports Park in Illinois and a fifth at Pikes Peak Int’l Raceway in Colorado in 2013; followed by wins at Salem (Ind.) Speedway in 2016 and Madison in 2018. At both Toledo and Salem, he followed up with a victory in his very next appearance there.

At Madison last year, Swanson started second, led the first five, then retook control just before midway to lead the remaining 53 laps and score the victory.  The Kingsburg, Calif., native leads the standings coming in as the winningest series driver of all-time pursues an unprecedented fifth series title. The Nolen Racing team he’s competing with this year had two cars entered last year, finishing fifth with Chris Windom and sixth with Jerry Coons Jr.

Justin Grant was the driver who took the lead from Swanson early in the going after starting from the pole position in last year’s Dairyland 100. The Ione, Calif., driver led 42 laps of the event and settled for third at the checkered. This season, he’s been the only driver to keep Swanson in check in the championship battle, six points out of the lead, and is the only driver to finish in the top four in every race this season.  He’s garnered two third-place finishes and three fourth-place runs in five starts.

David Byrne, third in the standings, is the lone Wisconsin native to enter the event.  The Shullsburg driver owns the one-lap track record at Madison in a wing sprint car and was the hard charger in last year’s Dairyland 100. After qualifying eighth originally, his time was disallowed, forcing him to start from the rear of the field. He proceeded to charge all the way to a seventh-place finish.

Along with Swanson, Eric Gordon is the only other driver entered for Friday’s race who has been victorious in USAC Silver Crown competition in the state of Wisconsin.  In 1990, the Fortville, Ind., driver was a winner at The Milwaukee Mile, out-dueling the likes of Stan Fox and Dave Blaney to capture his first and, thus far, only Silver Crown win.  Last year at Madison he qualified third, but experienced brake problems 17 laps in, forcing him to drop out and take a 19th place finish.

Mike Haggenbottom is riding a wave coming into Madiso as he sits fifth in the series standings after finishing a career-high fourth on the dirt at Williams Grove Speedway in his home state of Pennsylvania.  The Levittown, Pa., driver finished 15th last year at Madison, which at the time, was just his second career Silver Crown appearance on pavement.

Others on the entry list for the Bytec Dairyland 100 include Austin Nemire, Bobby Santos, Kevin Thomas Jr., Kyle Hamilton, Windom, Jim Anderson, Travis Welpott, Matt Goodnight, Kyle Robbins, Derek Bischak, Toni Breidinger, Patrick Lawson, Russ Gamester, Brian Gerster, Chris Dyson and Gody Gerhardt.

Madison Int’l Speedway has hosted a smattering of USAC races over the decades.  The National Sprint Cars have competed twice on the pavement, with Larry Dickson taking the top honors in 1970 and Dave Steele capturing the checkered flag in 1997.  In 1987, the track was covered with dirt with Kevin Huntley picking up the first of his five USAC National Sprint Car victories.

The National Midgets have raced at Madison on five occasions with the legendary Mel Kenyon sweeping all three in 1969 and Gary Bettenhausen winning the following year in 1970.  Jimmy McCune picked up the midget portion of the USAC doubleheader in 1997.

FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Stars have acquired right wing Ryan Hartman from the Philadelphia Flyers for center Tyler Pitlick.

The trade was announced Monday, two days after the end of the NHL draft and a week before the start of free agency.

Hartman had 12 goals and 14 assists while playing 83 regular-season games last season. He played 64 games for Nashville before getting traded to Philadelphia, where he played 19 more.

The 24-year-old Hartman has 42 goals and 47 assists in 245 career games over five seasons with Chicago, Nashville and Philadelphia. He was the 30th overall pick when Chicago drafted him in the first round in 2013.

Pitlick had eight goals and four assists in 47 games for Dallas, and then played in six playoff games for the Stars.

Edmonton picked Pitlick in the second round (31st overall) in the 2010 draft.