It hasn't turned into a trade-show war, and no one in the motorsports industry would be wise to encourage that. But the lines are drawn as the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show is in full swing at Orlando on the heels of the successful International Motorsports Industry Show at Indianapolis.
 
The PRI Show, which attracted more than 40,000 racing-industry buyers from all 50 states and 60 countries last year, is making its fifth straight visit to the Orange County Convention Center this weekend. And this 22nd edition has scored a rating from TradeShow Week magazine as one of the top 50 trade shows in America.
 
That's perfectly fine with the organizers and supporters of the IMIS. They lobbied long and negotiated hard to bring a racing-industry trade show back to Indianapolis after the PRI Show moved to Orlando in 2005. The move was a result of miscommunication between previous Hoosier politicians and PRI Show principles about convention-center floor space and broken promises.

It hasn't turned into a trade-show war, and no one in the motorsports industry would be wise to encourage that. But the lines are drawn as the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show is in full swing at Orlando on the heels of the successful International Motorsports Industry Show at Indianapolis.
 
The PRI Show, which attracted more than 40,000 racing-industry buyers from all 50 states and 60 countries last year, is making its fifth straight visit to the Orange County Convention Center this weekend. And this 22nd edition has scored a rating from TradeShow Week magazine as one of the top 50 trade shows in America.
 
That's perfectly fine with the organizers and supporters of the IMIS. They lobbied long and negotiated hard to bring a racing-industry trade show back to Indianapolis after the PRI Show moved to Orlando in 2005. The move was a result of miscommunication between previous Hoosier politicians and PRI Show principles about convention-center floor space and broken promises.
 
But with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, both post-PRI-departure ambassadors, leading the way, the trade show saw a rousing revival in America's heartland Dec. 2-3 with a unique midweek format that drew more than a few favorable comments.
 
 The issue for the IMIS group isn't quantity. It's location -- a location they say makes perfect sense on a couple of different levels.
 
"We've been waiting five years to say, 'Welcome Back to Indianapolis,' " Don Welsh, president and CEO of the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association, told attendees at a Lucas Oil Stadium reception on the eve of the event that announced a five-year extension (through 2015) before it even opened its doors.
 
"Indy is racing," Ballard said. "It's who we are."
 
That was the core value for city leaders, the 340-plus vendors, and hundreds of participants who confirmed the hunches of show co-founders Chris Paulsen and Tom Weisenbach and fellow event owners Jeff Stoops and NASCAR champion/multi-team owner/racetrack owner Tony Stewart. Indianapolis is racing. Orlando is not.
 
"That's the home of Mickey Mouse," Mark Vandersall of Bald Spot Sports said. "I love warm weather, and I love going to Florida in the winter, but I'm working here. I'm trying to sell racing stuff. This is our core audience."
 
Harry Hruska, president of Precision Turbo & Engine, said, "Loyalty isn't the issue. It's what makes good business sense. We want to see our customers. We've been busier in half a day than we would be the whole show at Orlando. There's room for both shows, but most people (vendors) are here.
 
"We didn't get that big a push when we left Indy. That big push went away," Hruska said. "We definitely lost it at Orlando."
 
Many, including Keith Jones of Total Seal Piston Rings and Weld Racing owner
Kyle Fickler, embrace both shows and recognize that two thriving trade exhibitions (or three, counting the annual SEMA Show extravaganza at Las Vegas) only enhance the strength of the motorsports industry. But both Jones and Fickler said they like the intimacy and one-on-one opportunities the IMIS offers.
 
"I like the size of the booth here. I hope they don't change it," Jones said.
 
"We saw one competitor after another signing up to come here to Indianapolis," Fickler said. So he decided, like dozens of other vendors, that he needed to get in on the ground floor of the IMIS. He said he's thrilled with his placement on the showroom floor and hopes to have the same position in 2010, when the event plans to double its capacity.
 
Vandersall said the midweek timing is perfect for him. "Work happens during the week. All year, people are gone just about every weekend to the racetrack. This time of year, families expect them home on the weekends. If I make a business trip, it happens during the week. So this is great."
 
Sid Waterman, who has exhibited his products at racing trade shows for nearly 20 years as owner of Waterman Racing Components, was mightily impressed with the IMIS.
 
"The people with IMIS have done a tremendous job. We had no problems at all. We were able to get right in and get right out. It was an easy setup. We didn't get hassled by anybody, (and) I can honestly say I've had problems (at other shows) in the past," Waterman said. "The exposure to the people has been tremendous. The exposure to the hardcore racers who believe in our products has been fantastic. This is a hardcore racing show, as it should be. I've already signed up for four booths for 2010, and I know others have done the same."
 
"I was very impressed," Roger Wilson of QA1 Motorsports said. "We came not really knowing what we were going to experience in Indianapolis. But this is the hotbed of racing, and IMIS has been very popular with us. The traffic we experienced has truly been the racer, and they're certainly interested in our products and what we do and they're really focused on the products and what they get out of this show. So from that standpoint, that's been the highlight. There wasn't anybody just looking and talking. Everyone was really interested in our products and what they can do for them. We're excited about 2010, and I think we'll probably expand our booth."
 
Bruce Rhoe of Intercomp Racing Systems had so much traffic at his booth that IMIS officials relocated his booth to allow show attendees to get inside the exhibit hall.
 
"Our experience was great," Rhoe said. "We were actually asked to move our booth because it was so busy that we clogged the door. Our experience was great. The highlight of the week was the traffic flow and the hardcore racing companies that were here. We'll be back in 2010 and we’ve increased our booth size."
 
Attendees on the other side of the booths were as complimentary.
 
"Everything I needed was there," Shirley Kear, owner of Kear's Speed Shop in Tiffin, Ohio, said. "Everyone was there I needed to visit with. Everyone was in a good mood, and everyone was happy. It was comfortable, and it was everything that you would want from a show. I can't wait until next year. It was definitely hardcore racing, and it was just very, very good."
 
Drag-racing family patriarch Mark Barklage, part of the 80 percent of the participants who travel to Indianapolis in one day's drive, said he debated about whether to check out what the IMIS had for him. "I'm liking it -- you can talk to people," he said. "It's more relaxed."
 
Stewart, whose racing resume and business careers have expanded through the years, still sees the trade-show concept through the eyes of the racer. And he said for him, the Indianapolis location is a "no-brainer."
 
"When I was racing three-quarter midgets and racing USAC, I was at a trade show here every year, and that's how I worked my deals for the next season. I've never forgotten about what a show here meant to me," the Columbus, Ind., resident said. "Even when it moved to Orlando, it still meant the same, but I think the direction of the show down there has gotten away from what it was when it was here.
 
"It was really the core group of racers here, and that's what we wanted to bring back with this show," Stewart said. "It's not all about the frills and the fluff. It's really about the racing industry as a whole: team owners, drivers, and car owners and being able to really focus on what's important to them. And that's how to make their race teams more successful and how we can help the vendors who support racing be more successful."
 
Chassis crafter and racing-safety promoter Murf McKinney said Stewart was bang-on and that the homegrown Hoosier superstar "has had a lot to do" with the show's success. "His passion is what carries that. He has a good feel as to what stones to step on as he moves through the water."
 
One thing Stewart knew was that he "absolutely" wanted to be part of the IMIS ownership when Paulsen, Weisenbach , and Stoops asked. "There wasn't any thought process that went into it," Stewart said. He told them, "I'm in, 100 percent."
 
Ditto for Ballard, who is determined to keep Indianapolis the Motorsports Capital of the World. The IMIS, he said, "is a strategic component of our city's motorsports initiative. The IMIS provides yet another way to attract jobs in this critical sector and to showcase all that Indianapolis has to offer."
 
As for Stewart, the success of the initial IMIS means his universe is aligned properly once again.
 
 "We sold out of every inch of booth space we had and we still had more requests and we found ways to cram even more space in," Stewart said proudly. "This year, we had 113,000 square feet of space. Next year we'll have over 250,000. And for 2011, we'll have over 500,000, so we don't have to worry about running out of space. The response this year has been unbelievable. We were hoping for around 275 vendors and we're at 346 now.
 
"Is that a result of the attraction of being Indianapolis and people wanting to get back here, that this is the center of the racing industry? I believe so," he said. "You look at how many -- there are 1,700 motorsports corporations based out of Indiana. That's a lot of racing. Look at how many different forms of racing is represented: IRL, NHRA USAC teams, a lot of late model teams, dirt modified teams, pavement late models. There's a lot of racing in this state.
 
"It just makes sense," Stewart said. "It's a one of those deals, a no-brainer."
 
Said Weisenbach, "I've said this all along: There's only one place the show works, and that's Indianapolis." And he said Stewart is the hook.
 
"It doesn't matter what advertising you did, how much money you spend on advertising, you have to have somebody people in this industry trust. It doesn't matter whether they like (Stewart). They respect him. They trust him. They know we're going to deliver a good product for them. I think that's the biggest thing, having Smoke involved, people respect him on the business side," Weisenbach said.
 
"He's involved in so many things -- midgets sprint cars, racetracks -- so many people do business with him (who) are here. That's where the trust factor comes in. He spends a lot of money with some of those people. It's a give and take, isnt' it?"
 
For all of IMIS' considerable success, the PRI Show continues to draw more than 1,100 exhibitors and offers a Grand Opening Breakfast that features a live episode of the popular Wind Tunnel TV show featuring Dave Despain, the racing-celebrity-studded PRI /CKI All-Star Karting Classic, and Bobby Rahal’s Road Racing Drivers Symposium.
 
The IMIS had its seminars, as well, and likely will add more through the years as it grows, but the Steve Lewis-produced PRI Show has the experience.
 
"Orlando provides the PRI Trade Show with all the attributes of a great host city, including a spectacular convention center, and this has been proven by the enormous volume of business transactions concluded every year at the Show," Lewis said. "Everything happens here first."
 
The folks in Indianapolis beg to differ on that.
 
Welsh said Indianapolis businessmen "feel passionately that Indianapolis should be the home of the racing industry."
 
McKinney said he was mowing his lawn in Lafayette, Ind., Memorial Day 2005, and was listening to the Indianapolis 500 broadcast on the radio.
 
Newly installed Indiana Gov. Daniels came on the air and invited anyone within the sound of his voice who was interested in relocating a business, especially a racing-industry business, in Indiana to contact him. Daniels said he would travel to that person's current location and meet with him to extol Indiana's virtues.
 
"That was a huge statement, a huge commitment, to Indiana," McKinney, a board member of the IMA, said. As he glanced around the IMIS hall, he said he saw the power of people working together with a single passion.
 
Weisenbach, executive director of the Indiana Motorsports Association, too, made his position clear: "The goal of the IMA is to help make Indiana the leader in the motorsports business."
 
And they mean business.
 
 
The second annual IMIS event is scheduled for Dec. 1-3, 2010. For more information, visit www.imis-indy.com.
 
For more information about the PRI Show, visit www.performanceracing.com/tradeshow.
 
Joe Crowley of True Speed Communication and Pete Evanow of the PRI contributed to this report.

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