It is still winter and snowy in most parts of Sweden. The race season is still (luckily considering the weather) a month and a half away. The schedule is however hectic with preparations in many of our ongoing projects. Here is an update in a few of them;
The Speedgroup advisory FIA rules group have a hectic time this week as they are looking into and pointing out what possible changes in the regulations that they wish to propose to the FIA commission. This advisory group was formed in june 2012 in order to provide a forum of experts where regulations could be discussed and when needed adapt "NHRA based FIA regulations" to fit European circumstances. The advisory rules group consist of two representatives from each FIA class, FIA drag racing commission members (from the UK and Sweden), tech crew active in the FIA Championship (from UK, Finland, Germany and Sweden) and with Michael Gullqvist Speedgroup´s CEO as a "non voting" co-ordinator for the group. We will feature the group and its work and challenges in a forthcoming edition of newsletter. If you wish to know more at this time please email me and I will be happy to connect you with a member of the group!
In this edition we have included an article about the updated Contingency program concept, which we believe will improve the benefits for both teams and business partners over time. With more teams that can participate and a handling concept which make the connection closer between teams and manufacturers we hope and think this can be the way to work for the coming years. Check out the article and anyone who know of a company with products or services suitable for the program please contact my collegue Gittli Koller gittli.koller@speedgroup.eu (based in Germany) who is the co-ordinator for the contingency program.
The EDRS European Drag Racing Series 2013 concept is described in an article in this edition. The base concept stays unchanged like last year with divisions. A few new strong and exciting classes have been added and also a new feature, the EDRS International which is separate series ranking eligible for teams racing at least twice outside their home country. Read about it in the article and also stay tuned for the publishing of the EDRS European Drag Racing Series Guidelines on April 1st which is a complete documentation that everyone involved in the series can access.
There may still be some changes in the calendar that is out of our control. Hell Cruisers in Norway (division North) unfortunately got the word they will not be allowed to arrange the event this year on the military airport situated in the village of Hell. So that event has just been cancelled from the calendar a day ago. We wil lknow in a few weeks if there will be any collaborations with the new constellation of organization operating at Drachten raceway in the Netherlands 2013. The three events are currently not on our calendar (anyone interested to inquire more just email me)..
FIA Championship team survey results
40 FIA drivers took the time to fill in a survey form. The results was presented at the team meetings and was valuable as information for Speedgroup in a number of questions where we need to know what the "general" opinion is. We will make sure the results are made available to the parties concerned.
Drivers Meetings - a live meeting with teams was held in Helsinki on March 8th. Earlier we had held a meeting in Stockholm where teams from Sweden, Norway and the UK participated. For the championship teams that did not have the chance to attend our live meetings we will offer the possibility to attend an information meeting via Skype. Dates and time will be emailed out the nearest week and announced at the Speedgroup website.
Don´t miss to read the article about VICCI and Speedgroup´s co-operation around the topic of team branding, appearance and sponsor logo display. We have put together a number of stock designs that can be ordered in small quantities from only 6 shirts. Read more in the article!
