Continental Tire Brings Fresh Rubber To SEMA; MINI JCW Pursues Both Dreams And ChampionshipThis year, the start of December will make a bit of history as the Ferrari Finali Mondiali (World Finals) heads to the United States for the first time.The world-class weekend, which will take place at Daytona International Speedway, will be headlined by a massive grid of Ferrari Challenge cars from across the globe battling for top honors in one final race on Sunday, December 4."For all of us at Ferrari North America it is a very proud moment to bring the Finali Mondiali to North America for the first time," said Edwin Fenech, CEO of Ferrari North America. "Daytona International Speedway is the perfect venue for the Finali. It has not only been the site of some of Ferrari's most important moments in sports car racing, but with the recent completion of the Daytona Rising project, it has become an even more exciting venue for the drivers and spectators.”On Saturday evening, Ferrari owners will have a chance to be a part of history as Ferrari attempts to break the Guinness World Record for Largest Parade of Ferraris. If the goal to have over 1,000 Ferraris circling the World Center of Racing under the lights is accomplished, it is sure to be a sight to behold.In addition to the main race and record-setting attempt, Ferrari is preparing an exciting event for fans, as the weekend will include a Fan Zone, Ferrari-specific Concours d'Elegance, Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 demonstrations and guest appearances by Ferrari factory sports car drivers including 2016 Petit Le Mans winners Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and James Calado, as well as Davide Rigon, Sam Bird and Gianmaria "Gimmi" Bruni."Spectators will see a show like they have never seen, with the world finals of the Ferrari Challenge, demonstrations of the XX Program, and of course the demonstration of the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 cars on Daytona's high banks,” Fenech said.Tickets for the Ferrari Finali Mondiali are on sale now, and can be purchased through Daytona International Speedway by visiting the ticket office, www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/tickets or by calling 1-800-PITSHOP. Kids 12 and under are free throughout the event when accompanied by a ticketed adult, and all tickets include access to the garage area.Continental Tire Brings Fresh Rubber To SEMAContinental Tire will be bringing its new performance street tire to the people next week at the 2016 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas, Nevada. For four days (Tuesday, November 1 through Friday, November 4), attendees of the trade show can visit the Las Vegas Convention Center to experience the new ExtremeContact Sport tire.Located just outside of the South Hall, the Continental Tire Extreme Experience features exciting rides in BMW Performance Driving School vehicles fitted with the new ultra-high performance tire. The ExtremeContact Sport, which will be available for purchase in February of 2017, was developed with the help of WeatherTech Championship racing drivers Andy Lally, Joao Barbosa, Lawson Aschenbach, Ozz Negri and Ryan Dalziel.“We took our knowledge from the track to the street in a whole new way with the ExtremeContact Sport,” said Travis Roffler, director of marketing for Continental Tire. “We chose five of the best sports car drivers in the world to help deliver the performance driving enthusiasts demand in a tire. These drivers pushed our tires to the limits to help develop a tire that includes superb dry handling while not sacrificing any of Continental’s award-winning performance in the wet. This summer tire is ideal for sports cars and sport and luxury vehicles and we’re excited to let people see it first-hand at SEMA.”In addition to the ExtremeContact Sport, Continental Tire is bringing Honda/Acura factory driver Ryan Eversley to SEMA. The racing driver will providelive updates from all of Continental Tire’s social platforms: @continentaltire on Twitter, @continental_tire on Instagram and /continentaltire on Facebook.MINI JCW Pursues Dreams And Continental Tire Challenge ChampionshipLuis Perocarpi, Team Owner of the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge’s Mini John Cooper Works Racing Team, has spent numerous years chasing his dreams by working in the motorsports industry.That pursuit is what brought him to Google’s headquarters in northern California earlier this month, along with racing driver Derek Jones and MINI USA’s Pat McKenna. The trio spoke to 200 Google employees about pursuing dreams as part of the “Talks at Google” program, which hosts innovators, world leaders, authors and more from around the world.“It was great to be there and to get to discuss my passion and how it drives me when the results don’t necessarily come,” said Perocarpi. “There was a Q&A session, and there were a lot of questions about the car and racing, but the most difficult question was likely how we find drivers that fit the program. It takes a lot of chemistry to make this work, especially for the times when there’s not a lot of reward.”The No. 73 MINI race car was on site as well, and seemed to steal the show once the talking was over.

“Around 30 of the employees waited around after the talk was complete to get in the car, look around, and ask more questions,” Perocarpi added. “Our cars are basically stock, no race engines – our race setup is very close to how you’d find them in the dealership. It’s really good to be competitive against cars that are well developed, to be consistently fighting for top fives and podiums.”Perocarpi is pleased with what his team has accomplished, but he’s not settling down. His sights are firmly set on a larger goal for the MINI JCW team.“When we debuted at Sebring in 2015, we were 18th out of 30 cars straight out of the box,” he said. “Having the driver continuity that we’ve had has been great, it has really paid off for our team’s development, but we don’t feel that we want to change too much moving forward. We honestly believe we can compete for the (Street Tuner) championship next year.”End Quote: Action Express Racing driver Eric Curran on attending SEMA: “I like that there are a lot of racing-related people that attend SEMA. I’ve always gone to support Whelen Engineering and see all the engineering reps, but when I can I spend some time at the NASCAR/IMSA booth and do interviews and autograph sessions. In the past, I have done some things with Chevrolet where I drove around people in the Corvette Zo6 for a day. It’s really a great place to network and see people in the racing community.”