Parrot Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Paris-based Parrot SA, appointed David Wenning to senior vice president of sales and marketing to further strengthen Parrot’s presence in the United States. Wenning spent the past two years leading U.S. operations for TomTom where he developed a 15-person sales team. Prior to TomTom, he served as commercial vice president in charge of distribution channels at Palm and spent 12 years with Apple where he was responsible for sales to national retailers, such as Sears, Staples and Circuit City.
With Sebring less than a week away, Tiger Racing’s Paul Brown was brought in to pilot the No. 96 K&N Engineering Porsche 911 GT3 for the season opener. Brown has 44 SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT series starts in his career, including 19 top-10s and five top-five finishes. For more information see www.world-challenge.com.
Paul Brown's No. 96 K&N Engineering Porsche 911 GT3
Federated Auto Parts expanded its relationship with NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Ken Schrader and Ken Schrader Racing for the 2008 season. Schrader will continue as the spokesperson for Federated Racing and Federated Car Care Centers, and Federated is also the Official Auto Parts Supplier of Ken Schrader Racing. Schrader will drive a Federated-sponsored vehicle in 2008 in selected NASCAR Nationwide Series, ARCA, Truck and Grand National West events designed to support Federated members in all regions of the country.
American dragstrips are dedicated to not only providing competitive racing programs for locals, but a way of showing high school kids the proper and safe place to racer—rather than on the street. Many tracks have successfully created and promoted youth racing programs. Flowmaster Mufflers has decided to help keep those programs going by creating its first-ever Flowmaster High School Safe Streets Drag Racing Program which began in February.
The Flowmaster High School Drags will involve 30 tracks for 2008 reaching across the United States and provide special rewards to racers who win in weekly competition. Points will be earned by racing in a special Flowmaster-sponsored competition conducted by the track. Among the year-end racer rewards are a $1,000 U.S. Saving Bond, discounts on Flowmaster products, special Flowmaster apparel and trophies noting their accomplishments surrounding the racing season. For more information, visit www.flowmastermufflers.com or call 800/544-4761.
Mitchell 1 announced that it will hold this year’s first Shop Management System Training Workshop in Atlantic City, April 3–5, at the Sheraton Hotel Atlantic City Convention Center. The training workshop, designed for those who have been using Mitchell’s shop management system for six months or more, will guide users through advanced functionality in the OnDemand5 Manager system.
Instructors will explore advanced setup, inventory, reporting, management and more, as well as integration with aftermarket cataloging and Customer Retention Marketing (CRM). For more information or to register for Mitchell 1’s management system training workshop, visit www.buymitchell1.com/form/m1users.htm. Registration deadline is Friday, March 21.
Design Engineering Inc. (DEI) reported that it acquired a new larger facility. The company expanded its manufacturing and warehouse operations and added a new research and development department and additional office space.
DEI's new facility
Standard Motor Products Inc. (SMP) launched a new corporate website, www.smpcorp.com, to serve as a valuable resource for customers. The new site was completely redesigned to be user-friendly and easy to navigate. It contains valuable company and career information and industry information with direct links to helpful automotive and marketing group websites. The site also prominently features the new SMP corporate logo, which was redesigned to highlight the company’s global presence and its commitment to delivering automotive solutions.
AMSOIL announced that it partnered with Injen to launch a new line of co-branded AMSOIL/Injen Power-Flow series diesel air intake systems, which feature patent-pending Variable Induction Technology, diesel Power-Box and a dry media Ea nano-fiber technology air filter. More information at www.amsoil.com.