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From indycar.com

Carpenter Fischer Hartman (CFH) Racing will have a new driver in the No. 20 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka car for the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series, replacing British driver Mike Conway.

“Mike [Conway] won't be back with us next year as he's under contract with Toyota in the FIA World Endurance Championship. They had an option on him that they did take so he'll be restricted in the events he can make,” said co-owner Ed Carpenter.

“It's unfortunate, but we thank him for what he did. We'll be going in a different direction and hopefully in the next month we'll be able to make a decision on a driver and make an announcement and have more success.”

Conway won at Long Beach and Toronto in the No. 20 car during the 12 road/street races he competed in 2014.

From GMM

Bernie Ecclestone has admitted Korea is unlikely to make its return to the Formula 1 world championship next year.

That is despite the country being listed provisionally as one of 21 races on the FIA's 2015 calendar.

Insiders interpreted the sudden appearance of a Korean race with high scepticism, as it is a neat way to give each driver an extra engine next year without having to obtain the unlikely agreement of all the teams.

Meeting with a group of reporters in London on Thursday, F1 supremo Ecclestone did not confirm that suspicion but he also agreed that Korea is perhaps unlikely to happen.

"We have a contract with them," he told Forbes' F1 business journalist Christian Sylt.

Asked whether a Korean grand prix will actually happen, however, Ecclestone answered: "They would rather it not happen."

Including Korea might then serve a dual purpose -- triggering the engine rule tweak, and extracting some money from the organisers for breach of contract.

"We wouldn't extract any more than the contract allows us to," said Ecclestone.

In other F1 race news, Ecclestone admitted that despite negotiating with a Qatari group recently, a race in the oil-rich Arab state is actually now unlikely.

That is because he made one of his famous "handshake deals" with Bahrain's crown prince years ago not to install any new races in the Persian Gulf.

"Now this other race (Qatar) has been proposed," Ecclestone said, "so I put the people together and said 'Can you sort this out between you?'. They haven't managed to do it."

From GMM

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone refuses to give up his crusade against F1's current turbo hybrid engine formula.

Meeting with a select group of reporters on Thursday including Forbes' business journalist Christian Sylt, the F1 chief executive revealed that he intends to propose the sport brings back loud "normally-aspirated" engines for 2016.

He said he will table the matter at the December 18 meeting of the powerful Strategy Group.

Asked if he is contemplating V8s or V10s, and referring to the teams and manufacturers, 84-year-old Ecclestone answered: "It's up to them."

Ecclestone said to counter the argument that abandoning the quieter energy-recovery-boosted turbos would be a backwards step, the 2016 engines would be branded as 'Hybrid' and have KERS systems aboard.

And he played down suggestions carmakers like Honda and Mercedes will walk away by insisting it would actually be "a bit of a dream for them to build a normally-aspirated engine and develop it to about 1000 horse power".

Ecclestone denied that potentially putting off Volkswagen might be another obstacle, as the German giant has been "out there for long enough and haven't made a big enough effort to come in".

Fascinatingly, Ecclestone also said the FIA might not even be an obstacle to the move, given that president FIA president Jean Todt "sold the rights" in a recent commercial deal.

"The Strategy Group that we have got," he explained. "We made a contribution of $40 million a year to buy that actually.

"They sold the rights to have this new group set up in the way we thought it should be set up," Ecclestone added.

From press release

The World of Outlaws Late Models Series is set for a return to Brighton Speedway in 2015.

After a very successful debut at the 1/3-mile dirt oval in 2013, the top stars of Late Model racing in North America will invade Brighton on Saturday, June 20th for a full night of action.

Joining the 900-horsepower Late Models will be the Southern Ontario Sprints presented by Sanderson's Tire and Automotive and the OilGARD Anti-Rust Canadian Modifieds to provide a full night of racing action.

The Outlaws' stop at Brighton will be part of northern swing for the tour through upstate New York and Ontario. The full World of Outlaws Late Models tour 2015 schedule will be announced in the coming days.

Darrell Lannigan of Union, KY, the winner of the 2013 Excel Tower Service 50 at Brighton and the 2014 series champion, has already committed to running the entire World of Outlaws campaign in 2015. He will have the opportunity to defend his win in search of the winner's $10,000 paycheck.

Battling Lannigan will be World of Outlaws regulars Josh Richards of Shinniston, WV, Chub Frank of Bear Lake, PA who won a special dash race at Brighton in 2012, and Tim McCreadie of Watertown, NY.

Brighton Speedway weekly standouts Greg Belyea, Charlie Sandercock, Phil Potts and more will try to make a name for themselves as they defend home turf against the best in the business.

The Southern Ontario Sprints presented by Sanderson's Tire and Automotive provided some of the best racing of any series that visit Brighton in 2014. The SOS shows no signs of stopping in 2015 as they continue to grow for their 20th anniversary season.

New York state's financial services regulator has subpoenaed financing divisions of automakers including Ford, Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen, along with banks Santander and TD Bank, as part of a probe of possible consumer abuses in subprime auto...

Automakers investigating the scope and cause of sudden ruptures in Takata airbags concluded their first meeting Thursday in metro Detroit without selecting an outside engineering firm to conduct the group's testing.

General Motors is offering to repair customers' Chevrolet Cobalts and other older small cars to prevent keys from getting stuck in the ignition, but the company said it isn't issuing a recall because the problem doesn't pose a safety risk.

Manheim North America COO Janet Barnard has been named president of the auction company, effective immediately, the company's parent, Cox Automotive, said Thursday.

Ford CEO Mark Fields said 2015 will be 'a breakthrough year' for Ford after a large number of vehicle launches trimmed profit margins in 2014.

Tony Earley, CEO of utility Pacific Gas and Electric in California and a member of Ford Motor Co.'

Sam Swope, who acquired his first auto dealership -- a Dodge and Plymouth store -- in 1952 and went on to build a wide-ranging brand portfolio in Kentucky, died Tuesday, Dec. 9.

DriveTime has named Manheim and Go Auto Exchange, an auction that specializes in dealer-to-dealer sales of low-end used vehicles, as its exclusive sales outlet for remarketing vehicles.

Aston Martin is preparing to raise funds to expand its range of models into new areas including crossover SUVs, Reuters reported, as the money losing sports-car maker steps up its turnaround efforts under a new boss.

Aston Martin is preparing to raise funds to expand its range of models into new areas including SUVs, Reuters reported, as the money-losing supercar maker steps up its turnaround efforts under a new boss.

General Motors plans to invest $3.6 billion in Mexico to double its production capacity at its plants around the country, officials said today.

Opinion 12 Dec, 2014

Mike names his Car of the People 2014/2015

Kongsberg Automotive's Driveline business area has clinched a deal with "a major European OEM" to supply complete manual gear shifter systems.

Housed deep within the Renault Technocentre to the west of Paris is a group whose role is to create 'disruptive' future mobility concepts.

Porsche increased its global deliveries to customers from January to November this year by 15% to more than 169,000 vehicles, already exceeding the overall total for 2013 of 162,145.

News 11 Dec, 2014

Secret Renault ‘Value Up’ concept car apes Citroen C4 Cactus with simple underpinnings and hi-tech Tesla-inspired interior