Henry County, the Racing College and Nelson Motorsports were all on display at the nation’s largest racing trade show in America, the Performance Racing Industry Show, over the weekend in Indianapolis.
One of Nelson Motorsports’ Late Model Stock cars was the centerpiece of ARBodies’ display at the PRI Show with Henry County and Patrick Henry Community College’s Racing College displayed prominently on the car.
PRI is a professional-only show, with each of the more than 50,000 in attendance employed in the racing industry. Most are buyers representing more than 1,000 companies from 70 countries and all 50 states.
Barry Nelson, owner of AutosbyNelson and Nelson Motorsports, said his onsite team handed out fliers about Henry County’s available business sites and the Racing College throughout the show.
“It was an honor for ARBodies to ask us to be there with the caliber of cars (on display). All the cars there had a good pedigree. But our car was the real deal, too,” said Nelson, who was at the show for two days and talked to many show attendees about what Henry County has to offer.
“People knew about Henry County because of Martinsville Speedway. Lots of people picked up fliers for the county’s business sites. On Friday, trade schools toured the show and lots of them picked up Racing College information.”
Nelson Motorsports maintains a stable of three Late Model Stock teams for drivers Timothy Peters, Bobby McCarty and Brandon Pierce and has developed a reputation throughout the southeast for fast, beautiful and winning cars. Peters won the nation’s biggest Late Model race, the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway earlier this fall while McCarty scored a win in another premier event, the Hampton Heat at Langley Speedway, in August.
“The PRI Show is the biggest business event in the country for motorsports and we are proud to be a small part of it,” said Henry County Administrator Tim Hall. “With Henry County’s available business sites and our long history of motorsports, we ae perfectly situated for the PRI market and the businesses represented there. We thank Barry Nelson and his team for including us.”
Greg Hodges, vice president for academic and student success services at Patrick Henry Community Colllege, agreed with Hall.
