CONCORD, N.C. – This weekend’s Can-Am World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte is a bittersweet outing for second-generation dirt late model driver Hudson O’Neal.

The two-day event at the four-tenths-mile oval marks the final pair of outings that the 19-year-old will have in the Todd and Vickie Burns-owned No. 71 SSI Motorsports entry.

O’Neal revealed late last week that he was on the hunt for a ride for 2020, as the Burns family will not be fielding a team next year, leaving the personable young gun seeking a new opportunity. That disappointment didn’t keep him from cracking a smile, though, thankful for the fun he’s had so far.

“Most definitely it’s bittersweet, but you know, this has been a great four years with the Burns family and SSI Motorsports and I’m just thankful for every minute I got to spend there and spend with two amazing car owners,” O’Neal told SPEED SPORT. “And it went so much deeper than them just being car owners for me. We became very close, not just me and Todd, but the family too. He’s somebody that, you know, I’ll go and visit all the time … even though we won’t be working together next year.

“It’s just cool man. A lot of people don’t get the kind of opportunities that I’ve had these last four years, and I know it’s coming to a short end, but you know, I’m just grateful I got the opportunity at all.”

O’Neal noted that it was “certainly tough on everyone” when the Burns family made the decision to step away from the sport, but that he doesn’t think they’ll be gone forever.

“There’s a lot of people that put a lot into this deal and a lot of friendships built around this. It wasn’t just a race team, you know what I mean?” he explained. “It was a center over there, a real tight-knit network, and that whole company is such a neat group of people that I’ve enjoyed spending time with and being a part of since 2016. I don’t think that racing is going to completely leave that stable, but they’re definitely not going to be fielding a team next year.

“I think he’ll find his way back into it at some point. It’ll just be waiting to see when he does. But I understand his decision; it takes a lot to make that call.”

In looking back on his season, O’Neal ended up seventh in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points, with four victories on the tour – including a highlight win in the Jackson 100 at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway, his home race track.

“Being able to win the Jackson 100 this year was probably the highlight of our year together,” O’Neal said with a big smile. “To be able to win it with Todd there too, that was special. And you know, he’s got his own little place in the shop that’s kind of blocked off from everything else … and right in the middle of it, he’s got that Jackson 100 trophy sitting on his toolbox. It definitely brings a lot of pride in that to be able to see that trophy in the shop there and it was a cool moment for both of us. We’re proud of it.”

Though his situation is undecided at this point for 2020, the son of dirt late model legend Don O’Neal hopes to be back in a race car one way or another when the new season rolls around.

“I just want to race,” he said. “Anything that I can do to get back in the race car is going to be what’s going to happen. These rides are becoming less and less, and a lot of the rides out there, they have people that have been in them for years and it’s just hard to trump somebody like that, you know? There’s not a whole lot of people looking (for a driver), so it’s hard to work your way into a position like that. You see a lot of people quit because they can’t get into a position to drive, so hopefully that’s not the case for me and hopefully I don’t have to eat that or have it come to that.

“You always have to keep your options open, because nothing’s guaranteed, and we’ve seen that,” O’Neal added. “It’s definitely tough to sit here and be worried about next year all the time, but it is part of it and hopefully just something good comes back and I can put myself in a solid position for next year. I’m confident that I can do it and hopefully I make somebody very happy when we get around to Speedweeks.”

O’Neal, who has appeared at the Chili Bowl Nationals in a midget in the past and also has time behind the wheel of a dirt sprint car as well, wouldn’t rule any racing opportunity out for the future but admitted that his heart and soul is still in his family’s legacy: dirt late models.

“Like I said, I just want to race, so that’s actually been a hot topic … if I would ever go to do a sprint car deal or something like that,” O’Neal noted. “Yeah, I would. But this, late model racing, is where my heart is and I definitely want to look there first.

“I want to race and whatever I can do to race, that’s what I’m going to do, so if that means going down a sprint car path then that’s the way I’m going to go … but right now we’re just looking in the late model community.”

AUSTIN, Texas – After extensive discussions with team owners and stakeholders, SRO Motorsports America has announced the return of Circuit of the Americas to the schedule to kick-off the new season.

The series will stick with a six-round championship and the Indianapolis 8 Hours will now become a voluntary event for GT World Challenge America teams.

“After announcing the reduced schedule, we received a lot of feedback from our teams and partners eager to keep COTA,” said Staci Langham, GT Series Manager at SRO America. “We’re excited to continue to open the season in Austin and thank all our teams and drivers for their continued feedback and support. Even with the Indy 8 Hours as a non-points event, we have great interest from our paddock to participate in the Intercontinental GT Challenge endurance race.”

The season will see the sports car series compete across a six race weekend schedule at North America’s top road courses kicking off at Circuit of the Americas on March 7-8. The updated schedule will feature:

March 7-8 – Circuit of the Americas – Austin, Texas
May 16-17 – Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – Bowmanville, Ontario
June 6-7 – Virginia Int’l Raceway – Alton, Va.
August 8-9, Sonoma Raceway – Sonoma, Calif.
August 29-30, Road America – Elkhart Lake, Wis.
Sept. 19-20, Watkins Glen Int’l – Watkins Glen, N.Y.

GT World Challenge America teams and drivers are invited to compete at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Oct. 2-4 when the iconic Brickyard hosts round four of 2020’s Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli.

For 2020, updates to the class structure in GT World Challenge America will follow key learnings from other SRO operated series. The new season will feature Pro-Am, Silver, and Am categories. Pro-Am pairings will be limited to a Platinum or Gold Pro and a Bronze Am. While Silver will feature two Silver rated drivers with Bronze featuring two Bronze rated drivers.

BREA, Calif. – JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing has confirmed that Joey Savatgy will join the squad’s 450 class roster next year.

Alex Martin will return to represent the team in the 250 class on his RM-Z250.

Savatgy joins JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing for the 2020 season and will debut on the RM-Z450. Savatgy, who is no stranger to winning on the Suzuki brand, having racked up multiple Championships coming up through the ranks in Suzuki’s Amateur Racing Program, will be a great asset to the team as he brings proven talent, speed, and versatility to the track.

During the 2019 Supercross season, Savatgy earned the 450SX Rookie of the Year award and ended the series with five top-five finishes. With 12 professional career wins to his name, Savatgy has proven he has what it takes to be up front on the RM-Z450. Savatgy will officially debut on the JGR Suzuki this weekend at the Paris Supercross event.

Martin returns to JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki on his RM-Z250. With three podiums and 11 top-five overall finishes in his Supercross career, Martin was proud to add a career-best fifth place finish in the overall points standings on his RM-Z250 last season.

“We are looking forward to the upcoming season with Joey and Alex,” said Jeremy Albrecht, JGRMX Team Manager. “Joey has achieved very good results over the past few years, and I expect him to have a break-out year in 2020. He impressed us in every test session on the RM-Z450, and he is extremely motivated. Alex returns for his second season with the squad, and I couldn’t be happier. A-Mart made big gains in Supercross this past season and scored multiple outdoor podium finishes, so it will be fun to share in his progress.”

“I’m looking forward to watching the JGR Suzuki team go to battle with Joey and Alex representing the RM Army,” added Chris Wheeler, Suzuki’s SX/MX Manager. “Joey was very impressive in his rookie 450 season. With a year under his belt and armed with the JGR-tuned RM-Z450, we look to see him regularly competing for podiums and race wins. Alex and the Team made a lot of progress with his bike settings last season so I fully expect to see him consistently putting that RM-Z250 on the box both indoors and out.”

CONCORD, N.C. – If you’re looking for a tight championship battle, there is none tighter than the one taking place in the Super DIRTcar Series.

Entering Friday’s action during the Can-Am World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, defending Super DIRTcar Series big-block modified champion Matt Sheppard and Mat Williamson were tied at 2,075 points a piece.

Williamson has had a career year driving the Buzz Chew No. 88, scoring a $100,000 triumph in the Orange County Fair Speedway anniversary race in Middletown, N.Y., as well as a $50,000 victory in the Super DIRT Week finale at Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway.

He’d love to close out the season by hoisting the championship trophy on Saturday night, but even if he doesn’t he said it has been a season to remember.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate to just be here and in this spot. We’re going to make the most of it and enjoy it while it lasts,” said Williamson, who has three Super DIRTcar Series victories this year. “We’re more than satisfied with what we’ve done this year. It’s been a dream so far. To cap it off here with a championship would be pretty amazing.”

Sheppard is a seven-time series champion in search of his eighth championship since 2010 this weekend. He’s been in this position before, most recently last year when he entered the Can-Am World Finals with Erick Rudolph breathing down his neck in the standings.

The New York native ended up beating Rudolph by a comfortable 130 points by the time the 2018 World Finals were over, but this is a new year and a new rival. Despite that, Sheppard not’s the least bit concerned about Williamson.

“I guess I’ve been in this situation a lot of times,” Sheppard acknowledged. “This is his first time in this situation. It is what it is. We’re going to go out, race hard and if he comes out on top, more power to him.”

Looking at recent results, you could argue both men have momentum entering the World Finals. Williamson has the aforementioned big wins at Orange County Fair Speedway and Oswego Speedway, though Sheppard won the most recent feature held at Canada’s Brockville Ontario Speedway in October.

“We came right back after Oswego and we won Brockville and we drove by him,” Sheppard said. “We’re just going to go out and run hard. I’m sure he’s going to do the same thing. We’ve got a pretty fast hotrod ourselves.”

No matter what happens this weekend, Williamson says he’s thankful for everything the Buzz Chew crew have done for him this year and he’s excited to see what next season has to offer.

“We just got together in the trailer and kind of just said to each other no matter what happens, we’ve done more than what we thought we would,” Williamson said. “We’ve got some good notes to build on for next year. We’re really looking forward to it.”

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Dan Zacharias, for 20 years the lead trackside media relations representative for Ford at NASCAR races, was announced as winner of the Jim Chapman Award for excellence in motorsports public relations on Friday.

The Jim Chapman Award is named in memory of Chapman, the legendary PR executive and innovator, who worked with Babe Ruth and was named Indy car racing’s most influential man of the 1980s. Chapman died in 1996 at age 80.

The announcement and presentation were made at the ISM Raceway media center by Michael Knight, chairman of the selection committee, and one of Chapman’s closest friends.

The award is determined by a vote of national media members, many of who knew Chapman, and is authorized by the Chapman family. PR representatives from all forms of motorsports are eligible for consideration.

“I know Jim is smiling because of the mutual connection he and Dan share with Ford,” said Knight. “That makes this most-appropriate recognition of Dan even more meaningful.

“Jim set the ultimate standard of professionalism, class and dignity. He knew that solid professional relationships with journalists was important in good times and absolutely essential in bad times.

“That’s too often missing today in a communications age where an e-mail or text message or over-reliance on social media is incorrectly considered relationship-building. Jim was a true people person and knew nothing could replace a handshake, a face-to-face conversation, a shared meal, or the sound of another person’s voice.

“For two decades Dan has been a trusted and reliable resource for journalists reporting on NASCAR, helpful with requests small and large. In that way, Dan has truly worked to the standard, and in the spirit, of Mr. Chapman.”

Zacharias has been with the Campbell Marketing and Communications agency, representing Ford, for more than two decades. He began his duties in NASCAR in 1998 with responsibility to work with all forms of media and provide pertinent race weekend information. It’s estimated Zacharias has worked with the media at some 600 race weekends.

He also has been a key team member in launching Ford’s NASCAR race cars, including Taurus, Fusion and most recently, Mustang.

Established in 1991 by media and publicists within the CART series, the Jim Chapman Award originally focused on achievement in CART. After a hiatus of several years, the award was resumed in 2004, with eligibility expanded to anyone working in racing public relations.

No PGA Tour event, no problem. In this bye-week edition, Tiger Woods makes headlines as both a captain and a player, while his International counterpart Ernie Els goes with youth with his picks for this year’s Presidents Cup and beyond.

Made Cut

Leadership. It would have been very easy for Captain Tiger to sidestep Patrick Reed and select another player, but then no one ever said leadership is easy.

Reed alienated himself from his U.S. bench mates following last year’s Ryder Cup loss in Paris, specifically calling out then-captain Jim Furyk and Jordan Spieth for breaking up what had been a wildly successful partnership.

Reed wasn’t the first player to break the team room silence but he did become an example of how not to handle a personality conflict, and when he failed to qualify for this year’s Presidents Cup team some considered a captain’s snub an appropriate response.

Not only did Woods do what was best for this year’s team by selecting Reed with one of his four picks, but he also did what was best for future U.S. teams, either at the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. Reed will be a part of future teams and Royal Melbourne is as good a spot as any to clear the air and move forward.

Tweet of the week I:

It’s a baller line and it also proves that Woods has a flair for the dramatic by picking himself last. Everybody knew he’d make himself a pick but the showman went the distance.

Made Cut-Did Not Finish (MDF)

Easy or Els. A day before Woods announced his captain’s picks, Els rounded out his team with what could be considered a few bold choices.

The 50-year-old selected Joaquin Niemann and Sungjae Im, who are a combined 41 years old. The 20- and 21-year-olds, respectively, were Els’s first two picks which was likely by design for the South African who is looking to reshape the International team following two decades of defeat.

“I didn’t go looking for Joaquin who is 20, or Sungjae who is 21, but they made themselves a lock on this team,” Els said. “I definitely wasn’t that good at 20, 21, but these guys are world-class players and they’ve proven themselves. I’m excited by the new blood that’s coming in.”

However this year’s matches turn out, Els has already proven himself the kind of adept leader the International side has been needing, and, with a little more cooperation from the PGA Tour, the Big Easy might even be able to turn the one-sided event into a compelling competition.

Missed Cut

Left out. Next month’s Presidents Cup will be the end of an era for Phil Mickelson, who’ll miss a team event for the first time since 1994 after being bypassed by Woods for a pick.

It’s no big surprise Woods didn’t select Lefty with one of his four wildcard choices. Mickelson’s best finish since his victory in February at Pebble Beach was a tie for 18^th at the Masters, and he fell out of the top 50 in the world ranking last week for the first time in almost 26 years.

What does qualify as a mild surprise is that Mickelson won’t be joining Woods and the U.S. team as a vice captain, which has become how would-be captains get the experience needed to someday lead.

Woods still has an open golf cart if he wanted to name Mickelson, or anyone else, his final vice captain but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards based on his response to Lefty’s absence from this year’s team.

“What he’s accomplished, it’s amazing,” Woods said. “It’s unfortunate it’s come this year. It was going to come to an end at some point and time, all things do. Unfortunately, it happened to be this year.”

So much for warm and fuzzy sendoffs.

Indifference. Or maybe incompetence is a better way to size up another rules snafu that occurred at last week’s Q-Series on the LPGA. Even the new, scaled-down version of the Rules of Golf can be overwhelming, but this violation could and should have been avoided.

Last Thursday, Christina Kim noticed Kendall Dye motion to the caddie of the third member of their group, Dewi Weber, asking if Weber had hit 8-iron. Weber’s caddie, Jacqueline Schram, confirmed.

Kim decided to inform the players and rules official of the incident after the round (10 holes later) and both Dye and Weber were penalized two strokes for violating Rule 10-2.

Dye told Golfweek that she wasn’t “trying to cheat” and felt “gutted” that Weber was also penalized for the infraction despite having nothing to do with the situation. Where this gets weird is Dye’s post on Twitter explaining “I didn’t know this was an infraction” and calling out Kim for her “unprofessional and public action taking this to Twitter.”

In her own social media mea culpa, Dye also explained that she’s played professional golf for 10 years and that she should have known the rule. Yes, she should have, just as she should have known the unwritten rule that requires other players, like Kim, to protect the entire field.

Tweet of the week II. @TheChristinaKim “If it causes more people to read the rules better, it was worth it. It’s not about any single person. It’s about all of us. This was important to me so I could try and help others. If I lose fifty friends but they know the rules better I’d say it’s worth it.”

Kim’s actions don’t need defending. She was looking out for the field and that should be the goal of every player. If speaking out prompted a few play-for-pay types to crack the rulebook, then it was all worth it.

Former United States manager Jurgen Klinsmann has been appointed to the supervisory board at Hertha Berlin, the club announced on Friday.

Klinsmann, 55, had been out of an official role in football ever since the United States Soccer Federation sacked the former Germany international striker in November 2016.

Linked with the Ecuador job last month, the former Germany head coach returns to Bundesliga football at capital club Hertha Berlin.

"I am delighted to be part of the most exciting football project in Europe," Klinsmann said in quotes on the club's official website. "Moreover, it's a club I am emotionally invested in."

Announcing himself as a footballer at southern club VfB Stuttgart in the 1980s, Klinsmann is an honorary member of Hertha Berlin, the club his late father Sigfried, who was raised in Eberswalde, near Berlin, rooted for. And Klinsmann's son Jonathan made his first steps in Europe as a Hertha goalkeeper between 2017 through to 2019 before leaving for Swiss side FC St. Gallen.

But Klinsmann's decision to return to the Bundesliga 10 years after getting sacked as Bayern Munich manager is not solely an emotional comeback, but rather one which is down to his relationship with investor Lars Windhorst.

Entrepeneur Windhorst, 42, in recent months with his Tennor Holding bought 49.9% of Hertha's shares for €225 million, with the club confirming his latest €99m injection on Friday.

A controversial investor, Windhorst rose to fame in the 1990s when Le Figaro dubbed him the "German Bill Gates," but he ran into financial difficulties the following decade. With offices in Berlin and London, Windhorst is now hoping to turn Hertha into a "big city club."

"I am delighted to have won over Jurgen Klinsmann as an advisor for Tennor. His appointment to the Hertha supervisory board underlines our sustainability and seriousness of our commitment for the club," Windhorst said in the official press release.

Klinsmann and Windhorst are expected at the Olympiastadion when Hertha Berlin host RB Leipzig on Saturday -- the day which marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.