PRI Trade Show to kick off with bigger focus on EVs, esports
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
More than 60,000 people will descend upon downtown Indianapolis as California-based Performance Racing Industry kicks off its annual PRI Trade Show at the Indiana Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium today.
This year’s trade show is expected to generate an estimated $64.4 million in economic impact for the city, according to Visit Indy Senior Vice President Chris Gahl.
The three-day event includes more than 1,000 businesses exhibiting the latest developments in racing products, technology, and services.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, PRI General Manager Jim Liaw said electric vehicles and esports are getting a larger spotlight in this year’s show.
“We’ve had an EV performance zone, which we now have evolved to an EV and alternative racing area that encompasses all things kind of new technology—not just electric propulsion, but hydrogen, hybrid, propane, renewable fuels,” he said. “And so there’s a whole display of those type of vehicles and manufacturers that manufacture components to make race vehicles into those.”
As part of that increased focus, PRI is partnering with Brownsburg-based TopKart USA, which makes electric go-karts. A go-kart track has been built inside Lucas Oil Stadium and races will take place throughout the event featuring professionals drivers, content creators and youth drivers.
The setup at Lucas Oil Stadium will also feature an enhanced Esports Gaming Arena that was developed in partnership with SRO Motorsports Group.
“They brought 16 units. We brought in a big screen. We’re going run sim racing throughout the weekend,” he said. “But we’ve got also a lot of great esports partners and peripheral manufacturers, even [race team] Williams Formula One Esports has a presence there.”
But the esports element isn’t just about entertainment for the trade show. The entire event, Liaw said, is about “cross-learning and cross-pollination” where professionals from one segment of the motorsports industry and see what others are doing.
“When we talk about the EV, alternative fuel type of segment, as well as as sim and esports, those are all areas are really vital to just the health and the growth of the industry as a whole,” Liaw said. “During the pandemic, what did racing series do when they couldn’t go racing on a on a race track? They went online, and so there’s a whole virtual environment that ranges everywhere from very entry level, grassroots, all the way to kind of professional training.”
The PRI Trade Show has been held in Indianapolis for nearly two decades, aside from 2020 when it was canceled due to the pandemic. Liaw said the organization has a great partnership with the city, one that is expected to grow with the planned renovation of Pan Am Plaza that includes the expansion of the Indiana Convention Center and a new Signia hotel.
The expansion, set for completion in October 2026, will add a total of 143,000 square feet of space, including a 50,000-square-foot ballroom.
Liaw said the project is very important to the growth of the trade show, as the event gets closer to pre-pandemic levels.
“We’re definitely filling up every corner of the facility,” he said. With the connection to the Signia and having 50,000-plus square feet of usable space, that warrants more expansion. With more hotel rooms, that means that as we as we grow and bring attendees back in, more exhibitors back, there’s places to house them. And obviously, being kind as close to the convention center campus as possible makes it easy for everybody.”
In an interview conducted for this weekend’s edition of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, Gahl said that without the Pan Am Plaza project, conventions like the PRI Trade Show would not have continued.
In all, the PRI Trade show encompasses 750,000 square feet of space at the convention center and stadium.