plus 3, Mary Bledsoe - Cibola County Beacon

Mary Bledsoe - Cibola County Beacon
Joe Verde Group Announces New Workshop - Focuses on Closing More Deals - Newswiretoday.com
Navistar Selects Continental Tires as Standard Equipment for Severe ... - TMCnet
Chris Gill: Watkins Glen taking away track excitement - Freeport Journal Standard

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 03:42 PM PST

A funeral mass for Mary Stella Daley Bledsoe, 88, was held on Jan. 23, 2010, at Blessed John XXIII, Fort Collins, Colo. A spring internment is planned for Santa Fe National Cemetery.

She was born Oct. 15, 1921 in Carrizozo to Santiago Romero Daley and May Guadalupe Norman and passed away on Jan. 18, 2010. She was raised in Cubero and Grants where her parents were teachers. Mary was elected "Homecoming Queen" of the Grants Union High School in 1937. She spent her lifetime in the Catholic Church and brought her children and husband into the faith,

Mary was Grants' first female Town Clerk in 1946-47. Then along came an air traffic controller to the Acomita CAA Station. After a brief courtship Mary and Bill Bledsoe were married Nov. 13, 1948. They were transferred to the Panama, Canal Zone. Mary was employed as a clerk-stenographer with the U.S. Army Caribbean Headquarters. Two years later they were transferred to Albuquerque where they lived for 34 years and raised their family.

During those years, she was employed as an accountant with the New Mexico State Bureau of Revenue, as an office administrator with the New Mexico Employment Security Commission, and accountant for St. Pius X High School where she retired in 1976.

In 1964 Mary entered the primary campaign for the office of Bernalillo County Clerk. Although she did not win the election, she was endorsed by both the Albuquerque Journal and the Albuquerque Tribune.

Upon retirement, Mary and Bill hit the road in their RV, visiting most of the states west of the Mississippi. A couple of cruises, 12 days in the Caribbean that included passage through the Panama Canal and a train trip across the isthmus; another was a cruise down the Mexican Riviera.

The move to Fort Collins, Colo., in 1985 was to follow their children. This gave them the freedom to "winter" in Arizona, five in Mesa and five in Tucson which fulfilled their hobby of bird watching.

The highlight of retirement has been two trips to Spain to retrace Mary's Spanish ancestors. They made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Mary's patron saint, St. Teresa of Avila. The first was a three-week tour by rental auto of 1,300 miles. The second trip was to the Costa del Sol with side trips to Granada, Seville and Gibraltar.

She is survived by her husband of 61 years: Bill Bledsoe; daughter: Mary Cyril Bledsoe of Knoxville, Tenn., and formerly of Cheyenne, Wyo.; sons, Eugene Daley of Smyrna, Tenn., Ken and Phyllis Bledsoe of Fort Collins, Colo. and Will Bledsoe of Louisville; Jana Bledsoe of Boulder, Colo.; granddaughters: Erin Bledsoe, Tayler Bledsoe, Annette Gray and Marla Donour; grandson: Geno Daley; brother: James Norman Daley of Fortuna, Calif.

She was preceded in death by her parents; sister: Anna Mae Starr; and brother, William O. "Billy" Daley.

Donations can be made in Mary's memory to St. Teresa Catholic School, 400 E High, Grants, NM 87020

Goes Funeral Care of Fort Collins, Colo, was in charge of arrangements.

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Joe Verde Group Announces New Workshop - Focuses on Closing More Deals - Newswiretoday.com

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 12:50 PM PST

The Joe Verde Group, an auto sales training company based in Southern California, created the workshop to help improve desking and negotiation skills in the industry, which will increase sales and improve gross.

"Some dealers and managers developed bad habits during the good years," said auto sales training expert Joe Verde, who heads the Joe Verde Group, North America's largest car sales training company. "As a result, many dealers are now looking to train their managers on how to close transactions with more cash down."

In the new 2-day workshop, dealers and managers will learn how to develop a logical and repeatable process that will maximize unit sales and gross profit, and create a win/win negotiation with high CSI on every unit delivered.

"It's really a choice that dealers have to make," said Mr. Verde. "They can continue getting little or no gross on deals and lose customers, or they can learn these desking and negotiation skills and raise their gross by as much as $600 a deal."

The Joe Verde Group's new Desking Process workshop is a stand-alone program that doesn't require the completion of any other Joe Verde management/dealer workshops. Joe Verde and his trainers encourage dealers to attend the workshop with their managers.

The new Desking Process workshop is held at various locations across North America, including the company's training center in Dallas, Texas.

About the Joe Verde Group

The Joe Verde Group (joeverde.com) is the largest sales and management training company in the Automobile, RV and Marine industries. The company has a 24-year, verifiable track record of success in automotive sales training with over half of the top 500 dealerships, half of the top 100 Internet dealerships and another 4,000 dealers of every size as their customers.

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Navistar Selects Continental Tires as Standard Equipment for Severe ... - TMCnet

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 01:33 PM PST

FORT MILL, S.C., Jan 25, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV) and Continental Tire North America, Inc. ("Continental") announced today that Continental truck tires are the standard fitment for all International(R) PayStar(R), WorkStar(R), and DuraStar(R) severe service and medium duty vehicles as of January 1, 2010.

Navistar, a market leader in the North American severe service and medium duty segments, is a natural fit with the rugged durability of Continental's on/off highway and construction truck tires, said Tom Fanning, director of original equipment sales for Continental - The Americas.

"International truck customers count on their vehicles to provide heavy duty performance and maximum uptime, even in the most demanding conditions. Now they can rely upon their Continental truck tires to work in tandem with these powerful vehicles, providing the top-level reliability and high mileage that can only come from a tire engineered to handle the toughest driving conditions," Fanning said.

Continental's expansion into the regional, on/off highway and construction segment is backed up by truck tires engineered with maximum resistance to damage, tread patterns designed for optimum traction, extra tough compounding and stone ejection systems.

"All of these factors provide excellent durability and long original mileage that complement the worksite-readiness of International brand severe service vehicles. Drivers of International PayStar, WorkStar, and DuraStar trucks will now be able to depend on Continental tires to keep them moving safely, even in unpredictable road conditions," Fanning said.

"The severe-duty cycle of International WorkStar and PayStar trucks required a tire selection that can perform under these conditions, and Continental truck tires have the intelligent engineering and durability required," said Melissa Gauger, vocational marketing manager for Navistar.

"International trucks can tackle some of the most severe conditions on earth and routinely come back for more. With our MaxxForce(R) big bore engines and heavy duty chassis features, we needed to select original equipment tires that were equal in capability and strength to the components of the truck itself." "This is why Continental truck tires are the new standard for our severe service and medium duty vehicles. We have confidence that our customers will be just as satisfied with their Continental tires as they are with the power and reliability of their new International truck," Gauger said.

With the Navistar fitment, Continental is expanding its footprint into the severe service and medium duty vehicle segments to highlight its tire products that are engineered for maximum durability. Continental's complete lineup of truck tires, including tires designed for regional highway, on/off highway and construction use, can be viewed at its Web site, www.continental-truck.com.

About Navistar Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV) is a holding company whose subsidiaries and affiliates produce International(R) brand commercial and military trucks, MaxxForce(R) brand diesel engines, IC Bus(TM) brand school and commercial buses, Monaco RV brands of recreational vehicles, and Workhorse(R) brand chassis for motor homes and step vans. It also is a private-label designer and manufacturer of diesel engines for the pickup truck, van and SUV markets. The company also provides truck and diesel engine service parts. Another affiliate offers financing services. Additional information is available at www.Navistar.com/newsroom.

About Continental With sales of approximately euro 24 billion in 2008, Continental is among the leading automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, systems and components for powertrains and chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tires and technical elastomers, Continental contributes enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also a competent partner in networked automobile communication. Continental currently employs approximately 134,000 at nearly 190 locations in 37 countries.

Online media database: www.mediacenter.continental-corporation.com Continental Tire North America Media Site: www.ctnamedia.com SOURCE Continental Tire North America, Inc.

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Chris Gill: Watkins Glen taking away track excitement - Freeport Journal Standard

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 09:08 AM PST

This year, racers at Watkins Glen International won't have to worry about burying their cars in sand if they screw up going into the chicane. They won't have to take such a conservative line coming out of Turn 5 anymore. When they approach Turn 10, they can let it hang out a little bit more because half of the beach in that corner will be removed.

This sounds like a recipe for better races, doesn't it? The staff at WGI, and the decision makers for the major sanctioning bodies, believe so.

If racers aren't so preoccupied with going offline entering the chicane at 180 mph, they're more apt to attempt an outbraking maneuver. If they need to pick up time on the leader, there will be more room to exit the sweeper on the south end of the 3.4-mile road course. If they want to set up a pass for the front straightaway, they can keep pace or pick up a yard or two through 10.

That makes sense.

"I thought it will make the racing here that much better, which is hard to do," WGI president Michael Printup told me over the phone last week. "It will make our fan plan better."

The fan plan is to improve everything at The Glen with the paying public in mind. Aside from more showers, restrooms and RV dumps for the infield campers, one of the biggest gripes people had with The Glen last year was the racing. It sucked. None of the Big 3 race weekends in Schuyler County approached exciting, but I'm confident it wasn't a problem with the race track.

The Six Hours of The Glen was a Scott Pruett runaway. If only for one day, Justin Wilson could do no wrong in the Camping World Grand Prix. Tony Stewart encountered some resistance early but spanked everyone in the last 10 laps of the Heluva Good Sour Cream Dips at The Glen (if there's a God, they'll shorten the name of that race).

Fans weren't happy because the races were uncommonly boring, or that it took four laps to retrieve a car from the cat litter. Who else are they going to complain to?

To that end, WGI and the movers and shakers at NASCAR, the Indy Racing League and Grand-Am all agreed to take out the trap in the chicane and add a SAFER barrier, pave the exit of Turn 5, put a SAFER barrier in Turn 11 and lop off a significant portion of the pit in Turn 10. No one thought to examine how the spec cars are abominations sent from the underworld to bore us into madness.

But I digress.

The racers in the stock cars have improved exponentially on the road courses, and the last few years they starting getting cocky. They're trying to race on parts of the track no one ever tried before in search of a little edge, and in the process have caused massive pileups. Michael McDowell, you can't divebomb people in Turn 11 without someone going headlong into the barrels of sand protecting the pit wall. Kasey Kahne, passing in Turn 5 is akin to sticking a knife in the toaster. These are things, after racing on the same circuit for several years now, drivers should understand, but their bravado overrides common sense.

The knee-jerk reaction is to change the track so drivers have more room, even on a generously wide circuit like The Glen.

I've got no problem with putting energy-absorbing walls in high-impact areas or turning race cars into cocoons (it's called progress), but when you start to pave everything you A) take away from the middle-of-the-freaking-woods feel that makes The Glen so unique and B) neuter the course a little bit.

(Is it possible to neuter something "a little bit?" Without getting too graphic, I would think that if you cut ... I'll have to call Bob Barker).

What's the penalty for overshooting the entrance to the chicane? Where's the challenge of going almost flat-out exiting Turn 5? After the Sarlacc-like pit in the Ninety was replaced by a sea of more asphalt, the surgical precision of diving downhill into a right-hand 90-degree turn was reduced to all the care it takes to play Whack-A-Mole. Even though the chicane was installed after a series of violent accidents – one tragic – it's addition reduced The Glen's Bravery-meter.

We didn't start watching auto races because they were all pass-happy spectacles, what drew us in was the danger. We didn't watch because we wanted to see bad things happen, we watched because mere mortals prevailed in the face of Senor Peligro. Practically every high-speed oval in the country is lined with SAFER barriers, but it hasn't dramatically changed the racing lines. However, when you start messing around with road courses by paving everything beyond the racing line, you alter how drivers approach each corner.

Printup said he has addressed this.

"We've got to hold the drivers to the course – don't expand a runoff area and end up using it as a slingshot, as they did in the Cup race. We don't want that," he said. "When we talked to the sanctioning bodies at meetings, we just said, 'Can we remind competitors at driver meetings there's a defined course for a reason.' We said we'd all work on that together."

That's nice to hear, but Printup and the series stewards aren't driving the cars.

Over the years we've watched the grand old road courses in Europe get clipped like stray cats at the ASPCA, but the circuits on the this side of the pond have remained unmolested. I don't want to see that trend start at The Glen.

Chris Gill, who covers auto racing for The Leader in Corning, N.Y., can be reached at cmgill@the-leader.com.

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