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SCORE International signs TV agreement with Aura360
For final four races of the 2005 SCORE Desert Series
Aura360 will produce 37th Tecate SCORE Baja 500, SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s
Cup I,
10th SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 and 38th Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
LOS
ANGELES, CA (March 24, 2005) -- SCORE International, the
World’s foremost desert racing
sanctioning body, announced today that Aura360, the acclaimed adventure sports
marketing group, will produce the balance of the 2005 SCORE Desert Series for
television.
Aura360, based
in Portland, Maine, co-produced last year’s
Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 for NBC, marking the first time a desert race had been
televised
on a major national network since 1981.
Plans call for
a combination of both cable and network telecasts for the four-remaining
races in the six-race 2005
SCORE Desert Series.
SCORE and Aura360
anticipate the announcement of which networks, cable and national, will televise
the four remaining 2005 SCORE
races this year by
May 2.
“SCORE had several options to consider relative to identifying a producer
for our races this year and we have selected Aura360 for the balance of the 2005
season for a number of reasons,” said Sal Fish, CEO and President of
Los Angeles-based SCORE International, which annually sanctions and produces
the
six-race SCORE Desert Series.
“With the upcoming world premiere of the ‘Dust to Glory’ feature-length
documentary about the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, the interest level in SCORE desert
racing as a television property has gone up significantly,” Fish added.
“Aura360 is an extremely professional group to work with as they proved
to us during last year’s NBC telecast of the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.
We are comfortable that they will be able to develop the show content and the
TV
networks to provide significant exposure for SCORE International, our racers
and sponsors. We are very enthusiastic and welcome the opportunity to work
with Aura360 for the rest of 2005 and even beyond.”
Founded in 2003,
Aura360 is a full-service experiential marketing firm specializing the in
the production
of action/adventure events for television. Current properties
include the Jeep World of Adventure Sports on NBC, The Raid World Championships,
TGR and Absolut Access.
“We believe the SCORE Desert Series is a uniquely positioned franchise
with enormous television and marketing potential,” said Rufus Frost,
one of Aura360’s co-founders. “Aura360 is extremely excited to
partner with SCORE to develop a comprehensive television package for the series,
and
bring the unbelievable and rich heritage of SCORE desert racing to mainstream
audiences. We anticipate a landmark year for SCORE desert racing and television
will be a major component in developing this continued accelerated growth.”
The
remaining 2005 SCORE Desert Series races prior to the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
will be the 37th Tecate SCORE Baja 500 (June 3-5 in Ensenada, Mexico),
the SCORE
Las Vegas Terrible’s Cup I (July 28-30 at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway) and the 10th SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 (Sept. 9-11 in Primm,
Nev.).
The SCORE Las Vegas Terrible’s Cup is a non-points short-course event
on a 1.5 mile track, featuring the best of SCORE desert racing.
Over the years,
SCORE has been the subject of numerous television specials, including ABC
TV’s
Wide World of Sports in 1981 and in 2003 ‘Drive
Like Hell’,
a 90-minute high-definition documentary on the 2002 SCORE Baja 1000 produced
for HDNet TV by the Essex Television Group.
Essex also produced
a 90-minute documentary on the 2003 SCORE Baja 1000, called ‘When
the Dust Settles’, for the Discovery Channel’s Discovery HD Theater.
It aired first in spring of 2004.
The 2003 Tecate
SCORE Baja 1000 was filmed for a new 90-minute historical sports documentary
film, ‘Dust to Glory’.
A crew of over 80 was supervised by critically acclaimed director Dana Brown.
It was shot with Brown’s
father Bruce Brown as the creative consultant. Bruce Brown is responsible for
such notable
specialty films as ‘On Any Sunday’, and ‘Endless Summer’.
Last year, Dana Brown released the popular ‘Step Into Liquid’ surfing
documentary. ‘Dust to Glory’ will debut across the country on April
1.
SCORE International,
founded in 1973 by the late Mickey Thompson and headed by Sal Fish since
1974, continues today as the premier sanctioning body worldwide
in the sport of desert racing. SCORE races feature 17 Pro and two Sportsman
classes
for cars and trucks in the U.S. with 10 additional Pro and three more Sportsman
classes for motorcycles and ATVs competing in the races in Mexico. SCORE
races in the U.S. average 175 entries while the average in Mexico, with motorcycle
and ATV classes running as well as the cars and trucks is 275.
SCORE
official sponsors for 2005 are: BFGoodrich Tires-official tire, C.L. Bryant-VP Racing
Fuels-official fuel supplier. Associate sponsors are: Tecate
Beer, Coca-Cola
of Mexico, Instant Mexico Auto Insurance, Las Vegas Events, Herbst Gaming,
Kartek Off-Road, Centrix Financial, Fram, Autolite, Prestone, Bilstein, Signpros,
Cotuco,
Fideicomiso Publico para la Promocion Turistica de Ensenada, P.C.I. Race
Radios, McKenzie’s Performance Products, and Advanced Color Graphics.
To contact
Aura360, visit www.aura360.com or call 207.699.2360.
For information contact:
SCORE International at its Los Angeles headquarters
(818) 225-8402 or visit
the official 2005 SCORE Desert Series website at:
www.score-international.com
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