Bully Dog, Torchmate Ink Sponsor Deals

The Best in the Desert Racing Association, Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions, Bully Dog Technologies and Torchmate Cutting Systems have finalized one of the best television packages in off road racing after signing deals with two major cable networks.

Fox Sports will air all five of the Bully Dog Best in the Desert TV car and truck races in 2009 in a thirty-minute format on the following schedule: 

A second major network agreement was just reached this week with Outdoor Channel to air separate coverage of the Terrible's 250, Vegas to Reno, Silver State and the Henderson Fabtech Desert Classic as part of their "Motormania" program.

The Outdoor Channel program will also follow a thirty-minute format when they air separate shows in December (not a repeat of the Fox broadcast). The program will air in a consistent time slot for consecutive weeks in December with exact dates to be announced soon. Best in the Desert Racing on the Outdoor Channel will receive distinct, favorable time slots on both the east and west coasts in addition to one re-airing of each program.

Combined with existing contracts with MavTV and the America One Sports Network, the 2009 Best in the Desert television package reaches more than 154 million households. "We believe this is unprecedented," said Sopwith Motorsports CEO and executive producer Stephen Cox. "Occasionally a single event might get a little more coverage, but we're not aware of a desert racing series that's ever had this level of coverage for its entire season."

The title sponsor of the entire 2009 campaign is Bully Dog Technologies (www.BullyDog.com), well-known makers of exhaust systems, engine management systems and high performance products for trucks. Bully Dog also sponsors the Bully Dog/Speed Technologies race team and has been a long time supporter of off road racing in all its forms.

The presenting sponsor of each 2009 broadcast is Torchmate Cutting Systems (www.Torchmate.com). Torchmate's brand has been in constant demand by chassis makers and fabricators throughout the off road racing community because it reduces metal consumption, provides a superior cut and saves money. Torchmate also directly supports desert racing by fielding truck #7231 in all Best in the Desert races.

Regarding the 2009 broadcast, Cox said, "This season we want to take a more personal look at the race teams and follow the stories of a handful of drivers more closely. We want to highlight the adventure, the landscape and the incredible effort put in by these teams in a format that's a little more closely related to a documentary style presentation. We're going to slow things down and really put people inside the event rather than just offering an overview of the results."

All slots for featured teams in the Fox broadcast of the Terrible's 250 are already filled, as well as half the Vegas to Reno program. A few slots remain for the Terrible's 250 Outdoor Channel broadcast although they are expected to fill by next week. To be featured in an upcoming race, teams should contact Sopwith Motorsports Television Productions at 317-413-6557.