(2007 SCHEDULE) FORMULA D/CHAMP CAR [15 Events]

[INFO]

April 8 LONG BEACH (FORMULA D)
April 15 LONG BEACH (CHAMP CAR)
May 18 ATLANTA (FORMULA D)
June TBA
June 10 PORTLAND (CHAMP CAR)
June 24 CLEVELAND (CHAMP CAR)
July 14 INFINION (FORMULA D)
July 29 SAN JOSE (CHAMP CAR)
Aug 11 SEATTLE (FORMULA D)
Aug 19 DENVER (CHAMP CAR)
Sep 8 WALL (FORMULA D)
Oct 13 Irwindale (FORMULA D)

[Bstone]

So the events with Champ Car will be for points instead of the being a demo?

What is the point of having two events at the same track, two weekends in a row. (Long Beach) Why not just have the one on the Champ Car weekend?

[VDMTom]

Haha, wow TWO events in NorCal in the same month..AGAIN. Love it.


Keep it up FD!

[HondaGirlSi]

Bumbed but ok

Well no stop in texas I see that is ok but I bet there are other fellow Texans wanting for Formula D to come back to Texas!

[DriftGirl]

The 'Champ car' dates are just Demo's right?


Welcome back to the Emerald City!!!

[new_to_drift]

make more stops out in the midwest.there are 3 in cali alone.and 1 on the whole west coast.not counting atlanta.the one in cleveland isnt even FD.Please come out more often.

[J-Rod]

The 'Champ car' dates are just Demo's right?


Welcome back to the Emerald City!!!

No
They're planning on having team competitions which have accumulated points series.
But FD will clarify shortly.
STay tuned

[Jim @ FD]

First, here is the script and some notes from our press conference.


Press Conference:

•Welcome Remarks
"Thank you for coming this afternoon. Formula Drift is now entering its 4th full championship season. And as the leader in professional drifting, we are looked upon to continue to make progress. We are here today to speak of some of our expansion plans for the 2007 season."

•Accolades/First’s
"But before we can leap into the future, we have to look at the past. Over the last 3 seasons the drivers, team member, sponsors, media partners, fans and staff have set many precedents. These precedents include:"

i. Formula D has the largest number of tire manufactures involved than any other motorsport series in the world.

ii. First drifting championship in the world to be sponsored by non-endemic companies including EA Games and Circuit City.

iii. First drifting championship to have factory backed teams.

iv. First drifting championship in the world to have an official, sanctioned competition on city streets.

v. First drifting championship to be aired on national cable with a dedicated series of shows thanks to G4. On that note we would like to thank G4 for 2 years of excellent work. But for 2007 and beyond we will be announcing shortly after the SEMA Show a new TV home for Formula Drift and a new partner that will help us do so.

vi. Formula D has the most diverse (nationality, age and gender) driver field of any drifting series in the world.

vii. Formula D has the most diverse (year, make and model) field of competition cars of any drifting series in the world.

viii. Named one of the 10 Top Innovators in the 10th anniversary issue of Super Street Magazine

ix. Responsible for holding more professional drifting events than anyone in North America.

x. Held the highest attended drifting event ever at Irwindale Speedway, this past October.

•2007

•Exposure
a. Formula Drift has created various means of exposing the Championship, the sponsors, and the teams. Over the last 3 seasons, we have brought about almost 1 billion impressions.

b. Formula Drift continues to be provide the most intensive and integrate marketing campaigns around with hundreds of thousands of viral marketing pieces per event, multiple print ads in various types of publications, radio advertising, web advertising, in-store promotions,

c. For 2007, we will continue that trend of creating new ways to expose this sport and this Championship. We will do this through stepping up and keeping with new media and new technologies. We will be creating multiple touch points through these channels. Here is a taste of a few:

i. You will see downloadable mobile phone content via our partnership with Destroy Entertainment/Warner.

ii. You will see downloadable video-casts/pod-casts via our partnership with CK Media. Over 15 hours or original content packaged into 75 shows.

iii. You will see a more interactive and improved Formula Drift website via our partnership with newly signed creative agency Medium Giant.

iv. You will see the Formula Drift email database expand beyond 300,000 emails.

• Competition Format
a. First, we have resigned judges Andy Yen, Alex Pfeiffer and Ken Takahashi to another season.

b. For 2007, we will continue with the Formula Drift Pro Championship. The Pro Championship will consist of 7 rounds that will culminate in the crowning of a Series Champion. We would like to recognize 2-time Formula Drift Champion Samuel Hubinette.

c. Our expansion plans will come in the form of the introduction of the Formula Drift Team Drift Championship. These 5 events will be held during Champ Car race weekends. Similar to the many demonstrations we have conducted at Champ Car races in the past. The Team Drift format in the back of the room.

d. With the combination of the Pro Championship and the Team Drift Championship, teams, drivers and sponsors will be exposed to almost 900,000 event attendees.

• Schedule

• Strategic Partnerships

a. Though we have stated the many accomplishments by the Formula Drift team and the participating teams and sponsors, we do not feel that we know every thing there is to know about sports marketing. That is why we have surrounded ourselves with the best strategic partners.

b. One of the backbones of Formula Drift is the access to some of the best competition venues in the country. We have formed strong and in most cases, exclusive partnerships with venues like the City of Long Beach, Irwindale Speedway, Infineon Raceway, Evergreen Speedway, Wall Speedway and Road Atlanta.

c. A few months ago, we partnered with the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach. The Grand Prix Association has 32 years of experience organizing, marketing, and promoting major motor sports events like the world famous Long Beach Grand Prix. They have been advising us on issues like sponsorship to venue operations.

d. Going into the 2007 season, Formula Drift will also be partnering with some of the most experienced grassroots drift event organizers in the country. Organizations like Just Drift, Drift Association, US Drift, Drift 411, Club FR and Daily Drifter will be holding their events under the Formula Drift Pro Am Series banner. The Pro Am Series will provide quality regional competition for those drivers/team not seeking to go beyond their home region and for those that are seeking one day compete at the pro level.

e. Finally, the new strategic partnership that we have been working hard on so that we can announce it today. For the 2007 and beyond, Formula Drift will be strategic partners with IMG Worldwide. So let me introduce James Leitz, Vice President/Director of Action Sports for IMG Worldwide to tell you more about IMG.

•IMG (www.imgworld.com) (copy of the press release to follow)

•Final Words

[Jim @ FD]

IMG AND FORMULA DRIFT FORM STRATEGIC ALLIANCE

Las Vegas, NV, November 1, 2006 – IMG, the world’s leading sports, entertainment and media company, and Formula Drift, Inc., the first and only sanctioned and recognized North American professional drifting championship series, have formed an exclusive global partnership. IMG will work closely with Formula Drift across all areas of its business, including licensing, interactive, event development and television representation.

“Formula D is already the category leader and we believe there is tremendous potential to further grow and expand the Formula D Tour for the drivers, teams, spectators and sponsors,” commented Jay Ogden, IMG Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Events and Federations.

“To partner with IMG – the company that works with the biggest names in sports - is another giant step for Formula Drift and an incredible step in the expansion of our sport,” said Ryan Sage, Formula Drift Co-Founder and EVP of Marketing. “With IMG’s global marketing media and licensing resources, they are uniquely qualified to help us build this exciting sport.”

Drifting is a high-skill extreme motorsport where drivers slide their cars sideways at high speeds through a marked course. In 2003 the Formula Drift organization was created to bring the sport to American audiences; this year its Formula D championship series featured more than 50 professional drivers competing in seven events across the country.


About IMG

IMG is the world's premier Sports, Entertainment and Media Company. IMG is a diversified global business with two major business segments: IMG Sports & Entertainment, and IMG Media. IMG employs over 2,500 people in 30 countries. Forstmann Little & Co. purchased IMG in 2004.

IMG Sports & Entertainment includes: consulting services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models representation; licensing; golf course design; client representation in golf, tennis, broadcasting, European football, rugby, cricket, motorsports, coaching, Olympic sports and action sports. In addition, IMG Academies are the world's largest and most advanced, state-of-the-art, multi-sport training and educational facility, delivering world-class sports training experiences to over 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult and professional athletes each year.

IMG Media, which includes our content production subsidiaries TWI, Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) and Tiger Aspect Productions (TAP), is recognized as a global leader in the delivery of traditional and new media content and services, with Internet, broadband and mobile expertise, transforming how audiences access and interact with content.

IMG Media produces and distributes over 10,000 hours of sports, documentary, drama, comedy, entertainment, popular factual and children's content annually, over multiple platforms across 200 countries, including award-winning television and radio programming. It also represents the broadcast rights to many of the world's premier sporting events and has the world's biggest sports archive with more than 200,000 hours of footage.

More information about IMG is available at www.imgworld.com.

Contacts:

Jane Singer
Senior Vice President
Corporate Communications and Public Relations
IMG Worldwide, Inc.
212-774-6760
jsinger@imgworld.com

Ryan Sage
EVP Marketing
Formula Drift Inc.
562-901-2600
ryan@formulad.com

[Slapshotnerd]

I was mad i missed the announcement... that's what I get for missing my plane!

This is great news for Formula D, the drivers, the teams, the sponsors, and of course the fans. Formula D is continuing to raise the bar for the sport of drifting.

[sonnysmr2]

fd license required for team competition?

[AndyFD]

fd license required for team competition?

Yes, you need a FD license for the Champ Car Team Drift competition.

[EverythingDrift]

Hey Andy...

let's make that June Date happen

[toyocresta]

Date Says July 14 For Norcal But Formulad.com Says Aug 11 So Do Flyers Error Typo?

[Jim @ FD]

OFFICIAL CALENDAR (for the remainder of the year):

Round 4 - July 14 - Evergreen Speedway, Monroe, WA
Round 5 - Aug 11 - Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, CA
Round 6 - Sept 8 - Wall Speedway, Wall, NJ
Round 7 - Oct 13 - Irwindale Speedway, Irwindale, CA

**We were forced to change the NorCal date at the beginning of the season. It was not our choice. Sorry for any confusion.**