SPEED coverage set for second annual Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge in Lake Placid

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – SPEED channel has announced four hours of coverage from the second annual Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, presented by Whelen Engineering, to be staged in Lake Placid, N.Y. Event coverage will air on SPEED Jan 6-7 from 2 to 4 p.m. ET each day.

The inaugural event was held in January 2006, with the 2007 edition scheduled for Jan. 5-6 on the demanding Lake Placid course which plunges steeply down Mt. Van Hoevenberg. The United States National Championships will be held concurrently as the nation's best will battle for the Billy Fiske Trophy, named after the American who captured Olympic gold medals in 1928 and 1932.

"This event has gotten our attention," said Robert Ecker, Vice President of Programming for SPEED. "With the NASCAR affiliation, the Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge intrigues us and fits our programming target."

The Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge is designed to raise needed funding to continue research and development for the United States men's and women's bobsled teams. The initiative began in 1992 when NASCAR icon Geoff Bodine ended the Americans reliance on used European bobsleds with his made-in-America sleds. He has teamed with Bob Cuneo of Chassis Dynamics in Oxford, Conn. to build bobsleds that have won four Olympic medals in the past two Winter Olympics, many World Cup races and threatens the European stronghold each season on the World Cup tour.

In the Bodine Challenge, drivers from the world of auto racing pilot modified bobsleds on the same, yet slightly shorter course as the world's top bobsledders. The auto racers will be asked to negotiate a 17-turn, three-fourths of a mile track with speeds exceeding 60 miles per hour.

Two races were held last winter; they were won by NASCAR's Boris Said and Kevin Lepage, respectively. Both drivers have committed to return as has Bodine, his brother Todd and another NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series driver, Stanton Barrett.

It is the story of Barrett that has become particularly compelling as he is currently splitting his time between auto racing and bobsled driving. The 34 year old from Bishop, Calif., with many stuntman credits in film, is striving to race bobsleds on the America's Cup circuit, a minor league for emerging sledders who aspire to the World Cup, World Championships and Olympic Winter Games. To achieve this, Barrett took a driver's course on the 1988 Winter Olympic track in Calgary, Alberta, Canada earlier this month. Three crashes later, Barrett returned to the world of motorized racing, finishing 26th in last week's Busch Series race in Phoenix, and followed that by placing ninth in his bobsled debut, an America's Cup two-man race in Calgary on Wednesday (Nov. 15). The field featured several Russian Olympians. His next America's Cup start will take place in Lake Placid after Thanksgiving.

"I hope to bring more awareness to the sport for the U.S. team and the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project," said Barrett. "I love speed and this is an ultimate speed sport. It's very different from what I'm used to. I really believe that I can drive, but the question is whether or not I can start the sled."

Barrett's exploits in bobsledding will be chronicled during SPEED's coverage of World Cup Bobsledding during the winter season..

For ticket prices and more information on the Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, presented by Whelen Engineering and the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, Inc., please log to www.bodinebobsled.com.

SPEED, celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2006, is the nation's first and foremost cable network dedicated to motor sports and the passion for everything automotive. From racing to restoration, motorcycles to movies, SPEED delivers quality programming from the track to the garage. Now available in more than 73 million homes in North America, SPEED is among the fastest growing sports cable networks in the country, the home to NASCAR TV and an industry leader in interactive TV, video on-demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services. For more information, please visit www.SPEEDtv.com.

What Daytona is to auto racing, Lake Placid is to bobsledding.