Sixth Annual NASA Championships to be Held at Mid-Ohio & Streamed Live Online
MotoIQ Staff Report
NAPA Valley, CA, (Aug. 2, 2011) – The National Auto Sport Association (NASA) is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year and will host its sixth annual National Championships presented by Toyo Tires at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course from September 6-11.
The National Auto Sport Association (NASA) was formed in 1991 by Jerry Kunzman and Ali Arsham with the premise of delivering high quality motorsports events to enthusiasts at major racing venues throughout the nation. NASA has created programs that allow owners of both racecars and high-performance street-driven vehicles to enjoy the full performance capabilities of their cars in a professionally managed environment. NASA offers many different programs that allow drivers to enjoy motorsports on a number of different levels, including our High Performance Driving Events (HPDE), Rally Sport, Time Trial, NASA-X and Competition Racing programs.
To qualify for the NASA National Chamionships presented by Toyo Tires, NASA competitors must compete in and score points in five regional races around the country. The 2011 National Championship presented by Toyo Tires weekend will feature over 400 competitors racing for the NASA National Champion trophy in 33 racing classes and nine Time Trial divisions around the famed Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
“We dropped the green flag on our first National event just 14 years after the founding of NASA,” Jerry Kunzman, NASA executive director said. “This was not a small undertaking. This will be our sixth National Championship weekend and the event has grown consistently since our first National held in 2006. It is a real compliment to our 15 regions, their staff and all of the competitors that we are celebrating our 20th anniversary with our sixth National Championship event in 2011.
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a legendary facility and the staff does a fantastic job keeping the course in top-notch condition. Mid-Ohio easily accommodates NASA’s 400+ entries and the design of the circuit is guaranteed to offer very competitive racing over our five-day event. NASA members have had the opportunity to compete in over 60 race weekends to qualify for the Nationals and competition has been fierce at each one. I am very much looking forward to once again crowning our NASA National Champions in September.”
A critical component of National Championship weekend is the over $1,000,000 in prize packages that are offered by major automotive and motorsport companies. NASA works feverishly throughout the year to attract manufacturer support and contingency sponsors to help keep costs down for its member competitors.
“We have assembled a great list of companies that NASA competitors can work with to help defray the cost of racing at the Nationals as well as all season,” Jeremy Croiset, NASA sponsorship manager said. “We have great manufacturer support from Honda, Nissan, Ford and Mazda. An excellent example of this support is the $500 minimum payout that Honda has guaranteed for each qualifying competitor in the HPD Honda Challenge Class. NASA boasts a strong list of contingency sponsors including Honda Performance Development (HPD), AST Suspension, BF Goodrich, Ford Racing, Toyo Tires, Nissan Motorsports, Hawk Performance, Goodyear, Treadzone, MAZDASPEED, Yokohama, PFADT Engineering, and Hoosier Racing Tire. In addition to contingency sponsors NASA also has a great list of companies that offer discounts to members including Vehiport, APR Performance, Cruise America, Hobie Polarized, OG Racing, TPIS, Molecule, Torco, Konig, Exedy, Motel 6, The Mid-Ohio School, Avis, Porterfield, Fastbrakes and Eibach Springs.”
NASA National Championships Presented by Toyo Tires to be live webcast from Mid-Ohio
NASA offers several ways for fans to follow the action during the National Championship weekend. NASA will be working in conjunction with Speedcast TV to bring all the racing action live from Mid-Ohio via webcast that will be located at www.speedcasttv.com/nasa. Additionally, GoRacingTV.com will be broadcasting driver interviews and news segments each evening from the event.
“We are continuing our pioneering coverage with webcasts of every race group at the event. We were one of the first sanctioning bodies to offer this in amateur racing and we continue to improve the live coverage each year,” Ryan Flaherty, NASA National Chairman said. “We are proud to continue offering the webcast this year thanks to our many important sponsors. This broadcast affords our membership in general as well as racer’s family members and fans who can’t make it to Mid-Ohio for the big weekend the opportunity to watch the action live as it unfolds on SpeedcastTV.com/nasa. In addition, the great folks at GoRacingTV.com will be on site doing feature segments and capturing driver interviews from the event. We will also be very active on Twitter and Facebook with news updates.”
NASA fans can see both Saturday and Sunday’s races live, entirely free of cost at www.speedcastTV.com/nasa. On-demand replays of each day’s live webcast will be available minutes after the live webcast ends. Individual races will be released for on-demand viewing during the following week.
“We’re very excited to offer the NASA Championships in HD for the first time this year,” Clark Cambern, President, Speedcast Productions said. “We’ve made a lot of enhancements to our new HD production truck, including a more reliable streaming system, improved graphics with a live running order ticker, and instant replay. This year’s broadcast will truly be world-class.” GoRacingTV.com will be in the paddock all weekend providing up close segments and driver interviews throughout the National Championship weekend.
“The daily news show will bring viewers news and information on what is happening at the NASA Championships from informative interviews with competitors, to qualifying interviews and updates, to the championship race results and interviews with the winners,”Errol Tucker, Senior Executive producer of GoRacingTV.com, Inc., said. “It will be like looking at your local news report each evening, starting Friday, Sept. 9 thru Sunday, Sept. 11. Most people go home and look at the nightly news to see what has gone on in the world today. In this case, with our news reports, viewers will get information on what’s happening in the world of NASA and the Championships. We are very happy to have Honda Performance Development (HPD) as our presenting sponsor for our video newscoverage of the event.”
About NASA
The National Auto Sport Association (NASA) was formed in 1991 by Jerry Kunzman and Ali Arsham with the premise of delivering high quality motorsports events to enthusiasts at major racing venues throughout the nation. NASA has created programs that allow owners of both racecars and high-performance street-driven vehicles to enjoy the full performance capabilities of their cars in a controlled professionally managed environment. NASA offers many different programs that will allow you to enjoy motorsports on a number of different levels, including our High Performance Driving Events (HPDE), Rally Sport, Time Trial, NASA-X and Competition Racing programs.
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