DIRT MotorSports

Crane Cams Signs Multi-Year Partnership as Official Partner of All
World Racing Group Properties

Chris Dolack, VP Public Relations

CONCORD, N.C. — May 4, 2007 — Crane Cams® and the World Racing Group announce that Crane Cams has become an Official Partner of all WRG properties — including the World of Outlaws®, World of Outlaws Late Model Series(SM), Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series™, and DIRTcar™ Racing sanctioning body.

The partnership is a defining moment for WRG as it is the first time a corporate partner has secured marketing rights with every WRG owned property, including official rights with the three national touring series and weekly sanctioning body, media rights, interactive rights, and WRG owned track rights. The partnership will run through 2010 with option years that could extend it even longer.

“This partnership is broad reaching for Crane Cams,” says Lance Harris, CEO of Crane Cams. “It is multi-pronged. We absolutely want to reward and recognize engine builders by creating the Crane Cams Engine Builders Challenge, awarding prize money to the winning engine builders in each touring series. We also want to recognize the racers as Crane Cams becomes a contingency and marketing partner across all the touring series. The new TV partnerships with SPEED and ESPN will give Crane Cams a great platform to reach out to dirt racing fans all across the country and world. And for the fans, many of whom are racers and Crane Cams customers themselves, we are going to work very closely with WRG to be an active partner adding to the event experience.”

Crane Cams’ involvement includes title ownership of the Crane Cams Engine Builders Challenge for all three touring series, title
sponsorship of the Crane Cams Dash in World of Outlaws events, interactive participation with WorldofOutlaws.com, signage at all events, and advertising on SPEED and ESPN networks in conjunction with World of Outlaws event coverage.

“With this new four-year partnership, Crane Cams is making a significant commitment to dirt track racing,” says Rob Butcher, World Racing Group Chief Marketing Officer. “The Crane Cams Engine Builders Challenge will be a great prize and sense of pride for engine builders in all three touring series. The Dash, already one of the most exciting parts of a World of Outlaws event, just got even better with Crane Cams support and prizes. Crane Cams is also becoming a key partner of our SPEED and ESPN television broadcasts. In addition, Crane Cams is helping us develop fan promotional ideas. In every sense, Crane Cams is a total WRG partner that is enthusiastically embracing all of our assets.”

Be sure to tune in at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 13, when the World of Outlaws debut on SPEED.

About DIRT MotorSports, Inc., d/b/a World Racing GroupBased in Concord, N.C., World Racing Group (WRG) is a national sanctioning body, real-estate operator, and sports entertainment company serving the dirt racing industry. WRG sanctions sprint car racing under the World of Outlaws® banner, late model racing under the World of Outlaws Late Model Series(SM), big block modified racing under the Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series™ banner and sanctions more than 4,000-races a year under the DIRTcar™ Racing banner. WRG races can be heard online at DIRTVision.com®. In addition, WRG owns and operates seven speedways.

About Crane Cams
Based in Daytona Beach, Fla., Crane Cams® is the nation’s largest primary manufacturer of high performance camshafts and valve train components. It is recognized as a leader in technical innovation. Founded in 1953, the company has been responsible for a large majority of performance achievements in all forms of motorsports. Crane was acquired by Mikronite Technologies in 2006, facilitating a substantial expansion in manufacturing operations and product development activities — including the use of Mikronite’s patented process on many products. Crane also manufactures a variety of ignition components, which enjoy widespread use among oval track racing’s leading teams.
 

Experienced Crew Geared Up For World of Outlaws Television Debut

CONCORD, N.C. — April 9, 2007 — The World of Outlaws will soon usher in a new era in televised sprint car racing with a crew of experienced and enthusiastic sprint car broadcasters.

The 13-time Emmy-award winning production company Winnercomm will roll the cameras on Friday and Saturday when the World of Outlaws sprint car stars invade Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway for an event that will air at 2 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, May 13. Winnercomm, which provides more than 1,500 hours of programming annually to ESPN and SPEED, will handle production of all the World of Outlaws TV events in 2007.

Calling the action will be Bobby Gerould with Brad Doty adding analysis and Sean Buckley covering all the excitement from the pits.

Gerould, one of the most knowledgeable sprint car authorities in the media, was part of World of Outlaws broadcasts in the late 1990s on the former TNN network. After working the mic on World of Outlaws events along the West Coast the past few seasons, Gerould is eager to begin leading the coverage beginning with the debut on May 13.

“Being on SPEED is a great opportunity to expand the audience for sprint car racing, and I feel honored to be a part of it,” Gerould said. “The World of Outlaws drivers and teams are a group of racers that amaze me every time I watch them compete. The things they make their cars do on ever-changing dirt surfaces is why I consider sprint car racing the most exciting form of motorsports.”

Alongside Gerould in the booth will be National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Brad Doty, a fan favorite as a driver who overcame a paralyzing crash in 1988 at Eldora to become a crucial part of World of Outlaws broadcasts for more than 10 years.

“I am so revved up about this TV package,” Doty said. “The amount of viewers who will be served with the new television coverage will be big for the World of Outlaws organization and the teams.

“I’ve known Bobby Gerould for years and we’ve worked together on other TV projects but this will be the first time together in the
booth, and I am really looking forward to it. Bobby, pit reporter Sean Buckley and myself have all been involved in sprint car racing for a long time and we are very passionate about it. We will work hard to relay all of the action and excitement that sprint car racing is to the fans at home.”

Perhaps the busiest member of the broadcast team will be Sean Buckley. A key component to the new television package, Buckley will bring fans all of the behind-the-scenes action in the pits and in the work area during the features.

“I am honored to be a part of the broadcast and look forward to an awesome summer,” Buckley said. “The World of Outlaws are an amazing group of racers that deserves to have the eyes of the racing world on them. The fans deserve a good show and that is what they will get this year on TV.”

The World of Outlaws sprint car stars will be on television 20 Sundays this season, beginning on SPEED at 2 p.m. on May 13 with the action from this weekend’s event at Eldora. The 360 OTC World of Outlaws Late Model Series also will be on SPEED for six events in 2007, with the first event being filmed on Saturday at Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway.

2007 World of Outlaws TV Schedule

Event Air date Time (ET) Track Network Series
April 14 / May 13 / 2-3 PM Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio SPEED WoO
April 14 / May 20 / 2-3 PM Virginia Motor Speedway, Jamaica, Va. SPEED WoO LM
April 17 / May 27 / 12:30-1:30 PM Lernerville Speedway, Sarver, Pa. SPEED WoO LM
May 18 / June 3 / 1-2 PM Williams Grove Speedway, Mechanicsburg, PA SPEED WoO
May 25 / June 10 / 1-2 PM The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Concord, NC SPEED WoO
June 16 / June 17 / 12:30-1:30 PM Knoxville (IA) Raceway ESPN2 WoO
June 23 / June 24 / 12:30-1:30 PM Dodge City (KS) Raceway Park ESPN2 WoO
June 30 / July 1 / 12:30-1:30 PM Red River Valley Speedway, West Fargo, ND ESPN2 WoO
July 7 / July 8 / 12:30-1:30 PM I-55 Raceway, Pevely, MO ESPN2 WoO
July 14 / July 15 / 12:30-1:30 PM Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, OH ESPN2 WoO
July 17 / July 22 / 12:30-1:30 PM Lernerville Speedway, Sarver, PA ESPN2 WoO
July 28 / July 29 / 12:30-1:30 PM K-C Raceway, Chillicothe, OH ESPN2 WoO
Aug. 4 / Aug. 5 / 12:30-1:30 PM Charter Raceway Park, Beaver Dam, WI ESPN2 WoO
July 27 / Aug. 19 / 1-2 PM Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, OH SPEED WoO LM
July 28 / Aug. 26 / Noon-1 PM Sharon Speedway, Hartford, OH SPEED WoO LM
Aug. 24 / Sept. 2 / Noon-1 PM Skagit Speedway, Alger, WA SPEED WoO
Aug. 25 / Sept. 9 / 2-3PM Skagit Speedway, Alger, WA SPEED WoO
Sept. 8 / Sept. 16 / 1-2 PM Silver Dollar Speedway, Chico, CA SPEED WoO
Sept. 14 / Sept. 23 / 1-2 PM Heartland Park Topeka (KS) S PEED WoO
Sept. 21 / Sept. 30 / 1:30-2:30 PM Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, OH SPEED WoO
Sept. 29 / Oct. 7 / 1-2 PM Williams Grove Speedway SPEED WoO
Oct. 6 / Oct. 14 / 4-5 PM Princeton (MN) Speedway SPEED WoO
Oct. 13 / Oct. 21 / 4-5 PM Volunteer Speedway, Bulls Gap, TN SPEED WoO LM
Oct. 20 / Oct. 28 / 1-2 PM Perris (CA) Auto Speedway SPEED WoO
Nov. 3 / Nov. 4 / 3-4 PM The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Concord, NC SPEED WoO LM
Nov. 3 / Nov. 4 / 4-5 PM The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Concord, NC SPEED WoO
 

Racing Community Remembers Car Owner David Helm

CONCORD, N.C. — February 21, 2007 — In a sport where standing out in
a crowd is a way to get ahead, David Helm never sought the spotlight.
Instead, one of the most humble men in sprint car racing became one
of its most respected car owners.

Helm, who lost his battle with illness over the weekend, quietly
became one of sprint car racing’s leaders. Running his No. 11H team
out of Selma, Calif., Helm first raced regionally in California
before eventually taking the team on the road with the World of Outlaws.

While the team had many victories, perhaps its most cherished win
came just a week ago at Volusia Speedway Park when Kerry Madsen drove
the Selma Shell Maxim to the checkered flag. Helm was in the
hospital, but the news of his team’s victory lifted his spirits.

“Dave gave it everything he could,” said Sonny Kratzer, Helm’s long-
time friend and team manager. “He made it a lot longer than any
doctor thought it would go. I can tell you the win the young men
pulled off in Florida, he told everybody about it. He had a picture
of the racecar up in his room. After they won, he told everybody, ‘My
car won in Florida and those boys did a great job.’”

Madsen, who took over the driving duties in the middle of the 2006
season, was still getting to know Helm when he earned the win.

“I talked to Dave that morning and you could tell he was really
struggling,” Madsen said. “He called me after the win and he was like
a kid in a candy store, talking 100 miles an hour. Sonny told me what
that win meant to both of them.”

That most likely was one of the few times Helm allowed himself to get
excited. He was known for being balanced. He never got too high or
too low, and that’s illustrated through some of the stories told by
those who knew him best.

“About 10 years ago at Eldora during the Kings Royal weekend we were
leaving the race track and it had rained all night,” Kratzer said. “I
don’t think we left the race track until 3 in the morning. We were
the first truck to go out the gate and the truck never made it. It
slid back down the hill and the back of the trailer knocked the fence
down. It tore up the truck and everything in it. We didn’t have a top
wing, we didn’t have a front wing. The mule was sitting up on top of
the racecar. We had to cut the back door to get it open. By the time
we got up out of the racetrack and had the thing up on top where we
could get unhooked from the truck, it had to be 5 a.m. In all this
mess, Dave hadn’t said a word. The first words out of his mouth
weren’t, ‘You tore all my stuff up.’ He looked at all these people
sitting around in the pit area and said, ‘Aw Sonny. We’re going to
have these guys mad at us.’ I said, ‘Dave, I’m pretty sure they’re
not going to be mad at us when they see the mess we’ve got going
here.’ He said, ‘I feel bad for these guys because they can’t get
out.’ I said, ‘Do you want to race tomorrow or do you want us to get
everything fixed?’ He said, ‘We came all this way, let’s race.”

As Kratzer and the team was trying to get a car together to compete,
Helm was up sitting on a four-wheeler giving away to kids some of the
items destroyed in the incident. He gave one kid a broken wing and
signed the driver’s name on it because the driver wasn’t around.

“Dave’s the kind of guy that you’re glad you met,” Kratzer said.
“Years later, you can say, ‘Hey man, I really had a great time with
Dave.’ I don’t think the man ever said a cross word to anybody or
ever made a driver or anybody who was working for us feel unwelcome.”

His loss will be felt throughout sprint car racing.

“David’s passion for the sport touched everybody who was around him,”
said DIRT MotorSports President and CEO Tom Deery. “No doubt his
enthusiasm will be greatly missed.”

Charlie Garrett is one of those people Helm touched. Garrett built
the motors for Helm’s cars and the two became fast friends.

“Dave would come in here to my shop and it was always special because
he was such a down-to-earth person,” Garrett said. “I’ve worked for a
lot of people in this business and he’s got to be the best person
I’ve ever worked for, friend-wise and business-wise. You meet a lot
of people and every once in a while in your life, this special guy
comes along. He was that special guy. He never complained about
anything. He was just that type of guy. He was just such a humble
individual. It’s hard to put it all in words. He was a great friend
and a tremendous person to do business with. I doubt I’ll ever meet
another person like him. I know racing has lost a good man. At least
I had the experience of being with him.”

Growing up and racing in California, Paul McMahan knew Helm long
before either began racing nationally. Eventually, McMahan would
climb into Helm’s car on the World of Outlaws circuit.

“I knew Dave even before I drove for him,” McMahan said. “I raced
against his cars every Saturday night in Hanford, Calif. He was just
one of those guys who would help anybody. He was a friendly
individual. There wasn’t a guy in the pit area that could say they
had a problem with Dave Helm.

“He never got upset about anything. He would take the good with the
bad. The thing I recall the most is we were at Calistoga Speedway. We
were in third and Joey Saldana was in second. He lost a muffler and I
ran over it and backed into the fence and destroyed his racecar. It
was a brand new racecar, only two nights on it. Dave says, “Hey, are
you OK?” It was no big thing. The very next race we run is the Gold
Cup at Chico and we win a preliminary night. Dave never got excited.
He took the good with the bad so well.

“When I got hurt at Knoxville, here I am laying in the hospital and
he wasn’t worried about who he was going to put in the racecar, he
was at the hospital every day with me to make sure I was OK. When it
came down to finding a driver — we had to put a driver in it because
of the points situation we were in — he left it up to me, he wanted
me to feel comfortable with whomever was in that racecar. That’s who
Dave was.”

The Selma Shell Racing team already was a motivated bunch this
season. No doubt it will be aiming for another victory in Helm’s honor.

“The only thing I feel bad about is that he was really looking
forward to this year,” Kratzer said. “I’m sure wherever he is, he’ll
be keeping an eye on us because that’s the kind of guy he is.”

The viewing will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday night at Page
Funeral Chapel in Selma.

The funeral service will be at 9 a.m. Friday at First Baptist Church
in Selma. It will be followed by a reception at the Selma Portuguese
Hall. There will be a graveside service with military honors at 1 p.m.
 

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