Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Raleigh, NC March 16, 2006
This Saturday representatives from Sandblast Rally will be headed to the Hot Import Nights car show in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their mission there will be to further fan participation in for the next event and educate local car enthusiasts about the sport.
"The exhibit hall in Charlotte is only 66 miles from our spectator headquarters in Patrick, South Carolina." said Anders Green, chairman of the event, "I don't think most folks know that real rally action is that close, they think that they would have to go to Europe to see a rally up close. We're excited to let these guys know that we've got Mitsubishi Evos, Subaru WRX, hot VWs, and all sorts of other cars racing on dirt roads only a short drive from their home town."
Hot Import Nights is a car show tour that crosses the nation. Catering to a demographic of young car enthusiasts, the show includes music DJs, outrageous custom cars, and modeling competitions. David Wharton of Hot Import Nights said, "We had about 12,000 people attend last year's show. While many of our attendees are more interested in how a car looks, we are seeing a growing interest in real motor sports like rally."
Also attending will be John Shirley, President of NASA Rally Sport East. Members of the local Subaru community will also be helping man the booth till the show finishes at midnight. "Having John there is cool, I think that meeting 'rally big wigs' is a rare opportunity for most spectators. And having the NASIOC.com guys is a huge help, those guys have been very supportive of the rally." Says Green. Travis Pastrana, the X Games superstar, will also have his rally car at the show.
The towns of Cheraw and Patrick host the two-day event. Both towns are happy about Sandblast Rally returning to the area. "We're excited about the rally coming back to Patrick" says Wendell Perdue, Mayor of Patrick, "as we think it's a great way to promote our town and our Pine Straw Festival." Andy Ingram, Mayor of Cheraw, stated, "This is exactly the kind of event that we love to have in town. It adds a genuine feeling of excitement to the area and the tourism impact is significant." The last event saw local hotels and restaurants filled with a record number of enthusiasts coming from hundreds of miles away to spectate the stages.
Sandblast Rally was the first event of the 2006 rallying season for the Eastern States Rally Championship sanctioned by NASA Rally Sport. Visit SandblastRally.com for additional information on the rally and more than 1600 pictures of rally racing excitement from the 2006 event. The next event will be in February 2007. More information on the Hot Import Nights car shows can be found at HotImportNights.com.
