White Bear Lake, MN (4/16/2008)
- The WSPA announced today that it
is postponing the first race of the 2008 PowerSports
ATV Tour. The ProTaper/MSR/QuadBoss ATV Open
Championship originally scheduled for May
3-4 is being moved to July. The Jack Link's
ATV Open Championship in Taylorville, Illinois
will open the season in its originally scheduled
date of May 17-18.
"WPSA has accomplished amazing things
with limited resources while growing two top
shelf professional racing properties which
attract millions of fans on TV," said
Rick Murphy, CEO of PowerSports Entertainment
Inc. "We have been working for months
to fundamentally improve our business and
this effort demands our full attention until
completion. Moving the Texas race into a July
slot will allow us the extra time we need
to accomplish our objectives before the opening
race in Taylorville," added Murphy.
"Our goal is to further improve professional
ATV and Snocross racing using all the resources
available to us," said Scott O'Malley,
President of PEI. Adding, "We expect
to finally be in a position to aggressively
grow our championship racing programs. Working
within an improved business environment will
allow us to be better at everything we do,
across the board."
"The business development work is complex
and time consuming. We need to get that behind
us so we can focus on the upcoming season
without distraction," said Kent Lungstrom,
EVP of PEI. "We are excited about the
future of ATV and Snocross racing as an end
result of our efforts. Improving fan awareness
and attendance at our festival oriented ATV
racing events is priority as we move forward,
while we continue to deliver top quality TV
programming and enjoy ratings increases as
have in the last few years," he added.