10.AUG.01
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Team Driven With Speed Ties In With Driving 101
One
of CART’S Newest Teams Joins Forces With The World’s Fastest
Driving Experience
INDIANAPOLIS (August 10, 2001) – Arciero-Blair Racing, its
owner Larry Blair and co-owner Matthias Czabok announced today the
number 25 Arciero-Blair Racing Lola will debut and carry a new
design this weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington,
Ohio. The Ford-powered entry will display prominently the logos of
the "World’s Fastest Driving Experience," Driving 101.
 "Driving 101 and its owner Robert (Bob) Lutz will join us as
a sponsor and gives us a platform to entertain our sponsors and
clients while helping them to relate to the actual experience of
driving a Champ Car. We are a marketing driven team and that is our
focus. The association between our team and Driving 101 is a product
of that focus," said Blair.
"This collaboration is a work in progress for both our team
and Driving 101," said Czabok. "They wanted to be part of
an actual CART team to help with branding, awareness and sales of
their available programs. With the number of fans that watch the
CART broadcasts worldwide, websites exposure and exposure to the
many fans attending CART races, we know we are a real venue that
will provide them with the three dimensional advertising program
that are looking for."
Driving 101, founded by Lutz in 1999 is the first and only
driving experience in the world to offer a fleet of 20 full-sized
Champ Cars. Clients range from corporations that use the innovative
driving school to reward employees, celebrities or race fans. It has
also been used as a popular birthday or special occasion gift by
many of the over 6,000 students that have attended one of Driving
101’s four locations.
Driving 101’s mission statement is: "To offer the most
professional and technically advanced driving experience in the
world and to bridge the gap between fantasy and reality in this
once-in-a-lifetime driving experience."
Its four different locations include Chicago Motor Speedway a
1.029-mile oval, California Speedway a 2.029 oval, Texas Motor
Speedway a 1.5-mile oval and Las Vegas Motor Speedway an 1.5-mile
oval. Many different programs are available; all programs include
safety, classroom and trackside instruction followed by an actual
driving experience where you can "Feel the Speed," on a
professional racetracks. Program information can be found at
www.driving101.com or www.blairracing.com.
"My goal was to make our school the fastest in the world;
where else can you drive at up to 170-180 miles per hour one of the
most technically advanced race cars in the world except at our
schools?" said Lutz President and CEO of Driving 101. "Our
involvement with Arciero-Blair Racing and its Champ Car team is the
perfect tie-in to our advertising and future plans and is directly
related to our Champ Car driving school."
The new sponsorship represents much more than a visual change to
the Arciero-Blair entry in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART)
FedEx Championship. Its driver Max Wilson will also serve as a
school spokesman in advertising campaigns. This new campaign will
focus on leveraging the Arciero racing history and Blair’s
experience and success in marketing.
A businessman and entrepreneur, Blair enters the motorsports
arena not only as a team owner but also as a futurist with the
insight and creativity to ignite and develop a powerful racing brand
and organization. In the technology sector, Blair held key positions
with businesses that laid the foundation of the Internet. His former
posts include vice president of marketing for both Redback Networks,
Inc. and Ipsilon, and co-founder of Kalpana (the inventor of the
Ethernet switch). Recognizing the similarities in the
information-driven cultures of technology and motorsports, Blair is
adding the speed and agility of new economy thinking to the
conventional wisdom found in racing.
Czabok co-owned and ran an advertising and marketing agency in
Germany for seven years before selling his partnership in 1998. He
then started a new company specializing in motorsports marketing,
working as an independent consultant and European agent for CART
teams. In 1999 Czabok became the official marketing agent for
programs in the German Touring Car Racing series. In 2000, Czabok
joined the Arciero Project Racing Group as director of marketing.
The next race for the Indianapolis-based team will be the Miller
Lite 220, on August 12 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in
Lexington, Ohio. The 82-lap race on the 2.258 permanent road course
race covers 186.447 miles. It will air on the ESPN Television
Network, 12:00 p.m. EST (Live). Check local listings. It will also
air on the CART Radio Network and on CART's official website, at www.cart.com.
www.blairracing.com keeps fans up-to-date with all the
latest team news, photos and information. For more information or
updates on the FedEx Championship Series go to www.cart.com.
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