AMA Daytona Sportbike
VIRginia International Raceway announced that two different VIR video highlights have been nominated for national recognition at the annual SPEED Performance Awards.
The video highlights, which were selected from the entire world of motorsports television programming during 2010, include a “Best Finish” award from the Daytona Sportbike race at VIR this past summer.
In that race, it came down to M4 Suzuki rider Martin Cardenas and DNA Energy Ducati rider Bobby Fong. The two Sportbike riders went to the wire exactly even, and after further anaylsis, officials gave the win to Fong by 0.001 of a second over the eventual 2010 Daytona Sportbike Champion, Martin Cardenas.
A panel of writers, on-the-air personalities, former racers and producers nominated the video highlights from two different events held at VIR during 2010.
Rod Short (Director of Marketing and Public Relations for VIR) says: “When you consider that these nominations came from an entire year’s worth of American Le Mans, AMA Road Racing, AMA SuperCross, Continental Sports Car, Formula One, Grand Am, Indy Racing League, Lucas Oil Late Model, Monster Jam, Moto2, MotoGP, NASCAR Nationwide, Sprint Cup and Truck series along with NHRA, World of Outlaws & WRC events, it’s pretty phenomenal that two of these moments happened at just one track.”
“These nominations, along with the recent international TV coverage of our resort as seen on BBC’s ‘Top Gear’ TV program, bring great value not only to our facility, competitors and sponsors, but also to road racing and to the region we’re as a whole.”
The finish from the AMA Daytona SportBike category during the Suzuki White Lightning AMA Pro SuperBike Nationals presented by Foremost Insurance was chosen for the “Best Finish” award (Click on link for video).
Bob Varsha (host of SPEED’s coverage of Formula One) says: “Great finishes are the result of equally matched rivals racing without regard to the next lap, or even the next corner.”
“When guys are racing hard, you can see it in their reactions after the race is over. They wanted it to go on forever. And we wanted it to, as well.”
A non-lethal crash that occurred during the Continental Sports Car Challenge Bosch Engineering 200 was nominated for the “Biggest Hit” category.
Bob Varsha says: “I honestly don’t think the sport would be the same without the occasional crash to remind us how difficult racing really is, and what is at stake.”
Fans can view all the nominated video clips on SPEED and vote for their favorites there, which will be unveiled during special TV programming scheduled for February 2011.