Ryan Tuerck (Derry, NH native) Drifting a New England Hillclimb Mountain

So we'll post another video here...

Burke Mountain is a local ski area in Burke, VT topping out modestly at a bit over 3,200 feet.  The road to the top of Burke is part of the New England Hillclimb series.  Here however is professional drifter Ryan Tuerck who hails from Derry, NH (right next door to where I live) and who started out in motocross.  The video is a good look at the roads and some of the speeds the hillclimb series sees with some professional photography.  Good to see Burke, Tuerck and hillclimbing getting some good video out.

Red Bull Frozen Rush Ratings...

Given a pretty sweet TV spot in the middle of the Sunday afternoon just before the Super Bowl the short course truck based Red Bull Frozen Rush event  looked to capture some idle eyes and bring viewers into the offroad fold.  With most short course TV broadcasts in recent periods grabbing a 0.4 to a 0.5 rating on CBS or relegated to smaller networks like CBS Sports or NBC Sports channel this presented a solid opportunity to show that the niche sport could generate some interest.

Full weekend ratings are below and though Red Bull Frozen Rush didn't exactly match the ratings of say, the Super Bowl which had over 110 million viewers, it didn't disappoint either.

Red Bull Frozen Rush grabbed a 0.7 rating, solidly above the aforementioned recent ratings of LOORRS on CBS.  The 0.7 rating translates into 0.7% of the roughly 115.8 million TV households in America (a new updated figure of TV households as of this report) being tuned into the broadcast.  This now means that the Frozen Rush event saw some 811,000 households tuned into the show.  In comparison the NHL broadcast that preceded Frozen Rush grabbed just a 0.8 rating (and NBC has to PAY the NHL big bucks for those rights whereas I would imagine Red Bull actually pays NBC to show their events--so a big win for NBC to continue broadcasting these shows) and Frozen Rush handily outdrew the English Premier League soccer match NBC broadcast.

If we use my typical 1.1 viewer per "household" of the event, the 811,000 households translates into 900,000 actual individuals watching the Red Bull Frozen Rush broadcast...That's about one of the highest totals I can think of for an offroad event and portends well for the just announced today, Mint 400 broadcast later this year--also part of the Red Bull series and again on NBC.

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
"X Games Aspen Rewind"	2/1	ABC	1:00-5:00pm	1.0
"ESPN Sports Saturday"	2/1	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.9
College Basketball: Kentucky-Missouri	2/1	CBS	1:00-3:15pm	1.1
PGA Tour: Waste Management Phoenix Open: Third Round	2/1	CBS	3:15-6:15pm	2.0
"NFL Honors"	2/1	Fox	8:00-10:00pm	2.0
"EPL Match of the Day"	2/1	NBC	12:30-2:30pm	0.5
Figure Skating: Tribute to American Legends of the Ice	2/1	NBC	2:30-4:30pm	0.8
Four Continents Figure Skating Championships	2/1	NBC	4:30-6:00pm	1.5
College Basketball: Michigan-Indiana	2/2	CBS	1:00-3:00pm	1.5
PGA Tour: Waste Management Phoenix Open: Final Round	2/2	CBS	3:00-6:00pm	2.6
"Road to the Super Bowl"	2/2	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	2.0
"Football America: Our Stories"	2/2	Fox	1:00-2:00pm	3.0
"Super Bowl Sunday Pregame Show"	2/2	Fox	2:00-6:00pm	10.4
"Super Bowl XLVIII Kickoff Show"	2/2	Fox	6:00-6:30pm	32.6
Super Bowl XLVIII: Seahawks-Broncos	2/2	Fox	6:30-10:00pm	47.6
"Super Bowl XLVIII Postgame Show"	2/2	Fox	10:00-10:30pm	29.3
NHL: Red Wings-Capitals	2/2	NBC	12:30-3:30pm	0.8
Red Bull Signature Series: Frozen Rush	2/2	NBC	3:30-5:00pm	0.7
Purina Incredible Dog Challenge	2/2	NBC	5:00-6:00pm	1.3

Red Bull Frozen Rush Update...

About one week away now from the big event up at Mount Snow and preparations are underway.  icky Johnson will be arriving early next week to do some testing and course building before testing out the course on Thursday.

As with any event as complex as this one, there are hiccups.  In this case the hiccup came in the form of the US Forest Service who control the top portions of Mount Snow and who put the kibosh on the event running on "their" turf (problems with the Feds are certainly not restricted to tortoises and Western state events).  So instead of using the whole mountain for Johnson's Pro4 to race up, down and over, the Red Bull event will utilize solely the bottom half.  While this might limit some of the videography opportunities for the Red Bull crew it will likely keep the action closer to any individual attendees.

Also on hand will be the BFG tire crew who have installed half inch spikes on the big Pro4's tires, something never attempted before.

And if you're wondering if the snow and cold in the Red Bull Frozen Rush intro video is fake--its not.  The video, with Johnson exhaling some frosty breaths, was filmed up at Lake Tahoe after Red Bull approached Ricky with the idea for this promotion.

Ricky has graciously agreed to submit himself to a few questions regarding his efforts and this event at some point next week, so if you have anything (intelligent) you'd like to ask of Ricky, please shoot me a message here or send me an email at: dwspalinger@comcast.net and I'll try and fit it in.  Hope to see some of you up there!

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