Mike Johnson--Not Running Dakar Due to Surgery

Mr. Mike Johnson of Drivers, Inc., a collection of professional drivers (inclusive of Paul Dallenbach, Rhys Millen and Greg Tracy among others) specializing in meeting the needs of the commercial, television and motion picture industries took Baja 1000 and Baja 500 victories in his class 10 buggie in '14.  Along with these victories came the winning of a free entry into the 2015 edition of the Dakar. 

Unfortunately a brief email exchange has revealed that he will not be able to take advantage of this opportunity.  Due to an impending shoulder injury requiring surgery and extensive recovery time and Johnson will not be entered in the 2015 Dakar.

He is however looking to the future in regards to the international exposure that the Dakar could bring both himself and his sponsors:

"My tire sponsor (Radar Tires) still really wants to do it so we may try to put a program together for 2016. I think it's a great thing what Roger Norman, SCORE and the Dakar guys are doing to get the two series together, it will only help strengthen each series both in outside interest (fans) as well as sponsors & TV worldwide." 

One last item of note--the Dakar organizers do not allow you to carry over a free entry win from one year to the next so unfortunately Johnson will have to go back out and with the free entry again in '15 if he or Radar Tires or others are not going to pay for the entry fee out of pocket.  Its a use it or lose it proposition.  A shame really but likely an appropriate one designed to encourage entries to come to the event rather than just leave it out there as an idea to always hold in your back pocket for when the "time is right".

Thanks to Mike for the brief conservation and  make a quick recovery!

LOORRS Ratings From 9/13

Back on the weekend of 9/13 and 9/14 we saw a single offroad racing related broadcasts on Network TV.  On Saturday 9/13, CBS broadcast from 1:30-2:30 PM the LOORRS Pro2 and Pro4 racing at Glen Helen.  Positioned as a lead in for the days’ College Football broadcasts on CBS the program produced a 0.4 rating, with about 462,000 households tuned in and about 508,000 people viewing from home.  In comparison to other broadcasts this weekend this was the same rating as ABC’s “World of XGames: Real Ski Backcountry” show the following day from 5-6PM and was about half the audience of the weekend’s regional Fox MLB game.  The weekend’s #1 sports broadcast was the Chiefs-Broncos game on CBS that saw a 14.6 rating, about 17 million households turning the game on and at least 19 million viewers.

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
NFL: Chiefs-Broncos (56%)	9/14	CBS	4:15-7:30pm	14.6
"Sunday Night Football": Bears-49ers	9/14	NBC	8:30-11:45pm	14.0
NFL: (singleheader)	9/14	Fox	1:00-4:05pm	12.3
NFL: (regional)	9/14	CBS	1:00-4:15pm	9.9
College Football: Georgia-South Carolina*	9/13	CBS	5:00-8:45pm	4.2
"Football Night in America"	9/14	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	4.1
"Fox NFL Sunday"	9/14	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.2
"The NFL Today"	9/14	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	2.7
College Football: Tennessee-Oklahoma	9/13	ABC	8:00-11:45pm	2.2
College Football: UCLA-Texas	9/13	Fox	8:15-11:30pm	2.1
College Football: Purdue-Notre Dame	9/13	NBC	7:30-11:15pm	2.1
College Football: (regional)	9/13	ABC	12:00-3:00pm	1.9
College Football: Arkansas-Texas Tech	9/13	ABC	3:00-6:30pm	1.9
"College Football Today" (extended)	9/13	CBS	3:45-5:00pm	1.9
PGA Tour: The Tour Championship: Third Round	9/13	NBC	2:30-6:15pm	1.8
PGA Tour: The Tour Championship: Final Round	9/14	NBC	1:30-6:00pm	1.7
"College Football Today"	9/13	CBS	3:00-3:45pm	1.1
College Football: Illinois-Washington	9/13	Fox	4:15-7:30pm	1.0
MLB: (regional)	9/13	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	0.9
EPL: Liverpool-Aston Villa	9/13	NBC	12:30-2:30pm	0.8
LPGA: Evian Masters: Final Round	9/14	NBC	12:00-1:30pm	0.6
"Inside College Football"	9/13	CBS	2:30-3:00pm	0.5
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series	9/13	CBS	1:30-2:30pm	0.4
"World of X Games: Real Ski Backcountry"	9/14	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.4

Throwback Thursday: CORR Bully Dog Nissan Titan

Hopefully this can be a new trend for the site going forward, ripping off 10,000 other "throwback Thursday" items.  Here we'll try to highlight a single old school Nissan/Datsun, particularly a motorsport/dirt related vehicle.

Here we have the old BullyDog/CORR Nissan Titan.  Nissan was a title sponsor of the CORR events for a handful of years, also sponsoring Carl Renezeder and the pace truck as well in conjunction with aftermarket ECU tuner BullyDog.  The last I knew, Mike DeFord of BullyDog was still in possession of this vehicle and may have tried to sell it at one point.  The suspension setup has a number of PRG components including rear leafs and Sway-Away shocks and bumpstops.