Baja 1000 World of X Games Ratings...

This one came up as a bit of a surprise.  It didn't seem like were a lot of people who knew about Roger Norman getting ESPN/ABC on board with broadcasting the one hour show covering the 2013 Baja 1000.  Not only did it get broadcast once but it got broadcast twice, once on ESPN and again on ABC in the middle of this past Saturday.

The ratings did not end up being spectacular but were again in the same range of recent shortcourse shows on similar networks at similar times--though at the upper end, exceeding many as well.  Additionally while the broadcast was tied for the lowest rating of the weekend, it was tied with a large number of other broadcasts including NBC's coverage of Premier League Soccer.

Another point of note here is that the Red Bull Signature Series Year End Wrapup which contained lots of shortcourse racing as well as the Frozen Rush coverage grabbed a 0.6 rating.  The 0.5 rating means that some 571,000 TVs were tuned into the Baja 1K coverage while some 685,000 were turned to the Red Bull program.  A conservative estimate of 1.1 viewers per TV (my household had three people watching it) grows the audience for each broadcast to 628,100 and 753,500 respectively. So between the two shows, well in excess of 1 million viewers took in offroad racing coverage of some kind this weekend...

TELECAST	DATE	NET	TIME (ET)	RATING
"World Of X Games"	12/28	ABC	4:00-5:00pm	0.5
"ESPN Sports Saturday:	12/28	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.7
"NCAA Men of March: Rick Pitino"	12/28	CBS	1:00-1:30pm	0.5
"NCAA Men of March: John Calipari"	12/28	CBS	1:30-2:00pm	0.5
College Basketball: Villanova-Syracuse	12/28	CBS	2:00-4:30pm	1.1
College Basketball: Louisville-Kentucky	12/28	CBS	4:30-6:30pm	2.1
EPL: Sunderland-Cardiff	12/28	NBC	12:00-2:30pm	0.5
U.S. Olympic Trials: Speed Skating	12/28	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.7
Golf: Long Drive World Championship	12/28	NBC	4:00-5:00pm	0.6
"Red Bull Signature Series Highlight Show"	12/28	NBC	5:00-6:00pm	0.6
"The NFL Today"	12/29	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	3.0
"NFL on CBS": (regional)	12/29	CBS	1:00-4:15pm	10.7
"NFL on CBS": Ravens-Bengals (62%)	12/29	CBS	4:15-7:30pm	12.0
"Fox NFL Sunday"	12/29	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.6
"NFL on Fox": (regional)	12/29	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	10.5
"NFL on Fox": Packers-Bears (63%)	12/29	Fox	4:15-7:30pm	15.2
"U.S. Ski Team 36: Bode Miller"	12/29	NBC	1:00-1:30pm	0.5
U.S. Olympic Trials: Ski Jumping, Nordic Combined	12/29	NBC	1:30-3:00pm	0.9
U.S. Olympic Trials: Speed Skating	12/29	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	1.0
Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping	12/29	NBC	4:00-5:00pm	0.8
"Dew Tour Year In Review"	12/29	NBC	4:00-5:00pm	0.6
"Football Night in America"	12/29	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	5.1
"Sunday Night Football": Eagles-Cowboys	12/29	NBC	8:30-11:45pm	16.8

Return of Red Bull Frozen Rush!

Remember back earlier this year when I attended and covered for OffRoad.com the Red Bull Frozen Rush event up at Mt. Snow?

Well, looks like Red Bull liked the event enough to put it on again.

This time at a bigger ski area and with EIGHT trucks racing each other rather than just one for demonstration purposes!

The 2014 version will feature both '13 Frozen Rush alum Ricky Johnson plus his Menzies Motorsports teammate Bryce Menzies (he of Baja, short course and Global Rallycross fame) and I guess six other invitees!!  Who will get the invite??  Likely other Menzies and Red Bull drivers such as Travis Pastrana (I'm guessing) who have short course truck experience.

The course will be gated (like a ski race course) and trucks will compete against one other vehicle at a time in a single elimination format.  Relocating the event to Sunday River in Maine gives the event a good deal more real estate to work with, a better chance of good snow conditions and putting it on a Friday in the middle of Sunday River's "College Week" virtually guarantees a good/rowdy crowd of target age consumers--though it does move the event a bit farther geographically.

So Ricky wasn't just blowing smoke when he said that having a full race on the snow with these trucks would be a really cool idea and Red Bull and Menzies look to make it happen.  I'm already looking to book that day off and attend!

Red Bull Frozen Rush 2014!!

Couple Photos From Frozen Rush Event...

Just a couple photos from the Red Bull Frozen Rush event up at Mt. Snow yesterday.  These are some of my ham fisted shots that are not going to make the cut.  The event itself was fantastic and run like an atomic clock.  More to come soon.