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It was Foust and Beavis’ first event in their new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X and Foust said he was able to pick up the pace as he adjusted to the new car.

“It’s good to be on the podium,” said Tanner. “The car has great potential.”

After two rounds in the Rally America Championship, Comrie-Picard and Foust are now tied for the championship lead.

“It’s really exciting to be at the top of the points with Tanner – I’m really enthusiastic for this season,” said Comrie-Picard.

In fourth place overall were Bill Bacon and co-driver Peter Watt in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, while Polish driver Andi Mancin and co-driver Maciej Wislawski rounded out the top five.

Former Production GT champion Matt Johnson and co-driver Jeremy Wimpey took the win in the popular new Super Production class, with a finish of sixth-place overall in their Subaru WRX.

“I love this event, it’s awesome,” said Johnson. “You just put the hammer down and hang on.”

The duo overhauled Subaru Rally Team USA’s Dave Mirra and co-driver Derek Ringer for the class win on the second day of the contest. Mirra and Ringer had a very strong start, running as high as third place overall early in the rally.

Super Production is a new class for 2009 that features minimally modified, production-based cars.

The two-wheel drive win went to Burak Tuglu and co-driver Carrie Wilburn in their 2001 Ford Focus.

Subaru Rally Team USA driver Travis Pastrana started strong but found himself out of the hunt after a rollover on Day 1. He and co-driver Christian Edstrom were unharmed, but were unable to continue. Pastrana had said earlier he was ready to win or crash trying to keep Block out of the top spot.

This event also serves as a Regional Rally championship event for 2008. Regional class champions from coast to coast are invited to race head-to-head in the foothills of the Ozarks for he Regional Rally Championship. In Open class, the winning driver was Arkadiusz Gruszka in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, while the Group 2 winner was driver Chris Greenhouse in a Dodge Neon.

The rally took place through the scenic Ozark foothills of southern Missouri. The smooth gravel course is fast and flowing, and sees some of the highest speeds in the series.

The weather is the real wildcard at this contest and the 2009 running proved no exception. The warm, early spring temperatures that greeted competitors at the Friday start turned cold and there was blinding snow as teams crossed the finish line. The contest was ultimately cut short by the brutal weather; the final stage was cancelled after the conditions deteriorated so much that it was deemed impassable.

All results are considered provisional pending final administrative processes.

Rally car racing is considered the extreme sport of automobile racing and is often described simply as “real cars, real roads, real fast.” This all-season motorsport sees drivers and their co-drivers take modified road cars to the limit as they achieve blistering speeds over courses that cover more than 100 miles of gravel, dirt or snow-covered roads.

Top teams in the series are also invited to compete in the Summer X Games, the leading action sports event broadcast live on ABC and ESPN. Eight top teams have already been invited to this August’s contest.

Next, the championship moves west to Washington state for the Olympus Rally, April 18 - 19.

About Rally America
Based in Golden Valley, Minn., Rally America sanctions the premier rally racing series in the United States, the Rally America National Championship Series. In 2009, Rally America will conduct nine National Championship events at venues across the country, from Olympia, Wash., to Bethel, Maine.

Round 1: Streets of Long Beach tickets will be available beginning February 26 via the Formula DRIFT website at www.formuladrift.com. Ticket prices start at $28 online with reserved tickets available for Saturday's competition day. Friday, April 10th has been opened to the public as a “Preview Day,” and will feature practice and qualifying at a minimal cost with purchase of a Saturday “Main Event” ticket. Grandstands 16 and 18 have been expanded this season to give more fans the best view of the action.

Round 1: Streets of Long Beach April 10-11 Ticket Pricing

Saturday, April 11- Reserved Seating - $28.00
Saturday, April 11 - Reserved Seating + Friday, April 10 - GA - $32.00

“Even in this tough economy we have managed to keep ticket prices low, while still expanding to a two day format,” said Ryan Sage, co-founder and vice president of marketing for Formula DRIFT. “Reserved tickets allow our fans to never lose their seat so they can walk around at leisure and enjoy what has become one of the most anticipated events of the year in and around Southern California.”

The action begins on April 10th in Long Beach, California and will be held on a section of the famous Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach street course. New cars and drivers will be entering the Series and will make for another exciting season. The addition of Top 32 tandem battle will be sure to challenge the drivers and add to the action. Current back-to-back Formula DRIFT Champion, Tanner Foust and World Champion Rhys Millen make their return on different vehicle platforms and will battle against the best drifters for the Formula DRIFT championship.

For more information visit www.formuladrift.com.

For more information contact:
John Pangilinan
The ID Agency
562.491.7503
john@theidagency.com

ABOUT FORMULA DRIFT

Entering its sixth season, Formula DRIFT is recognized as the North American professional drifting championship. Established on the streets of Japan, drifting has evolved into a worldwide competitive sport that challenges each driver's driving ability and vehicle control. Formula DRIFT provides a forum for professional drifters to compete in 7 events nationwide for the coveted Formula DRIFT Championship crown. As the first official series in North America, Formula DRIFT has taken competitive motorsports to the extreme attracting fans and car enthusiasts from all walks of life and establishes itself as the global focal point for the Sport. For a race schedule and ticket information, visit: www.formuladrift.com.

ABOUT IMG SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Operating in 30 countries, IMG Sports & Entertainment's diverse businesses include: consulting services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models representation; licensing; golf course design; and client representation in golf, tennis, broadcasting, speakers, European football, rugby, cricket, motor sports, coaching, Olympic and action sports. IMG Academies are the world's largest, multi-sport training and educational facilities, delivering world-class training experiences to more than 12,000 junior, collegiate, adult, and professional athletes each year. More information is available at: www.imgworld.com.

Contest Winner

The Finn is quite clear about his expectations: “I will not start aiming for the win, as I want to compare my speed with the regular WRC boys over the first few stages. The important thing is to feel confidence and pleasure, coming back to an event that I enjoy very much and know the stages quite well.”

Gronholm wanted to spend more time in the car before making any results predictions. “We have to test the car first, we have to do changes, and find the right feeling and then I can say more,” he said. “I drove the car a little bit last weekend in Norway and we have another test planned in March, but for the moment I don’t really know where we are. But I hope we can do some little bit good times - that’s the aim.”

Prodrive director Richard Taylor revealed that discussion with Gronholm had been going on for many months. “It’s no secret that we were talking with Marcus at the end of last year,” said Taylor. “He had some interest in coming back so we kept the discussions going and we’ve reached an agreement to go to Portugal. It’s a one-off at this time but we’ll see if he likes it.”

Gronholm’s car will be an evolution of the 2008 model used by Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson on Wales Rally GB and will be fitted with Ohlins dampers. “We have to allow for the fact that we’re not able to homologate the 2009 car fully, but we’ll put together the best spec of car that we possibly can,” added Taylor.

“We are pleased that the BMW Art Cars have returned to LACMA. The David Hockney car was on exhibition as part of David Hockney: A Drawing Retrospective in 1996 and we are eager to welcome this wider selection by some of the world’s most celebrated artists to the museum,” said Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director.

Rare, behind-the-scenes footage of the four cars will also be on display, complementing the presentation. The videos reveal a young Warhol constructing his car, Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg discussing their inspirations and influences in creating their respective pieces, and various experts including Hervé Poulain, the race car driver and initiator of the Art Car Project, discussing the resulting impact of these works.

“Art, architecture, and design are very important to our daily business,” said Chris Bangle, BMW Chief Designer. “We are proud that some of the most respected artists in the world have interpreted their thoughts and their points of view through our cars. It is an interesting and inspiring process and we always look forward to the moment an artist draws the curtain.”

The BMW Art Car Project was originally conceived by the French racecar driver Hervé Poulain, who had the idea of inviting an artist to use an automobile as a canvas. In 1975, Poulain commissioned American artist Alexander Calder to paint his BMW racing car. Since then, prominent artists throughout the world have joined the elite cast of Calder, Stella, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Rauschenberg, and have designed sixteen BMW Art Cars, based on both racing and regular production vehicles. The most recent contributors to the BMW Art Car program are David Hockney (1995), Jenny Holzer (1999), and Olafur Eliasson (2007). New artists are chosen by a prestigious panel of international judges, and BMW is currently in discussions for the development of the seventeenth art car.

“BMW’s Art Cars have become a medium of expression for some of the world’s most distinguished artists and there is no better place to showcase these cars than at LACMA, which is ideally situated in a region that dedicates equal passion to art and driving,” noted Christopher Mount, design historian.

BMW Art Cars have been exhibited by numerous museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Louvre in Paris, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, and the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao. Aside from being displayed at their home base at the BMW Museum in Munich, BMW Art Cars will continue to be shown at future international exhibitions. In 2006, they were sent on an extensive tour of Asia, which took them to Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Korea, Australia, India, Taiwan, China, Russia and Africa. The Art Cars will continue to be exhibited worldwide through 2010.

LACMA’s permanent collection includes key works by the four artists whose art cars will be displayed, including Warhol’s Black and White Disaster, Stella’s Getty Tomb, Lichtenstein’s Cold Shoulder, and Rauschenberg’s print, Booster.

About BMW and Contemporary Art

BMW has a long-standing commitment to contemporary art starting with Gerhard Richter’s 1972 commission of three large-scale paintings for the foyer of the company headquarters in Munich. Karl Schwanzer’s architectural post-war icon, the “four cylinder” building, marked the beginning of the company’s emphasis on an innovative, dynamic style of construction which was extended in 2005 with the central building of the new BMW Leipzig Plant, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. BMW has been engaged in the sponsorship of cultural formats for more than thirty years with hundreds of international commitments. In each endeavor, the utmost importance is attached to total freedom of creative potential—recognizing that this is just as much a guarantee for groundbreaking achievements in art as it is for the most crucial innovations within a successful business enterprise.

About LACMA Since its inception in 1965, LACMA has been devoted to collecting works of art that span both history and geography—and represent Los Angeles’ uniquely diverse population. Today, the museum features particularly strong collections of Asian, Latin American, European, and American art, as well as a new contemporary museum on its campus, BCAM. With this expanded space for contemporary art, innovative collaborations with artists, and an ongoing transformation project, LACMA is creating a truly modern lens through which to view its rich encyclopedic collection.

General Information: LACMA is located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90036. For more information about LACMA and its programming, call 323 857-6000 or visit lacma.org.

Museum Hours and Admission: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, noon–8 pm; Friday, noon–9 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 11 am–8 pm; closed Wednesday. Adults $12; students 18+ with ID and senior citizens 62+ $8; children 17 and under are admitted free. Admission (except to specially ticketed exhibitions) is free the second Tuesday of every month and on Target Free Holiday Mondays. After 5 pm, every day the museum is open, LACMA’s “Pay What You Wish” program encourages visitors to support the museum with an admission fee of their choosing. Press Contact: For additional information, contact LACMA Press Relations at press@lacma.org or 323 857-6522.