ARCA: 2008 Daytona Event Draws Record Audience

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ARCA: 2008 Daytona Event Draws Record Audience

SPEED’s broadcast of the ARCA 200 at Daytona earned a 1.46 rating and reached 1.053 million households, setting a viewership record for an original ARCA RE/MAX Series race broadcast on SPEED.

SPEED Staff | Posted February 15, 2008 Daytona Beach, Fla.

The ARCA 200 from Daytona earned the highest viewership record to date. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images Photo)

The ARCA RE/MAX Series opened its 56th year of competition with a record television and website audience as more than one million households tuned into SPEED on Saturday evening to watch Bill Davis Racing’s Michael Annett earn a victory over series regulars Justin Allgaier, Bill Baird, Bobby Gerhart and Frank Kimmel in the ARCA 200 at Daytona. In addition, website visitors to ARCA properties, including arcaracing.com and arcanation.com, increased by 273 percent from one year ago during the two week period leading up to and including the ARCA 200 at Daytona.

SPEED’s broadcast of the ARCA 200 at Daytona earned a 1.46 rating and reached 1.053 million households, setting a viewership record for an original ARCA RE/MAX Series race broadcast on SPEED. The network has been a broadcast partner with the ARCA sanctioning body since 1997 and Saturday’s race surpassed the previous ratings record of 1.37, which was set at the ARCA 200 at Daytona in 2003.

Website page views to arcaracing.com, which serves as the official source of information regarding Flat Rock Speedway, Toledo Speedway, the ARCA Lincoln Welders Truck Series and ARCA’s flagship property, the ARCA RE/MAX Series, increased by 850 percent on race day as compared to one year ago. The increase was due in part to the official debut of live-to-web timing and scoring. The series plans to provide the timing and scoring enhancement free to race fans for all on track sessions of the ARCA RE/MAX Series in 2008.

Traffic to ARCA’s web-based properties also increased due to ARCA Nation, a social networking community enhancement to arcaracing.com that debuted on February 1st and provides enhanced user-generated multimedia content. The site also provides a platform for ARCA RE/MAX Series drivers and teams to showcase their organization. Two weeks into the debut of ARCA Nation, ARCA RE/MAX Series driver Gabi DiCarlo and her team, Stringer Motorsports, has generated the most ARCA Nation home page views, the most friends of any driver, the most viewed video and the most viewed picture. This is allowing DiCarlo to capitalize on the largest internet fan base in ARCA history and provide the best value to her sponsor.

The next scheduled SPEED televised event for the ARCA RE/MAX Series is the Prairie Meadows 250 at Iowa Speedway, which is scheduled to air LIVE on SPEED at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 19th. The race will mark the 150th ARCA RE/MAX Series event aired on SPEED since 1997.

Additional ARCA RE/MAX Series events scheduled to be broadcast on SPEED in 2008 include Kansas Speedway on April 26, Rockingham Speedway on May 4, Pocono Raceway on June 7, Michigan Int’l Speedway on June 13, Kentucky Speedway on July 11, Nashville Superspeedway on August 9, Chicagoland Speedway on September 6 and Talladega Superspeedway on October 3.

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SPEED Staff

SPEED.com

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