FOX Sports to air lake’s Grand Prix

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June 21, 2009

By HEATHER PYLES, CJ Staff Writer The Commonwealth Journal Sun Jun 21, 2009, 01:09 AM EDT

Those who didn’t get a chance to catch the first annual Lake Cumberland Grand Prix will have another opportunity to watch the powerboats — this time on national television.

Highlights from the Offshore Super Series (OSS) races, which took place on May 15 through May 17 at Halcomb’s Landing near Jamestown, will be shown on the Fox Sports Network and Fox Sports South on Monday with an estimated viewership of 50 million to 80 million people.

The event, hailed as a tremendous success by organizers, was organized mainly to help “dispel the erroneous notion the Lake Cumberland’s water level prohibits recreational opportunities,” stated a press release about the event.

According to event director Hilda Legg, approximately 12,000 spectators viewed the races from the land — which tripled expectations for around 4,000 land spectators.

“We do not have a count on the water spectators, but we had visitors from more than eight states and across Kentucky,” Legg was quoted as saying in the press release.

The event’s organizers are hoping those numbers added to additional viewership brought in by Monday’s broadcasts will positively influence those businesses and communities surrounding the lake.

“We estimate the initial economic impact to be upwards of $1.5 million and with the attention from the upcoming broadcasts, we expect that number to grow and the impact to be felt for years to come,” Legg stated in the press release.

The three-day event was held the weekend before Memorial Day weekend, which is considered to be the unofficial start of the tourist season for Lake Cumberland, in hopes that the event would jump-start the tourist season. It seems the Grand Prix did just that, and organizers are already planning next year’s event.

“We believe it (the Grand Prix) will become an annual destination for race fans to plan their vacation around,” Legg stated in the press release.

Those who live in the communities around Lake Cumberland may have also helped boost the success of the Grand Prix as well.

“We felt a level of appreciation that was rarely found at other race sites,” said OSS President Ron Polli in the press release. “The facilities were great, the parties fantastic and the racing was fast and safe.”

Legg emphasized that more than 200 volunteers, the cooperation between state and local officials, community tourism organizations and businesses and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers helped make the first annual Grand Prix a successful event.

The second annual Grand Prix will take place in early spring 2010.

The races are slated to be aired in a half-hour show on Monday, June 22 at 3 p.m. on Fox Sports Network and Fox Sports South. The show will include in-depth interviews with race teams, and viewers will be able to experience a race from behind the wheel of a powerboat.

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