Speed Channel’s Dave Despain added to lineup For ‘40 Years to Glory’ SCORE Baja 1000 Tribute

Star of Highly- Rated Wind Tunnel Show to Co-host special gala

With Fellow Television Personality and SCORE Baja veteran Paul Page



LOS ANGELES—Adding to a rapidly growing list of Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 celebrities and racing legends, event producers for the upcoming ‘40 Years to Glory’ gala today announced the addition of Dave Despain as co-host of the evening. Despain, host of two highly popular Speed Channel shows – Wind Tunnel and Inside Nextel Cup -- will join broadcast colleague Paul Page in presenting the evening’s multi-media stage presentation honoring four decades of one of the world’s most recognized motorsports icons.

To be held on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 27 at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center in Long Beach, California, ‘40 Years to Glory’ represents the largest event of its kind in the history of desert racing.

Like co-host Page, Despain is a renowned television personality, legendary motorsports celebrity and talented event emcee. Perhaps now most recognized for hosting his top-rated Speed Channel show Wind Tunnel, the highly outspoken Despain also shares another unique characteristic with ABC Sports/ESPN’s Page, an authentic passion for the colorful past and evergreen racing challenge that is the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.

“Baja is one of my favorite places in the world, and its name is synonymous with one of the purest forms of racing I’ve ever experienced, “Despain explained. To gather at a venue as classy as the Long Beach Performing Arts Center in honor all these heroes, who raced their hearts out in the middle of nowhere, is a spectacular idea. It should also be one Helluva’ party and I am very proud to be invited!”

A self-proclaimed failed motorcycle racer, Despain spent the decade of the ‘70s working for the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) in public relations and publishing. He was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999. His first national TV appearance assignment was the “Daytona 200” for ABC’s World of Sports in 1975. In 1981 he became the host of racing’s first weekly highlight show – MotorWeek Illustrated – on Turner Broadcasting, regularly reporting on off-road racing. His resume also includes racing coverage for NBC and Fox, plus a five-year stint with CBS as NASCAR pit reporter and motorcycle analyst. Before joining Speed in 1999, he spent eight years with ESPN, where he anchored the network’s coverage of the SCORE desert series and its signature SCORE Baja 1000 event.

‘40 Years to Glory’ will be comprised of the world’s largest display of vintage and historic desert racing vehicles and motorcycles, live music, cocktails and a huge buffet-style dinner. That will be followed by the ‘40 Years to Glory’ presentation in the complex’s Terrace Theater, a multi-media trip through four decades of racing featuring live music, video presentations and a whose-who list of honorees receiving specially-made awards. The night will be capped off with the “Baja After Party” back on the plaza.

The special gala is being made possible by the generous support of presenting partners Volkswagen of America, BFGoodrich Tires and Blue C Communications, in association with Dirt Sports Magazine, Hot Rod Magazine, Kartek Off-Road and the Bandito Brothers.

Tickets for this never-to-be-repeated event are now on sale from the Long Beach Performing Arts Center box office or via Ticketmaster at (213) 480-3232 or (714) 740-2000 or online at www.40yearstoglory.com. Guest tickets will include admission, dinner, and a commemorative event program. Like a concert or play, guests will also be provided with a reserved seat inside the Terrace Theater and sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

This year’s 40th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, the season finale of the six-race 2007 SCORE Desert Series for cars, trucks, motorcycles and ATVs, will be held Nov. 10-16 as a journey down Mexico’s majestic Baja California peninsula. With pre-race activities in Tijuana, the race will start in Ensenada and finish some 1,300 miles later in Cabo San Lucas. With nearly 350 entries expected from 40 U.S. States and 15 countries, the historic race will be taped by NBC Sports.