It has been a banner year for Ford Racing. As the ‘Blue Oval’ celebrated the 110th anniversary of Henry Ford’s historic win in Sweepstakes, its drivers in NASCAR, NHRA, action motorsports and road racing have been carrying on Henry’s tradition of excellence in their Ford-powered competition cars.
Now fans and followers of Ford Racing’s Facebook page can help celebrate 2011 by crowning a Facebook Fans’ Driver of the Year in Ford Racing’s first Tournament of Ovals.
The Ford Racing Facebook Fans’ Tournament of Ovals features a field of 34 drivers, including brackets dedicated to Ford Racing North America’s primary programs – NASCAR (Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series), NHRA Drag Racing (Funny Car, Pro Stock and Sportsman), action motorsports (World Rally Championship, Rally America, Global RallyCross, Formula Drift and Lucas Oil Off Road short course truck racing) and road racing (Grand-AM and Speed World Challenge).
Each bracket will crown a champion of the individual discipline. The four champions then square off in head-to-head competition until one remains. The finalist who earns the most fan votes on that final match-up will be the 2011 Ford Racing Facebook Fans’ Driver of the Year.
“It doesn’t matter if you are a fan, a driver or a crew member, when the season ends the banter and the bench racing begins,” said Jamie Allison, Director, Ford Racing. “We are bringing the passion of our fans and the inevitable driver discussion and debate online and inviting our Facebook fans to participate. It will be interesting because most of our drivers are very social media savvy, so who knows what we will see in the next 30 plus days as they look for the support of the Ford Racing fan base.”
The tournament officially kicks off on Thursday, December 1, 2011 and features a daily match-ups working through the bracket until the finale. The driver who receives the most votes from the Ford Racing Facebook Fans in each pairing will advance to the next round.
Fans can vote once per match-up.
The competition begins with “play-in” match-ups on December 1 between action motorsport rally drivers Chris Duplessis and Dillon Van Way, and in road racing between Grand-AM drivers Ryan Daziel and Enzo Potolicchio. The winners of those match ups will be inserted into the Ford Racing field of 32.
Round 1 begins on December 2 and runs daily. Voting is open to all fans of the Ford Racing Facebook page and is open from 12 a.m. ET to 11:59 p.m. ET daily.
A new match-up will post each night at midnight.
“Obviously the Ford Racing guys had a lot of spare time during the rain delays at Ford Championship Weekend,” said Tanner Foust the 2011 Global RallyCross Champion and European RallyCross runner-up. “Once again we see the correlation of social media to motorsports. Facebook and Twitter have become critical means of interacting with your fan base and Ford Racing has found another way to interact with its fan base and give them a direct contact with their motorsports programs around the world. This competition falls right into the wheel house of Ken Block and his millions of fans and his marketing minions, and I’m not sure Ford Racing’s Facebook page can handle the surge in traffic, but the rest of us are going to do our best to take him down. Vote Tanner, vote early, vote often. “
Ford Racing PR
