AUGUST 2008: Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project Launches Saratoga Fundraiser
“Where horsepower meets real horsepower”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Auto racing icon Geoff Bodine announced Monday that his Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, Inc. will stage a fundraiser at the legendary Saratoga Race Course, named one of the world’s greatest sporting venues by Sports Illustrated. On August 11, 2008, friends of the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, Inc., a not-for-profit group that builds bobsleds for the United States Olympic Bobsled Teams, will gather for the first annual Bo-Dyn Bobsled Classic.
Bodine was born and raised in Chemung, N.Y. and is the only New York state resident to win the Daytona 500. In 1992, Bodine started the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project to build “Made in America” bobsleds for U.S. athletes. In recognition of Bodine and his patriotic instinct the New York Racing Association decided to name a race for his foundation.
“We are going to do it on August 11, the day after Watkins Glen Sprint Cup Race, in hopes of drawing some of my NASCAR friends to come over and see another legendary race course in New York State, Saratoga,” said Bodine. “In auto racing, Watkins Glen has a worldwide reputation. In horse racing, Saratoga is legendary. I was there two years ago. It is an impressive facility. It’s funny that our auto racing guys deal with horsepower in our business every day, but the real horse power is at Saratoga. It is going to be a fun day.”
Special guests from the NASCAR and NHRA racing world, members of the U.S. Bobsled Team, and other celebrities will join Bodine for a reception and race viewing in a luxury suite on the first turn of the Saratoga Race Course. Limited tickets are available to the public to join Bodine and his NASCAR/NHRA friends in their efforts to provide American athletes with the best bobsleds in the world built with American ingenuity and generosity.
The second day of the fundraiser on August 12 will be a four-man scramble golf tournament staged at Shaker Ridge Country Club in Albany, N.Y. All funds from the two-day fundraiser will benefit the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, Inc., a 501 (c)(3) corporation.
In 1992, Geoff Bodine was watching the Winter Olympic Games on television and saw the U.S. Bobsled Team finish out of the medals and learned that they had not won an Olympic medal in the sport since 1956. Bodine found out that the U.S. athletes were forced to buy second-hand sleds from the Europeans up to that point.
Within a week, Bodine was in Lake Placid where he started his Made in America bobsled project, and in 1994, the first Bo-Dyn bobsled competed at the Lillehammer Winter Olympics. At the 2002 Winter Games in Park City, Utah, the USA finally broke the medal drought and won gold in women’s bobsled, and silver and bronze in men’s four-man competition, all in Bo-Dyn bobsleds.
Bodine and his friends will return to Lake Placid for the 4th Annual Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, January 2-5, 2009, featuring NASCAR and NHRA drivers competing head to head for King of the Hill honors.
Support the U.S. teams as they compete against the best in the world at the 2009 World Championships Feb. 16 – March 1 on Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid.
For more information on Bodine and the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, Inc., and to register for the Saratoga track and golf fundraisers, go to bodinebobsled.com or flinksmithlaw.com.
