Minneapolis, Minnesota -- Outdoor Life Network (OLN), the Comcast owned, 24-hour cable television channel, is debuting a sizzling new 8-week series this Fall: "Rally America Presents The National Rally Roadracing Championships". The fast paced, action-packed show features Rally roadracing, which is the most popular motorsport in the world, drawing millions of spectators each year. Relatively undiscovered in North America, Rally racing American style will test drivers skills on gravel backroads and dirt logging access routes. The show is scheduled to begin airing on Saturday evenings at 5:00 P.M. (ET) starting October 8, 2005 on the OLN television network.

The show sizzles with excitement as the drama of the Rally Roadracing Championships unfolds over the course of 8 weeks. A new round in the Championship is featured each week. Events showcase some of the most beautiful places in America ranging from Pikes Peak, CO, or the Squehannock Trail in Wellsboro, PA. There are stops in the Ojibwe Forests of Northern Minnesota; Lake Superior, MI; Steamboat Springs, CO; Northern Maine; and the Oregon Trail. The series kicks off at Sno*Drift, the only winter rally, in Atlanta, MI.

Drivers, in street legal but highly modified cars, race in time-trial fashion, for two days, blasting down unpaved logging roads with hair-pin switch backs. No matter what the weather conditions (blazing desert heat, blinding snow, torrential rains), the driving teams face it head on and test their driving skills on courses or "stages" they have never seen. Other motor sports allow drivers to practice or test drive the course. Not so in Rally "American Style". Instead, drivers rely on a co-driver or navigator who reads a map book received only hours before the race. For driving teams, it's full throttle action on uncharted and unfriendly gravel backroads.

Each event has three components: Stages, where drivers race one by one in time trial fashion, Transits, where teams use city streets and highways to travel from stage to stage, and Service Stops, where mobile "pit crews" check tires, refuel cars and often times perform roadside bodywork or transmission repair. It's a sport filled with fast-action adventure, unpredictable excitement and amazing resourcefulness.

About Rally America Rally America is an official sanctioning body for the sport of Rally Roadracing in the United States. Rally originated in Europe nearly 100 years ago, and is a fixture on the European sports scene. Rally racing is gaining momentum in the US and is rapidly becoming one of the most popular motorsports in the nation. For more on Rally America: www.rally-america.com.

Contact 612-708-7858 for more information and interviews