American Honda Motor Co., Inc. has signed on as title sponsor for The Honda Ski Tour, a winter sports tour featuring ski racing, freeride competitions, and live music, the company announced today. Honda's presence at each event will be highlighted with on-site displays of Honda vehicles as well as the presentation of 2007 Honda Elements to the overall tour winners in the Skiercross and Skier Halfpipe events.
"We were impressed with the overall quality and innovative nature of The Ski Tour," said Tom Peyton, senior manager of Advertising for American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "It's a perfect backdrop to showcase the Honda truck line-up [Element, Ridgeline, Pilot and CR-V],"
The Honda Ski Tour, which begins with a January 11th event in Sun Valley, Idaho, combines skiercross and skier halfpipe competitions with the BaseCamp Music Experience, a live music festival at each stop featuring cutting-edge bands from many popular genres. Musical acts already on board include Hinder, Sean Paul, Three Days Grace, Tommy Lee, Michael Franti & Spearhead, The Wailers, Blackalicious, Donavon Frankenreiter, Swollen Members, Gomez, Don Carlos, Elan, Kamphire Collective, DJ Logic, DJ Jillian Ann and more.
The Skier Halfpipe competition represents a snow-bound evolution of skateboarding halfpipe, with competitors scored on the amplitude and style of their tricks. Athletes confirmed for the Halfpipe competition include X Games medalists Tanner Hall and Simon Dumont, along with X Games competitors Matt Philippi, Laurent Favre and Justin Dorey.
The Skiercross competition involves exciting, head-to-head racing through a motocross-style course featuring jumps, banked turns, waves and modified terrain features. Athletes confirmed for the Skiercross competition include Olympians Daron Rahlves, Eric Schlopy, Reggie Crist and Casey Puckett, along with X Games contenders Zach Crist, Davey Barr, Enak Gavaggio, Markus Wittner, Stanley Hayer and Kyle Sul. Adding to the allure of The Honda Ski Tour was the announcement by The International Olympic Committee on November 28, 2006, to add Skiercross to the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Television coverage of The Honda Ski Tour is scheduled in four, one-hour features to air nationally on network television one week after each event. The events are scheduled as follows:
Stop1: January 11-15, Sun Valley, Idaho
Stop2: February 1-4, Breckenridge, Colorado
Stop3: February 22-25, Aspen, Colorado
Stop4: March 8-11, Squaw Valley USA, California
For more information about The Honda Ski Tour, please visit www.theskitour.com. For more information and downloadable high-resolution images of Honda vehicles, please visit www.hondanews.com. Consumer information is available at www.honda.com.