Call Before You Dig Becomes Title Sponsor of August Whelen Modified Tour Event at SMS; CBYD 8-1-1 Challenge Returns
Stafford Springs, CT — Stafford Motor Speedway has announced that Call Before You Dig has signed on to become the title sponsor of the track’s August 8th NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event. In addition to becoming the title sponsor of the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 NWMT 150 event, Call Before You Dig will once again present the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge for Stafford’s weekly drivers. The Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge will culminate on the August 8 Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 NWMT 150 night and award five $8-1-1 bonuses for a total of $4,055 in contingency money.
“We’re all very excited about our program for the 2014 season,” said Derek Brown, Vice President of Damage Prevention and Education for Call Before You Dig. “We were notified that the August race was available for a title sponsor and since the race date happened to fall on the same night that the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge was going to culminate, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to receive the added exposure that a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race brings. Whelen Modified Tour races at Stafford always bring in great crowds and we wanted to take advantage of that to help raise awareness for not only our 8-1-1 phone number, but our www.cbyd.com website. August 11th is 8-1-1 Day and 8-1-1 Day is used nationwide to remind everyone to always call 8-1-1 before digging. We plan special events on or around that date to bring added awareness and contractors are reminded that they can request an electronic dig ticket by using www.cbyd.com.”
The Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge was started last season as a way for Call Before You Dig to raise awareness about their 8-1-1 phone number as well as providing a contingency bonus that was available to all drivers at Stafford rather than from one specific division. The Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge awarded drivers from each division a point value based on their feature finish and then added up the point totals from each Friday night. The five drivers who came the closest to accumulating 8-1-1 points without going over each received an $8-1-1 bonus from Call Before You Dig. Last year’s winners were Eric Berndt, Ted Christopher, and Todd Owen from the SK Modified® division, Justin Bren from the Limited Late Model division, and Cliff Saunders from the DARE Stock division.
“We were all really happy with how the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge turned out last season,” said Brown. “Not everyone can get out to the track on Friday nights, so I would bring the updated Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge standings with me each month to our board meetings and it was exciting for us to be able to follow along with the rivalries on the track throughout the season. Each one of the winners reached out to us to thank us for providing the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge bonus and I brought pictures of the trophy ceremony that we had back to our board meetings. For all of us at Call Before You Dig to be able to see the excitement and passion that the drivers exhibited in racing for the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge bonus made the program worthwhile. We have a lot of race fans among us here at Call Before You Dig and it’s always fun when you can mix business with pleasure. We were all very happy with the exposure that we received from the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge program and we’re looking forward to doing it again this season.”
Call Before You Dig is a non-profit organization funded by public utility companies with facilities located in Connecticut. Call Before You Dig is a free service that provides homeowners and professional excavators an easy way to learn just what underground utilities lie within their proposed work area. 8-1-1 was created to help people know what’s below and from unintentionally hitting underground utility lines while working on excavation projects. 8-1-1 is a free call to make, and calling Call Before You Dig before using mechanized excavating equipment is the law in Connecticut. After 2 full working days of your call, a representative from each member utility company that may be affected by an excavation project will come to the site and mark the utility location of their underground facilities with color coded paint or flags, or call if there are no conflicts. Call Before You Dig can be found online at www.cbyd.com for more detailed information and guidance.
The Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge will kick off with the 43rd Annual Spring Sizzler Weekend on April 25-27 and end with the August 8 Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 150. Tickets for the Spring Sizzler and the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 150 are available and on sale now through the SMS Box Office. Spring Sizzler tickets are priced at $38.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and $42.00 for reserved seating, while Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 150 tickets are priced at $33.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and $35.00 for reserved seating. For both events, all kids age 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.
For more information on the Spring Sizzler, the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 150, and the Call Before You Dig 8-1-1 Challenge, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR