Isuzu Offers $160,000 in Prizes in Triathlon Series Pro Tour

10 February 1999

Isuzu Offers $160,000 in Prizes in Triathlon Series Pro Tour; SUV Specialist Teams Up With Bally Total Fitness to Sponsor U.S. Triathlon Series

    WHITTIER, Calif.--(BW SportsWire)--Feb. 9, 1999--American Isuzu Motors Inc. (AIMI) is proud to team up with the Bally Total Fitness U.S. Triathlon Series (USTS) to sponsor the "$160,000 Isuzu Go Farther(tm) Pro Tour" within a 12-city circuit in 1999.
    Beginning May 2 in Austin, Texas, and culminating in the qualifiers-only Series Championship Oct. 10 in Oceanside, Calif., professional triathletes will earn prize money and points at each race. The male and female points leaders going into each competition will be entitled to cash incentives for wearing the "Isuzu Red Jersey."
    A red swim cap and red cycling helmet cover will also serve to identify the current points leaders. The male and female with the most accumulated points following the Series Championship will each receive a new Isuzu Rodeo LSE 4WD. The other top 10 points winners will share a $38,000 Isuzu Go Farther(tm) Pro Tour cash purse.
    "We're delighted to partner with USTS in the Isuzu Go Farther Pro Tour. This relationship fits perfectly with the `face' of the Isuzu sport-utility vehicle franchise. The association between this incredibly demanding sport and our high performance SUVs is a great fit! What better way to promote our line-up of `go farther' SUVs?" said Bob Reilly, senior vice president, chief operating officer, AIMI's SUV division.
    Last year AIMI became the official vehicle sponsor of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. The USTS is an event that celebrates professional triathletes, while encouraging the general public to participate in this sport as a realistic fitness goal.
    Ranging in age from 15 to 70-plus, participants of this triathlon series can make it a family activity. Approximately 10,000 to 12,000 triathletes, from beginners to world-ranked professionals, are expected to participate in the only national "all-comers" triathlon series in the United States.
    The Isuzu Go Farther(tm) Pro Tour honors these world-class athletes. "Professional triathletes are optimistic, highly competitive, tenacious individuals. And those are the very same characteristics we strive to build into our vehicles," Reilly concluded.
    "One of our primary goals when we reintroduced the USTS last year was to provide American pros with a highly competitive national tour to help them sharpen their skills in advance of our sport's Olympic debut in 2000," USTS Vice President Mike Plant said. "Now, with the generous support of American Isuzu Motors, we will be able to go even farther in that direction."
    This season the USTS will feature Olympic-distance triathlons (1.5-kilometer swim/40k bike/10k run) and sprint-distance races (.75k/20k/5k). Some cities will offer both distances; in these races, only the Olympic-distance event will offer Isuzu Go Farther(tm) Pro Tour points. A Fitness Expo will be offered the day prior to each event.
    The 1999 schedule will be as follows: Austin, Tex., May 2; Los Angeles County, Calif., May 23; Oceanside, Calif., June 13; Milwaukee, June 27; Minneapolis, July 11; Atlanta, July 18; Detroit, Aug. 1; Madison, Wis., Aug. 15; Norfolk/Richmond, Va., Aug. 29; Dallas, Sept. 12; Westchester County, N.Y., Sept. 19; Series Championship, Oceanside, Oct. 10.
    American Isuzu Motors Inc., the SUV specialist, also markets diesel engines and commercial trucks in addition to its sport-utility vehicles -- the Rodeo, Trooper, Amigo and all-new VehiCROSS.