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Pinks All Out Heads Back to its Origins at The Texas Motorplex
Written by: David Harris   
03/16/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Pinks All Out returns to its roots at Texas Motorplex. (SPEED) ยป More Photos
 SPEED™ hit television show PINKS All Out will be celebrating a reunion of sorts when it returns to the Texas Motorplex in Ennis on Saturday, March 21, to shoot the third episode of Season Three. The episode is set to air sometime in late July or early August.

As with every PINKS All Out production, which is presented by NAPA, more than 450 local and regional grassroots drag racers sign up to participate in a heads-up competition to win $10,000, a new NAPA tool chest and an opportunity to appear on national cable television network SPEED. But a shoot at the Texas Motorplex is different, as the show’s ties to the track, the city of Dallas and the state of Texas are very strong – with foundations established at this location almost two-and-a-half years ago.

Back on Labor Day weekend of 2006, the inaugural episode of a new program named PINKS All Out was shot, to premiere on SPEED as a special on Thanksgiving night later that year. It was a gamble, and as Robert Ecker, SPEED VP of Programming & Executive Producer of PINKS All Out remembers, no one knew what to expect either.

“The original ‘lose the race, lose your ride’ PINKS format was by this time well-established, but transitioning to hundreds of vehicles all racing for cash rather than titles, and doing so at such a large venue, was completely untested,” recalls Ecker. “We didn’t know how many cars would show up, how many spectators would come out or even if the concept itself would work. All we knew was that test-and-tune events were being held all across the country every week, and that grassroots drag racing for money had never been shown on television. Whether we could successfully mount a large-scale live event and get a viable television show out of it was a very big question mark.”

That initial shoot was a huge success, both at-track and in the ratings, and in the process created a celebrity out of Fort Worth resident and racer Chris Cruce, who also became the first woman to win on any PINKS show. It established the show’s potential as an original series and a viable live event.

“It was a combination calculated risk and a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants operation that actually worked,” added Ecker. “In many respects, things could not have gone any better than they did on that late-summer Saturday
evening in Ennis.”

The Texas ties don’t end there, as host, creator and executive producer Rich Christensen now resides in the Dallas area, as does the show’s technical advisor Brian Bossone. Kenneth Herring, who lives in nearby Tyler, Texas, is the show’s lead technical advisor, and the co-host of SPEED original program Pass Time. Herring is the owner of Texas Chassisworks and was here for that first shoot.

“There’s a lot of excitement in the drag racing community about PINKS All Out coming back to the Texas Motorplex,” Herring said. “We had a great crowd for the first shoot, but people still didn’t really know what it was all about. The show has definitely changed a lot from that time, both from a track standpoint and what people see on television.”

Ecker talked about some of those changes.

“The biggest difference the Dallas community will see is in the scale of the event, which has gotten much larger since our first visit, and now encompasses a host of on-site activities and entertainment as well as a lot more cameras and crew,” Ecker said. “We’ve made a number of adjustments to the format of the show that will keep the contestants on their toes and the fans on their feet. Yet at its core, the show remains a celebration of grassroots drag racing and its passionate fan base; in this regard it is essentially unchanged.”

To purchase advanced tickets, log onto www.texasmotorplex.com and click the PINKS All Out link. For more information on PINKS All Out, log onto www.SPEEDtv.com keyword ‘PINKS.’

For those interested in viewing previous episodes of the original show PINKS or PINKS All Out, downloads are now available at both iTunes and Amazon.com.

PINKS All Out, called the ‘Woodstock of Drag Racing,’ by Summit Motorsports Park President Bill Bader, Jr., is an entire day’s worth of on track racing and off-track activities, culminating at dusk in the running of the final 16. As part of the midway, the SPEED Mobile Theatre will be on hand providing air-conditioned entertainment and autograph sessions, while on track fun includes a variety of professional and amateur drag racing equipment.


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