OPTIMA® Ultimate Street Car Invitational 5th Annual Television Premiere

The Road to OPTIMA’s 2012 Search for America’s Ultimate Street Car
Comes to its Exciting, Final Conclusion

Feb.19, 2013 (MILWAUKEE) – OPTIMA^® Batteries, the global leader in high-performance automotive and marine AGM batteries and chargers, is proud to announce the premiere of its OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational television special on SPEED™ on Sunday, March 10  at 11 a.m. EST.

Visit OPTIMA’s YouTube page at www.youtube.com/optimabatteries to preview all of the action and drama from the 2012 Invitational. This is the first year a broadcast audience has been able to follow along with some of the qualifiers before seeing the final event, so also check out video from the OPTIMA Faceoff at Road America, among others, to see competitors who battled it out to earn a spot in the final event. These Invitational vehicles represent a wide range of interests and styles, from a 1933 Ford hot rod to a custom-crafted Nissan GT-R, and several vintage and late-model American muscle cars modified for greatly improved performance. European supercars are also well represented in the mix, ranging from a track-friendly 1985 Porsche Carrera to a 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo.

“We’re excited to give viewers such an exciting, well-rounded look at this year’s OPTIMA Invitational,” said Cam Douglass, director of product development and marketing for OPTIMA Batteries. “We continue to see more support and greater competition each year, and 2012 brought out some of the best talent and most passionate street car enthusiasts yet.”

The OPTIMA Invitational began in 2008 when Douglass recognized a need to prove the specialty vehicles on the SEMA Show floor were built for speed and superior performance. Today the annual event occurs each Saturday following the close of the SEMA Show, bringing in top automotive talent, highly modified vehicles, credible racing veterans and fresh talent.

Additional airings will occur on thefollowing dates and times:

·       Monday, March 11 at 2:00 p.m. EST

·       Sunday, March 24 at 11:00 a.m. EST

·       Friday, March 29 at 1:00 p.m. EST

Please visit the OPTIMA Invitational website at http://www.optimabatteries.com/us/en/experience/optima-invitational/ and the OPTIMA Batteries Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/optimabatteries?fref=ts for more information.