First 2011 OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational Regional Qualifying Events Announced

Entering its fourth year, the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational and everything that goes with it, has become one of the most highly-anticipated and widely-covered events in the automotive performance world. Participants get an automatic invite to feature their car at the SEMA Show, compete in the event and gain their 15 minutes of fame through hundreds of print and online articles and the one-hour TV special filmed around the event. OPTIMA Batteries, the performance aftermarket company behind the event, is announcing the first round of events that will serve as qualifiers for the 2011 Street Car Invitational, where participants in regional events can race their way to Nevada for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The OPTIMA Invitational planning committee hopes these regional qualifying events will increase diversity among vehicles, drivers and enthusiast segments. These qualifiers will also help uncover talented vehicle builders and owners with the hottest street machines in the country for this year's fourth annual OPTIMA Invitational. OPTIMA plans to designate at least 12 qualifying events in 2011 and the first seven, announced today, include:

• Run to the Coast: February 26-27, 2011
• Run to the Shore: April 1-3, 2011
• Run to Music City: May 28-29, 2011
• Motor State Challenge: June 17-19, 2011
• Heidt's Performance Car Challenge: July 15-17, 2011
• Holley LSFest II: September 9-11, 2011
• Run Through the Hills: September 23-25, 2011

"The OPTIMA Invitational is to exhibit not only the vehicle performance and styling, but also the enthusiast dedication and passion within the aftermarket performance automotive industry," says Cam Douglass, Director of Product Development and Marketing for OPTIMA Batteries. "The regional qualifiers are carefully chosen to ensure each represents the spirit of the event and will certainly widen the playing field for 2011."

Each regional qualifying event demonstrates a format similar to the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational, of which there is an autocross, road course, braking and acceleration, style and design competition and road rally. Enthusiasts planning to attend these OUSCI qualifiers can look for various points of integration including the OUSCI regional qualifier logo and onsite signage at each event.

The 2010 regional qualifying events yielded many strong Invitational competitors from all over the world including Paul-Avrid "Polly" Blytt of Norway with his ’86 Pontiac TransAm, who won the Unlimited Division in the 2010 Silver State Classic Challenge open road race, with an average speed of just over 183 mph. Brian Finch of Nashville emerged victorious at several of last year’s regional events with his ’72 Camaro and Rob McGreggor from San Bernardino, California, won the Good Guys event in Fort Worth, Texas, with his '55 F-100 Pick-up, just to name a few.

For more information on the qualifying events, the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational and ways to get involved as a participant, volunteer or sponsor, please visit www.ousci.com