Monday, April 09, 2007

Bell Micro returns to Champ Car teaming up with RSPORTS

Press Release

LOVELAND, Colorado (April 6, 2007) – Bell Micro, one of the largest value distributors of storage and computer products, is proud to announce their return to the Champ Car World Series Paddock with RSPORTS and Justin Wilson for the 2007 season.

The Bell Micro brand will be exhibited on Justin Wilson’s No. 9 CDW/RSPORTS car as he races for the Vanderbilt Cup in the 2007 Champ Car World Series.

Bell Microproducts is an international, value-added provider of a wide range of high-technology products, solutions and services to the industrial and commercial markets. Our offering includes RAID, NAS and SAN storage systems, servers, fibre channel, software, computer components, peripherals and a wide range of maintenance and professional services. Bell Microproducts is an industry-recognized specialist in storage products and is one of the world’s largest storage-centric value-added distributors.

Bell Microproducts are available at any level of integration, from components to subsystem assemblies and fully-integrated, tested and certified system solutions. We add value with a broad range of services including design and configuration, testing, software loading, kitting, mass storage and computer system integration and custom server manufacturing. Trained and certified technical personnel perform these processes at Bell Microproducts’ ISO 9001:2000 facilities. We market and distribute more than 140 brand name product lines, as well as our own Rorke Data storage brands, to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), system integrators, contract electronic manufacturing services (CEMS) customers, value-added resellers (VARs) and retailers in the Americas and Europe.

Bell Microproducts has 65 locations worldwide and global sales of $3.4 billion in 2006. It is number 584 on the Fortune 1000 list and the 22nd largest publicly traded company in Silicon Valley.

“We are thrilled to be associated with a world class team such as RSPORTS and drivers Justin Wilson and Alex Tagliani,” states Don Bell, President and CEO of Bell Microproducts. “We are optimistic that this will be a great season.”

"We are very pleased to have Don Bell and Bell Mircoproducts join RSPORTS," said RSPORTS team co-owner Dan Pettit. “I am happy to continue a strong relationship that we had developed last year. Bell Microproducts is a tremendous company and I think that RSPORTS and the Champ Car World Series will continue to provide them with a great marketing opportunity.”

Justin Wilson will return to the #9 CDW Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone in 2007 after three successful years in the Champ Car World Series that included 35 top-ten starts, 29 top-ten finishes, four poles and three victories. His consistency on the track makes him a fierce competitor, earning him a second place in the Champ Car World Series Driver’s Championship race in 2006. He was also the recipient of the 2006 Greg Moore Legacy Award for his combination of outstanding on-track talent and dynamic personality.

Since its inception in 1978, Champ Car has provided a consistent domestic and global sales and marketing platform for corporations to conduct business-to-business initiatives with automotive, consumer product, service and technology companies. The Champ Car World Series also provides a direct consumer interaction platform through a state-of-the-art unique business model with its core fans as well as non-core fans; they typically are very affluent and educated consumers that are technologically advanced and difficult to reach.

Bell Micro and RSPORTS are excited to kick-off the 2007 Champ Car World Series season on the streets in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 6-8. Las Vegas is the first event of 16 Champ Car races held this year throughout major cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, China and Australia.

About RSPORTS

For 2007, two winning teams, Rocketsports and RuSPORT, have combined their efforts to campaign Alex Tagliani in the #8 LXN2/Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone car and Justin Wilson in the #9 CDW/Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone car. Operating under the RSPORTS banner, they will compete for the coveted Vanderbilt Cup in the Champ Car World Series, with 16 races throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, China, Europe and Australia. The two teams, RSPORTS East, based in East Lansing, Michigan, and RSPORTS West, based in Loveland, Colorado, have more than 180 years of combined experience in every motorsports discipline around the world.