For Immediate Release

May 23, 2005, Bangor Maine

After a hiatus, the coveted Triple Caution Thong, the most prestigious award in North American Rallying makes a thunderous, ahem, slinky, return to the sport for 2005!

The Last Ditch Racing team, in conjunction with team partner Triple Caution Inc., New England distributor for MOTUL lubricants, will be awarding the trophy at the Rocky Mountain Rally in Calgary, Alberta, round 2 of the Canadian Rally Championship(CRC), as well as at all subsequent rounds of the 2005 CRC.

John Cassidy, driver for LDR, relates the difficulties in managing such a popular award over the past year.  "The Thong became so popular, the team felt the need to sequester itself over the long Maine winter in an undisclosed location to regroup and avoid all the publicity generated by the skimpy award.  That pressure, combined with a decrease in production of thongs in the Malaysian region of Thongilan(from which the garment takes its name), led to a brief absence of the thong from the sport.  "Although press releases were not issued, many thongs were awarded towards the end of 2004."  Cassidy notes that further PR detailing those awards will be forthcoming shortly.

Criteria for the winning the award has traditionally been nebulous at best, non-existant at worst.  The Thong has traditionally been awarded to a novice or underpowered team that has completed an event in the face of extreme adversity.  Thongs are only awarded at events that Last Ditch Racing competes in.

The team is trying to be more specific about criteria for the award at events in 2005.  "We found that when we made the criteria too vague, fellow teams would exhibit all manner aberrant behavior in an attempt to try and impress us-they were basically doing anything they could to win the Thong.  Rallying is difficult enough, without adding another layer of stress to our fellow teams, so we're going to try and be clear about how a team can land the trophy," said Cassidy.

At the 2005 edition of the Rocky Mountain Rally, the highest seeded(read larger number) novice team finishing furthest up the results board will take home the custom embroidered garment for their trophy case or rearview mirror.  They'll also have the challenge of explaining to their families how they came by such a rare treasure.

As always, neither Last Ditch Racing nor Triple Caution, Inc., warranty the Triple Caution Thong in any way and is not liable for any personal injury or property damage incurred from wearing it or its display.

For more information on Triple Caution, Inc., please see:  http://triplecaution.us
To buy your own Triple Caution Thong, please see:  http://www.cafepress.com/lastditchracing
For more information on the Rocky Mountain Rally, please see: http://www.rockymountainrally.com
For more information on Last Ditch Racing, please see:  http://www.lastditchracing.com
To read about past Triple Caution Thong recipients, please see:  http://www.lastditchracing.net/press_releases/thong.html

Hehe...I wouldn't want to know the details of the lawsuit!  

Cheers!  John