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Kodak
& Bobby Hamilton Racing Give Drive for Diversity
Program the Green Flag
 Eastman
Kodak Company announced it will sponsor Bobby Hamilton
Racing's No. 77 Dodge for the 2004 NASCAR Dodge Weekly
Series races at the Music City Motorplex in Nashville,
Tennessee. Eighteen- year-old Joe Henderson of Franklin,
Tennessee was chosen from the Drive for Diversity program
to drive the Kodak Perfect Touch Dodge. The team is owned
by veteran NASCAR driver Bobby Hamilton.
The
Radiate Group's Access Marketing & Communications
agency worked with NASCAR to develop the Drive for Diversity
program, which serves as a driver and crew-development
program for young racers from multicultural backgrounds.
 "The
Drive for Diversity program seeks to identify and create
opportunities for people of color to share and develop
in the NASCAR experience, and Kodak is extremely proud
to help pioneer this program," said Essie L. Calhoun,
Kodak's Chief Diversity Officer and Director of Community
Affairs, and a Kodak vice president. "This is a
unique learning experience for all the participants,
as well as an event in which the Nashville racing community
can take part."
"NASCAR
is fortunate to have great companies like Kodak supporting
Drive for Diversity," said NASCAR Chief Operating
Officer George Pyne. "Kodak has a well-earned reputation
of leadership in diversity and inclusion. NASCAR is
aggressively promoting diversity at all levels of our
sport, and Kodak's participation in this important initiative
will contribute to this long-term goal."
Kodak
has consistently earned recognition for its commitment
to diversity and inclusion. Most recently, DiversityInc.
named Kodak to its Top 50 Companies for Diversity for
the fourth consecutive year. In February, the company
was also recognized among Diversity Best Practices/Business
Womens' Network as a "Best of the Best - Corporate
Awards for Diversity and Women" for 2004.
"Kodak
and Bobby Hamilton Racing share our vision with NASCAR
to create a pipeline of talented and well-trained minority
drivers and crew members. Their support of our efforts
will provide minority drivers and crew members the training
and mentorship necessary to work their way to the NASCAR
NEXTEL Cup Series," said Daryl Stewart, General
Manager, Access Marketing & Communications.
Like
Kodak, Bobby Hamilton Racing is one of the first teams
to support the inaugural Drive for Diversity program.
Hamilton's other teams compete in the NASCAR Craftsman
Truck Series. Hamilton currently drives the No. 4 Square
D Dodge and is ranked ninth in the standings. Teammate
Chad Chaffin who drives the No. 18 Dickies Dodge, is
ranked eighth. Hamilton, a four-time winner on the Nextel
Cup circuit in his career, is also a co-owner of the
No. 8 BHR 2 Dodge driven by Chase Montgomery. Bobby
Hamilton drove the Kodak Film Racing Car for Morgan
McClure Motorsports for three years in the late 1990's.
Bobby Hamilton Racing is based in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.
"This
is a very exciting day for me and the team at Bobby
Hamilton Racing," Hamilton said. "By partnering
with Kodak, and to have a driver the caliber of Joe,
we have great expectations for this program."
In
2003, Henderson was a member of the Dodge Motorsports
diversity program and the first African-American driver
to compete in his division while capturing two top 10
finishes in three starts driving for Bobby Hamilton
Racing at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville. He also
competed in a full slate of Legends races at the speedway,
finishing eighth in the year-end standings after earning
three top five finishes and eight top ten finishes in
13 races. Also, Henderson competed in Legends races
in Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky. In 2001 and 2002,
he competed in Mini-Cup events throughout the Southeast,
picking up one win, 17 top five finishes and 28 top
ten finishes in just over 30 races.
"The
Drive for Diversity program has provided me with the
opportunity to work with Bobby Hamilton and Kodak,"
Henderson said. "To be affiliated with Kodak is
an honor and I am grateful for their support. Through
their commitment, I can pursue racing fulltime. We are
looking forward to a good season."
In
addition to racing, Henderson will graduate from Franklin
High School and expects to attend Nashville Auto Diesel
College in fall 2005. Bobby Hamilton Racing's No. 77
Kodak Dodge carries identifiers for the Kodak Perfect
Touch photofinishing service. This premium service uses
digital technology to enhance consumers' film pictures
and correct red-eye in snapshots. The service is available
through retailers across the U.S.
About
Eastman Kodak Company and Infoimaging
Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, print
and view images - for memories, for information, for
entertainment. The company is a major participant in
infoimaging, a $385 billion industry composed of devices
(digital cameras and flat-panel displays), infrastructure
(online networks and delivery systems for images) and
services & media (software, film and paper enabling
people to access, analyze and print images). With sales
of $13.3 billion in 2003, the company comprises several
businesses: Health, supplying the healthcare industry
with traditional and digital image capture and output
products and services; Commercial Printing, offering
on-demand color printing and networking publishing systems;
Commercial Imaging, offering image capture, output and
storage products and services to businesses and government;
Display & Components, which designs and manufactures
state-of-the-art organic light-emitting diode displays
as well as other specialty materials, and delivers optics
and imaging sensors to original equipment manufacturers;
and Digital & Film Imaging Systems, providing consumers,
professionals and cinematographers with digital and
traditional products and services.
About
The NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series
The NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series is contested at nearly
70 weekly short tracks from coast to coast. Drivers
at each facility compete for local awards as well as
a share of the $1.7 million annual point fund from NASCAR,
Dodge and other participating sponsors. Tracks are divided
into eight geographic regions, with drivers in each
competing for a regional championship via the NASCAR
Competition Performance Index (CPI), which tracks wins,
top-five finishes and other statistics to form a regional
ranking of drivers. At the end of the season, the racing
records of the eight regional winners are compared to
determine a national champion. Mark McFarland, of Winchester,
Va., won the 2003 NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series national
championship while competing in the Late Model Stock
Car division at Virginia's Old Dominion Speedway.
About
Access Marketing & Communications/Drive for Diversity
Drive for Diversity is a minority driver and crew member
development program created, and managed by Access Marketing
& Communications, a Charlotte-based multicultural
marketing firm founded in fall 2003 by The Radiate Group
and Calhoun Enterprises. Driver and crew member recruiting
for the 2005 Drive for Diversity program will begin
in July. A testing and evaluation combine event for
invited participants is slated for this fall.
About
The Radiate Group
The Radiate Group,
a global network of independently branded, best-in-class
marketing service agencies, operates within the DAS
Division (Diversified Agency Services) of the Omnicom
Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC). Radiate's agency partners specialize
in delivering integrated, below the line marketing solutions
for a variety of industries including sports, music,
automotive, consumer goods and more. The Radiate network
executes over 1,000 events per week and engages in over
40 million one-on-one consumer interactions annually.
The company is headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., with
offices in North America, Europe and Latin America.
05/04
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