General Tire to Be the "Official" Tire Of 2010 Best in the Desert Off-Road Racing Series

Fort Mill, SC – (October 13, 2009) – General Tire will be the “official” tire of the Best in the Desert Off-Road Racing series for the 2010 season. General Tire is again unleashing the fury on desert racing & stepping up our efforts in this category. Best in the Desert is one of the premier state slide racing organizations & Team GT will strategically enhance the series in key areas.

Best in the Desert races include the Blue Water Resorts & Casino Parker 425 in February; Terrible’s 250 at Primm, April; the infamous TSCO Vegas To Reno The Long Way, August; Bilek Racing Silver State 300 in September; & the Henderson Fabtech Desert Classic, finishing off the season in December.

“General tires have thundered through some of the toughest, most exciting desert racing events under the Best in the Desert banner. We are looking forward to a solid partnership,” said Travis Roffler, director of marketing, General Tire. “With General becoming the official tire of Best in the Desert, this again proves General Tire’s br& commitment to the off-road community & our continuing to push the envelope in this industry.”

“The philosophy of our organization is to provide top quality, world class Off-Road Racing events, & more importantly to make the events exciting, fun & fan friendly,” said Casey Folks, owner of BITD. “We are confident that with General Tire on board, Best in the Desert will be better than ever.”

General Tire is again ‘unleashing the fury’ in off-road performance for 2009, in the second year campaigning its Grabber competition tire. Designed with a tough, three-ply Duragen™-reinforced body construction to st& up to the rigors of off-road conditions, the Grabber also features a newly-developed competition-specific tread compound. In addition, the Grabber name & General Tire logo are prominently featured on the sidewall in red & white letters. The Grabber competition tires are designed in size 37x12.50R17 for class 8 & trophy truck/trick truck & 35x12.50R17 for class 1, 6, 7, 7 S, stock mini & Protruck.

General Tire also has a complete line of Grabber tires for the passenger & light truck market, including the new Grabber DOT-approved off-road tire (to be released in 2010); the Grabber HTS, which delivers the perfect synergy of comfort, durability & performance; the Grabber UHP, which sets a whole new st&ard in performance & ride quality for SUVs, light trucks & crossover vehicles; & Grabber AT2, designed for aggressive all-terrain traction in all weather conditions.

General Tire is part of Continental Tire North America, Inc. (www.generaltire.com). CTNA, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a company of Germany-based Continental AG. With sales exceeding €24 billion in 2008, the Continental Corporation is one of the top automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, systems & components for the powertrain & chassis, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tires & technical elastomers, the corporation contributes towards enhanced driving safety & protection of the global climate. Continental is also a competent partner in networked automobile communication. The corporation currently employs approximately 133,000 at nearly 190 locations in 35 countries.