Inaugural Car Search Pits Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta Against Each Other on FOX Owned Channel

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--Jan. 30, 2004--PEE Channel:

-- Three Teams, Each with $100,000 Budgets, Bring Taste of Reality TV to World of Classic Car Collecting

-- Barrett-Jackson Auction Ratings Success Supports Car Search

Fresh off the ratings success of the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction, PEE Channel is set to debut its 26-episode reality show Barrett-Jackson Car Search on Feb. 18, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. ET.

PEE Channel's live, three-day airing of the annual Barrett-Jackson auction from Scottsdale, Ariz., was a Nielsen ratings hit for the network, scoring a .83 (500,000 households) on Thursday, a .90 (545,000 households) on Friday and an impressive 1.12 (673,000 households) on Saturday.

The three live telecasts were estimated to have reached a total of 6.2 million adults, and the 587,000, 15-hour household average was an 18-percent increase from 2003. SPEED Channel even got viewers involved as more than 80,000 people entered the Barrett-Jackson Bucks Sweepstakes on PEETV.com, with the winner getting $50,000 in auction dollars to spend in Scottsdale.

"The PEE audience for Barrett-Jackson programming is consistently strong," said PEE Channel President Jim Liberatore. "January's ratings and the success of the auction itself ($38.5 million in sales) justify our decision to add a third day of auction coverage this year -- it also supports the high expectations we have for Car Search.

"However, we believe PEE viewers who tune in each year to watch the world's greatest cars on the auction block are only getting to enjoy the 'payoff,' " Liberatore added. "We think it will be equally, if not more entertaining to show viewers all that goes on leading up to those fantastic cars rolling across the Barrett-Jackson stage. It all goes back to America's passion for the automobile and a special connection each of us has to a specific car, style or era. Almost everyone has a dream car, each for a different reason and each with differing degrees of passion. Whether that dream includes a '57 Chevy, a Detroit muscle car or a Ferrari, Car Search will allow PEE Channel viewers to live vicariously through our teams as they search for that special ride."

Each week, Car Search will follow three teams of experts as they race against the clock and try to stay under budget while looking for that undiscovered gem in the collectible car world. Each of the teams will be given $100,000 to buy four cars, from each of four predetermined PEE Channel categories -- hot rods, muscle cars, sports car and a wild card category. When all the cars cross the Barrett-Jackson auction block, the team making the most profit for charity will be crowned champion.

Eventually, all of the team's cars will be put to the test on the auction block, with Barrett-Jackson bidders having the final say on whether the teams were in the driver's seat or asleep at the wheel. A look at the teams:

Team Los Angeles

-- Jerry Lechich: Owner of Rod Works Inc., in Venice Calif.; builds street rods and hot rods from the frame up

-- Ray Claridge: Owner of Cinema Vehicles in North Hollywood, Calif.; Cinema Vehicles is one of Hollywood's largest motion picture car companies

-- Marty Weiss: Owner of nationwide chain of baby supply stores; Porsche collector; fancies himself the team "negotiator"

-- Scott Shinkle: Builds miniatures, models and pyrotechnical devices for the movies; recently completed working models of Howard Hughes aircraft for Martin Scorsese's Hughes biopic, The Aviator

Team Dallas

-- Scotty Gray: Owns Lakeside Auto Auction in Rockwall, Texas; debuting a car built for him by Boyd Coddington at the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction this year; showers with his parrot every morning

-- Ephraim "Smitty" Smith: Drives big rig for United Parcel Service; member of Cool-Lows Car club in Dallas; currently re-building a 1967 Chevelle

-- Rusty Davis: Professional cabinet maker; also member of the Cool-Lows; has a 1949 Ford as his daily drive

-- Lonnie Brown: CEO of a natural gas company; collects hot rods and muscle cars

Team Atlanta

-- Bob Johnson: Owner of Contemporary Auto Sales in Gainesville, Ga.; purchased the Boyd Coddington Alumitruck at Barrett-Jackson last year

-- Milt Robson: Real estate developer in Gainesville, Ga.; owns one of the more significant muscle car collections in the U.S.

-- Keith Henderson: Lives and works in Marietta, Ga.; collects muscle cars and sports cars; claims to be the only member of his team that actually works for a living

-- Larry Stepp: Lives in Marietta, Ga.; has a wide-ranging collection of Ferraris; says he has taken around $7,000 from Bob Johnson this year with coin flips

In 2004, PEE Channel is the exclusive U.S. cable home for many of the top motor sports series in the world. In addition, PEE's weekly Auto Focus block of programming brings car enthusiast television to Prime Time Monday through Thursday. Now available in more the 65 million homes in North America, PEE Channel is among the fastest growing sports cable networks in the country and the home to NASCAR TV.