Lucky Canadian wins Tourism Malaysia's F1 Race Contest

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Tel : 604-821-1954

Fri, March 11 2005

Tourism Malaysia's F1 contest winner: Dean Campardo

F1 nut Dean Campardo of British Columbia will be winging his way to Kuala Lumpur soon to catch the world's hottest race--the Malaysian Grand Prix--after winning a major contest staged by Tourism Malaysia and media in Vancouver.

"I can't believe it still," said Campardo, 32, who has never been to Asia.

"I haven't been out of the country except for trips to Las Vegas for 15 years," the Burnaby investment adviser said. "It's long overdue."

Campardo has won airfare for two to Kuala Lumpur, seven nights' accommodation at a five-star hotel, Formula One Platinum VIP race tickets for the three-day Malaysian Grand Prix and a city tour. The package is worth over C$24,000.

The mega contest was organized by Tourism Malaysia, the Vancouver-based Sea Ad Agency Inc., The Province newspaper, which has a daily readership of over 500,000 people and the popular Team 1040 sports radio morning show.

In addition the race and contest was publicized in scores of sports bars in the Vancouver area.

From left to right: Patty Wilson (Province Marketing), Dean Campardo (contest winner), Bahrudin Sulaiman (V.P. Tourism Malaysia), Harbinder Sewak (SEA Ad Agency), Fabian Dawson (Province Deputy Editor in Chief)

The contest required Province readers to collect 12 race-car tokens that ran in the paper over a two week period last month. The winner was announced live on radio.

Campardo said he shut off the radio the morning the winner was to be announced thinking he wasn't going to win.

"About five minutes later, the phone rang," he said and he was put on the air. "I said, No! No way!"

Campardo, who is a fan of Michael Schumacher and the Ferrari team, will sit in the grandstand and be driven to the track in a chauffeured limousine.

He is taking his brother, Davy Campardo, 37.

Bahruddin Sulaiman, Tourism Malaysia's vice-president in Vancouver, said his office was inundated with calls from the public about the FI race as a result of the publicity.

"We put the race on the map in Canada with the contest," he said.

Harbinder Singh Sewak of Sea Ad Agency Inc said the contest was target specific and the results exceeded expectations.

"The radio show and media exposure showcased Malaysia," he said.

Fabian Dawson, the deputy editor-in-chief of The Province said the paper initially wanted to run the contest over one week but decided to extend it because of the response.

"We got thousands of entries," he said.