January 12/04 9:58 am - Trilife / Twenty4 Sports Update

Posted by Editor on 01/12/04
 

Trilife Bankruptcy Update

Before Christmas, we posted a report on the declaring of bankruptcy by Trilife, producers of the popular 24 Hours of Adrenalin offroad series (see December 16/03 6:00 pm EST - Trilife Bankruptcy). Since then, the situation has evolved.

A few days prior to the Creditors Meeting with the Trustee, a viewing of the listed assets was held, and sealed bids accepted. Three bids were submitted - a liquidator, Adam Ruppel of Chico Racing (another event organizer), and the principal of the bankrupt company, Stuart Dorland.

Mr Dorland's bid won, and he took possession of the assets, however, some creditors argued that certain "soft" assets were left off the schedule of assets. Specifically, trademarks, customer lists, software programming and databases. The Trustee will now set a value on these assets, and the winning bidder (ie, Mr Dorland) will have first rights to purchase them. If he does not, then they will offered to other potential bidders.

Subsequent to the creditors meeting, Mr Dorland launched a new company - Twenty4 Sports. Our research found that he has registered the domain name twentry4sports.com, and is listed as the holder of the domain names 24hoursofadrenalin.com and trilife.com. Twenty4sports.com and 24hoursofadrenalin.com both point to a new website, while trilfe.com is inactive. The 24 Hours of Adrenalin trademark is being used on the new website, and event registrations are being accepted for events.

The event situation has become somewhat confusing, with both Chico Racing and Twenty4 Sports claiming to be putting on a 24 hour event at Hardwood Hills (near Barrie) on August 21-22. This is the traditional venue for Trilife's most successful event in the past.

A spokesperson at the Ontario Cycling Association, the provincial sanctioning body, has confirmed that the venue (Hardwood Hills) has informed them that it (Hardwood) has only one 24 hour event taking place this year, and that it is being organized by Chico Racing.

(Editor's Note: We have made repeated attempts to contact Mr Dorland, and have been promised news releases a number of times, however, none have been received to date.)