Here sources take on the Close Call situation: “From day one of the Close Call deal, Catalyst was the sponsor (they own the Close Call Brand). Frontier was a supplier to Catalyst (they supplied the long distance minutes that were sold on the card), Catalyst was just our customer. Frontier was never a “paying” sponsor to the Close Call teams. In my opinion, the deal fell apart because Catalyst sponsored too many vehicles in year one as a sponsor. They had NASCAR Winston Cup, NHRA Top Fuel Dragster, (2) NHRA Pro Stock Bikes, Unlimited Hydroplane and a Winston Racing Series car at Hickory. The product was brand new and did not sell well enough to keep all of these teams going. If they had started off slower with one team and then expanded, it may have been a different story. To further back up my statements, the lawsuit filed by Bodine/Scandia racing is against Catalayst and not Frontier. As far as the layoffs and the cut of the pre-paid phone card business, the part that is being cut is our direct sales of the pre-paid product. Frontier still plans to be in the wholesale pre-paid business selling phone time to companies that sell pre-paid cards – just like we were doing for Catalyst.”(Thanks)(10-17-97)
