“We are very pleased to be bringing the exciting sport of off road car racing to the Northern Province for the first time as part of the Absa-backed national championships for production and special vehicles,” said Piet Swanepoel, president of Motorsport South Africa’s off road car racing commission.
“We’re also delighted to welcome two new event sponsors in the form of Ford Motor Company of South Africa and Motorite Insurance Administrators. Motor sport needs commercial partners to survive and grow and while both Ford and Motorite are already big supporters of national championship off road racing, this is their first venture into event sponsorship.”
Ford’s director of marketing and sales Nigel Harris, says his company was happy to take advantage of the opportunity to be a joint sponsor of the new event. “Competing in motor sport events has long been an important element of Ford’s marketing strategies worldwide and the success Ford has enjoyed on the race tracks and off the tarred roads in rally and off road events has been a major contributor to helping Ford become one of the most recognised brands in the world.
“We have been competing in the Absa Off Road Championship for 5 years and have enjoyed our fair share of success. Adding the sponsorship of an event to our involvement allows us to put something back into the sport from which we have derived a great deal of good. It also enables us to join the other event sponsors in growing the championship to the benefit of all,” concludes Nigel.
Motorite, the largest independent mechanical breakdown insurance and full maintenance plan service provider and administrator in South Africa, became the sport’s newest sponsor with the announcement of the Motorite Racing Team to contest the 2005 national off-road championship.
Says managing director Justen Cooper: “Our business is with the automotive industry and we felt very comfortable placing the bulk of our promotional budget behind a serious effort to represent ourselves professionally and with distinction in this fast-growing branch of motor sport. It brings us close to our customers and allows us to put something worthwhile back into the industry from which we derive our business.
“We are very pleased with the success we have enjoyed so far this year with our team of Evan Hutchison and Trevor Ormerod in the Motorite Racing BAT, who are leading class B after the first five events of the season,” Cooper adds.
The Ford/Motorite Limpopo 400 will be organised by Koepel Club, in conjunction with the Pietersburg 4 x 4 Club, and it will expose competitors to completely new off road racing territory.
The eight rounds of this year’s championship will take the series into six different provinces and three countries – KwaZulu Natal, the Western Cape, North West, Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga and Gauteng in South Africa as well as neighbouring countries Botswana and Lesotho.
