SPONSORS COME AND GO IN BSB

Some recent good news about commercial participation in the cash-strapped British Superbike Championship and associated series has at least tempered the departure of one major sponsor.

BSB: reeling from Honda's withdrawal

Series promoter MotorSport Vision Racing has announced that Motorpoint, the leading car supermarket chain, has extended its title sponsorship of the British Supersport Championship and associate sponsorship of the MCE British Superbike Championship for a third consecutive year into the 2014 season.

And at team level, TAS Racing’s Tyco Suzuki squad has recruited paint protection manufacturer Paintseal Europe to its sponsorship roster. The company will be using this involvement to promote its GEN-3 Glasscoat product.

GEN-3 Glasscoat branding will appear on Tyco Suzuki race bikes, transporters, pit garages, team clothing and riders’ leathers for the team’s 2014 BSB challenge with John Hopkins and Josh Waters. In addition, GEN-3 Glasscoat will support British Supersport contender Taylor Mackenzie and TAS road-racers Guy Martin and William Dunlop at the North West 200, Ulster Grand Prix and Isle of Man TT.

However, the BSB paddock is still reeling from withdrawal of the official Honda squad from BSB contention in 2014, following the loss of its headline backer Samsung after only two seasons — despite taking championship victory for the Korean mobile phone giant in 2013. The Samsung package was reportedly worth around £500,000 a year to Honda and its abrupt (and clearly unanticipated) disappearance cast Honda’s budgetary planning into serious disarray. Unable to canvas replacement commercial partners to finance a competitive BSB presence at such short notice, Honda racing supremo Neil Tuxworth has reluctantly decided to pull out for a year.

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