Offroad racing confirms major sponsorship for premier series

The sport of offroad racing has confirmed a new sponsor for its seven-round New Zealand national championship.

For 2011 and 2012, the premier series will be backed by Mickey Thompson Tyres, a brand that has been associated with offroad racing since the birth of the sport in the desolate deserts of California, the Baja peninsula and Mexico.

“We are absolutely rapt to have developed a relationship with the local agents for this prestigious brand of performance tyre,” says Off Road Association of New Zealand president Tony Gardiner.

At a time when so many sports and teams are battling to find or retain sponsors and with the effects of the global financial crisis still being felt in many industries, Mr Gardiner says the new deal is a sign that sports offering “exciting, spectacular racing and great family viewing” are a good bet for sponsors looking to make the most of their investment.

“This is a relationship between offroad racing and a tyre brand that has produced winner after winner at the highest level in the sport. We are looking forward to putting on a heck of a show this year and building on that in 2012.”

Mickey Thompson Tyres’ local agent is Stuart Cocking of Motortech 4X4 in Auckland. He says the decision to back offroad racing was easy.

“Here’s a sport that puts on an amazing show in a championship that races everywhere from Auckland to Dunedin. What’s more, a number of the leading competitors already use our tyres and are putting them to the ultimate test: there is nothing quite like competition to prove a product.”

Mr Gardiner says with new cars coming into the championship in most classes, the coming year will bring many challenges to the established order.

“We have all-new cars coming in every class, including an American-built Desert Dynamics two-seater Chev V8 race car for Bay of Plenty driver Clive Thornton, a Mitsubishi Evo re-power for the stunning Millennium race car of Alan Butler, several new builds under way in the truck classes and of course multiple champion Tony McCall has a clean-sheet unlimited-class single-seater build under way that will run a big Chev V8 engine.”

The 2011 Mickey Thompson New Zealand Offroad Racing Championship starts in March with a short course (stadium-style) event on March 27 at Meremere. The championship will feature three North Island and three South Island regional rounds before all leading teams come together at Nelson in early October for the national final, where the in-class and overall champions will be decided over two days of racing.