Porsche Carrera Cup Report
The first of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Racing series will be run as a support race for the Sepang F1 on 22nd –23rd March. If you think you are good enough drivers, and if you have half a million ringgit as loose change, or if you can find a sponsor with the money, you can be the 19th participant in the race series for a year. Half a million ringgit is what it costs to buy the car and pay the running expenses for a year of participation. The cars are very near to standard save for some minor modifications to improve handling. All the cars are in the custody of the organizers (you buy the car, but can’t take it home). For the duration of the championship, they will maintain it, and ship it to all the race venues in Asia. All you do is pay up and drive. And oh, if you crash the car, they will repair it and send you another bill.
One such lucky person is Tommy Lee, multiple winner of the Millennium Merdeka race, and current leader in the Proton Satria Gti championship. Tommy, 33, has been in the Malaysian racing scene since the early 1990’s, and his racing experience and string of successes have culminated in this very large sponsorship deal with the Jaseri Racing Team.
Primary sponsor for the Jaseri Racing Team is Malaysian-based, Transmile Air. Transmile Air is actually Malaysia’s national air cargo carrier, a fact that is not known to many. The Group owns and operates a total of 16 aircraft’s, primarily serving the regional markets including Macau, Thailand and China. Transmile Air is the leading intra-Asia air cargo operator.
The team expects significant exposure from the 1st Porsche Carrera Cup Race in 2003. This race will be featured as the support race in the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix in March. Following this, the event will travel to race venues in Johor, Thailand, Korea, China (Zhuhai) and Macau.
The exposure for potential sponsors would be an estimated 300,000 visitors to the race venues, and television coverage, which will reach an estimated 387m households in 61 countries. The growing popularity of motorsports in the Asian region and the wide media coverage today make motorsport sponsorship a very effective advertising channel.
