"Tiger Wheel & Tyre is proud to be sponsoring the television packages for both the Formula 1 and the WRC Championships this season," says Joe Du Plooy, Marketing Executive of Tiger Wheel & Tyre. "SuperSport was not planning to broadcast the WRC Championship this season. As fans of the series, we were very disheartened by the news and offered to come on board as a sponsor for the 2010 season."
If Formula 1 is the most technically advanced motorsport in the world then WRC is the most gruelling, as teams take on the toughest and most varied terrain around the globe in a series of two, three or four-day events. The roads on this epic motorsport adventure range from the ice and snow to smooth asphalt and boulder-strewn rocky tracks.
Tiger Wheel & Tyre is in its fourth year of sponsoring the Formula 1 Championship on Supersport. "Our F1 sponsorship has proven to be extremely successful with a large following of South African racing enthusiasts supporting the Championship. It was therefore a natural synergy for us to pick up the WRC sponsorship and ensure these adrenalin junkies didn't miss out on any of the action," adds du Plooy.
SuperSport were equally enthusiastic about Tiger Wheel & Tyre's decision to step forward and take up the sponsorship. "Anyone who understands sports rights knows that they are prohibitively expensive. After SuperSport's initial decision not to broadcast WRC, Tiger Wheel & Tyre generously came to the party and sponsored the WRC packages. Without them, motorsport supporters would have been unable to view this great championship. SuperSport is delighted that its relationship with Tiger Wheel & Tyre resulted in such a satisfactory conclusion," explains Imtiaz Patel, chief executive of SuperSport.
This year's Formula 1 Championship is shaping up to be a memorable one with Red Bull Racing - Renault, McLaren-Mercedes, Ferrari and Mercedes GP leading this year's challenge in what has so far proved to be an unpredictable championship.
The WRC fight is equally as exciting with Citroen's Sebastien Loeb leading Subaru's Petter Solberg while online-phenomenon Ken Block and former Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen have joined the battle adding extra spice to the series.
"The Formula 1 and WRC TV packages provide arguably the best motorsport coverage in the world with high intensity motorsport action being captured in innovative high-quality footage that continues to break new ground," du Plooy concludes.
Both the Formula 1 and the World Rally Championship Highlights and Magazine Show is being screened on Supersport and are running until November 2010.
To follow the Formula1 countdown timer, giving up-to-the-second timing on when the next F1 event takes place, racing enthusiasts can visit the Tiger Wheel & Tyre website, www.twt.to.
