For the seventh consecutive year, Suzuki, one of Japan’s leading motor corporations, has extended their agreement with Benfield Sports International (BSI) to act as their exclusive sponsorship agents for their MotoGP racing team.

The London based marketing agency has been Suzuki’s exclusive sponsorship representatives since 1997 and responsible for sourcing a number of major commercial deals including title sponsors Telefonica Movistar and Fortuna.

‘Suzuki has been our longest serving client and has been with us since our inception.’ explains John Postlethwaite, Chief Executive, Benfield Sports International. ‘We’re delighted to maintain this relationship and extend our contract for another year and are looking forward to working with Suzuki on further commercial projects moving forward.

‘Despite the fact Suzuki had a very difficult year on the track in 2003, we strongly believe the development plans they have in place for their four-stroke engine in 2004 and 2005 will take Suzuki back up the grid of MotoGP racing and be a highly visible sponsorship opportunity.’

Postlethwaite concludes: ‘The other great aspect of this team for sponsorship partners is that it’s a Suzuki factory works team and they fully concentrate their efforts on this one team without spreading either technical or marketing resources between a number of different teams.’

Garry Taylor, Team Manager, Suzuki, comments: ‘We’re delighted to once again retain BSI’s services. They have a thorough understanding of how we work here at Suzuki and delivered great results for us in recent years. The 2004 season should see a return to competitiveness for the Suzuki MotoGP team and this will undoubtedly help us to generate a prestigious long term partner who can cooperate with both the team and the Suzuki corporation globally.’

For further information contact:

Nicola Sands, Media Manager, Benfield Sports International
Tel: +44 (0) 207 578 7453 E-mail: nicola@benfieldsports.com