By Patrick Avenell
SYDNEY, NSW: An absolute carload of consumer electronics retail brands are shifting through the gears and clicking their seatbelts for the last and most glamorous race on the V8 Supercar Calendar: the Telstra 500 at Sydney’s Olympic Park.
Although the Bathurst 1000 is the most famous and cherished of the V8 races, this youthful addition the calendar, now in its second year, is already distinguishing itself as one of the real highlights on the overall Australian sporting calendar.
In its inaugural year, 123,000 racing fans turned out across the weekend to see Jamie Whincup seal the 2009 championship. That’s an incredible figure considering Sydney has such a poor reputation for turning out to sporting events.
Aside from tentacular Telstra, which is the naming rights sponsor, there are enough sponsors for the consumer electronics industry involved in this race to slow down even the most turbo charged closed wheel racing vehicle.
The two most prevalent sponsors are Fujitsu and Vodafone, who both own the naming rights to Holden racing teams. But a racing car isn’t worth taking out of pit lane unless every single square centimetre of the chassis has been sold to corporate interests, so there’s plenty more signage to take not of.
Navman giving advanced lane guidance to Jim Beam Racing, TEAC is helping Mark Winterbottom record his races for Ford Performance Racing, Orford is cooling the drinks for Centaur Racing and Bosch is powering Stone Brothers Racing.
Norton is providing security and Nokia the handsets for Team Vodafone, Atari has the 1980s computer scene covered for Toll Holden and Triple F Racing buys their Panasonic Lumix cameras from Bing Lee.
Current.com.au will be covering the antics of these brands live from the Homebush from this Friday. Check back to see what’s happening trackside.
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