In Praise of Sponsorship...

A substantial portion of the motorsport-related press releases which I wade through on a daily basis are merely mechanisms for one of a team's sponsors to try and increase awareness of their not-quite-racing-related products or services. Today I came across a press release from Sandisk, a sponsor of the Ducati MotoGP team, advertising their new SanDisk Extreme® Ducati Edition line of the now ubiquitous technological artifacts known as memory cards. Supposedly these are the fastest memory cards available, like the 800cc Ducati has been fastest in most of this season's sessions.

This has led me to review in my memory some other fine examples of race team sponsorship being used to sell products to race fans. These rage from the magnificent (Mclaren Mercedes SLR - $450,000) to the slightly interesting (Acer Ferrari Laptop - $2,000) to the absolutely absurd (ING Renault Aeromesh cufflinks - $190). Doubtless I am unaware of the true extent to which corporate sponsors take advantage of a racing team's name and status to promote their products.

In my dream world race teams would not obfuscate the beautiful lines of their cars with logos and text, yet the team's budgets would still be as prodigious as they are in the real world. Oh well. I suppose I'll do my part and buy one of these awesome Ducati Sandisk USB keys. It looks like a fuel tank!