V8Lites sponsorship (Original Thread) For Posterity

[GTRMagic]

This rumour has been around for a fair while now, confirmed in Motorsport News this week....

The article suggests that the company withdrew support because when the Konica business was merged with the Minolta business in Japan, and the name of the combined entity became Konica Minolta that the people in and around the series kept calling it Konica and not Konica Minolta, so the Minolta part of the brand was not getting exposure... and that's why they left!

Interesting theory...

Some people still call the secondary series V8Lites....

So how will we differentiate the main series from the secondary series next year?

V8Lites, V8Smiths Crisps, V8Star, V8Swine...

[Henry]

...V8 Vegie Juice?

[D.R.T.]

Yeah interesting news.

The same article said they were negotiating with a few new companies. Should be interesting to see how this pans out, because Procar was just as successful as the v8 lites and has had trouble finding a title sponsor.

[GTRMagic]

I presume the Konica Minolta funding will assist a driver surprisingly well known to the Managing Director of that company to get a competitive 2005 drive

[pete55]

Where will he go even if he does get that money. The likely team will have trouble getting a franchise in the current bidding war.

[GTRMagic]

A 2005 spec VY run from the same premises in the V8Lite series sounds rather nice doesnt it?

[Crash Test]

DRT- hrmmm, I would have to say that the V8 Lites have better crowd pulling ability and a fair bit of depth...

[Racer Dude]

What about......V8 Demo Derby series!! That's if they keep the reverse grid.

[DAVID PATERSON]

I'm assuming they don't want to be called V8 Supercars reserve grade........

[Just Do It!]

I am guessing you mean Mr Gurr? Does it have to be a Holden?

[D.R.T.]

Originally posted by Crash Test
DRT- hrmmm, I would have to say that the V8 Lites have better crowd pulling ability and a fair bit of depth...

I'd have a closer look. Procar has many times got more people to their races say at Wakefield, Oran Park (2003), Winton etc. I suppose the real answer could be the upcomin Mallala meet, which is being apparently promoted well by event organisers.

Depth wise, well I guess its who u comopare it to. In the whole Procar circus I'd say it would have more depth than the lites, but compared to NC, i can see your point

[Crash Test]

Just having a look at the last rounds respectively, there seemed to be a few more people at Mallala than the ghost town at Eastern Creek... time will tell, ey?

[StuiE]

Originally posted by GTRMagic


The article suggests that the company withdrew support because when the Konica business was merged with the Minolta business in Japan, and the name of the combined entity became Konica Minolta that the people in and around the series kept calling it Konica and not Konica Minolta, so the Minolta part of the brand was not getting exposure... and that's why they left!

Interesting theory...

Well if they rename it something harder(longer) to say, of course people will still call it Konicas, especially since Konica was still in the name. I only started to call it Konicas last year, finally letting go of V8Lites name. I suspect next year lots of people will still call them Konicas...will that make the next sponser pull out?

[Racer Dude]

I wonder how this will effect teams on the search for sponsors. The sponsor asks what series am I giving you this large sum of cash for????????

Maybe we may see a few of the current team sponsors disappear, then again most of the Konica sponsor aren’t blue chip types, normally some connection with drivers. So the status’qoe will probably stay for teams and sponsors 2005.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by gtr69
Well if they rename it something harder(longer) to say, of course people will still call it Konicas, especially since Konica was still in the name. I only started to call it Konicas last year, finally letting go of V8Lites name. I suspect next year lots of people will still call them Konicas...will that make the next sponser pull out?

Too true, however, sponsors come and go, the Lites need a catchy title like the V8 Supercars and V8 Brutes and stick with it for the sake of both sponsors and fans!

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by pete55
Where will he go even if he does get that money. The likely team will have trouble getting a franchise in the current bidding war.

The Rt Hon. Mr Ray Kershler mentioned in the Daily Telegraph today that future Konica Minolta motorsport sponsorship budgets were being accumulated in order to run a racing car as opposed to sponsoring a motor racing series.

Given that the Konica Minolta sponsorship seems to follow Mr Gurr around to the different teams he has driven for (Smiths Trucks, IMS, SAE Racing, HYL & PMM...), it could easily be construed that the accumulation of sponsorship could continue to be used to support this driver in some capacity in 2005.

(EDIT: MODIFIED FOR CLARITY...... AND TO FIX AN ERROR MADE BY THE POSTER THAT BOMN HAS KINDLY POINTED OUT. THANK YOU BOMN.)

WARNING: FOR ALL OF YOU WHO READ ON FROM HERE, THIS THREAD WILL PROBABLY MAKE NO SENSE AT ALL.

[TSR]

GTR do not forget that Ray Kershler only write what Aussie Bernie tell him to.

[Amaroo Park]

Originally posted by GTRMagic
Ray Kershler mentioned in the Daily Telegraph today that the Konica Minolta sponsorship budgets were being accumulated for Mr Gurr Jr to drive somewhere or other.

I dont think they actually came out and said that did they

[GTRMagic]

P12 "CARSGUIDE" Daily Telegraph 030904 by Ray Kershler

"Konica Minolta's Focus
The Konica Minolta V8 series needs a new sponsor for next season. Konica minolta management will be putting its resources into racing a car instead of claiming series naming rights"

So lets see... in 2004, the Konica Minolta brand appeared commercially (i.e. other than series sponsor) on 3 cars.

- The Smiths Trucks ex-PMM VX which was crashed at Adelaide
- The HYL Commodore after the same driver moved to that team
- The PMM Sirromet car, where the same driver is announced as codriver for the enduros, after working at PMM for most of the year as a driving instructor.

Starting to see a pattern yet???

I wonder if it is coincidental that the surname of the driver in the 3 cars is the same as the managing director of Konica Minolta

[Average Punter]

Off topic a little but hasn't Steve Ellery been carrying Konica sponsorship for many years? What's the tie-up there?

The series does need a catchy name. I've also called them Konicas all year.

How about something really dumb like V8 ThunderCars?

[Amaroo Park]

Yes but Kershler mentioned NOTHING about them sponsoring Gurr. You stated that Kershler wrote that Konica Minolta was going to sponsor Gurr and that is not what he wrote

[Just Do It!]

You might have something there, GTR. Wasn't the Konica Series sponsorship only ever to tide things over til Gurr the Driver was ready to step up?

It would seem that the Konica money is doing an inverse VIP from the Paragon Motorsport days

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by colinbond
Yes but Kershler mentioned NOTHING about them sponsoring Gurr. You stated that Kershler wrote that Konica Minolta was going to sponsor Gurr and that is not what he wrote

This is true... I needed to use the word "presumably" in there somewhere.... but having said that, in the 6 degrees of separation summary above, its not hard to draw that conclusion, regardless of whether Mr Kershler said it...

[GTRMagic]

Originally posted by Average Punter
Off topic a little but hasn't Steve Ellery been carrying Konica sponsorship for many years? What's the tie-up there?

The Konica branding fell off the cars, replaced by Ford factory sponsorship....

[Bomn]

Originally posted by GTRMagic
This is true... I needed to use the word "presumably" in there somewhere.... but having said that, in the 6 degrees of separation summary above, its not hard to draw that conclusion, regardless of whether Mr Kershler said it...

But you can't say that Mr Kershler said it if he didn't.