Yamaha loses and gains oil sponsors
Yamaha's MotoGP motorcyle racing team faced a serious threat to its future, but appears to be been saved by a new sponsor.
The end of 2011 was a worrying time for the Japanese bike-maker after it's major sponsor, Malaysia's national oil producer Petronas, failed to renew its three-year deal with the Yamaha MotoGP team. The news came a year after the team had lost it's major backer, Fiat, and had run its bikes, ridden by Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies, in traditional Yamaha factory colours using the additonal reason of its 50th Anniversary year to return to non-branded livery.
However, with the prospect of financing the majority of its estimated annual race budget of as much as €70m ($89m) from its own coffers for a second year, the Yamaha team was in real danger of leaving the MotoGP scene.
The New Year brought better news with the prospect of another Asian lubes supplier stepping into the breach. News leaked that Petronas rival, Japan's ENEOS owned by JX Nippon, will replace the Malaysian oil producer, giving the Japanese brand its first exposure to motorcycle racing.
Although details of the deal are yet to be made public, the new sponsorship will not only keep Yamaha in the MotoGP spotlight - after Lorenzo finished second and Spies fifth in the 2011 World standings - but will also maintain ENEOS' links with motorsport which have previously been in Formula One and Japan's Super GT series.
