It has been revealed in Johannesburg today that the recently announced new-look national motorcycle championship series, the SuperGP Champions Trophy, will be sponsored by Monster Energy.
“This is great news as national championship motorcycle racing has been without a sponsor for too many years,” said Stephen Watson, executive director of GAS Sports, the organisation that will promote and manage the motorcycle-only tour.
“Sponsors are the life blood of any sport and we are delighted and proud to announce such a well-known supporter of adventure sports as the naming rights sponsor of the all-new Monster Energy SuperGP Trophy for 2013.
“Having such a committed and enthusiastic commercial partner will enable us to build and promote this exciting new national championship motorcycling format, which is probably the biggest thing to happen to two-wheeled motorsport in South Africa for years.”
Garan Reck, Monster Energy FMM for Africa, Middle East and Turkey, is equally upbeat about the new partnership. “The combination of an exciting new era for national championship motorcycle racing and a professional promoter like GAS Sports was an irresistible opportunity for is to get involved in one of the most significant developments in local motorsport for some time.
“Monster Energy is proud to be the first sponsor of national championship motorcycle racing for many years and we are as excited and enthusiastic about the new-look SuperGP Champions Trophy as everyone else who has the interests of motorcycle racing at heart.
“We see this new partnership as a great fit for us and we will be putting our full weight behind the Monster Energy SuperGP Champions Trophy in 2014.”
The opening round will take place at Phakisa Freeway in the Free State on March 15 and 16 with rounds being run monthly thereafter, culminating in October with the final round for the premier categories being run as support races in the planned SA round of the FIM World Superbike Championship.
Race weekends will be run along similar lines to the World Superbike Championship with Super GP, a unique South African category for 1 000 cc entry-level evo rules machines (limited modifications), being the headline category.
The support categories will include Super600, a new entry level evo category; Super600, which is equivalent to the current Supersport category for modified machines; Superbikes, the existing category for modified 1 000 cc machines; SuperMasters, for SuperGP riders aged over 35 on 1 000 cc bikes complying with both the Superbikes and SuperGP technical regulations; and SuperTwins, which will cater for 1 000 to 1 200 cc twin-cylinder modified machines.
All categories will enjoy national championship status except for SuperTwins, which will be a national challenge series.
