How do you simultaneously drive media focus to your 15th-place MotoGP team while raising sponsorship dough? One word: sex.
That’s the solution of Italy’s LCR Honda race team. The team – started by 125 racer Lucio Cecchinello in 1996 – started racing in the affordable (by Grand Prix standards) 125 class, but since 2008 has focused all its efforts on the premiere 800cc MotoGP class. That means big money, but an innovative “Event Title Sponsor” format that allows companies to put their name on individual rounds of the MotoGP may help make ends meet. Playboy’s Italian publication will sponsor the second and third rounds (at Motegi and Jerez). LCR rider Randy de Puniet is pictured above with a new friend.
Cecchinello also reports negotiating with Playboy in the USA. Will the Bob Hope of porn be the new patron saint of motorcycle racing? The partnership has already resulted in some racy (pun intended!) photos on the LCR Honda website; not work friendly, but tasteful.
Now you can tell people you only read Playboy for the race coverage.
MD Readers Respond:
- Can’t wait to see the umbrella girls! Bill
