Team Kiwi gets sticky with tools in new deal.

by Matt Agius

Team Kiwi Racing, the mainstay single-car outfit of the V8 Supercar Championship has announced a new two-year deal for major sponsorship beginning in 2006.

Makita NZ and 3M New Zealand have been revealed as the team's 2006 major sponsors. Significant increases in funding have resulted in early planning for next season. The two partners will remain co-major sponsors until the end of 2007.

"The importance of this deal is that it's a New Zealand deal and it's for motor racing which has the second-to-highest television audience in this country next to rugby. That surpasses the so-called big sports like netball and cricket," said team owner David John.

After debuting in V8 Supercar Racing at Bathurst in 2000, TKR has experienced the tumultuous ups and downs of running a single car, non-Australian race outfit, but finally a run of luck throughout all of 2005 seems to be continuing.

"V8 Supercars is broadcast to 850 million homes in 110 countries and attendance of V8 Supercar events this year has increased by 10.5 percent. There are rounds off-shore in Auckland, Shanghai and Bahrain and those are some of the reasons why 3M and Makita have come on board," explains John.

Since midway through 2004, Team Kiwi Racing has improved dramatically. Following the team's inaugural pole position at Winton Raceway with Craig Baird last year, the team looked in trouble when their new hero announced his departure to WPS Racing. However in a major coup, when the team was prepared to search for a non-Kiwi driver for the first time since 2000, exiled Ford driver and two-time World Touring Car Champion Paul Radisich agreed to drive for the All Blacks in 2005.

The deal revived Radisich's career. After three years without any significant results, save a final podium with Team Betta Electrical in 2004, Radisich drove a TKR Commodore to third place at the inaugural Chinese round of the championship. This effort was aided by the technical partnership between TKR and Queensland based Paul Morris Motorsports - a deal signed before the beginning of the current championship.

Radisich will continue to drive for Team Kiwi Racing in 2006, but the team's current focus is on the upcoming Championship finale at Phillip Island for the BigPond Grand Finale. Team Kiwi Racing are set to win the Single-car Teams' Championship, with Radisich placed fifteenth with 1244 points.