NOVEMBER 3, 1997

Welcome Winfield Williams

THE Williams team is to have a new sponsor in 1998 and 1999. The current blue and white Rothmans livery is to be replaced by the red and gold colors of Winfield Racing. Winfield is a cigarette brand belonging to Rothmans International. The company has enjoyed enormous success with the Rothmans branding in the course of the last four years but has now decided that a change in emphasis would be a good idea.

The adoption of the Winfield brand indicates that the company is targeting the Asia-Pacific region where Winfield is expanding fast.

Winfield has been a major player in Australian motorsport in the last few years - notably as sponsor of Gibson Motor Sport in the Australian Touring Car Championship (with Jim Richards and Mark Skaife), in drag racing with multiple Top Fuel Champion Jim Read and with the Honda motorcycle racing team.

Government legislation meant that all tobacco advertising in Australia had to stop in January 1996 and so for the last 18 months Winfield has been looking for sponsorship activities outside Australia. The works Mitsubishi rally cars have appeared in Winfield colors on several occasions, notably last weekend on Rally Australia when they finished second, fourth and sixth in the hands of Tommi Makinen, Richard Burns and Ed Ordynski. Belgian rally driver Bruno Thiry has also run in Winfield colors in Europe this year at the wheel of a Subaru Impreza.