MAY 9, 2003

Food for thought

Formula 1 lags behind many other sports in its exploitation of the rights associated with the races. The F1 circus has very successful TV rights sales, trackside advertising and VIP hospitality but lags behind other sports in merchandising and other official supplier deals. There is a deal with Fosters for the Australian beer brand to have pouring rights at Grands Prix - but F1 still falls a long way behind some of the American official supplier deals.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for example, has just announced that it has signed a sponsorship agreement with Checkers Drive-In Restaurants for the Checkers/Rally burger to be the official burger of the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race. Financial terms were not disclosed but with 400,000 people expected to attend both events the turnover of burgers is likely to be fairly impressive.