Motul-backed TT Team Award announced for the 2011 Isle of Man TT
A new award recognising the efforts of the teams has been launched for the 2011 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy.
Created by TT sponsor Motul, the Technical Team Award will go to the racing outfit judged to have delivered the best team performance.
The award will be judged by event organiser ACU Events Ltd, the scrutineers and representatives of the race committee, including the rider liaison officers Richard ‘Milky’ Quayle and John Barton. The judges will be reviewing the team pit stops as well as their race set up, machine development, reliability and performance.
The award is part of Motul’s renewed commitment to the TT. The company, Europe’s leading motorcycle lubricants and lubrication company, has reached an agreement with the Isle of Man Government’s Department of Economic Development to extend its partnership as the Official Lubricants Partner of the TT.
Motul has extensive partnerships with all of the major two-wheel championships, from MotoGP and Superbikes to World Endurance and, of course, the TT, and uses the high level of competition at these events and to test products. One of those is the 300V 100% synthetic lubricant which will be used during the TT by a number of Motul’s racing partners, including the Relentless Suzuki by TAS Racing team and Wilson Craig Racing.
TAS is one of the TT’s leading teams with numerous wins and podiums. The team this year consists of one of the TT’s leading riders and one of the event’s most high profile newcomers in recent years.
Guillaume Dietrich, a former winner of the Motul-sponsored Le Mans 24-Hours and Bol d’Or, is making his debut on the Mountain course alongside the charismatic and popular Englishman Guy Martin. The German-born French ace has ridden for the factory Suzuki World Endurance Championship team since 2002 and comes with a proven competition CV.
Martin, with numerous podiums to his name, is once again hunting his first TT victory.
Newly signed to Wilson Craig Racing and the Motul stable of partners, Cameron Donald will also be wearing Motul colours on his Honda CBR1000. The Australian has a formidable record in the Isle of Man, being fastest Newcomer in 2005 (16th overall), and winner of the 2008 TT Superbike and Superstock races.
TAS Team Manager Philip Neill said:
“We are proud to be associated with such a well known market leader as Motul, given their association at the pinnacle of our sport in MotoGP. As a team we have recorded 15 wins on the Isle of Man, so we have enough experience to know reliability is as important as horsepower at an endurance event like the TT.”
“The quality of Motul Lubricants works well with our full stable of GSX-R Suzukis, so we look forward to hopefully bringing Motul and our other sponsors additional success this year, at the world’s most prestigious international road race.”
In preparation for the TT, Martin and the team competed in the North West 200. Despite only coming away with an eighth place, Martin is buoyant about the coming weeks.
He said:
“Eighth place is nothing to shout about, but I am now going into the TT Races full of confidence: confidence in the blokes working on the bikes and confidence in the bikes themselves.”
“It was a confidence building day for the bigger picture, the bigger picture being the TT.”