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Top racing outfit left on the starting grid
27/ 2/2002
WITH a track record second to none, you would expect sponsors to be queuing up to back a winning team like Slattocks-based V and M Racing - but with only four weeks to go before the start of the new BSB season, their familiar red and yellow machinery may be missing from the grid.
After tirelessly searching all winter for that illusive main sponsor, team owner Jack Valentine has been forced to face up to the reality that his team may not be competing in this season's blue riband class, despite attracting sponsorship interest from some high profile national companies during the closed season.
Valentine said: "I'm extremely disappointed to be in this position, particularly after we had held some very encouraging discussions with some top companies in the last few months. We came very close to securing backing, but after months of discussions, these companies chose to spend their sponsorship budgets in other ways.
"We have all the associate and trade sponsorship in place, but to mount a successful campaign in the Superbike class we need a major sponsor.
"In the past we've been able to fund most of our racing ourselves. But Superbike is a totally different ball game, and without the proper budget you cannot compete. It leaves us with no option but to face the fact that we won't be on the grid for the opening round at Silverstone."
V and M Racing are one of the most professional and successful teams in the recent history of the sport. They have won nine British titles since 1990 in the fiercely competitive Supersport 600 class, and have become one of the most successful teams ever to compete in the Isle of Man TT races, with 16 victories in the last 10 years.
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