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After 42 Years At The Motor-Racing Forefront In Canada, Players To End Sponsorship Following The 2003 Season
Playes Ltd., a staunch supporter of Canadian motor-sport events and racing programs for the last 42 years, announced today that the 2003 season will be its last as a sponsor, a role that includes its co-ownership of Team Playes in the Champ Car World Series.
In making the announcement at a news conference in Toronto, site of this weekens Molson Indy race involving Team Playes, Bob Bexon, the president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited, which markets the Playes brand, said the decision to bow out is related to the impending federal government ban on tobacco-company sponsorship
Federal government legislation, introduced in 1997, set down a series of restrictions pertaining to the tobacco industry, including the banning of sponsorship activities as of October 1, 2003.
The Tobacco Act is currently under appeal by the three major Canadian tobacco manufacturers said Mr. BexonHowever, due to the legislation that will be in force as of October 1, we have no other choice but to withdraw from motor-sports sponsorship. We are taking our leave with a great deal of reluctance and sadness, but we do so with considerable pride in what has been accomplished in the last 42 years
Playes has been a pioneer, as well as an innovator in its racing sponsorship. It was at the forefront in staging the Playes 200 at Mosport, Ont., in 1961, the first international motor sports race in Canada. A few years later, Playes sponsored the first-ever Can-Am series race at Mont-Tremblant. In 1967, it presented the Playes Grand Prix, the first Formula One race in Canada. Playes was the title or associate sponsor of the Canadian Grand Prix until 2000.
Playes also introduced the Formula Atlantic series in 1974, with Gilles Villeneuve as one of the star drivers. It later sponsored Atlantic serie races in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Trois-Rivres. Playes support of racing extended to the Toronto Molson Indy in 1986, and it has a similar association with the Vancouver Molson Indy.
Playes prowess with the development of drivers and racing teams first gained prominence in 1993, when Jacques Villeneuve was named Atlantic rookie of the year. A year later, with America businessman Gerald Forsythe joining as a partner, Playes and Villeneuve moved into the IndyCar series. The association reaped outstanding dividends in 1995, when Villeneuve became the first Canadian to win both the IndyCar driver title and the famed Indianapolis 500.
The Playes driver development program produced more championships: Greg Moore won the Indy Light crown with Team Playes in 1995, before graduating to the CART series. In 1996, David Empringham (Indy Lights), Patrick Carpentier (Atlantic) and Jean-Fraois Veilleux (F1600) were three of the 10 Playes-supported drivers who won titles in their respective categories.
Heading into the 2003 season, the Playes racing program had produced 81 wins and 189 podiums in various levels of competition over the years, and had groomed Villeneuve, Moore, Carpentier and Alex Tagliani for the top-echelon Champ Car series. Prior to the 2003 season, Playes signed Canadian racing stalwart Paul Tracy to team with Carpentier, and the two drivers are currently first and fourth respectively in the driver standings.
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