Logos and colours of money

Press, 10 February 1989, Page 31

Logos and colours of money

A casual glance at a rather jubilant Japanese visitor wearing apparel bearing the advertising logos of Camel Team Lotus at the recent Lady Wigram Trophy race meeting rekindled memories of a historic occasion in motor sport at the famous airfield circuit 21 years ago. On Saturday, January 19, 1968, the former double world champion, Jim Clark (Scotland) shocked the majority of racing purists by turning up for practice with his Tasman Formula, Lotus 49T Cosworth painted in the red, white and gold livery of the team’s new sponsor, Gold Leaf cigarettes. Many enthusiasts, myself included, considered it a sacrilege that this famous marque should race in a colour scheme different from its traditional colours of green and yellow. However, the team’s manager, the late Colin Chapman, a shrewd businessman blessed with great foresight, was prepared to accept the fact that spon-

sorship from companies other than those usually associated with motoring was going to become more commonplace as the traditional support from tyre and petroleum companies began fading from the scene. Sadly, the newly formed partnership, albeit successful from the outset, suffered a tragic blow less than three months later when Clark was killed in a Formula Two race at

Hockenheim, West Germany. In his book, “Grand Prix Greats,” the noted British motor-racing journalist, Nigel Roebuck, said that a month after Clark’s untimely death, the sole Lotus entry at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama appeared in the colour scheme first seen at Wigram. The great Scotsman’s twenty-fifth and

last grand prix win in South Africa on a New Year’s Day was in a Lotus bearing the previous colours. This signalled, in more ways than one, the closing of an era. The tobacco company’s involvement with Lotus continued to grow, and in 1972, the team announced that its cars would be painted black and in deference to the sponsor,

be known as John Player Specials. The association between Lotus and Player’s was severed at the end of 1978, but in the preceding decade the partnership had benefited with four world championship titles. The first of these was in 1968, when the late Graham Hill pulled the team through a difficult period in the wake of the

Clark tragedy. Two years later the late Jochen Rindt (Austria) became the sport’s only posthumous champion after he was killed in practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The former double world champion, Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil) triumped in 1972, and six years later, Mario Andretti (United States) won

the Norfolk-based team’s last world title. After the withdrawal of a Player’s sponsorship, Lotus’s fortunes reached a low ebb, and in spite of lucrative deals, first with Martini-Rossi and then with Essex Petroleum, success was virtually nonexistent. Player’s returned with financial assistance in 1982, but withdrew again at the end of the 1986 season. The following year the giant American tobacco company, R. J. Reynolds, signed an agreement with Lotus and the cars appear today in the bright yellow-and-blue livery of the Camel brand. Other big tobacco brands which advertise on grand prix cars include Marlboro, Gitanes, Barclay and West. The multi-million-dollar business of Formula One teams endorsing a product that is becoming increasingly difficult to advertise is a far cry from the humble and somewhat controversial beginning made on a wind-swept airfield circuit in Christchurch 21 years ago.