World over, South Africa’s Africa Rally championship round is known as Sasol Rally. Well, that might not be the case this year.
Sasol Energy, the sponsors of the event have pulled the plug and terminated their contract as title sponsors of the ARC round.
Willie du Plessis; chairman of the South Africa Motorsport Club confirmed on the South Africa motorsport website.
“On behalf of the South African Motorsport Club (SAM), I would like to notify everyone that our title sponsor Sasol Energy has informed us today, 17 January 2017, that they are no longer sponsoring our National Championship event,” reads the statement in part.
Sasol had sponsored the event for 25 years but will continue their involvement in motorsport through sponsorship of the Sasol GTC Championship.
The 2017 ARC round in South Africa is just three months away. Already SAM are keen on having new partners on board.
“Despite the short time to the event, we are pulling out all stops to still make the event happen,” said du Plessis.
“The next sponsor naturally takes up the name. It is very premature to expect the organisers to have a new name after only two days. But it will certainly not be the Sasol Rally anymore,” asserts Du Plessis.