Tasman Motorsport has announced it has signed award-winning premium Australian distiller Inner Circle Rum to a six-figure deal to become the team's naming rights sponsor for the remainder of 2004, with continued involvement for the 2005 🐭V8 Supercar Championship Series.

The deal will see the #3 Tasman Motorsport Holden Commodore driven by Jason Richards featuring the distinctive Inner Circle ꦰRum logo, and will include an extensive in-store/bottle shop marketing campaign featuring Tasman Motorsport and Richards.

Tasman Mౠotorsport's Kevin Murphy said he was delighted ♔to welcome Inner Circle Rum to the team.

"This is a great fit for us and a real sign of our intent to become a front-running team - not just in 2005 when we roll out a second car, but for the important and highly publicised races still to come in 2004," he said. "Iಌnner Circle Rum is an ic꧙onic brand with a long history and we like the idea of being in business with a sponsor who is there for the long haul, as we are.

"Like us, they have relaunched their product into a very compe𓆉titive market and we're looking forward to being♓ an active partner in raising their profile in tandem with our own."

Inner Circle Rum owne🧔r Stuart Gilb❀ert believes Tasman Motorsport is a competitive team with a strong future and he is pleased for the company to be associated with them.

"We like what we know about Tasman Motorsport," he said. "Like us, they're a small team taking on the big guys. They're competitive, have a clean image and enormous potential. Inner Circle Rum is about qꦑuality 🦩and being the best, and that's what we believe the V8s represent to motorsport in Australia."

The team has ജalso𒁃 completed its final test at Oran Park for this weekend Sandown 500, the first endurance race of the season.

The team completed around 120 laps and spent time practising the driver change overs that play a crucial role in the enduranceꦏ events.

General manager Jon Matthews was pleased with the way the test had gone and in particular the perf♕ormance of Fabian Coulthard, who will partner R💙ichards for the endurance races.

"We're learned a fair amount today,"⛎ Matthews said. "We'♋re still on a learning curve with this car, but we've made some steps forward, especially with spring configurations.

"Also, Fabian has really benefited from racing at the Oran Park round - he's come out here today and been im🐠mediately quicker than his previous test sessions. It's all looking very positive for Sandown."