Camel Yamaha Factory Racing?

Just the other day, we mentioned Yamaha had dropped Altadis/Seita and their Fortuna and Gauloises brands of cigarettes as a sponsor for their MotoGP racing team. Now in a bit of off season intrigue, rumor has it that Camel is stepping in as the replacement. What’s cool about this is the appearance, at least for a short while, on the Yamaha MotoGP media web site of the line “Camel Yamaha Factory Racing” 2006. Italian websites were all over this report and now if you go to the site, the name Camel is nowhere to be found.

A screenshot of the line before is shown here, however, a person could fake that shot and claim it was removed by the time you got there due to the reporting. On the other hand, the Yamaha website could have put out the real info by mistake. It wouldn’t be the first time things like this have occured. There have been many slips of that type, especially on the auto websites where unreleased new vehicle photos were up for a while and some web visitor caught it before they could correct it.

Is this real or fake? Who knows, but it shouldn’t be too long before we find out.
via Motoblog.it

Update: Well that didn’t take long! Our first commenter had a link to the Camel Sponsorship announcement from Yamaha. Thanks!

Announcement follows:

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announces the start of a new partnership with JT International (JTI), a subsidiary of Japan Tobacco Inc., whose brand CAMEL will become the new title sponsor of Yamaha’s Factory MotoGP Team for 2006.

The Yamaha Factory MotoGP Team, consisting of reigning-World Champion Valentino Rossi and his team-mate Colin Edwards, will be known as the “Camel Yamaha Team” in 2006.

Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing Lin Jarvis commented “Yamaha is very excited to enter into this new partnership with JTI. JTI has been involved in motorsport at the highest level for many years and has been an active sponsor at the top level in the MotoGP class for the past three seasons. We look forward to working with JTI to enhance the respective images of our brands and to challenge together for victory, as Yamaha enters its “next 50 years” and aims to retain its MotoGP titles in 2006.”

“A new chapter in the history of Camel in motorsport is just beginning”, commented Roberto Zanni, JTI’s Regional President for Europe, “After three years of great satisfaction in the premier class of the World Road Racing Championship, we are today launching a new challenge for the title. Our new partnership with Yamaha, the historic, championship-winning Japanese manufacturer, will be highly motivating for us and it will be an honour to be by their side throughout the 2006 season. We share the same passion and desire for victory and, I am sure, success will not be long in coming.”

The Camel Yamaha Team will begin its 2006 campaign in Sepang, Malaysia with a three-day test on 23rd, 24th and 25th January.