Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

American Honda has renewed its multi-year sponsorship/marketing/licensing deal with Universal Studios.

“Universal will be one of the team sponsors. Actually, all of our sponsors are the same on road race,” said American Honda Team Manager Chuck Miller Wednesday. “(The deal) was up for renewal, we have renewed, and we will continue our relationship with them – both on a sponsorship level as well as a marketing and licensing level. So it’s kind of a double-edged attack on our relationship and what we’re doing with them.

“Supercross, motocross, road race, all the same. Logos will be on the bikes, logos on the trucks, value to the team and marketing value also back to the company, as far as through our licensing agreement making toys and games and hats and whatever.”

Over the last two years, fans have become familiar with the promotional activities of the American Honda race teams for Universal Studios feature films such as The Mummy Returns, The Skorpion King, etc. But the relationship between American Honda and Universal will bear new fruit this holiday season.

“Actually, if you go into Target and K-mart, you’ll see bicycles, games and toys, everything with ‘Honda Racing’ – with our logo and the Honda name and our sponsors – on all of it,” said Miller. “This Christmas is really the big year that all the stuff is hitting retail. That also was one of the factors in continuing the relationship, to continue to nurture it.

“We’ve already seen the bicycles and skateboards and stuff in the stores. There’s like three different bicycles.

“There’s also this really cool thing they have, it’s an engine. It’s a Honda engine made out of plastic that you bolt onto your bicycle. I remember I used to have one when I was a kid. You rev it up and it goes, ‘BRRRP! BRRRP! BRRRP!’ really loud. So kids can bolt this on their bicycles and go riding down the street, and it mimics a motorcycle sound. It’s pretty cool, actually. It’s just a noise maker, but they’ve got different notes, too. They’ve got CR (two-stroke and four-stroke motocross) sounds, they’ve got road bike sounds.”