Hannspree continue Ten Kate support
Added on Thursday, January 6th, 2011 by Carole Nash Editor
Hannspree continue Ten Kate support
Electronics giant Hannspree has today confirmed its support of the Ten Kate Honda World Supersport championship team for the forthcoming 2011 season.
It will be the fifth successive year that the Taiwan-based consumer electronics manufacturer has sponsored the Ten Kate Honda team, with which it won both World Superbike and World Supersport championship titles in 2007 with Britain’s James Toseland and Turkish ace, Kenan Sofuoglu.
In 2008, the partnership won the World Supersport title once again with Australian rider, Andrew Pitt, and the feat was repeated last season, once more with Kenan Sofuoglu.
For the 2011 campaign, Hannspree Ten Kate Honda will run a dynamic, all-French rider line-up featuring an enticing blend of youth and experience with Florian Marino and Fabien Foret.
Foret, 37 and from Angouleme in western France, returns to the Ten Kate Honda team for the first time since winning the World Supersport championship in 2002 – the first of an unparalleled eight titles for the Dutch squad. The French ace has been a perennial front-runner in the series ever since with a total of 12 race wins and 27 podium finishes.
Marino, meanwhile, has only recently embarked on his professional racing career, having finished as runner-up in last year’s European Superstock 600 series with the Ten Kate Junior team. The 17-year-old from Cannes won three races in 2010 and is thrilled at the prospect of stepping up to world championship level.
“We are absolutely delighted to continue our support of the Ten Kate Honda Racing operation for a fifth consecutive year in the dynamic and exciting World Supersport championship,” said Lukas Chong, Managing Director of Hannspree Europe. “The team has an unrivalled record of championship wins and operates at an extremely high professional level. However, everyone in the squad also works with a big smile on their face and it is this attractive blend of technical excellence, professionalism and fun that fits so well with the Hannspree brand ethos. We look forward to celebrating more wins with the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team during the 2011 season.”
“We are, of course, very happy to continue our partnership with Hannspree into 2011,” declared Ronald ten Kate, Team manager at Hannspree Ten Kate Honda. “I think we have a perfect match of riders for next season with young Florian Marino and a very experienced rider like Fabien. Of course, we still remember clearly our first world title that Fabien won with us in 2002, so you might call it déjà vu. We’d like to thank Hannspree and, in particular, Lukas Chong, for their continued support of our racing programme for 2011 – we believe that we have another winning team and we aim to repay Hannspree’s confidence in us with more race victories and hopefully another world title.
