Race fans worldwide are in for a surprise when Team Suzuki Alstare take part in the sixth round of the 2008 Superbike World Championship at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah next weekend. Instead of the paint-scheme seen in the first five rounds of the championship so far, the Suzuki GSX-R1000 bikes of Fonsi Nieto, Yukio Kagayama and Max Neukirchner will feature an all new, one-off design featuring Globasol. Globasol is a company involved in the development and implementation of all kinds of renewable energy, such as photovoltaic energy, biomass and biofuel and recently presented a project for the construction on a plant in the Dominican Republic for the production of 60,000 tons of biodiesel per annum. They
After the split with Corona Extra (Team Alstare Suzuki’s partner for ten years) it has been very difficult to find a new sponsor to replace the Mexican beer. Alstare and their General Manager Francis Batta have worked flat out during the winter to find a replacement for Corona. During November there was a great option with a potential sponsor. In the end this failed to come to fruition, but it still remains a possibility for the 2009 season. During these difficult times, Francis Batta refused to give up his search for a suitable sponsor, because he wanted to protect his company, all the staff and guarantee the continuity of its racing activities. Alstare took part in the winter tests in Qatar and Australia in order to be competitive at the start of the season, even though they had no sponsor at the time.