Bud Cat Sponsorship history

[lomdel]

Actually Speedtoy.com has a HPR painted with those graphics and its one pretty Cat!

They really do great work! See pic attached of the HPR. Just unfortunate that their website isn't more extensive to show prices and technical specs and interior pics.

[Eodman]

Although I do have a twin drive Toysport that I run that I suppose I could have done up!

[Eodman]

Actually Speedtoy.com has a HPR painted with those graphics and its one pretty Cat!

I would love to own that Cat .... but with a senior starting college in the fall and on 1 two years behind him I don't guess that will happen!

[lomdel]

Unfortunate indeed! The Bud Light cat was one of the most beautiful boats to ever grace the seas (see pics and my avatar)! That design is surely something to try and reproduce on a RC boat, if BudLight won't have any copyright issues...

[Eodman]

Unfortunate ... but a sign of the times! I think all of race venues will experience this loss of sponsorship on Buds part!

If these teams didn't see this coming when In Bev bought AB they aren't very savy business people!

That's not to say they won't return in some degree, but I think the parent company is going to hold the purse strings very tight to rein in expenses!

[AndyKunz]

Silver lining: all the guys who own Bud die-casts are happy.

Maybe the InBev execs own a lot of Ertl :)

Andy

[Jeff Wohlt]

Sad to see such a nice boat and team going in the crapper.


That the Bud Light Mystic would finish on such a positive note made the end of its racing career somewhat bittersweet. Acquired this year by Belgium-based InBev, Anheuser-Busch is pulling out of its offshore and tunnel-boat racing sponsorships, as well as its poker-run boat sponsorships. The company reportedly also will drop a significant portion of its automobile-racing sponsorships.

“The new owners have a different view of marketing and promotion than the traditional Anheuser-Busch view,” said David Scott, who brought the brewer to the offshore racing sponsorship table and earned several world titles as a driver with Tomlinson throttling. “But we are proud of the professionalism we brought to offshore racing. We are proud of our accomplishments—we were the first offshore boat to break the 200-mph mark and that record still stands—and we’re proud of the value we brought to our sponsor through offshore racing.”

That move leaves Tomlinson in an unusual situation—without a ride for the coming season—after winning yet another World Championship.

“I am a free agent,” Tomlinson said, then he laughed. “AB is out. I’m wide open. I know Dave (Scott) is working on something. I think Mike (Seebold) is out of the boat for good. If the right opportunity in the right boat comes along, I’m in. If it’s not right, I’m out.”