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CART: Emerson Fittipaldi Announces Telemar as the Title Sponsor of the Rio 200

6 May 1999

In a press conference this morning, Emerson Fittipaldi announced that Telemar will be the title sponsor for the Brazilian race of May 15th in Rio de Janeiro. Telemar, the telecommunications company responsible for 65% of the country's telephone service will now lend its name to the event.

The fifth race of the CART FedEx Championship is officially named GP Telemar Rio 200. "Because of the great exposure that this partnership can bring us, we are linking our name to the Rio 200 and to Rio de Janeiro", said the president of the company Manoel Horacio.

Telemar provides telecommunications services to Rio de Janeiro and 15 other states. Emerson took this opportunity to announce yet another new development in the organization of the race. The traditional "Gentlemen, start your engines", will be announced live by a Russian astronaut in the space station MIR. "It will be the first time a sporting event will be given its' start from space" said Fittipaldi.

The idea started in a very unique way. Fittipaldi was planning on inviting the supermodel Cindy Crawford to announce the start of the race. Because of her pregnancy, she could not accept the invitation. That's when the executives at Omega, a company that has a contract with the model, suggested a contact with MIR, which is also in a partnership with Omega.

"At first we wanted to bring the lunar module, but we decided on the live broadcast from MIR", said Fittipaldi. The image and sound from the space station will be seen on a screen placed in front of the starting line.

Responsible for the promotion of the event, Emerson Fittipaldi announced today that Brazillian Tarso Marques will be the 9th Brazilian driver to take part in the GP Telemar Rio 200, driving for Team Penske, as Al Unser, Jr. is still recovering from his injuries in the Nazareth race.

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