Stobart to 'review' sponsorship plans.

The newly formed Stobart Group has confirmed that its sponsorship of Ford's 'B' team, the Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team will be 'reviewed' at the end of this year.

The re-appraisal, which is no doubt taking place, follows the merger between Eddie Stobart Ltd and the Westbury Property Group on Wednesday, which according to reports in the press saw the latter buy into the haulage firm in a deal worth around ?138 million.

Founder Eddie Stobart's son, William and his business partner, Andrew Tinkler, who took over running the company in 2004, will remain as chief executive and chief operating officer respectively.

Although it is far too early to speculate on how this will influence Stobart's presence in the world of motorsport - which also includes backing Barry Clark in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy International series, as well as Mark Higgins and Wyn Humphreys in the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship and Paul Bird's team in the British Superbike championship - there is no doubt this could prompt a re-think.

A spokesperson for the Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team supplied the following brief statement to Crash.net, when asked if this would have any affect on the programmes:

"WA Developments International has promoted the branding of its Group and connected companies over the past few years including liveried cars in the WRC and bikes in the BSB championship.

"The current arrangements are in place until December 2007 and will be reviewed at this time."