Northern Light announces $50 million five-year sponsorship of the Indy Racing League Series

Saturday, Jan. 29, 2000 - Northern Light Technology, Inc., a leading Internet search engine, and the Indy Racing League announced today that Northern Light will be the series sponsor of the Indy Racing League.

This announcement expands the relationship announced Jan. 27. The series will be named the Northern Light Indy Racing League Series. This is the first long-term marketing and media partnership between a major motor sports series and an Internet company.

Highlighting the five-year, multi-faceted agreement is establishment of the Northern Light Cup, which includes a $1 million-dollar purse to the season winner of the Northern Light Indy Racing League Series championship.

In addition to the Northern Light Cup, Northern Light will also underwrite $500,000 in annual driver awards in the Northern Light Circle of Champions to be disbursed at Indy Racing League events, beginning with the Jan. 29 season opener at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla. That commitment will rise proportionately as races are added to future seasons.

As an integral part of the relationship, Northern Light will promote the Northern Light Indy Racing League Series on broadcast media, the Internet, with consumer promotions and through its business-to-business marketing programs. These promotional and advertising plans are intended to radically increase the public awareness and support of Indy Racing.

Todays announcement is a major step forward for our series, said Tony George, founder of the Indy Racing League and president and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Northern Lights commitment increases the forward momentum of our series and is a genuine marketing and media partnership for both of our groups.

Northern Light will work with the Indy Racing League with a tremendous range of cross-promotional opportunities, linking our growing series with the increasing importance of the Internet. Northern Lights ability to grow the series to a whole new audience is a very positive development, and we are very excited to be associated with this industry leader.

David Seuss, CEO at Northern Light Technology, said: Indy Racing is the embodiment of power, speed, technology and competition. There are few, if any, entertainment brands with the worldwide marketing power of the Indianapolis 500, which is the largest single sporting event in the world. Northern Light is excited, no -- make that thrilled, to work with an organization that has the tradition, brand strength, marketing platform, public appeal and vision of the future that the Indy Racing League brings to its sponsors.

Said George: This partnership gives us a platform for major growth, using the growing Internet power of Northern Light and the promise of Indy Racing. It is a great way to start the 2000 season.

Said Seuss: Northern Light expects to reap many benefits from the association. We are confident our association with the Indy Racing League will yield far more value in brand exposure than the $50 million in sponsorship and marketing programs we are committing to the partnership.

About Northern Light

Northern Light Technology, Inc. headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., was founded in 1996 by a seasoned team of librarians, software engineers and information industry professionals who recognized the need to fill a void left by other search engines and online research services.

The company first introduced its research engine (www.NorthernLight.com <../search.html>, www.NLResearch.com <../nlresearch.html> for businesses and researchers), in August 1997. Recognized as an industry leader, Northern Light has received multiple Editors Choice awards for superior search capabilities from PC Magazine. Northern Light was also recently acknowledged by the Nielsen/Net Ratings service as one of the fastest growing sites on the Internet. Today, Northern Light's search engine is the worlds most powerful, indexing more than 200 million Web pages as well as over 15 million articles from more than 6,000 premium full-text sources previously available only to subscribers of expensive online services.

About The Indy Racing League

The Indy Racing League (indyracingleague.com), founded by George as an all-oval, open wheel Indy Racing series, is entering its fifth season with the Delphi 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway on the grounds of Disney World.

The series is based on the nine-decade history and tradition of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, the worlds largest attended one-day sporting event. Races are also conducted in Phoenix, Fort Worth, Atlanta, Colorado Springs, Kentucky and Las Vegas, featuring leading drivers including defending Indy Racing League champion Greg Ray, two-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr., and Indy 500 winners Eddie Cheever Jr. and Buddy Lazier.

Bob Reif, Naming Rights Northern Light Indy Racing League IRL