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Imation Corp. has expanded its year old partnership with Jordan Grand Prix, one of the leading Formula One teams, for the 2000 season. As an official sponsor of the Jordan team, Imation will provide vital IT support during testing, racing and factory time throughout the season – including at the much anticipated Indy Speedway Race on Sept. 24, 2000.

Imation first partnered with Jordan Grand Prix in 1999 to provide reliable, state-of-the-art technology to support the team's most successful year ever. During the 2000 season, Jordan will continue to use Imation data storage products to capture, store and manage the immense amount of data the team generates during prototype development, aerodynamics testing, trial runs and actual racing.

A Jordan Grand Prix car generates several hundred kilobytes of radio-transmitted data with each lap around the circuit. In the past, Jordan relied on a standard 1.44 MB diskette for every lap – often resulting in more than 50 diskettes per race. By switching to Imation SuperDisk Drives and Diskettes, the Jordan team is able to store a full test track record of a Grand Prix race using only one 120 MB SuperDisk diskette.

The engineering team also conducts continuous testing of the framework and design of suspension through wind tunnel tests and computer simulations. The results are stored on Imation Travan NS Tape Cartridges – providing storage capabilities of up to 20 GB per cartridge.

"Formula One auto racing is becoming less about mechanics and more about leveraging emerging technologies," said Eddie Jordan, owner and chief executive officer of Jordan Grand Prix. "For example, there are literally hundreds of electronic sensors on a Jordan Grand Prix car – all sending wireless data in real time from the car to the pit crew and to Jordan headquarters in Silverstone, England. Jordan Grand Prix relies on Imation removable storage media to capture and store this critical information, which is used to make continuous improvements and refinements to our cars and the way our drivers use them."

"For decades, Imation has helped its customers manage and protect their mission critical data by offering the industry's broadest portfolio of data storage and media services," explained Steve Ladwig, president, Imation Data Storage and Information Management. "Formula One racing is an ideal showcase for demonstrating the high-performance capabilities of our products. Formula One racing stands for speed, reliability and performance – the same characteristics found in Imation's data storage solutions."

Imation will continue to support the sponsorship with Jordan along with other high-technology companies, such as Lucent Technologies, EMC and Hewlett-Packard, throughout the year. Racing enthusiasts can keep up to date with the latest news from the motor racing circuits at Imation's own Grand Prix Web site at www.imationgrandprix.com.