• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 23, 2010

A leading press release distributor has begun sponsoring a car in the Grand-Am race series. PR Newswire has placed its logo on a Ford speedster next to McDonald's and South African Airways.

Part of United Business Media, the press release service debuted on driver Dion von Moltke's car earlier this month; it will stay there for eight more races through Sept. 11. All races are televised on the Speed network.

The McDonald's/South African Airways/PRNewswire Ford's latest appearance in the Rolex Sports Car Series was Saturday in the Bosch Engineering 250. Before the go-round, its driver Dion von Moltke was in 16th place among 63 drivers in the Grand-Am series.

"I look forward to helping PR Newswire extend its visibility ...," the 19-year von Moltke said in a press release.

Rachel Meranus, who handles PR for PR Newswire, said the sponsorship marks the B-to-B service's first "foray" into "this type" of sports or event promotion. It runs some trade ads and uses multiple lead-generation avenues.

"In our mind, this is B-to-B," Meranus said. "Obviously it's going to be seen by a lot of consumers, but the attraction for us was the introduction to the other people who sponsor the cars. It's just a different way of doing it."

Asked if more press releases would be more effective, she said: "We do that all the time."

The eight remaining races between now and Sept. 11 stretch from Connecticut to Utah and include a Montreal course. The Grand-Am series is a low-profile series that's owned by NASCAR's parent.

The 56-year-old PR Newswire has operations in over 170 countries and distributes releases in more than 40 languages.