The race has had several different sponsors since the mid-1990s, and these have included Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Longines.

Fields generally include vintage Alfa Romeos, Ferraris, Mercedes-Benz and Porsches.

These sites include Mercedes-Benz (www.mbusa.com), Saturn (www .

In January, sales at DaimlerChrysler, which includes Mercedes-Benz, were up 7 percent from a year earlier.

Its sales rose 13.6 percent, again putting it ahead of DaimlerChrysler, which includes Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz.

It also stuck to its goal of a full-year profit of 5 billion euros for the entire group, which includes Mercedes-Benz.

Sales for its parent company, DaimlerChrysler, which includes Mercedes-Benz, were down 6.6 percent.

With 12.9 percent of the market, Toyota is close to the 13.44 percent market share held by DaimlerChrysler's United States operations, which include Mercedes-Benz.

Toyota still ranks behind Chrysler's parent, DaimlerChrysler, which includes Mercedes-Benz, and is behind Chrysler for the year.

Other users included Peugeot and Mercedes-Benz.