Team SpirIT is a recently formed syndicate that has announced its entry in the next BT Global Challenge. Composed of eight information technology companies (Computcenter, Dell, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Lucent Technologies, Marconi Communications, Nortel Networks, and Sun Microsystems) this new team will go head to head with 11 other 72-foot cutter rigged sloops when the 30-000-mile marathon race begins on September 10 in Southhampton, England.

Among the sponsors, Marconi Communications, Ericsson, Nortel, and Sun Microsystems have participated as sponsors in previous editions of the BT Global Challenge, but the other four corporations are new to this arena. Each sponsor will have the opportunity to place employees aboard the Team SpirIT entry for different legs of the seven-leg race, which is expected to finish late June of 2001.