Latest MARKETING and COMPANY NEWS - 2012

Action Resources Ltd assists contracted race-drivers, riders and teams to compete by helping them with commercial and sponsorship matters by way of generating sustainable strategic partnerships. This Section of "Late Braking News" brings to you some of the latest information regarding global business and marketing matters that may be of interest:

 

May 2012

Virginia-based Federated Auto Parts is to be the new title sponsor of Richmond International Raceway's September NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race for the next 3 years.  The event will be known as the 'Federated Auto Parts 400' and will take place this year on 8 September.

German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF have been granted rights to include footage within their news and sports magazine programmes of MotoGP and its support championships this season.   Meanwhile, Sport1 has secured a package of rights to this year's troubled World Rally Championship (WRC) and will broadcast 30-minute highlights of all 2012's remaining events.  The WRC is still without a global promoter following the collapse of the North One company just prior to the start of the season.  Eurosport and the European Broadcasting Union have been assisting the FIA with television production and distribution during the year thus far but the longer-term future of the Series remains unclear.

North America's largest fastener distributor Fastenal will sponsor all three Roush Fenway Racing entries - driven by Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth - in the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on 27 May.

 

April 2012

Roman Abramovich's Chelsea FC has announced what it describes as a 'ground-breaking' partnership with the Swiss Sauber Formula One Team.   Chelsea logos will feature on the cars of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez from the next Grand Prix (Barcelona, 13 May) whilst Sauber logos will be positioned on perimeter boards at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge stadium in West London.  Abramovich has long been targetted as a potential F1 backer and his Russian homeland is soon to stage its first World Championship race at the Black Sea resort and Winter Olympic venue of Sochi.  Chelsea CEO, Ron Gourlay, commented: "This is an innovative partnership that will see a football club link up with an F1 team like never before...... .  In a year when Chelsea celebrates 20 seasons in the Premier League, Sauber does so as a Formula One team.  We share many philosophies when it comes to how the respective organisations are run, from the development of young talent to constantly striving for success".  Chelsea features in the UEFA Champions' League Final on 19 May.

Fifteen years on from a previous attempt at an initial public offering of shares in the business, the Formula One Group (now majority owned by CVC Capital Partners) is seeking to try again, with an IPO (probably in July this year) on the Singapore Stock Exchange.  The apparent aim is to sell some 20% of the shares for around $1.5 to $2 billion.  Meanwhile, there are suggestions surfacing once again that Bernie Ecclestone is hoping to increase the annual number of World Championship races, in the next Concorde Agreement with the Teams, to a possible 24 championship rounds.  The Russian race at Sochi is already on the cards for 2013 or 2014, as is the revival of the French GP at Paul Ricard (alternating with another race, from 2013).  But it's well known that further races in American time-zones are needed and Grands Prix in Argentina, Mexico and even the Caribbean region (the Dominican Republic is being mooted) are possibly on the cards.

Pirtek Racing, which runs Andrew Jordan in a Honda in the BTCC, has secured backing from the UK cosmetic car repair firm, Revive!   It is the Company's first foray into motor-sport sponsorship.

Budweiser is to support the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia this season.  The beer brand joins Mobil 1, Michelin, ZF Friedrichshafen AG and Adidas as series sponsors.

Mexico's tourism authority - Visit Mexico - has confirmed that it is to renew its support for the Sauber F1 Team (with its Mexican driver, Sergio Perez).  Visit Mexico logos will appear on the noses of the cars as well as on team equipment and the drivers' race-suits.

Skoda - a member of the VW Group - has said that the company will continue to serve as the official vehicle sponsor of the Tour of Britain bike race for a second consecutive year.

It has been formally announced that Lotus F1 has terminated their financial title sponsorship deal with Group Lotus.  The Enstone-based team, which numbers Microsoft and Unilever amongst its backers, maintains that "Group Lotus and the Lotus F1 Team are brand partners" but that no money will change hands.

Penske Racing has announced Hitachi Automotive Systems as a 2012 sponsor of the Team's IZOD IndyCar Series programme for eight of the races for the Number Two Dallara-Chevrolet driven by Ryan Briscoe.  The deal covers the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama and the races at Long Beach, Sao Paulo, Detroit, Toronto, Edmonton, Qingdao (China) and Sonoma.  The value of Hitachi's commitment to Penske is thought to be around US$2.5m.

The Prime Minister of France is saying that it is likely that a deal will be done to alternate a French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard with "another event" - thought most likely to be the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps.

 

March 2012

Shell (and Penzoil) is to sponsor the IndyCar Grand Prix of Houston to be held on 4-6 October 2013.

More financial bad news is emerging from the Sahara Force India F1 Team.  The Silverstone-based outfit has been ordered by a High Court judge to pay fees amounting to over £707,000 in relation to a long-standing intellectual property dispute with its former Italian supplier of wind tunnel servcies, Aerolab.  The costs of the action are expected to top £4m once legal fees have been accounted for.  The essence of the case between Aerolab and Force India centred upon accusations that Aerolab had copied significant parts of Force India's F1 chassis design whilst working on the creation of the (then) Team Lotus T127 racer.

In the USA, Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) is finalising plans to purchase Performance Racing Industry (PRI), the producers of the motorsport business magazine and trade show.  Founded in 1963, the SEMA Trade Association provides services and resources to businesses within the specialist automotive equipment industry, including the staging of its own automotive accessories trade show attended annually by some 100,000 people.

The Exeter-based Goodridge company has acquired a 17,000 sq ft factory in Mooresville, North Carolina, in order to secure a major expansion of its US operations - the firm's customers include NASCAR, Aston Martin and BAe Systems.  Goodridge supplies fluid transfer systems and has a turnover of some £30m per annum.  Jamie Ramsden, the Company's Vice-President Commercial (North America), commented: "This new facility will give us a more flexible distribution and logistics operation whilst ensuring that we continue to meet the exacting requirements of our US motorsports customers".

It is thought that Bernie Ecclestone is negotiating with the President of Argentina for a street race to be held at Mar del Plata at the end of 2013.  It is important for F1 Management to secure as many races as possible within American time zones and it seems that the plan is to seek to add races in New Jersey, Mexico City and Mar del Plata to those already on the calendar in Montreal (Canada), Austin (Texas) and Interlagos (Brazil).

The Lotus F1 Team has announced a new multi-year partnership with Microsoft Dynamics.

Sahara Force India has finalised a new agreement with British specialist clothing firm, Chatham Marine, which becomes the Team's official provider of travel shoes; the Company will supply its current deck shoe collection to all travelling team members this season.

The Lotus F1 Team (formerly Renault) has signed California-based software solutions company, iRise, as a technical partner.

The Caterham F1 Team (formerly Team Lotus), owned by Tony Fernandes, has announced a multi-year agreement with Visa that sees the financial services provider become the Team's hospitality and 'experiential marketing partner'. Other strategic partners within Caterham F1's portfolio include GE, Dell, Intel, Renault and AirAsia.

The All American Racers-built Ben Bowlby-designed 'delta wing' sportscar entered for Le Mans has had its first circuit tests in California, with Alex Gurney and Marino Franchitti at the wheel. The project is to be supported by Nissan in order to highlight Nissan technology and the power-unit is a 300bhp 1.6-litre Nissan 4-cylinder turbo, designated DIG-T (Direct Injection Gasoline - Turbocharged).

Uncertainty still reigns over the future of Norfolk-based Group Lotus and the Lotus F1 Team (formerly Renault).  The private Malaysian conglomerate DRB-Hicom is buying the Proton automotive group, which includes Group Lotus.  Due diligence is said to be currently in progress and, once it has been completed, DRB-Hicom will decide whether it wishes to retain Group Lotus or put it up for sale.

Pirelli is starting its own F1 tyre test team and has acquired a 2010 Renault R30 chassis.

Mouser Electronics is sponsoring Tony Kanaan's KV Racing Technology IndyCar effort.

There are rumours that Renault is considering a revival of the Alpine brand in 2014, in order to return a little 'stardust' back to the French marque.  Since 1994, Alpine's Dieppe factory has been producing Sport versions of the Megane and Clio.

Scuderia Ferrari has signed a 3-year sponsorship deal with the Brazilian Grupo Petropolis (Brazil's third largest brewer) by which the TNT brand will become Ferrari's official energy drink until 2014.

Williams Hybrid Power is supplying Audi Sport with its hybrid system for the Audi R18 Hybrid for the 2012 Le Mans 24-Hours and the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The British firm Avingtrans plc has established a company called Sigma Composites Ltd., following the  acquisition of Delta Composites Ltd., Alpha Composites Ltd., and Orion Machining Ltd.

General Motors and French firm, Peugeot, are both suffering real setbacks with regard to their sales in Europe. It has been estimated that Peugeot will only be utilising some 62% of its factory capacity in Europe this year, whilst GM (Vauxhall-Opel) will be using around 74%.  Little wonder that Peugeot recently pulled the plug on its Prototype sportscar racing programme.  Now it has been announced that GM has taken a 7% stake in Peugeot (which also owns Citroen) and it is said that the deal will generate $2bn in annual savings within 5 years.  Car registrations fell 6.6% in Europe in the month of January 2012, causing both the partners in this new motor industry alliance to comment that "each of the Companies must separately re-structure their European operations".  Philippe Varin, Peugeot's CEO, said: "The alliance doesn't replace what we have to do to sort out the overcapacity question".

 

February 2012

The buzz in the City is that Force India's founder, Vijay Mallya, is likely to put the Whisky distiller Whyte & Mackay up for sale, in order to clear his debts.  Mallya's United Spirits company has apparently told the Bombay Stock Exchange that the sale of its 49% stake in the Glasgow-based distillery is one of several options under consideration.  United Breweries Group, which is Mallya's holding company, bought Whyte & Mackay back in 2007 for £595m.  The Indian billionaire is currently said to be struggling to keep his Kingfisher airline in business and it is thought that he is needing to pay down debts of around £2.5bn.

The motor-sport trade body in the UK, the MIA, reports that the UK's Motor-Sport and Performance Engineering sector generates sales of over £6 billion a year, of which £3.6 billion is represented by exports.  The industry still employs some 40,000 people.

We hear from Mark Goddard's highly ambitious Eurasia Motorsport that the team has been busily testing its GT, F3, Formula Pilota and JK Racing Asia Series cars at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia.  Former F1 driver, Alex Yoong, has been helping to set up Eurasia's Ginetta G50Z GT3 cars in readiness for the first Malaysian Super Series race at the F1 GP at Sepang next month.

Tata Communications - part of the Indian Tata Group which owns Jaguar Land Rover in the UK - has entered into a 'multi-year' technical and marketing partnership with Formula One Management.   It is said that F1 businesses and race locations will henceforth be connected to the Tata Global Network, with Formula One Management's IT infrastructure and website co-located within Tata Communications' data centres.

NASCAR has signed Florida-based Creative Recycling Systems (CRS) as an official green partner.  This is the second organisation to be taken by NASCAR into a portfolio of environment aware companies 'focused on the three key areas of waste, emissions and power'.

Thomas Sabo - already a personal sponsor of Nico Rosberg - has become official jewellery supplier to the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team.  Reports coming out of Mercedes-Benz in Germany indicate that Michael Schumacher may sign a fresh 2-year agreement to carry on his career with the Team beyond 2012.

Shell is to close down its main UK R & D Centre in Cheshire (where it has been developing racing fuels over many years for Ferrari) and intends to re-locate the facility to Germany.

The well-known Norfolk-based Super Nova Racing team is no longer to compete in GP2.

UK company DC Electronics - founded by David Cunliffe some 15 years ago - is to set up a new manufacturing facility in the USA  to service an increase in demand for the firm's products from the NASCAR community.

The movie, "Senna" (now a DVD), has won the 'Best Documentary' and 'Best Editing' categories at the 2012 BAFTA Awards Ceremony in London.

The Spanish HRT F1 Team has said that Arzak-Bokado - run by Basque Chef, Juan Mari Arzak - will provide the Team's in-paddock catering this year.  HRT has also signed a 'collaboration agreement' with Spanish logistics firm, Transportes Azkar. Meanwhile, the Spanish de-greaser product manufacturer KH-7 has become an additional HRT sponsor.

V8 Supercars - the most popular motor-sport series in Australia - has announced Virgin Australia as its official domestic airlline and Dunlop as the naming rights sponsor of the V8 Supercars Development Series, from 2012.  Adelaide-based brewer, Coopers, has signed up to become the official beer partner to the Australian V8 Supercars Series.

The traditional Malvern-based British sports-car Manufacturer, Morgan Motor Company, will run two Morgan-badged Judd-powered LMP2 prototypes in this year's FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and in the Le Mans 24-Hours itself. The cars will be run by the French OAK Racing organisation and have been designed by the sister Le Mans-based Onroak Automotive company.  OAK Racing is run by Jacques Nicolet, who is also likely to be on the driver strength for Le Mans at least.  Morgan has not been officially represented at La Sarthe since 2004, when the drivers of their dark blue and silver Advan-shod Aero 8 model were Somerset's Adam Sharpe (and Taunton School was amongst the backers listed on the car), Neil Cunningham and Steve Hyde.

Brazilian auto-parts manufacturer, Aethra, has become an official partner of the Sahara Force India F1 Team - the deal ties in with the retention of Ferrari-endorsed Jules Bianchi as the team's test and reserve driver for the 2012 season, a driver whom Aethra has supported for some time.

Luxury shirt-maker Alain Figaret is to be the first 'official apparel partner' to the Le Mans 24-Hours as part of a new licensing agreement with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest.

The Mercedes AMG F1 Team has renewed its sponsorship deal with Swiss on-line foreign exchange trader, MIG Bank, for 2012.  The Team has also confirmed a new partnership with Spanish solar energy company, Isofoton.  Based in Andalucia, Isofoton has some 800 employees and specialises in the design, manufacture and delivery of solar energy solutions.

Formula One outfit, Marussia F1 Team, has announced what it describes as a 'comprehensive' new strategic partnership with on-line employment agency monster.com  A Press Release reads as follows: "Working closely with Marussia, in the coming weeks and months, monster.com will utilise its range of specialist services and products in order to help the Team hone in on top talent for a wide variety of permanent opportunities that have opened up at the Marussia F1 Team's new technology centre located in Banbury, England".  For more information, go to www.monstercooljobs.com/marussiaf1team .

The Huntingdon-based Lola Group is specifically targeting the next generation of engineers as it continues to build upon its legacy as a market leader in high-tech manufacturing and composites technology. The Company is also placing a special emphasis on attracting female engineers to its ranks.  Lola says that, at present, only 9% of UK engineering professionals are women.

Sam Hignett's Kent-based Jota Sport organisation is re-uniting itself with Zytek by running a Zytek ZO11SN in the European Le Mans Series and at Le Mans itself, with Simon Hancock and Simon Dolan at the wheel.

The Spanish oil company, Compania Espanola de Petroleos (CEPSA), together with the Swiss Falcon Private Bank and the Canadian Nova Chemicals Corporation, have extended their support of the Toro Rosso F1 Team for 2012.  The cars are to be driven by Daniel Ricciardo and rookie, Jean-Eric Vergne.

The Lotus F1 Team - formerly Renault - has secured significant sponsorship from two Unilever brands, namely Rexona (a deodorant known as Sure in the UK) and the anti-dandruff shampoo, Clear.  The deal was brokered by Zak Brown's Just Marketing agency.

Ferrari has extended its sponsorship deal with Santander for a further three years.  The Scuderia has also signed a 3-year supply agreement with Italian company Oz for its racing wheels.

The McLaren Mercedes F1 team has been certified by Carbon Neutral Investments (CNI) as 100% carbon neutral, becoming the world's first carbon neutral Formula 1 team.

 

January 2012

The Chinese-owned MG Motor UK is to enter the British Touring Car Championship with its MG6 GT model, with double-BTCC Champion, Jason Plato, and Andy Neate at the wheel of the Tesco Momentum 99 and KX Energy Drink sponsored cars; the Team will be run by Triple Eight Race Engineering.

The man who formerly ran HRT in F1 - Colin Kolles - is set to compete in the 2012 LMP2 Class of the FIA World Endurance Championship with Lotus, using a BMW-based V8 by Engine Developments in Lola B12/80 chassis.

Bob Neville's RJN Motorsport is to launch an attack on the 2012 British GT Championship with a JRM-built Nissan GT-R GT3 machine.  The Team may also compete in the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Peugeot has launched a bombshell into the world of international sportscar racing by withdrawing its Team of 908 HDi FAP machines with immediate effect; the Company blamed the global financial situation but has not ruled out a return to competition at some point in the future.  Peugeot returned to the ALMS and Le Mans Scene in 2007 (after a 14-year absence) with its exciting diesel-powered machines and immediately became the sole opposition to Audi, winning the Le Mans 24-Hours in 2009 with David Brabham, Alex Wurz and Marc Gene at the wheel.

Lord Paul Drayson is lobbying for a round of the new-for-2013 Formula E Championship to be held as a street race around London's Olympic Park.  Drayson - who is now the President of the MIA - unveiled his own all-electric sportscar project (bsed on a Lola B12/69 LMP1 chassis) during January's Autosport International Show.

The Caterham F1 Team is re-locating to the former Arrows base at Leafield in Oxfordshire later this year.

The FIA has been recognised by the International Olympic Committee in a move that could pave the way for an Olympic motor-sport event in the future.

Ricardo was declared the "Business of the Year" at the MIA's Business Excellence Awards event, held during Autosport International.