Industry News
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<< March 08
News for 2nd April 2008
Calls for FIA president to step down
A number of calls have been made for Max Mosley to step down from his role as the president of the FIA following the publication of a story in the UK’s News of the World newspaper which alleged that Mosley had taken part in a Nazi-themed ‘sadomasochistic orgy' with five prostitutes.
Speaking to the UK’s Guardian newspaper former world drivers champion Jody Scheckter said, "There is absolutely no question in my mind that Mosley should resign. From a purely motor racing point of view you can't have somebody like this running the sport or any other sport come to that. I really think he ought to go and I would like to see the press having a concerted campaign to persuade him to do just that."
Stephen Smith, director of the Holocaust Centre, said, “As Mr Mosley has condemned the racism in motor sport he should live up to the standards he sets. This is an insult to millions of victims, survivors and their families. He should apologise. He should resign from the sport.”
At the time this was written the FIA had made no comment on whether or not Mosley would remain as its president.
Motorsport personnel perish in UK air crash
Former British Touring Car Championship driver David Leslie, racing team owner Richard Lloyd and motorsport data engineer Christopher Allarton were among five people killed when a private aircraft crashed in Kent last Sunday.
The three were on their way to the Nogaro race circuit in southern France were Leslie was scheduled to drive a Jaguar XKR GT3 racecar built by Lloyd’s Milton Keynes, UK based Apex Motorsport team in an FIA performance equalisation test on Monday.
Although he was best known as a BTCC driver Leslie also enjoyed extensive success in single-seaters, including winning the UK Formula Atlantic Championship in 1980, and in sportscar racing including competing at Le Mans for teams including Aston Martin Racing, Ecurie Ecosse and TWR Jaguar. More recently Leslie had also worked as television motorsport commentator and a motorsport lecturer.
Lloyd was an accomplished racing driver in his own right before running successful sportscar and touring car racing teams. He was a key figure in Audi’s victory in the 1996 British Touring Car Championship and in 2003 his Apex Motorsport organisation ran the Team Bentley operation that scored the marques first win at Le Mans since 1930.
Allarton had recently taken up a new job with Apex Motorsport after graduating from university.
Headline sponsor for IRL series
The US based Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series, which was recently merged with the rival Champ Car World Series, has confirmed a major multi-year sponsorship deal with the soft drinks company Coca-Cola.
Commenting on the deal Terry Angstadt the president of the IRL’s commercial division said, "Coca-Cola is truly a global brand, and we're thrilled to have them on board with the IndyCar Series.
"Coca-Cola's enormous brand recognition and marketing capabilities create some very exciting activation opportunities as we go forward. This announcement also adds to the sponsorship momentum that we've been building over the last several months.
"The growing number of partnerships we're making with quality organizations like Coca-Cola and others is really helping to build an exciting future for the IndyCar Series."
Richards delivers keynote speech at Bahrain Motorsport Business Forum
Dave Richards, the CEO of the Banbury, UK automotive and motorsport development company Prodrive delivered the opening keynote speech on the first day of the Motor Sport Business Forum which is taking place in Bahrain ahead of next weekend’s Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix.
In his speech drew attention to the development of the region that had taken place in the past 10 years and observed that around $11bn had been invested in motorsport projects including the building of a number of race circuits.
Richards said, "From next year, this region will have six world class race circuits. It shows that the Gulf has become a significant focal point for the motor sport industry."
He noted that the circuits had developed a new business model for racing facilities around the world, with the addition of subsidiary businesses to complement the main events on the track, saying, "The business model of a stand-alone race circuit is gone forever. This area of the world is looking at motor sport as a proper sustainable business plan and we should all pay attention."
F1 helped UK cycling team success
The Great Britain cycling team’s performance director, Dave Brailsford has acknowledged the part played by Formula One teams and motorsport technology in its success at the 2008 Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester last week.
Brailsford said, “We have been greatly supported by UK Sport, who have managed to get people from BAe systems and Formula One. They have pulled together this group of boffins and it's miraculous what they have done. We have done a huge amount of work with the wind tunnel in Southampton and have come up with some pretty cool stuff. We don't think anyone has noticed, so we will use it and see where we go from there."
UK motorsport composites company unveils new technology
The UK based Advanced Composite Group (ACG) in Heanor, Derbyshire, which supplies products and services to the motorsport industry and other sectors, has launched a new and innovative technology.
ACG’s Deformable Composite System (DCS) is a new ground-breaking tooling and mass production component prepreg which is claimed to be a time and cost-saving technology that combines the conformability of a short fibre molding compound with the directional characteristics of a high performance, long fibre composite.
Dr. John Nixon, Technical Marketing Manager at ACG, said: “This new, market leading technology is an exciting addition to our extensive product range. This product will allow customers to save money and improve efficiency whilst maintaining the high standard expecting of our products. We look forward to working with our customers to find and develop new and exciting applications for such a versatile technology.”
Xtrac confirms Brazilian deal
The Thatcham, Berkshire, UK based motorsport transmission specialist Xtrac has confirmed that it will become the supplier of a fixed specification gearbox for the Brazilian Stock Car Championship starting in 2009
Xtrac will supply competitors in the series which caters for 450bhp V8 powered production based cars with a gearbox based on its successful Grand American Daytona Prototype transmission design.
According to Xtrac’s managing director Peter Digby, minimal changes have been necessary to the design, which was originally developed in 2003. He said, "To reduce the cost of the gearbox we started to produce them on a larger scale. It's an adaptable gearbox and can be used in a variety of cars. By enlarging the production we can reduce our costs - all this without damaging the quality, of course.”