Prodrive Racing is one of the leading motorsport teams in the Asia-Pacific region and competes in the V8 Supercars Championship across Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia. Prodrive Racing has won the last two Bathurst 1000 races – the marquee event in the V8 Supercars series – and currently leads the team points standings as well as the driver championship with Mark Winterbottom.
In 2015 the team has so far won 11 races, claimed 10 pole positions with the highlight Winterbottom’s clean-sweep of both races at the recent Castrol EDGE Townsville 400. The team was formed in 2003 and has enjoyed a strong technical and commercial partnership with Castrol since its creation with both companies enjoying substantial success on and off track. Prodrive Racing and Castrol have collaborated for 12 years on the team’s Ford V8 engine program which is developed completely in house. Together the two entities have claimed more than 50 race wins and pole positions, plus more than 160 podiums.
CASTROL EDGE IN V8 SUPERCARS
Castrol technicians have worked closely with Prodrive Racing’s engine technicians to improve power delivery, cooling and efficiencies in what has been the longest technical and commercial partnership in team history. Castrol work closely with the team to activate their commercial partnership with private and public events, advertising, product promotion and general brand development hallmarks of the long association. The association with V8 Supercars has been a long and successful one for Castrol. The brand has been involved in the sport for several decades, winning Australia’s premier race, the Bathurst 1000, more than 20 times plus multiple driver and team championships. The premier motorsport series in the region is the ideal platform to develop lubricants and test product in the most extreme conditions possible.
The sport has been used to promote both the core Castrol brand and its range of products and services, along with the Castrol EDGE brand. Castrol EDGE is Castrol’s strongest & most advanced oil and the company sees V8 Supercars as the ideal platform to showcase its strength for maximum performance. Castrol continues to enjoy a strong share of voice due to their ongoing commitment, developed activation plans and the team’s on track success.
V8 SUPERCARS
V8 Supercars is the premium motorsport series in the Australasian region, and one of the leading touring car championships in the world, so is an appropriate platform to promote the premium Castrol EDGE range and its performance capabilities. The series is the third most-attended sport in Australia and the fourth most-watched on TV, attracting around 2-million people per year trackside and projected domestic TV audiences in 2015 of more than 40-million people. It is also broadcast to 279 million homes globally in 93 countries. Importantly, the sport is also a leader in digital content creation and engagement, outscoring all other sports in the country for fans engaging with digital content and social media interaction. V8 Supercars, formerly the Australian Touring Car Championship, has been running for six decades and is the top motorsport platform in Australasia.
The sport showcases rear-wheel-drive, V8-powered race cars representing Ford, Holden (GM), Nissan, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz. A 25-car field contest 34 races across 16 events, including the famous Bathurst 1000km endurance race. Marquee races in Adelaide, Sydney, Bathurst, Townsville and the Gold Coast attract between 150,000- 290,000 people, while the category is also a support to the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix where crowds run in excess of 300,000 people. The new-for-2016 event in Malaysia, the KL City Grand Prix, provides the series and its sponsors with a
platform in South-East Asia. The new street race is in line with similar existing events with this week’s
visit by the five manufacturers in the series aimed at providing an exciting event.
