9 December 2014

Prodrive chairman, David Richards, has been appointed board director of the South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP) board.

Richards will now join and work with the Local Enterprise Partnership team to represent the motorsport and high performance technology sector and promote the South East Midlands as a place to do business.

Richards said: “I am delighted to join the SEMLEP board and look forward to representing and championing this sector and to promoting South East Midlands as an area to innovate and do business.

“SEMLEP covers the core of the UK’s and indeed the world’s motorsport industry.  We are home to half the Formula 1 grid, including current world champions Mercedes based in Brackley and Red Bull in Milton Keynes.  The South East Midlands also has a high concentration of high performance engineering unlike any other place in the world, where businesses like Prodrive, transfer their motorsport skills and innovation to the automotive, aerospace, marine and other sectors.”

Dr Ann Limb, OBE DL, Chair of SEMLEP, added: “We are delighted to welcome David on to our board, a true captain of industry, and look forward to working closely with Prodrive to promote this fast moving sector to the world.”

SEMLEP covers 11 local authorities including Cherwell District Council.

4 December 2014

Matthew Polley, who has recently completed his apprenticeship at Prodrive and lives in Banbury, has met the prime minister, David Cameron, at number 10 Downing Street.

Matthew and Prodrive chairman, David Richards, were guests at a special reception hosted by the prime minister to recognise the important role apprenticeships play in the British motorsport industry.  The majority of the industry is based in and around Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire and employs more than 50,000 people in the region, as well as contributing more than £5 billion a year to the British economy.

24 year old Matthew started at Prodrive in 2011 and completed his three year apprenticeship earlier this year splitting his time between Prodrive’s headquarters in Banbury and studying at Banbury & Bicester College for a BTEC extended diploma in engineering.  He now builds high performance race engines for Prodrive’s Aston Martin racing cars.

“It was a real privilege to be selected to attend such a prestigious event and represent not only Prodrive, but the hundreds of apprentices in the British motorsport industry.  When you start as an apprentice you never think that one day you will be at No.10 talking to the prime minister and telling him all about your job alongside some of the greatest names in British motorsport such as Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart and John Surtees,” said Matthew Polley.

1 December 2014

Prodrive’s new VW Golf SCRC rally car has won the Wuyi Rally today making it two wins from two events for the new car having won the previous round at Longyou.

After suffering a puncture on the first stage, Chris Atkinson again dominated the event, winning eight of the ten stages and finishing more than a minute ahead of second placed Niall McShea in the Skoda CRC after 155 competitive kilometres.   Local Chinese driver and FAW-VW Rally Team regular, Chen Dean, was driving the new Golf SCRC for the first time and finished in fourth place, just behind Mark Higgins in the Subaru WRX STi, and was the highest placed local driver.

Apart from two short gravel super special stages, the WuYi Rally is a sealed surface event run on concrete roads.

The Golf SCRC was designed and built in less than six months specifically for the Chinese rally regulations with a two litre turbocharged engine, but otherwise very similar in specification to a World Rally Car with many of the same systems and components.

For more information on the Golf SCRC click here

30 November 2014

Aston Martin Racing has ended the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) on a high with two wins in the Six Hours of Sao Paulo, the final race of a season that saw the team take two WEC titles and a 24 Hours of Le Mans class win.

The #97 Vantage GTE of Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke started the race from pole position following a fantastic qualifying session for the team, that saw all four Vantage GTEs qualify within the top five GTEs overall. It was an exciting battle all the way to the finish line with the Aston Martin swapping places with the Ferraris and Porches numerous times.

“The team did a great job to keep changing the strategy throughout the race,” added Turner. “It's been a good season in that we've had great journey and strong pace but we’ve also had some bad luck. It was great to get the race win and we’ll come back fighting for more victories next year.”

In the GTE Am class, it was the #98 Vantage GTE driven by Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Christoffer Nygaard that took the class win. Despite running in the GTE Am class, Lamy and Nygaard qualified the car in fourth place overall in the GTE pack to start from the front of the GTE Am grid.

“We had a very good car, which was very well set up,” commented Lamy. “We felt like we had a lot of grip and we were fast. Chris and Paul did a great job and the safety car made my job at the end easy.”

“It's great to get a third win of the year,” added Dalla Lana. “It's been frustrating seeing the #95 take the main honours but we'll be back to finish the job next year.”

The #95 belonging to the Danish trio Nicki Thiim, Kristian Poulsen and David Heinemeier Hansson qualified just behind in second in class and fifth overall. After leading for some of the race, they finished in second place just behind the sister-car.

The #99 Vantage GTE qualified in third and on the first lap it was up to second thanks to a great start from Fernando Rees. After a strategic pit stop under a full course yellow flag, the team took the lead with Darryl O’Young behind the wheel. Together with Alex MacDowall (GB) the team pressed on until Rees was pushed off the track by a competitor. Not to be defeated, the team fought back to finish in fifth, just seconds off the podium.

The double-win rounds off a strong year for the team that took the Endurance Trophy for GTE Am Teams and the Endurance Trophy for GTE Am Drivers along with the GTE Am class win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“We wanted to come here and end another exciting year in the WEC on a high,” commented team principal John Gaw. “We’ve had some great successes this year and we achieved our objective of taking more WEC race wins than any other manufacturer during the last three years. We will come back next year to defend our titles and take more race and trophy wins.”

22 July 2014

Prodrive is relocating its headquarters to a new larger facility in Banbury, UK, less than a mile from its present home.  Construction of the new building, which will also be next to the M40 motorway, will commence in August and the company will move during March 2015.  

“It became clear that our current site would not be suitable for our future needs as while motorsport remains core to our business we have diversified into a number of new areas,” said David Richards, chairman. “Our current site has become a familiar landmark for the millions of motorists who have driven up and down the M40 over the last 30 years.  Retaining a prominent location by the motorway will ensure the next generation also recognises our brand as we continue to expand into new and exciting arenas beyond motorsport.”

The new facility will be Prodrive’s third headquarters, having been originally based at Silverstone in 1984, before moving to Banbury in 1986.  At that point, the company’s single building housed its then BMW race and rally teams and looked out on to fields.  It wasn’t until 1991 that the M40 was extended from Oxford to Birmingham passing right in front of the company’s headquarters. 

Over the last 28 years the company has expanded from one to 12 separate buildings.  The new facility is a single 110,000 sq ft structure giving flexibility to house Prodrive’s motorsport and advanced technology businesses and allowing for a far more efficient operation.  The company’s 40,000 sq ft composite manufacturing operation will remain in Milton Keynes.

“While we are best known for motorsport, today this represents just a third of our turnover,” said Richards.  “Walk around our site today and you will see Aston Martin Racing cars and MINI rally cars being prepared in workshops right next to advanced active aero systems for road going supercars; interior modules for luxury cars; advanced hybrid systems; and even the next generation of control systems for racing yachts.”

Prodrive’s current headquarters will be cleared in September to make way for a new retail park which will open in late 2015.