AD Group CEO Mike Newton isn’t just a fast mover in the field of business. His prowess in the motorsport arena was highlighted recently when he became the latest recipient of the much-prized Woolf Barnato Trophy.
The accolade is bestowed by the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC) in recognition of Newton’s achievement in becoming the highest-placed British and/or Commonwealth driver in a British car at the Le Mans 24-Hour race.
Indeed Newton, who was singled out for this accolade alongside his former teammate Andy Wallace, has by any measure had an extremely successful 2010 motorsport season.
During 2010, campaigning in the AD Group-sponsored Lola HPD Coupe run by the RML team, Newton – along with fellow Briton Andy Wallace and Brazilian Tommy Erdos – returned to the famous Le Mans 24-Hour race, the scene of two previous class wins.
Against all the odds in what is probably the most challenging of all endurance races, he ran out with a highly credible third place LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype) ranking.
Driving the final leg of the race
It was a memorable finish to the race for Newton, a Le Mans 24-Hour veteran, as he had the distinction of driving the final leg to take the chequered flag in front of 200,000 spectators, in turn duly securing that all-important podium spot.
Also in 2010, alongside his co-drivers Newton was able to celebrate his second LMP2 class title in the Le Mans Series Championship, which saw the team battling through five gruelling, six-hour long endurance races to secure strong results in every round.
Newton’s passion for motorsport is a long-standing one, stretching back to the late 1970s. In fact, Newton’s first real taste of motorsport was as a marshal – the ‘unsung heroes’ of motor racing – and he was appointed vice-president of the British Motorsport Marshals Club (BMMC) in 2008.
As a driver, he started out in Formula Ford 1600 in 1985. Personal landmarks on the race track include: Le Mans 24-Hour class wins in 2005 and 2006, plus this year’s podium finish, and two Le Mans Series Championships (in 2010 and 2007).
Newton has also raced on tracks across the globe, with one of the memorable highlights for him being his victory in Florida in the 2002 Daytona Grand-Am finale (in the GTS class).
Following in very famous footsteps
“I’m delighted to have been honoured by the BRDC as the joint winner of the Woolf Barnato Trophy,” said Newton. “Our result at the Le Mans 24-Hour race was a real team effort.”
He added: “It’s certainly a privilege to follow in the footsteps of all the famous drivers who have flown the flag for Britain at the Le Mans 24-Hour race over the years, with Joel Woolf Barnato [the three times winner at Le Mans, after whom the trophy is named and the first recipient in
1928] serving as a real inspiration to us all. He was one of the original BRDC-founding Bentley Boys and famously beat ‘Le Train Bleu’ in the car-versus-train race from Cannes to London.”
Alongside the thrill of driving in prestigious events such as the Le Mans 24-Hour race, Newton sees motorsport as providing an invaluable, commercially focused platform to further AD Group’s CCTV business interests.
“We use AD Group’s sponsorship of our race entries to deliver business networking and hospitality for carefully selected guests who are key decision-makers with regard to the specification and purchase of professional CCTV systems, including the latest closed IPTV IP video solutions.”
In conclusion, Newton told SMT Online: “Critically, our race programme has created a unique, high quality business environment where our key customers have access to the business and technology leaders of the Group. Our investment in the programme has helped us to understand our customers’ needs far better and, as a result, win major long term contracts.”
Invaluable marketing and sponsorship device
Pauline Norstrom, marketing and motorsport director at the AD Group (and responsible for the sponsorship of the race programme) said: “We’re delighted that Mike has received the BRDC Award. We take the AD Group race programme very seriously. It now forms a key part of our marketing strategy. No other company has achieved such a consistent and long term marketing and sponsorship success in both the Le Mans Series and Le Mans-24 Hour race with such a unique approach to making motorsport an effective part of a technology company’s marketing strategy.”
The #25 Lola HPD racecar also provides AD Group with a highly arduous test platform for the award-winning TransVu mobile DVR which delivers dramatic in-car images linked to all-important telemetry data to assist the drivers in improving their performance.
The combination of data with video is a key tenet for all security and surveillance applications, and one which is critical to AD Group’s marketing strategies.
Demonstration footage from the car and other CCTV applications can be found on the AD Group’s YouTube channel (a dedicated link is provided on the right hand panel of this page)
For more information on the AD Group visit its main website (again, a link is provided opposite)
Additional details on the AD Group RML team’s success at the Le Mans 24-Hour race (and the Le Mans Series title victory) can be found by accessing the third weblink on the right hand panel of this page
