JEDDAH: A self confessed ‘petrol-head’ Ian Yarwood, general manager for Castrol Saudi Arabia, is entirely the right man to be heading up the company’s operations in the Kingdom and even more so as the company is energetically promoting motor sport here.
Castrol, founded by Charles Cheers Wakefield in 1899, has a long and honorable history supporting and providing the specialist lubricants for competitive motor sport and Yarwood has every intention of carrying on that tradition.
“I have a real passion for motor sport,” he said. “I have followed it for over 30 years — I started by driving support vehicles in the RAC rally in the 1970s.” He owns a limited addition Lotus Esprit — the achievement of a childhood dream — and has introduced his 11 year-old son to karting. “That’s where it all begins; karting is the nursery for nearly all F1 drivers.”
The name Castrol has become synonymous with racing. As early as 1907 the company’s specialist lubricant were used in land-speed record attempts and successes. In the mid 1960’s the unforgettable smell of Castrol R racing oil became the exhaust perfume of choice among motorcycle racers and street ‘wannabes’ alike.
The first car to break the sound barrier and current land speed record holder, Richard Noble’s Thrust 2, ran on Castrol lubricants. “If you visit www.castrol.com and click ‘Castrol retold’ you will be able to take in some key sporting moments from the history of Castrol,” Yarwood said.
Motor sport has a very close relationship to the motor industry. Apart from being immense fun to participate in and watch, it has a serious side. The racetrack is a laboratory and provides extreme conditions for the cars. Lessons learned from race cars carry across to safety and engineering improvements in street vehicles.
“That goes for lubricants as well,” Yarwood said. “Domestic vehicles experience nothing like the extreme conditions on a race track, but the liquid engineering that goes into our lubricants can carry across to the average vehicle with obvious benefits.”
He noted that many brands had associations with motor sport at all levels and that this rather demonstrated the strong ties that companies had with racing.
Asked why Castrol was currently not involved in the F1 class he opined that this was now a multinational and hugely expensive program. “You will see many brands enter for a few years and then leave only to come back few years later,” he said.
Asked if this was a hint of the company’s return to F1 he said: “We are currently not running an F1 program, but who knows for the future? I am sure we will see Castrol once again at the forefront of this program as we have been over many years previously.” However, over the last three years or so, Castrol has been re-establishing its presence in motor sport.
“Motor-sport has really taken off in the region in the last few years and more recently within KSA. Due to Castrol’s long history of association and my own passion for linking the Castrol brand to motor sport I believe there is a great future for both working together,” he said.
Castrol is working on several key programs under the project concept Castrol Race Academy. One of the main ones being series 2 of our reality motor-sport TV program called “Castrol Racing Heroes.”
The main goals are to find a rising motor-sport star and to provide entertainment to bring a wider audience into the world of motor-sport.
“Based on the feedback we have had, the idea most definitely succeeded,” said Yarwood. He said that they had been informed that there was a weekly audience of more than 15 Million from the first season program which in itself was a great success. “I think if you asked the participants they would agree this was a great success in our trial first year.”
The program was shown Gulf-wide. Being as much an entertainment as motor-sport program Castrol decided to make it a regional program to attract a wider audience and provide more competition. “I believe the final results had a positive effect on our marketing strategies, both for brand awareness and in sales.”
Yarwood agreed that single-seat car racing did have a substantial fan base here, though not as wide a following as other areas of motor sport such as Autocross. “However, it is considered by many the pinnacle of motor-sport as evidenced by F1. We have more plans in place to develop the program still further — wait for Series Two which will be shown later this year !” he enthused.
He said that the company had several other key programs which were currently under discussion and yet to be announced. We have already participated in the Hail Rally and the launch of R.A.C.E. in Riyadh. “So ‘watch this space!’”
Saudi Arabia has produced several top class rally drivers. Do Yarwood and Castrol intend to sponsor one soon in the Middle East Championship Rallies?
“We took part in the Hail rally again this year and we are having talks about various rally programs,” he confided. “Right now we do not have firm plans in place to sponsor a Saudi driver in the ME Championship of Rallies. This of course could change at any time.”
Yarwood has several opportunities and at this stage nothing is ruled out. He commented that although motor racing was about speed and winning, it was equally importantly, but less obviously, about safety.
“When you get twenty cars on a track all desperate to be number one, there have to be rules and it can literally be a matter of life and death if the rules are not followed,” he said.
He thought that the discipline and safety culture that individuals developed from even quite low level involvement in the sport filtered out to daily driving habits.
“We very much want to advance the safety aspects and involve as many individuals as possible,” he commented hinting at a development programme that is on the cards.
With the resurgence in Saudi Arabia of such an iconic company as Castrol, the future for motor sport in the Kingdom is certainly looking brighter than ever.
