Texaco and Havoline support Ginetta G20 Championship

The Ginetta G20 Championship, the UK’s most popular single make racing series, will once again be supported by Texaco Havoline as the championship’s title sponsor for the 2009 season. The highly popular Championship will for the first time in 2009 feature a European round at the legendary Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

It is the third year that Chevron Global Lubricants, through its Texaco and Havoline brands, has supported what is considered to be the most affordable racing series in the UK, a championship that provides an opportunity for young racing drivers to get into competitive motorsport. Each of the 32 cars on the race grid will carry the Havoline brand plus the famous Texaco Star logo to promote Havoline and the Havoline Performance Plus customer retention programme.

All Ginetta cars, both road models, including the G50, together with cars produced for the G20 racing series will exclusively use Texaco lubricants, coolants and greases. The 8-race series will visit all major UK race circuits plus the round at Spa Francorchamps, which will include G20 entrants from the UK and other European countries, another first for the Ginetta series.

The Texaco brand has a long and successful history of supporting global motor sport through its Havoline lubricant brand. Racing greats such as Mario Andretti, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Davey Allison and Juan Pablo Montoya, to name but a few, have sat behind the wheel of a Texaco/Havoline sponsored racing car. In recent years the company has supported entrants in both the British Touring Car Championship and the British GT Championship. In 2009, Texaco will continue to support the Ginetta Championship, which once again has Sky TV coverage.

James Welchman, general manager of marketing for Chevron Global Lubricants in Europe, said: “We’re very pleased to continue our support for the Ginetta Championship through our Texaco and Havoline brands. With the backdrop of these exciting races, it provides us with a fantastic opportunity to promote the benefits of our products. And because it’s such a popular Championship, it gives us the ideal opportunity to promote our Havoline engine oil brand and our Havoline Performance Plus programme to our trade partners, in turn helping them to develop their own customer relationships.

“Simply put, we want to increase the loyalty we have between our customers, our trade partners and our brand, and we’ll be supporting these links with promotions and special events in and around the racing series.”

Richard Dean of Ginetta cars commented: “The continuation of Chevron’s backing through the Texaco and Havoline brands and the Performance Plus programme is a huge boost to Ginetta. Our competitors benefit directly through increased TV coverage and prize funds, but more importantly we have a quality product through the whole Texaco range for all Ginetta cars. I am sure we are heading for another fantastically close season of racing with huge grids and some great talent emerging.”