This year, 2021, Oak Road and Liqui Moly are teaming up to co-sponsor LOTS of cars. Racing Cars (Focus Cup), a Drifting Car, a bunch of Minis! (JCW Mini Challenge) and even a Kart for a local 5 year old.
Here’s what Sarah (Oak Road boss lady) and Alex & Tim from Liqui Moly had to say when we asked them a couple of cheeky questions, and a couple of comments from the sponsored drivers too!
Liqui Moly (LM) is not new to Motor Racing (we've seen your logo all over F1!). But what does it mean to sponsor in partnership with a small business? And Sarah, what does it mean to be in partnership with a big name like Liqui Moly?
LM We want to be visible on all levels of motorsports and get in touch with the people where they are. This includes global lead projects like Formula 1, as well as smaller events like the Focus Cup and Mini Challenge. A business partner is a partner, no matter what size they are we offer the same support. By the way, compared to some we are also a small business!
ORMF LM are a strong brand with good values and great products. We’ve benefited from their knowledge with Alex visiting garages to make sure they know everything there is to know about their products. It’s given us access to new customers and gets our brand noticed when it’s aligned with a big name like Liqui Moly.
Describe your company in one sentence:
ORMF An awesome, friendly, family run company that will go the extra mile to help their customers.
LM We do not want to be the cheapest, we want to be the best.
Alex and Tim - Tell us a few things. Like why LM is for every car, how it's different to others and how you decide who to sponsor.
Alex Ok, first let’s say that every car benefits from performance. And from the endurance of our products that deliver performance way past their closest rivals. Tim Absolutely, we help prevent wear and tear from taking their toll on the engine.
Alex No one else offers the range and the quality of automotive products that we do. We strive for and achieve a consistently high quality.
A & T As for deciding who to sponsor – well we’d be broke if we sponsored everyone who asked, and we get a lot of requests! For us it needs to work in terms of brand awareness. That might be sponsoring winter sports, with no direct link to our products but a large audience; or it might be helping a well known small business like ORMF to sponsor and sell our products.
Sarah - explain to us why the support of Liqui Moly and sponsoring small local companies is important to you and Oak Road, and how you decide where to spend your budget.
Sarah A nationally known brand like Liqui Moly, that doesn’t stock it’s products everywhere, really helps us to stand out from our competitors and gives us a little edge. We’ve even built an e-commerce area now so we can sell LM products nationally, that also links from their website. So the exposure for us is immense.
We choose small local companies to help because that’s exactly what we are! And as a small company, getting sponsorship from the ‘big boys’ is sometimes difficult. Because we’ve been able to partner with LM in sponsorship our money goes even further meaning our reach is even better. And you know what? The little guys are always super appreciative of the help. I know what it means to them, because I know what it would mean to us. We always look to help locally, and we look for passion within the team and drivers. That’s also why we’re helping 5 year old Jake to keep his kart going. Helping the stars of the future!
Ok, let's get a little personal...
Who is your all time favourite driver?
ORMF Me, obviously (little giggle!).
LM Alex Mika Hakinnen and David Coulthard – I just loved those years of F1
LM Tim For me, Michael Schumaker and in recent times of course, Lewis Hamilton
We thought we’d just pop in here that little Jake the Karter wants to be like Max Verstappen (but without the (sometimes) colourful language!)
And do you go racing yourself?
ORMF Not yet, I’d love the chance to drive a proper track (in case any of the sponsored cars are listening…!)
LM Alex I’m proud to say I’ve done a few UK based track day and been fortunate enough to visit Nurgurgring in Germany. Whilst lately I’m focused on spectating and supporting our sponsors I’m always hopeful for the chance to drive a sponsored car…
LM Tim Yes! I was involved in Karting in 2000s in central America, when Karting was just developing over there. I was a technical director for the National Karting Federation and got the opportunity to drive some street cars on local circuits.
Thanks you lot, it's been great hearing about your companies, your passion and learning a little bit about you!
A few words from our sponsored cars and drivers:
Mike – Mini Challenge ‘We are proud to display the Oak Road and Liqui Moly logos on our 3 cars competing in the Mini Challenge and look forward to getting personal support at the local event (Croft, Darlington). It means the world having the support of both Oak Road and Liqui Moly.’ Say it with me …”The Minis Are Coming”!
Simon – Focus Cup The Focus Cup is a cup with a difference – YOU get to drive! Check out the website for more info. Simon says ‘we have lots of sponsors and without them we couldn’t run our race. Oak Road and Liqui Moly are a dream team as they provide the oils, additives and parts to keep our cars going throughout the season.’
Jake – 5 year old karting star ‘Without my sponsors I couldn’t do the racing I love’. And dad says having Oak Road and Liqui Moly keep Jake’s kart going is a blessing – not to mention also supplying cleaning materials; after all a clean kart is a fast kart!
The Main Photo for this blog is of Jake.
Charlie – Drifting Charlie competes at the top level of drifting in the BDC. He says ‘ Sponsorship with Oak Road means a lot to me because having backing from a company that can get almost any part for any car helps a lot! Especially in those sticky situations when you can’t find the right part.’ Sadly Charlie’s season is over earlier than expected but we’ll see what next year brings.
