The sponsorship agreement between Lookers and the British Bobsleigh team has helped give the team a push towards success in the Winter Olympic games taking place in Pyeongchang. The sponsorship significantly helped the team fund three nine seater Ford Tourneo people carriers, a Land Rover Discovery and an Audi A4 Estate.
Providing a method of transport for the athletes to and from the race tracks around Europe, the vehicles proved to be invaluable for the team. The GB team took on the world’s best in countries including Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
With the UK lacking a dedicated ice track, the vehicles have also been a vital part of the team’s summer training camps at home and abroad, as well as their regular track and gym sessions at the team’s headquarters at the University of Bath.
To continue to show their ongoing support of local and national sports, the car dealer’s sponsorship means that the Lookers logo proudly featured on the team’s race suits as well as the bobsleds themselves.
Heike O’Leary, Group Marketing Director at Lookers, said: “Everyone at Lookers is incredibly excited to be supporting such an impressive team of athletes as they prepare to compete on the biggest stage of all. We are proud of all the sports teams and initiatives that we support around the country, whether it’s a local youth football club or, in this case, a team of elite athletes competing for the ultimate prize.
“With only a matter of days until the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, we wish both the men’s and women’s teams the best of luck.”
Whilst training was intensive, the British team can attribute their hard work throughout training for success in the run up to the games, achieving a number of eye catching results, with two of its 4-man crews winning Silver and Bronze at the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation World Cup races in Whistler, Canada, and Park City, USA, in November. The competition in Whistler also saw Silver medal winners and Team GB Olympians Lamin Deen, Toby Olubi, Ben Simons and Andrew Matthews record a new world record speed of 97mph.
Achieving the best Women’s World Cup result in almost nine years, the women’s Bobsleigh team also shared success at the Whistler games – with Junior World Champions, Mica McNeill and Mica Moore finishing fifth in the two-woman competition.
Chris Price, Performance Director for British Bobsleigh, said: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank Lookers for its support over the last 18 months. These new vehicles have allowed us to better transport our athletes to races across Europe, meaning that they have been able to travel together and in a greater degree of comfort.
“When you have athletes the size of many of those in our team, knowing that the squad will be travelling in comfort is a massive boost, particularly given that they face long journeys almost immediately after competing for their country. This has helped to further develop the fantastic team spirit we have here in the team, something that is vitally important as we travel to Pyeongchang.”
Andrew Matthews, British Bobsleigh brakeman and 2014 and 2018 Olympian, said: “While the last year may have had its challenges, the team is in a great place right now with our World Cup medals in November still fresh in our minds. We are now confident of putting in a performance that will make the country proud in Pyeongchang and I would like to thank Lookers for helping us in our preparation. We spend so much time on the road when we are competing and you cannot underestimate the impact that the support from Lookers has had on the squad as a whole. It has taken so much of the uncertainty out of our pre and post-race travel and it’s meant we can focus fully on doing what we do best.”
