By Ebele Orakpo

GRC Motorsport is set to make Nigeria a part of the billion-dollar motorsport industry through partnership with the third largest sports car manufacturing company in the UK.

In an exclusive chat with Vanguard in Lagos recently, Ribi Adeshokan, the Chief Executive Officer of GRC Motorsport said: “The company is a family-run business which started over 30 years ago. Not only will we become their sole distributor to Africa, we will also be part of the team, coming up with the design, from chassis to body work, to engine because everything is built in-house.”

Explaining further, Adeshokan said the company intends to give the youths and students the opportunity to come up with a good car design. “We give them a basic shape and expect them to use their own initiatives to come up with better designs. So at the end of the day, we will pick the best design and use it in the next model of the car.”

According to Mr. Adeshokan, the company is also seeking sponsors for the activities of Team Nigeria Racing Eagle. “The sponsors will sponsor Team Nigeria and the team becomes their marketing platform and one of the key objectives of the team is to make sure that the sponsors are able to get return on their investment so it is not like they are just going to be giving money away without getting anything in return. Motorsport sponsorship is beyond brand visibility on the car or on the suit,” he stated.

Shedding more light on how the sponsors will benefit from the partnership, he said: “We look at their target audience, their potential and existing customers. Number one, how do we continue or support them as a step towards making the existing customers happy?

“Part of what we will do is to invite them to our races and while they are at our VIP hospitality attending our races, we showcase what the sponsoring brand is all about in terms of customer service and things like that. Again, the kind of hospitality and treatment we offer all our guests is going to be second to none and this will make them very happy and at the same time, we have lots of merchandise which can be given to new buyers and existing customers.”

Continuing, he said: “There are some unique selling points which we will be coming up with. All those ones are going to be bespoke to every potential sponsor. I will use an example of automobile. How do we attract people to start buying that car? We will display our car which is Audi, in the Audi showroom, invite different people to come and be with the car and with the driver, to ask questions because there is so much enthusiasm about motor sport.

“People are so passionate about the sport and identification with the Nigerian Racing Eagle is a national pride, it’s like a magnet. By so doing, we start building loyalty and a sense of belonging. This means that at the end of the day, what people will like to do is to use that particular product.”

As for the best designer, Adeshokan said: “We will employ him to work with us because there are still going to be more designs to be done. At the same time, we are hoping to set up a development centre. We are going to build a warehouse somewhere in Lagos where we can keep the cars and I think that is going to create a lot of employment opportunities.

We can discuss the idea of internship for university and polytechnic engineering students and it is not just about mechanical engineering, but also other fields like electrical/electronics, communication engineering etc.  Fashion designers and tailors are also needed because they have to put the upholstery together.

If you have the gift of designing dresses, then you can design a car. What we are hoping to achieve with this as well is for us to come up with something unique. India came up with their own car, TATA.”

He believes that Nigeria must start from somewhere, no matter how small. “I heard the problem Hyundai has globally now is that the demand is more than the supply. And where did they start from? Twenty years ago, nobody wanted to touch Kia or Hyundai but now, they are the toast. If they didn’t start at all, they will still remain where they were then and that is something Nigerians have to realise.

“We have to make efforts rather than just sitting down and importing everything or condemning the few that are making efforts. We want a situation where we can get the Nnewi motor and spare parts manufacturers to come on board. That is our approach.

“We will start small and then grow. We hope that we would be able to start supplying Europe, US and Asia. Ford is a family business, see where they are today! So why can’t we, as Nigerians? Mercedes and Mr. Benz were two different companies. Now when they merged, they call them Mercedes-Benz and most of them are still less than 100 years old so you can see how far they have gone so why can’t we tap into it?” he asked.