 Grant Ellwood President/CEO December 2009 Performance Racing Industry Show We attended the annual PRI show in Orlando, FL in early December, mainly to network and get the pulse of the racing market coming out of the recession. At an industry roundtable, the concensus was that "most weekend racers are broke anyway so the recession was like business as usual....." Even so, there has obviously been a lot of belt-tightening and the pro scene has been affected by sponsor cutbacks. Looking ahead, motorsport is sure to rebound and we are staying committed to cement our place in the sport both as suppliers and competitors. Additionally, over the past year we have developed a new non-FR Poly 2BKool range, less costly than the fire retardent products, and this will be released at KartFest next month.
June 2009 / “2BLucky” A couple of us recently took the weekend off from renovating our 102 year old factory building to visit the Indy car round at Richmond International Raceway. Our arriving later than we expected unfortunately cut short our time for networking in the pit area, but all was not lost as we got the chance to chat not only with Brian Tyler, who was due to race in the Silver Crown 100 lapper, but also with Scott Dixon’s folks who had flown in just for the IRL race. After the obligatory exchange of business cards and some great conversation, we gave each team our best wishes, offering good luck handshakes all around. We then hastened back to the bleachers to watch as (you guessed it) both Brian and Scott won their respective races. So to all you racers out there, call soon and you too can have your own lucky 2BKOOL business card, complete with lucky “cyber” handshake -- let’s keep the winning streak alive! Now we’re just kicking back waiting for the lottery results to come round. I’m just saying…
From The Beginning... It has been a long journey in business years from New Zealand to USA. As a former engineer with racing aspirations, I started racing in the late 60's in a Ford Anglia (the Harry Potter style). After crashing that car comprehensively I moved up to a Formula Ford which I duly wrecked first time out. I could see a pattern developing... Safety got my attention and after checking the availability, or rather non-availability, of racewear I started what was probably the first race apparel company in the southern hemisphere. Racing then became a handy excuse to test my product and I competed irregularly over the next 30 years, finally in Formula Atlantic in the mid 90's. Driver cooling was always on my mind and I continually tried various fiber and fabric combinations in the quest to make a safe and comfortable product. 2BKool is the culmination of all that development and over the past two years at our base in Virginia we have worked up a very effective product. So effective that it is being tested in Formula One by a team which has sworn us to secrecy while they look for any advantage. You didn't hear it here...
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