MIA names Ricardo motorsport ‘Business of the Year’

Posted on 13 Jan 2012 by Tim Brown

At last night’s Business Excellence Awards dinner hosted by the Motorsports Industry Association, Ricardo was selected winner in the category ‘Business of the Year’ against strong competition from across the motorsports industry.

The MIA Business Excellence Awards were first introduced in 1995 and are now held annually to recognize the high standards of skill and professionalism achieved at all levels within the motorsport and high performance engineering industries. They are the only awards of their kind within the industry and so consequently, are highly coveted. The winners of these prestigious awards are decided by the industry and MIA members who are invited to vote in each of the seven categories.

Ricardo has an enviable reputation within competitive motorsport, ranging from the engineering and manufacture of driveline and transmission equipment and systems, up to acting as a technical consultant to the industry’s governing bodies. Over the past season, Ricardo motorsport products have again helped deliver success for the company’s customers, including Peugeot Sport, which took the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup LMP1 manufacturers’ title for the second year running with its new 908 car featuring a transmission designed and developed in close collaboration between Peugeot and Ricardo engineers. In the Le Mans Series, the Greaves Motorsport team was also successful, winning the LMP2 team and drivers’ titles as well as topping its class in the 24 Heures du Mans 2011. Greaves Motorsport uses the Ricardo transverse LMP gearbox in its Zytek chassis.

In the GT1, JRM racing’s Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr were crowned 2011 FIA GT1 World Drivers’ Champions for their performance in the astonishing GT-R by NISMO (Nissan Motorsport), which features a Ricardo 6-speed transverse GT1 gearbox. This high performance Ricardo transmission shares the same internal parts as the unit deployed in the Nissan GT500 car that won the 2011 Japanese Super GT Championship, in which both the drivers’ and team titles were taken by Masataka Yanagida and Ronnie Quintarelli in their S Road MOLA Nissan GT‑R.

Alongside these successes, the Ricardo high performance transmission products team also recently marked  a ten year milestone in supplying Ricardo designed and manufactured gearboxes to the entire grid in both the World Series by Renault (formerly World Series by Nissan) and the Firestone Indy Lights championships.

For 2012, Ricardo aims to further build upon its transmission and driveline success but also will be combining this with a return to the arena of supplying race engines too with the GT3 engine and transmission for the new McLaren MP4-12C GT3.

“Ricardo is honoured to have been recognized with the MIA Business of the Year award for 2012,” said Ricardo director of high performance transmission products Mark Barge. “This accolade is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of Ricardo staff in delivering the very best of products and technology for our customers at all levels of competitive motorsport. We look forward to continuing our efforts through the season ahead and to sharing in the further successes of our customers.”