AD Group's CEO Mike Newton Receives Le Mans Series Driver Title At Paris Award Ceremony

AD Group's CEO Mike Newton and his racing teammate Thomas Erdos awarded with the individual Le Mans Series LMP2 driver trophies  ©Jean-Michel Le Meur/DDPI

CCTV specialist AD Group announces that its CEO, and long-term racing driver, Mike Newton has been awarded an individual Le Mans Series LMP2 driver trophy, alongside teammate and co-driver Tommy Erdos. Newton took to the stage last Friday evening, with Erdos, at a glittering awards ceremony held in the imposing library of the Automobile Club de France at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

The fast-paced duo of Newton and, Brazilian, Erdos jointly secured the 2010 driver title with a comfortable six point margin over their nearest rivals. Campaigning behind the wheel of the AD Group sponsored #25 Lola HPD racecar, they were the standout drivers of the championship as their consistent efforts drove them to individual and team titles.

The duo have proved to be an extremely successful combination, having raced together for eight consecutive years and, along the way, lifted two Le Mans Series and two Le Mans 24 Hours titles.

The fast-paced duo of Newton and, Brazilian, Erdos jointly secured the 2010 driver title with a comfortable six point margin over their nearest rivals

AD Group's CEO Mike Newton said: "I'm delighted to have regained the Le Mans Series title, after a three year gap, in what was a very demanding and hard fought championship. It has been a tremendous team effort, and I'd like to acknowledge the contribution of everyone in the squad, including Andy Wallace who also drove with us at the Le Mans 24 Hours and Ben Collins - who came to prominence this year when he was outed as 'The Stig'. Both Andy and Ben gave Tommy and me tremendous support during their stints in the cockpit."

Representatives from the RML motorsport team, which were responsible for running the racecar on AD Group's behalf, were also in attendance at the prestigious Automobile Club de France event to receive the Le Mans Series LMP2 Team Trophy. It was down to RML Race Operations Director Phil Barker, who manages the team's Sports Prototype Programme, to accept the honor at the close of a very competitive season, where the title was secured with a total of 75 points, having led the challenge from the second round onwards.

Commented Phil Barker: "From the first race we realised we were going to be in for a very tough year. We won a championship in a year when we didn't have the fastest car, but we worked together as a team. This trophy is a great compliment to everyone involved."

CEO Mike Newton said: "I'm delighted to have regained the Le Mans Series title, after a three year gap..."

Alongside the thrill of driving in the Le Mans Series, Newton sees motorsport as providing an invaluable, commercially focused, platform to further AD Group's CCTV business interests: "We use AD Group's sponsorship of our race entries to deliver business networking and hospitality for carefully selected guests, who are key decision makers with regard to the specification and purchase of professional CCTV systems, including the latest Closed IPTV IP video solutions."

"Critically, our race programme has created a unique, high quality, business environment where our key customers have access to the business and technology leaders of the Group. Without a doubt, our investment into the programme has helped us to understand our customers' needs better and as a result win major long term contracts."

Says Pauline Norstrom, Marketing and Motorsport Director of AD Group and responsible for the sponsorship of the race programme: "We are delighted that our CEO Mike Newton has received the Le Mans Series LMP2 Driver Trophy, which, underlines his consistent racing success at the highest level. As a technology company we are setting the pace in terms of using the AD Group race programme as a key part of a wider marketing strategy. Certainly the long-term success on the track, in both the Le Mans Series and Le Mans 24 Hours, has ensured that we are in a strong position to use the motorsport environment to achieve our wider marketing and business goals."

The #25 Lola HPD racecar also provides AD Group with a highly arduous test platform for the award-winning TransVu mobile DVR (Digital Video Recorder) which delivers dramatic in-car images, linked to all-important telemetry data, to assist the drivers in improving their performance. The combination of data with video is a key tenet for all security and surveillance applications and one which is critical to AD Group's marketing strategies. Demonstration footage from the car and other CCTV applications can be found on AD Group's YouTube Channel.