XPEL Goes to Daytona

XPEL Technologies Corp. recently signed a three-year partnership agreement with the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series. The San Antonio-based paint protection company is now an official category partner of Grand-Am and recently returned from its first race in Daytona, Fla.

“We had a tremendous time down there. It was great exposure for us and a great start to this sponsorship,” says Steven J. McAuley, the company’s chief executive officer. “Virtually every car had the front end done—hood, fender and bumpers—and the headlights were covered with XPEL headlight protection. There were 67 cars in the big race and the XPEL logo was on every car twice.”

The Grand American Road Racing Association, which operates and sanctions the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16, is the premier road racing organization in North America and Mexico. The 15-race 2008 Rolex Series delivers professional sports car racing to key markets throughout North America and is televised in the United States and Canada on SPEED television and distributed globally through ESPN International.

“I had a whole crew of installers down there,” McAuley says. “Between our crew and guests, we had approximately 16 people total, including about eight installers. We had our own garage and the Grand Am folks were just exceptionally good to us. We were in there working alongside the mechanics while they were working on the cars.”

The company turned to its local partners for additional help.

“In order to get some assistance for testing, we brought in some of our licensed partners who are close by,” McAuley says. “We gave them an SEL [single event license] so that gave them complete access to the race for the entire weekend. In exchange for helping us out, they got that and we fed them all weekend. They were a tremendous help. Everyone did a great job.”