Last September, Eurodragster.com editor Simon took a trip to Old Hall Performance in Coventry where he interviewed Fuel Sales Executive Tom Bacon.

Eurodragster.com: How long has OHP been operating?

Tom Bacon: OHP started in 2005 to offer the highest quality performance & aftermarket products from the United States of America into the UK & European marketplace. Initially it was started by our MD, Jim Morris and a close contact of his from the Motorsport industry, John Hotchkis, who lives in the States, to be the master importer for a line of synthetic lubricants into the UK and Europe. That’s why the business was founded.

Through contacts in the industry, the opportunity arose to them to bring in another lubricant manufacturer, and a few more brands of other motorsport and high performance-focused products. We have heat shield products, from turbo wraps to armour, exhaust wraps, mechanics gloves and another oil range.

In 2016 our relationship with VP Racing Fuels started. For the first 4 years of the relationship, we were the exclusive importer for their large range of Maddatives and fuel containers. In 2020 the opportunity arose to take on the fuel as well and be the master importer for additives and we’ve been growing from there ever since.

Old Hall Performance shop's customer reception area

Eurodragster.com: What characteristics does the company have?

Tom Bacon: Our organisation has a wealth of experience and an in-depth understanding of the high-performance automotive and powersports sectors. We have carefully chosen our partners to ensure availability of unique products to cover critical areas of performance, ensuring the best possible efficiency, reliability and performance. Whether it be for your road car, motorcycle, race car or Top Fuel Dragster, we cover the entire spectrum. We work closely with our customers, but also with our suppliers, many of whom we act as the exclusive importer throughout the UK & Europe. This ensures that the best products and information are available to them.

Eurodragster.com: How does the relationship work with VP on the non-fuel lines? Is that exclusive or alongside other brands?

Fuel stocks at Old Hall Performance

Tom Bacon: Where VP sit with their additives is they are completely different from all our other lines and have their own niche from fuel cleaners to the octane boosters and the coolants. We had nothing that would compete with VP additives however from our experience with other products have an extensive dealer network in the UK with firms such as Demon Tweeks, Opie Oils, also big boys such as Euro Car Parts; they all take the VP consumables from us.

The big thing that everyone knows about with VP Racing Fuels is the fuel container jugs (12 litre and 20 litre) which have proved to be a huge success. Our dealer network takes a huge number of jugs, including hoses and hose benders from VP each year; it’s growing and growing.

A lot of dealers were acquired from their acquiring the jugs from us, and we were able to get them signed up for other lines too. We had the jugs from 2016, before we took on the fuel, and they were the biggest item we did in terms of quantity.

Eurodragster.com: When you took on the fuel master dealership how did that come about and what expansion of contacts did that bring?

Tom Bacon: It was quite a big shift for OHP because the opportunity to take on the whole portfolio of VP products happened quite quickly. That was the initial reason why I joined the business. I was brought on board as a fuel salesman, and in the first year we got our teeth into the legislation behind it, moving the fuel, storing the fuel, with which, compared to other products, there’s no comparison in terms of the legislation surrounding it.

Old Hall Performance building in Coventry

Eurodragster.com: What is your own background?

Tom Bacon: I am a salesman and I’ve been around motorsport for all my life. I was born in 1995 and joined OHP three years ago. It was a hell of a learning curve in the first couple of years, I still learn every day and don’t know everything by any means yet. My family have been around motorsport for a long time, tin top racing in the past, my wife’s grandfather raced himself as well, motorsport’s a massive passion for me and that’s my background before I joined. My sales training was in IT recruitment and sales, and so by joining OHP I got into something that I can work and enjoy what I’m doing.

When I started, we wanted to expand the amount of coverage of VP Products; several of the team had gone through ADR training which is the license to be able to transport the fuel safely. We had to implement new practices and procedures in our warehouse to be able to safely store it and also have adequate insurance. That was the first hurdle for us when we started as a fuel distributor with VP. We then thought about where we could grow and leverage the relationships we already have to fuel.

Eurodragster.com: Who are your major customers?

Tom Bacon: We supply some of the largest Motorsport / automotive businesses across the UK, these relationships have been grown over many years and date back a long way.

We had some contacts that came across who used to deal with the old importer, and we leveraged our bigger dealers; Demon Tweeks sell the fuel for example and some of our contacts around the UK sometimes stock the fuel in their shops as well. We have between 30 and 50 retail dealers which could be anything from a large retailer like Demon Tweks to a specialist powersports dealer in the motocross world for instance, or a tuning shop who keep a stock of the fuel for a particular market for instamce Japanese engine specialists or whatever they tune. The great thing about VP is it covers drag racing, rallying (we were the spec fuel suppliers for the British Rallying Championship) and everything in between.

Santa Pod have always been a very big customer of VP’s and sell fuel from us through the Pod Shop, VP is the official fuel of the facility. We go to 5-6 events per year, take our big fuel support lorry, set up and fly the VP flag. We’ll be at the Euro Finals from Thursday to Sunday. I work very closely with Darren and Caroline on Santa Pod’s retail online offering in the Pod Shop and online. They also run the VP track prep and startline resin to help the racing surface to get the quickest times. Dealers with online sales do stock the fuel recently or we supply a drop shipping service from a single drum to a full pallet of fuel. On the legislation side we have to distribute through a specialist network who have ADR training.

Our retail customers are those dealing with roadgoing vehicles, it’s very much the high end or modified market and smaller dealers who run dynos for those markets. The VP Brands are best of the best and would not be used for general everyday vehicles.

Fuel drums and jugs

Eurodragster.com: Who are the team at Old Hall Performance?

Tom Bacon: We’ve got three people in the office, myself, Scott McIntyre and Shelly Hunt, and Matt Williams, Jim Morris the MD. There are ¾ staff who help us out on events ad hoc, the team varies from 5 to 10 depending on the number of weekend events and shows we have on.

We cover all forms of motorsport, jetski racing is a new one for us, we supply fuel to them, historic tin top racing at Goodwood and Silverstone later this year as official fuel supplier for the Historic Racing Drivers’ Club using a brand new fuel made for us, Classic 102 Unleaded which has turned out to be extremely popular. Our market extends from VAG tuners through to classic circuit racing.

The breadth of coverage comes from the wide range of fuels available, there are so many different fuels which cover every base, there are dozens of different types of fuel. We stock popular types and can get any type on the next container, they are 40ft containers so that is a lot of stock which we hope to grow every year.

Eurodragster.com: Of non fuel sales what are the main sellers?

Tom Bacon: Octanium and cool-down are the big sellers. They brought out a new product last year which is the Speed Sauce which has been extremely popular. We don’t do the oils as Williams Bros are importers for VP Lubricants as well as selling the fuel. I know Nic well and we talk frequently.

Eurodragster.com: Do you have sponsorship deals?

Tom Bacon: We help out people with product but they are run through Santa Pod for supporting people. We support a limited number of teams with additives only.

Old Hall Performance's Santa Pod stand

Eurodragster.com: How do you network to gain additional customers or raise the profile of your business including VP distribution?

Tom Bacon: We lean on our social media presence and the reputation of the VP brand to attract new business. We use it to keep people up to date on what we are doing and where we are attending, also with people’s success using our products. We heavily invest in Facebook ads and have social media presence there and on Instagram. We go to the tracks to dispense fuel at shows and races and use social media to let people know we’re there, as far as fuel is concerned we are mainly a business to business distributor and only a small part of our outlet is direct to consumer.

Eurodragster.com: In general terms what are your most successful VP Racing lines in fuels or lubricants in terms of turnover and customer loyalty?

Tom Bacon: Three lines that would stand out are the C12, VP fuel jugs and the Octanium.

I think VP do a great job covering the whole market, in the fuel market the next steps are looking at renewables because it’s on everyone’s lips at the moment and it would be interesting to see where VP Racing Fuels is going down that avenue. For us it could have a big impact in the future. We plan to be working with VP for a long time to come, the supply process is smooth even with the world shipping delays in the last couple of years VP has been the best supplier out of all of them and now we can order a container which will arrive in 4 weeks.

Eurodragster.com: Thanks for your time Tom, and good luck for the future.