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Motul has joined forces with Honda UK to be their exclusive race lubricant partner for the first time in history. The new partnership sees Motul become official lubricant partner of Honda UK’s British SuperBikes and international road racing teams. Motul lubricants will also be stocked in Honda UK dealerships. They are two brands that share the same “Race to Road” philosophy. To find out more about the new partnership, we spoke to Mike Gent, Motul’s UK powersports business development manager.
What does the Honda UK deal mean for Motul?
The incumbent lubricant partner has been with Honda UK for nearly 20 years, so from a racing point of view, for Motul to now take over, that’s a tremendous achievement because we’ve done it on the merits of the brand. I also think it’s a great thing for Motul that Honda UK has entrusted their top-level racing team to use our lubricants, which sends a message to the very loyal Honda rider that it has switched its allegiance to Motul. It’s an enormously powerful thing for us to now be a significant partner to the British SuperBike team and the doors this opens within Honda’s franchised dealerships. 
The two brands have collaborated previously. Can you tell us more about that?
We already partner with Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) within World SuperBikes. That started last year after HRC (from Japan) had done some testing and found that 300V was the product they needed to use as it meant they could get the very best performance out of their new Fireblade engine. And that filtered from HRC into the World SuperBikes team and now into BSB and Honda UK dealerships, where the public can buy the same brand of oils their heroes are using in their bikes. We also had a relationship in the past with the Honda Legends team that raced at the Isle of Man TT as well as the endurance team in EWC. They always used Motul, so the BSB team saw how good Motul’s products are from the Honda Legends team and the success of John McGuinness, Guy Martin, Ian Hutchinson and so on. It’s not difficult to convince people to use your product when they have had experiences like this and can see how good it is. 
How difficult is it to bring a partnership to life?
It takes a long time to establish a new relationship and end an old one. To break a previous partnership means you’ve got to have a phenomenal product. Without proving through performance, there’s no way we would have ever been considered into the racing side of the company, and that goes hand in hand with the commercial side. i.e., selling the lubricants in dealerships. Ultimately it comes down to gaining the trust of the Honda UK team in both the commercial side of their business and the motorsport side. When you are now the corporate partner to a national and international race team, it speaks volumes to the dealer network and end user that the trust from the top down is with Motul.
What’s the mutual benefit for both brands?
Not taking anything away from any other brand, because all the manufacturers, whether that be Ducati, Suzuki or BMW, are at the top of their game, but when you look at Honda, it has its own racing corporation (HRC) and it’s been established for over 40 years. They only choose the best, use the best, fit the best. So, to be approved by and trusted by them has enormous benefits for us. We have a global entity that accredits our product. 
How true is that cliche “win on a Sunday, sell on a Monday”, particularly in selling the same lubricants that are used in racing?
Well, that’s the intention. The fact we now can be on the shelves with our world class range of products that the end user can see is trusted and used by Honda UK’s race team, gives the dealership that opportunity to really push the boundaries of what offer they can give. And it allows the end user to have the confidence when they buy that if Honda UK trust Motul in their highest level of racing, then it’s definitely something I want to use in my machine.
