OREANDA-NEWS. July 01, 2010. During the Neftegaz 2010 exhibition that ended in Moscow’s Expocenter the TNK Racing Team held a meeting with journalists on the subject of High-Technology Fuel – a Fuel for Champions, reported the press-centre of TNK-BP.

Taking part in the meeting were TNK-BP’s marketing and brand director Andrey Skorobogatykh, the head of TNK Lubricants’ technical section Alexander Skobeltsin, and members of the TNK Racing Team: development director Yevgeniy Mikhaylov, captain Mikhail Ukhov and pilot Maxim Popov.

“The idea of reviving our racing team came from Amir Feizulin, TNK-BP Vice President, Marketing. We began by testing our strength at the Lipetsk Rise race in 2009, were successful and decided to compete in the Touring class for the entire 2010 season,” said Skorobogatykh. “Racing championships are extremely popular amongst our customers and employees, and motor sport also gives us a great opportunity to confirm the high quality of our products in extreme sports environments”.

“We’ve developed specialized lubricants for our team, because the future is all about high-tech oils, including oils for racing engines. If our oil can perform successfully in the extreme operating conditions of a racing engine, it has a guaranteed quality margin in ordinary life. The new TNK Magnum Ultratec range of European-standard motor oils is now available to ordinary consumers,” stressed Alexander Skobeltsin.

“To be successful, a team needs four things to come together: the drivers’ skill, a correct choice of equipment, intelligent engineering solutions and support from a sponsor. The combination of these elements is what makes the TNK Racing Team unique,” stated the team’s development director Yevgeniy Mikhaylov.

Mikhail Ukhov, winner of the first heat in the Touring class of the RTCC championship, noted that “we use TNK Pulsar fuel in training and in our everyday lives, whereas in the races the fuel has to be non-branded and generic so it’s the same for all the participants. All our team’s support equipment uses TNK Magnum oil. For me as an engineer and a racing driver every detail is important. Thank you for your support. We’ll do our best to produce a good result for our supporters.”

Everyone who took part in the meeting agreed that the TNK Racing Team has taken its first step towards winning the Russian championship. Having triumphed in the first heat of the RTCC, the team is now aiming for the championship titles in both individual and team categories.

Information for Editors
The TNK Racing Team uses BMW vehicles and consists of pilots Mikhail Ukhov and Maxim Popov. In 2009, the team came first in a stage of the Russian Cup touring car competition in the fastest and most prestigious Touring class of racing cars.

TNK-BP is the third largest oil company in Russia and is equally owned by BP and the AAR consortium (Alfa Group / Access Industries / Renova). TNK-BP also owns around 50% of the Russian oil and gas company Slavneft. TNK-BP accounts for around 16% of Russia’s oil production (including TNK-BP’s share in Slavneft). The company’s total proven reserves under SEC rules without taking account of licence cutoff were 8.586 billion barrels of oil equivalent as of December 31, 2009. TNK-BP owns a network of petrol stations comprising 1,400 retail sites operating under the TNK and BP brands.