Driven Racing Oil, which traces its roots to blown NASCAR engines, and Boostane, which was spawned from a college term paper, will pool engineering and marketing resources to help each other expand into additional territories like grassroots racing, diesel, and powersports.
Officials from both companies confirmed the collaborative partnership to PRI and also stressed that a merger or acquisition is not part of the agreement as the companies explore additional market possibilities.
“We are still completely separate entities,” said Ian Lehn, owner and founder of Boostane Octane Engineering, Bonita Springs, Florida. “We will share some resources because we’re looking to utilize our expertise and develop projects together.”
Driven was born near the turn of the 21st century when Joe Gibbs Racing suffered failures with the flat-tappet camshafts and lifters in its NASCAR engines. The team then developed its own break-in and race oils to solve the problem and named the product Driven Racing Oil. A couple of years later, Driven became available to other race teams, followed by national distribution. The company was then sold to Ron Coleman and Scooter Brothers, who headed up COMP Cams at the time. Driven shared some resources with COMP Performance Group (CPG) but was never folded into the company.
Driven recently hired certified tribologist Bill Alexander (CLS) (OMA), who brings a deep performance background, and the company is targeting new markets outside of high-end racing specialties.
“We can now address opportunities in the market where product is not currently available. The beauty of our brand is that we’re a niche player,” said Kyle Fickler, director of sales and business development at Driven.
The concept of Boostane was Lehn’s senior year exit thesis, with the premise of developing a fuel concentrate that not only would help his father’s offshore racing team but also be an affordable alternative to race gas. In 2014, the idea won the Launchpad competition at SEMA. One of the judges was Ron Coleman.
“We’ve always been for the guy that did not have the capability to buy real expensive race fuel,” said Lehn. “What I am hoping for, working with Ron and Scooter, is that we can bring some of that to Driven and use our collective resources to be more effective in grassroots racing.”
Fickler said Driven’s product line will expand by offering specific engine oils along with gear lubes and transmission fluids into more markets. “Including a real meaningful and broad product line for powersports,” he added. “Not just side-by-sides but snowmobiles and personal watercraft. Much of the powersports stuff ends up in the micro and mini-sprint market. So, that’s a logical choice, given our strong penetration into sprint cars.”
“I know our engineering team is working very closely with Driven’s engineering team on developing a line of diesel products for fleet and commercial application,” Lehn added. “The way we look at it, between our two companies there is no part on an engine that we do not touch in one way or the other. So we want to make sure that there are products out there that show that type of collaboration.”
For more information, visit www.drivenracingoil.com and www.boostane.com.
Reprinted with permission from the PRI News e-newsletter. For information about the Performance Racing Industry Tradeshow and/or Magazine, visit www.performanceracing.com.
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