Dragon Racing are very pleased to announce that they are moving to a fantastic new 20,000 sq/ft headquarters located within the Dubai Autodrome. In the text beneath, taken from a recent interview with Dragon Racing Chairman, Leon Price gives us further insight into how this exciting move occurred...

Interviewer; “We read the announcement from the CEO of the Autodrome on the signing of the new lease with Dragon Racing, have you been negotiating this for some time?”

Leon Price; “In fact no. The opportunity presented itself early in February and as you know we will move into the building during the month of April so it all happened very quickly, there will be a lot of additional equipment to acquire from Europe and the Far East so whilst we will be fully operational by the end of April, the facility will only be in the final state I want it to be in by around September when all the new equipment will have been installed.

Overall, we are absolutely delighted to be in the Autodrome and expect to expand our current ventures with the Autodrome into further exciting new initiatives.”

Q – “The announcement said it will become Dragon Racing’s new HQ -what exactly does that mean?”

A – “When we started out in 2011 we were a small team of just 3 people and 2 race cars but with a determination to carefully grow into the leading and most successful race team in the GCC. In doing so one tends to add elements to the business as the opportunity presents itself and it’s not always practical nor possible to have them under the same roof immediately. 

Today we run over 20 race cars and employ 12 people full time and a host of others on an outsourced contract basis. Currently our operations are split between our marketing arm based in the DMCC, our workshops and storage facility in DIP and our Race Centre at the Autodrome in pit garages 12 A, B and C. And as such, our personnel are split over these 3 locations which is never ideal.

Now we will house all the elements of our business and personnel under one roof in the new facility at the Autodrome*”.
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Q – “What functions will be contained in the new HQ and are you also expanding into any new areas?”

A – “We will maintain our full engineering capability, our workshops with 3 car lifts to service our GT cars and separately a new dedicated area to service our new single seater F4 cars. Our tyre fitting operations will not be housed in the new facility but located onsite very nearby, also within the Autodrome.

There will be a high end secure climate controlled car storage area - a number of our trusted racing clients also have important road cars and we will store - and where required, maintain them - in running condition.

Our marketing, logistics, administrative and accounting teams will also be based there.

The new divisions will include a race car sales outlet and alongside it a retail area for Dragon Racing clothing and racing apparel.

There will be a recreational area with a fully functional race car simulator capable of drawing off over 100 tracks globally and a wide range of current race cars alongside a dedicated data analysis and telemetry room.

We have recently been very privileged to have been approved by the ATCUAE to train potential race drivers through both the theoretical and practical sides of obtaining their race licenses. The Emirates Motor Racing Academy (EMRA) will commence its operations next season and will also be housed within the new facility.”

Q – “We noticed that construction of a new building at the Autodrome has commenced - will Dragon Racing take up any floor space in that building - we had heard that Dragon was to be the anchor tenant”

A – “In fact, yes, we were the anchor tenant but with Dragon now moving into its new facility our original requirements have been reduced. We are however still taking one of the large units in the building - this is to cater for future growth. 

We believe the new building is fully subscribed so our reduction of space has meant that other companies have the opportunity to move to the Autodrome. As these companies are all in some way auto and/or race related it is very good for the racing fraternity and will help us all make the Autodrome a world class facility and a destination point in its own right. The Al Serkal avenue development in Al Quoz is a perfect example of creating an innovative and exciting new destination point.  That took vision, courage and commitment. We need the same approach at the Autodrome.”

Q – “Will your facility follow the usual set up one sees everywhere for example in Europe?”

A – “Well I guess I’ll ask you to be the judge of that at our official opening! One thing Dragon has set about ensuring since its inception is not being stereotypical - our vision for the facility will be very different to anything here in the UAE, perhaps even globally. We want to make it the showcase for all to try and follow and emulate. Our mission is always to be the leader not the follower.”

Q – “So, you envisage that the motor sport industry within the UAE will grow over the coming years?”

A – “Yes, very much so. The events that have been added in the last few years are significant with Porsche, through Lechner, successfully running its Middle East Cup Championship. We are seeing Lamborghini running more Trofeo races here in their Asian Championship and Ferrari with their Asia Pacific Challenge becoming more regular in their opening seasons races. Plus we also have the TRD Toyota GT86 Championship and the nascent UAEF4 Championships but it’s not just the UAE it’s the GCC overall.
Dragon has been very privileged in supporting H.R.H Mohammed Bin Faisal Al-Saud in the Saudi Championship. That restarted last year and was consequently won by H.R.H Mohammed Bin Faisal Al-Saud driving his McLaren 650S GT Sprint. We have seen significant growth in the Championship this year and only envisage further evolution into the future.
A good indicator of the regional growth is to look at the specification of the brand new facility being built in Jeddah* Saudi Arabia, which we believe will be open in 2018.
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"Qatar race circuit is under new management and we expect will be far more proactive in attracting more racing. Already scheduled for next season are the opening UAEF4 event and the Middle Eastern Radical Cup. Additionally, Dragon will be discussing the opportunity of taking some of our GT cars up to Qatar for these events.

One has to mention Bahrain a world class facility which attracts some top racing - we had the privilege of sending some of our GT3 Ferrari’s there for a 2-day track event this season and one must say the management were incredibly professional, very helpful and totally passionate about their facility. It is on our list next season to try and be more proactive down there.”

Q – “What, in your opinion, will help propel the growth of motor racing faster in this area?”

A – “I believe we need far more commitment and financial involvement from the manufacturers; particularly those that have a rich racing pedigree. This has to be driven by them in conjunction with the regional dealers. We have a perfect five month weather window over Europe’s winter; they should be here in our race season enjoying the quality track time. Having said that, one of the barriers preventing this is the lack of decent facilities at our local race tracks. Currently most teams have to resort to racing then storing their cars and equipment in containers. This is not anything that Dragon would contemplate so one can’t blame the European teams for being absent.

The new facility being built at the Autodrome will, we hope, be the forerunner of many more buildings which can house non-GCC international race teams - some permanently and some just for the race season. In this respect the Autodrome have taken the bull by the horns with construction of the new facility and we have already encouraged some of our close European friends to bring their teams here using our facilities.”

Q – “Apologies this is unrelated but I have to ask you. We know that Dragon has been very successful in the Dubai 24 Hour race over the last few years having won the A6AM category twice and also enjoying a 3rd place overall podium in 2015. With Dubai being your home base we were surprised not to see a Dragon car entered this year, could you comment on this?”

A – “You are about to make me the Ralph Nader of the Middle East Racing fraternity! Yes we did not enter any cars this year. It was a decision we agonized over for weeks simply because Dubai Autodrome is our home race. In the end it came down to safety and economics; we felt that a grid size of a 100 race cars, which have massively varying speeds, on a track that is 5.5km long would no longer be safe. And frankly with over five hours of Code 60 running in the race this proved our point. Over 20% of the race was neutralized at 60kph over accidents… In addition we did not believe we could offer our clients the experience they were accustomed to, nor could we offer them value for money.”

Q – “The Dubai 24 Hour race is now a prominent fixture on the International race calendar do you have a solution to make it better whilst not losing its traditional atmosphere and history?”

A – “I’m sure if you asked a dozen people this question they all may have a slightly different answer and whilst I don’t want to take anything away from Creventic format which has proved to be a very popular, well run and successful championship, even they will admit that the size of the Dubai field is very much larger than their other races. This year we had 92 cars start the race with 9 different classes; I would suggest to the promoters either be disciplined and reduce the overall field to around 70 cars and maintain the different classes. Or simply have 2 x 24 hour races; one with the fastest top 4 classes of only Sports/GT cars and the other with the rest of the classes for Saloon, Touring and TCR cars.”

Q - “Thanks for your frank answer. Finally can we expect an invitation to the official opening of your new HQ and when would you expect that to be?”

A – “Of course. We are targeting mid to late September - the sooner the better but we are in the hands of our international equipment suppliers.”

Interviewer - Thanks very much Leon, as we have come to expect your candor is appreciated.

Leon Price – “My pleasure. See you in September!”