Era Motorsport supporting New Life charity with bold Barcelona 24H livery

UK-based Era Motorsport will attack the Michelin 24H Barcelona race on 27-28 September with a striking livery on their Ferrari 296 GT3 supporting the New Life charity. New Life’s mission is to provide life-saving neonatal equipment to special care baby units across the UK, improving survival and outcomes for premature and critically ill babies.

Based near Era Motorsport’s UK base in Swindon, the nationwide New Life initiative feels local to the entire Era crew, who were made aware of the charity through their Swindon-based Ferrari dealer Dick Lovett. Era team owner Kyle Tilley feels very passionate about children’s charities and immediately stepped forward to spearhead the programme.

“Era Motorsport is very much a family-run team, so I was eager to team up with a children’s charity for the 24H Barcelona race,” said Tilley. “We have a close working relationship with Ferrari Swindon and found they have several charity associations. New Life immediately appealed to me and I reached out to them directly. In fact, fellow Dick Lovett client Steve Dopson himself races with a Ferrari Challenge and is a trustee of New Life. Then the blocks quickly fell into place.”

“It’s an honour to see Kyle and the Era Motorsport race team proudly carrying both the Dick Lovett Hills & Trees logo and the New Life emblem on their Ferrari 296 GT3 for the upcoming Michelin 24H Barcelona race,” added Lucy Hawkins, Marketing & New Car Sales Manager at Ferrari Swindon. “The connection between everyone involved came together perfectly — when Kyle was looking for a baby charity to support, it was a natural fit through Steve Dopson. We’re incredibly grateful to Kyle and the entire Era Motorsport team for their passion and support in bringing this meaningful partnership to life.”

New Life Special Care Babies was set up in 1995 by Trevor Goodall, who sadly lost his prematurely born twin sons Joshua and Samuel, and decided to create a legacy in their memory by helping to spare other parents from the same horrible experience. For this, New Life has set up various partnerships with hospitals, research institutes, companies and sports teams as well. This is the first time that New Life has partnered with a motorsport team, and Goodall is truly excited about it.

“In our 30th year it’s great to have something so big. So when this opportunity came up to have New Life on a Ferrari at Barcelona in the 24 Hours, I absolutely loved it,” said Goodall. “I love motorsport, so to see the New Life logo on a race car is a fantastic dream that I could never imagine. It’s a new crowd, new people, new opportunities, a new route for us – I’m so pleased that we’re going to get a worldwide audience. Hopefully it will propel the charity onto greater things. I'm going to go and support the team myself, hopefully talk to lots of people and keep telling everyone what a great job we’re doing.”

Apart from raising awareness, the aim is to direct visitors and viewers to the New Life website through QR codes on the car and on flyers that will be handed out in the garage. “The circuit is a captive market, so we want to get people to spend some money with the charity,” explained Oliver Meads, Era Motorsport’s 24H Series team manager. “Also, we’ve got a lot of guests coming from both New Life and Dick Lovett who will help spread the word. We chose Barcelona for this special one-off livery because it is the biggest event on the Michelin 24H Series Europe calendar, with a big turnout, and heavily streamed on YouTube.”

Era Motorsport employed renowned graphics designer Dave Todd at EPF Graphics to design the livery and then meticulously wrap it around the Ferrari. Todd is a familiar face at Era, who also helps to restore historic liveries to their former glory.

“The main thing we wanted was something that stands out – bright and lairy,” said Meads. “Because the whole reason we’re doing this is to raise awareness. If you had a livery that doesn’t shout, then people won’t look at it. Part of it is the bright colours, but also we’ve got a lot of reflective vinyl on it. So in the night, when people take pictures, the car will light up.”

Era Motorsport will run the bold charity livery on their Ferrari 296 GT3 that will be raced by a crew of five drivers, as team owner Tilley is joined by Oliver Bryant, Jake Hill, Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel. Together, the five form a quick and experienced crew that is gunning for the title in the Creventic-run series. Era are currently fourth in the standings, trailing the leading team by 20 points, but with 40 points on offer going into the final round at Barcelona, it’s still all to play for.

You can show your support to New Life by donating now: https://e-era.org/newlife