IHG Partners Mahindra Racing Formula E Team

InterContinental Hotels Group has signed a multi-year partnership between its loyalty programme, IHG Rewards Club, and the Mahindra Racing Formula E Team.

Formula E is an all-electric powered motor racing championship consisting of a series of races known as ‘ePrix’ all held on city-centre street circuits.

The partnership will be officially launched at the inaugural Miami Formula ePrix on 14 March 2015, where IHG Rewards Club branding will be unveiled on the Mahindra Racing Formula E Team’s uniforms and cars raced by Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok.

As part of the strategic partnership, IHG will also become the preferred hotel partner of Mahindra Racing Formula E Team worldwide.

The partnership will offer IHG Rewards Club’s valued members various levels of access to the Mahindra Racing Formula E Team and its drivers, both at ePrix and other exclusive member events, in some of the world’s most exciting cities from Miami to Beijing and London.

Dilbagh Gill, Team Principal, Mahindra Racing, said, “IHG Rewards Club precisely reflects the quality of brand partnerships that we are seeking to support our team and in particular, helps us to further excite and engage our growing fan-base worldwide. The team will also benefit from access to the most comfortable hotels and highest levels of guest service as we travel the world, which will no doubt make a real difference to our ability to perform on the track.”

IHG has a history of sponsoring motorsports team, drivers and associations. Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts has been the Official Partner of BMW Motorsports since 2007, represented by motor racing driver and brand ambassadors Joey Hand and triple world champion Andy Priaulx MBE.

From 2015, IHG Rewards Club will take over the BMW partnership which has been evolved to cover IHG Rewards Club branded cars in the British Touring Car Championship, driven by Andy Priaulx, and in the GTLM and GTD classes of the Tudor United Sports Car Championship in the US. It will also support the BMW NA Young Driver Programme, sponsoring up and coming female driver Ashley Freiberg, 23 who is competing in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.

In recent years, the InterContinental brand was the official partner of Aston Martin racing, whilst the Holiday Inn brand has had partnerships with Vauxhall and Seat racing teams in the UK and the Jeff Burton race team in NASCAR in the US.

Susanna Freer Epstein, SVP Customer Loyalty Marketing, IHG, said, “At IHG we aim to build lifetime relationships with our guests and ensure we are offering our most valued IHG Reward Club members fantastic experiences they can share with their family and friends. In Mahindra Racing, we see a like-minded, innovative business that is helping to make this entertaining sport accessible to a global audience. Through this new partnership IHG Rewards Club will offer motor racing fans opportunities that are simply not normally available.”