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June 6, 2007 |
5458
GATEWAY PLAZA DRIVE, BENICIA, CA 94510 TOLL FREE: (888) 665-7223 • FAX: (707) 746-5643 WWW.MOLECULELABS.COM |
Print / Download: |
With the
growth and popularity of Molecule’s line of Nomex® fire
suit products, the next step in the usage and promotion
of the brand has emerged with a partnership between the
popular Pacific Coast Motorsports ChampCar team, and
Molecule Labs, Inc.
Set to debut the #29 Molecule
Labs PCM ChampCar driven by Alex Figge at the Portland
race, June 8th-10th, Molecule’s founder and inventor
Michael Guasch will be on hand to launch the partnership
and to serve as a technical consultant to the team.
“I started Molecule to help clean and protect the vital
fire suits that drivers and teams use during a race;
joining with Pacific Coast Motorsports to demonstrate
our products on the ChampCar pit lane and on the track
at 200mph only makes sense,” noted Guasch.
“I’ve
always admired the ChampCar series and drivers. In a
championship where identical cars are used and the
slightest advantage is the difference between winning
and losing, Molecule’s commitment to keeping the PCM
drivers and pit crew cleaner, fresher, and safer than
their rivals is the core of our partnership.”
Figge’s black #29 ChampCar will carry the full Molecule
livery for the Portland event in an effort to draw
awareness to the company and its products—products that
Guasch says any racing driver or team would benefit from
using. After Portland, Molecule will move to an
associate’s role on the branding of the car. “I want
everyone in the ChampCar series and all the support
series to see how serious and committed we are; I drive
in those ChampCar support series and what I’ve created
with Molecule was done to help my fellow racer look
better for their sponsors and to be more protected in
the event of a fire.”
With Molecule™ Wash serving
as the premium Nomex® cleaning product, and the
Molecule™ Protector spray treatment delivering
unparalleled flammable liquid repellency, the importance
of having Molecule Labs on board with Pacific Coast
Motorsports isn’t lost on the team.
“The real
power of Molecule became obvious after I sent them our
newly dry cleaned fire suits,” said PCM team manager
Tyler Tadevic. “You assume that dry cleaning will return
items that are perfectly cleansed, but after seeing the
vials of dirty water that came out of the washer when
the dry cleaned suits were processed using Molecule
Wash; it’s obvious we’ve been wasting good money on dry
cleaning dozens of suits after each race.”
“Molecule Wash is designed
to work with any fire suit using a traditional washer
and dryer. Dry cleaning does a good job at removing dirt
and contaminants, but not a great job. The vials of
dirty water we collected from the washer Tyler is
referring to are so brown and murky, you can barely see
through them,” said Guasch.
Beyond the
deficiencies in thoroughness and high costs of dry
cleaning a fire suit, Molecule™ Wash is an
ecologically-friendly product – something dry cleaning
can’t claim. “The carcinogenic and ozone depleting
solvents used in dry cleaning are some of the more
hazardous chemicals used in the industry; spending a lot
of money for that harmful process only to get dirty
suits in return is no longer necessary.”
While
the announcement of the Molecule and PCM partnership in
the ChampCar series is new, Guasch has seen all of
Molecule’s products, MOLECULE™ WASH, MOLECULE™
REFRESHER, MOLECULE™ PROTECTOR , and MOLECULE™ SPOT
CLEANER quickly become a popular solution in other
professional racing series.
“Molecule is used to
clean and service fire suits for half of the F1 drivers
and pit crews, the Champ Car World Series, the American
Le Mans series, the British Touring Car Championship,
the FIA GT series, in Off-Road racing, club racing, and
everywhere in between. As serious as we are about the
quality of our products, we’re impressed with how highly
major racing teams regard the benefits of Molecule’s
fire suit cleaning and safety solutions.”
Broadcast of Alex Figge’s #29 PCM/Molecule entry from
the Portland ChampCar race can be seen on ABC, Sunday
June 10th, at 1pm PST.
Molecule Labs, Inc.
provides solutions for the safety, care, and maintenance
of numerous technical fabric applications. Specially
formulated for Nomex®, tested by the SFI Foundation,
Inc., and proven in diverse racing conditions for over
two years, MOLECULE™ is designed for racers by racers.
Formulated to be used on any brand of Nomex® fire suit,
the lineup of MOLECULE™ WASH, MOLECULE™ REFRESHER ,
MOLECULE™ PROTECTOR , and MOLECULE™ SPOT CLEANER can be
found in use on driver and crew suits around the world,
from Off Road Racing, to Le Mans, ChampCar to Formula
One. For more information, visit www.MoleculeLabs.com.
About Molecule:
Molecule Labs, Inc. provides solutions
for the safety, care, and maintenance of numerous
technical fabric applications. Specially formulated for
Nomex®, tested by the SFI Foundation, Inc, and proven in
diverse racing conditions for over two years, MOLECULE™
is designed for racers by racers.
Formulated to be used on any brand of Nomex® fire
suit, the lineup of MOLECULE™ WASH, MOLECULE™ REFRESHER
, MOLECULE™ PROTECTOR , and MOLECULE™ SPOT CLEANER can
be found in use on driver and crew suits around the
world, from Off Road Racing, Le Mans, Champ Car to
Formula One. For more information, visit
www.moleculelabs.com
About Pacific Coast
Motorsports:
Formed in 2002 and based in Oxnard, California, Pacific
Coast Motorsports are champions on the track and in the
marketplace. The 2004 Toyota Atlantic Champions have
competed in a diverse array of motorsports challenges,
from open wheel to sports car racing and succeeded in
every discipline. In 2007 the challenge comes full
circle as PCM makes their debut with a two-car effort in
the highest level of open wheel motorsports in the
United States, The Champ Car World Series. Off the
track, PCM has represented some of the countries most
recognizable names, from Menards to Playboy, Vonage to
Uniden establishing successful, high-profile marketing
platforms that deliver meaningful exposure and a
quantifiable return on investment. PCM is dedicated to
success in the Champ Car World Series and committed to
go beyond the traditional means to deliver value and
exceed the expectations of our partners. Follow
our Champ Car debut at
www.PCMracing.com .
###
RELATED LINKS:
Comments from PCM:

- Driver Alex x Figge and Pit Crew
- Tyler Tadevic and others
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Formula 1 Drivers’ Suits … Care and Safety Testing with Molecule Labs
Caretaker of half the Nomex suits used in F1 looks to
Molecule Labs for advanced cleaning and
fire
protection solution

HondaF1’s fire suits are one of many teams that entrust the care and maintenance to the David Charles Group. The DCG organization is currently testing the full range of products from Molecule Labs. (Photo: Molecule)
|
5458 GATEWAY PLAZA DRIVE,
BENICIA, CA 94510 |
Print / Download:d: |
Michael Guasch, president of Molecule Labs recently visited The David Charles Group, the company responsible for servicing and maintaining the Nomex fire suits for approximately half of the Formula One teams and drivers. With each F1 team comprised of dozens of fire suit wearing pit crew, team principals, support staff, and the race drivers themselves, The David Charles Group is charged with using the finest chemicals to treat the 100+ F1 suits in their care. “From the drivers’ suits to the pit crew members, we clean them all,” noted David Charles.
“We’d previously dry cleaned the crew suits because they get so dirty with grease, oil, and fuel, but we wanted to find a better solution to deliver them to our customers looking and smelling fresher.
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Yes, it's true! Say good bye to the high costs, |
“When we found out about Molecule we immediately contacted and invited them to our plant to review our cleaning procedures and cleaning chemicals; using the very best products is our commitment and dedication. We’re also trying to become more environmentally correct by reducing the use of the carcinogenic, ozone depleting solvents used in dry cleaning.”.”
“Our technology cleans Nomex much better than dry cleaning,” said Molecule’s Guasch. “Dry cleaning does well in removing the motor oils and other racing contaminants, but does a poor job of eliminating the sweat, body oils, and dirt as well as our new chemistry that utilizes traditional washing machines.”
“We’re also very interested in Molecule Protector™; we’ve been testing it and have seen great results,” said Charles. With the chemically-engineered Molecule Protector™ formula, a spray-on application of the product reduces the ability for flammable liquids to penetrate a Nomex suit by a staggering 75% to 85%. Without Molecule Protector™, suits can become the source of their own fuel soaked fires. This safety precaution isn’t lost on Charles.
“We hope to get all the F1 suits treated soon. We currently have it on a few BTCC and GT3 European Championship drivers’ suits and they really like the peace of mind it provides.”
###
![]()
Mazda has a
reputation as innovators in motor racing—winning Le
Mans with a rotary engine, helping to flood the
amateur circles with Spec Miata’s, establishing a
one-make formula
car championship, now the
Star Mazda Pro Series, that dates back to 1984, and
support of series today ranging from SPEED Touring
Car, GrandAm Cup and the GrandAm Rolex Series, Mazda
Atlantics, the MX-5 Cup….
It shouldn’t be a
surprise to learn that Mazda has now looked outside
of the race track to incorporate their latest
innovation—use of a brand new Nomex® fire safety
solution to better protect their ALMS pit crew.
The B-K Motorsports ALMS LMP2 factory Mazda
team stumbled upon a new product made by Molecule
Labs, owned by Pro Formula Mazda entrant, Michael
Guasch. Guasch, a racer in the Formula Mazda series
and a chemist by trade, was inspired to develop a
spray chemical treatment for Nomex® suits after
watching Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffer burns when his
firesuit was doused by fuel in his famous ALMS
accident at Sears Point in 2004.
“I saw Dale
Jr. burning at Infineon Raceway and it really
disturbed me. If it was a normal fire, one where he
wasn’t doused in flammable liquids, he’d have been
OK, but that’s not what happened. If you spill
burning fuel on a Nomex® suit, the suit itself
becomes the source of the fire. That’s what happened
to Jr. Eventually, the Nomex suit starts to burn,
and you’re in deep trouble at that point.”
That’s when the light bulb went off for me: if
Nomex® can’t stop a fuel or oil fire once it
penetrates a suit, why not try to develop a liquid
application that stops flammable liquids from being
absorbed into the Nomex fabric.”
Brilliant. A
fire preventing ‘Scotch Guard’ for firesuits. We'll
have to see how long it takes for the rest of
Mazda's ALMS and GrandAm competitors, and the rest
of the firesuit-wearing racing series to follow in
their footsteps. Let Mazda Motorsport’s John Doonan
tell the story on why he picked Molecule’s Fire
Protector for his ALMS team: “Safety is of the
utmost concern for all teams and the Mazda/B-K team
is no exception. We saw Molecule as an additional
way to help insure the safety of the crew, drivers,
and guests in the pits.
“Our team studied a
number of new products during the winter and they
determined Fire Protector was something they wanted
to add to the mix. Again, any safety enhancement
that is reasonably priced and is a proven success is
certainly worth trying. Every B-K team member is
using Molecule; we’ll be hosting a number of
corporate guests the rest of the season in the pits
at races and we’ll be treating those suits as well.”
Safety innovations in auto
racing have slowed a bit in the past few
years—especially the ones that are affordable or
accessible for everyone; the HANS device is now
found around the neck of almost every driver that
takes to a track, but beyond this innovation haling
from the mid-‘90’s, we’ve been waiting for some new
breakthroughs. In this case, it has taken a chemical
engineer that’s new to racing to bring a fresh
perspective to an age-old fear.
###
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