Words: Henry Chard
‘Tru Plant’ Witches promoter Chris Louis says that the support of Guy Nicholls and TRU7 is invaluable to the club.
It was announced on Thursday that the 2018 title sponsors would be Tru Plant, the new branch of the TRU7 franchise and Louis says it is an exciting time for the club and TRU7.
“Guy’s support to the club is invaluable, without him and his company we wouldn’t be here,” said Louis. “To be involved in the inception of the new Tru Plant company is exciting for everybody. It has been a busy time for TRU7 and they have Tru Plant all rolled out now and on the road and it seems like they will be very busy.
“As with everything they do as a group it is done very professionally and I am looking forward to seeing how it progresses. To be involved with it from the beginning as a club is exciting for everybody.”
The club also launched a new website for 2018 and the promoter is pleased to have Painting Pixels on board.
“The website looks really good, it is very vibrant, straight forward and easy to navigate and it does what a sporting club’s website needs to do. It gives all the information and news stories and keeps everyone updated. I am really pleased with how it looks and a lot of hard work has gone into it.
“We thank Painting Pixels for their hard work and for joining the club and we look forward to working with them going forward with a few promotional and marketing ideas. They are a good local, up-and-coming company.”
A new club logo was also released on Thursday and Louis explained the reasons behind the change.
“We wanted to get back to traditional colours in general with plenty of blue, white and black because that is what we are as a club. I think we needed to have our own identity again and that was the thinking behind it. The witch will always be the witch and that will always be there, it hasn’t changed and never will as the badge.
“We don’t intend to change the logo anymore, you don’t want to keep changing the club’s logo and appearance. What we have come up with is really relevant to the club and the times and it has gone down well. Obviously anything you change is going to divide people but on the whole it has been well accepted.”
The former skipper says that the weather has slowed down progress on the track work but that it will all be ready for press day.
“Track work is coming along slowly due to the inclement weather, if it does not rain we have frost or snow! It has held us up but we will be ready for press day and Good Friday when we open up against Lakeside. We have to thank Les Cotton Contractors Ltd for all their hard work with the drains, they are another local company who have got involved with the club.
“They have effectively replaced three-quarters of the drainage and repaired the rest of it. It was becoming a problem but will work perfectly now and will make a difference to whether we lose a meeting or two due to inclement weather in the season ahead. I’m happy with the track shape, it was a case of finishing what we started last winter and when it is the finished product I am hoping for some exciting racing.”
The 2018 team head to France next week and Louis says it is a good opportunity to bond further and integrate new signing Michael Härtel into the group.
“Macon gives us all a good chance to get together for the first time in a while. The most important thing is obviously the testing aspect of the trip to loosen certain aspects off but it is a good chance for some team bonding and to chat about things. We also have press day coming up so there is plenty of opportunity for them all to be together.
“There is only one new member to the team this year so it should be a simple process integrating Michael into the group. I am sure he will fit in and we are all excited to work with him, there won’t be any issues there. That was part of the reasoning why we kept as much of the side together as possible because the team gelled so well.”