Zoe Brown
19th April 2023
John Woolfe Racing is a specialist American auto parts company based in Bedford. The company was founded in 1967 and has been trading for over 50 years.
It all started when the late John Woolfe started a race team to enter long distance sports car events, with a particular interest in speed trails, hill climbs and sprinting. Alongside this, John began to import and sell speed equipment, helping people customise their vehicles. This led to an American parts supply business becoming firmly established by the end of the 1960’s. Managing Director, David Riswick, joined the team while working in the post office at an airbase, helping to build and race cars before becoming a key role in the businesses. Speaking about the business, David told us:
“Our company was instrumental in the UK drag racing scene throughout the late 60s to 80s and pivotal in developing the UK aftermarket for American vehicles. We recently relaunched our online presence, dropping our .com and relocating to woolfe.uk. This also marks the first time we’ve entered into direct ecommerce.”
To hear more about the inspirational journey the company has been on since 1967, hear from David himself in this exclusive video:
John Woolfe Racing has become a major international company, supplying high-performance equipment and offering replacement and service parts for American vehicles. Special order services are offered for those hard-to-find items, and the knowledgeable team are always on hand to help with checking the suitability of parts while specialising in top class customer service.
“Over the course of the last half century the company has changed many times and today we’re in the middle of another change. Our website is at the forefront of our plans to expand our presence and future-proof our business.”
David continues to share the exciting story of John Woolfe Racing in the second instalment of our short video series, sharing where it all started, including the tales and experiences of manufacturing a Wolferace wheel for the MINI and then for the Lotus Esprit model which was featured in a popular James Bond film:
Mike Duggan, the IT Director at John Woolfe Racing, has transformed the business by implementing a fully fledged ecommerce website for the company. Since building the first website for the business back in 2012, Mike has been developing it ever since and in 2019 undertook a big IT infrastructure revamp and upgrade involving switching to a .uk domain name.
“The website allows us to try out new things and expand our customer service in a way we can’t on third party platforms. It also gives us a level of control and reach we wouldn’t otherwise have.”
The slick website allows visitors to browse a multitude of products, from car parts to books and car paint, easily add these to basket and checkout securely. It’s clear that customer service is at the front and centre of everything the company does, with a clear contact us page featuring an online chat service and links to excellent Trustpilot reviews and ratings.
Talking to us about choosing a .uk domain, Mike expressed how it clearly demonstrates that the business is in the UK and serves the UK market, something which can be misinterpreted by the nature of selling American parts for American cars. Mike also told us the .uk domain is fresh and can be typed easily into a mobile or tablet browser, something which is vital considering a large proportion of traffic comes to the website via mobile devices.
With social media accounts secured on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, Mike shares this is an area of focus for the near future:
“An expansion on social media is on the horizon very soon, we’re looking at ways we can reach out to new audiences and maybe share some of our 50 years’ worth of drag racing archives!”
You can hear more from Mike in the third, and final, video installment below about the revolutionary online journey John Woolfe Racing has been on, plus what’s next in store:
You can learn more about John Woolfe Racing on their website or get in touch with the friendly team today.
If you’re looking to get your own business online, you can search for available .UK domain names using our handy search tool below.
