CASE STUDIES | Motorsports

Change RacingConcord, NC

“In a sport where money buys speed, we can divert the energy savings from our lighting retrofit to other areas that will increase our performance on the track.”

Robby Benton, Team Owner


APOLLO® LED High Bay, Gen 2 | HBAC2
APOLLO® LED Suspended Slimline, External Driver, Gen 1 | SPTS1
Private: APOLLO® LED Strip Retrofit | OLSR

Going into their lighting retrofit project, Change Racing had three goals as Benton explained. “We wanted to increase our light efficiency, we wanted to increase our light brightness, and we wanted to save a little money while doing it.” Change Racing selected Orion because they could help them deliver on all three of these goals, or as Benton said, “the guys at Orion did a great job educating me on what my retrofit options were, what my potential savings were going to be and on what I was going to be seeing for a reduction in power usage. So Orion made it an easy choice to choose them for the project.”
In the end, Change Racing elected to retrofit their entire 40,000 square foot Concord, North Carolina facility with Orion’s LED products. In their shop area, Change Racing replaced their existing HID fixtures with Orion’s APOLLO® LED high bay fixtures with sensors that control the operation of the fixtures based on the amount of either activity or ambient light in the shop. In addition, Change Racing also replaced their existing fluorescent strip and task lighting with Orion’s LED solutions including their APOLLO® LED tubes, Strip Retrofit and Suspended Ceiling fixtures, and their HARRIS Strip Retrofit fixtures, depending on the application. In the offices, Change Racing replaced their existing fluorescent troffer fixtures with Orion’s HARRIS LDR® LED Troffer Retrofit Edge units which were installed with limited interruptions to the team’s activities, and without disturbing the existing ceiling grid. Finally, Change Racing also sought to maximize their energy savings by installing Orion’s APOLLO® Solar Light Pipes which helped them to maximize the amount of ambient light they could use to light their facility.

Choosing Orion went beyond the system savings, however substantial they were. Change Racing often gets their race cars into the shop on a Thursday morning and must have them ready to ship back out on the following Friday. So, space, speed and efficiency are at a premium in their facility. As such, Change Racing also selected Orion because of its innovative product packaging and shipping programs which helped speed up the installation. Orion’s packaging is designed to minimize waste and help customers spend less time unpacking fixtures and more time installing them. Orion’s product packaging can also be used to store cardboard and existing fixtures which helps to accelerate the fixture recycling and project clean-up. Orion’s innovative shipping kits group all of the products and required accessories together by the space where they are to be installed. This allows customers to move the product kits to space where they are needed and everything will be ready to install. As Benton explained, “the most surprising part of the projects was how easy the fixtures were to install, both mechanically and electrically.”

“All the benefits from updating our light fixtures have been positive, and it’s a project I wish we had embarked on sooner after seeing the results.”

Robby Benton, Team Owner